Eylau, Battle of
1807 CE
The Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, February 7 and 8, 1807, is a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Levin August, Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preussisch Eylau in East Prussia.
Late in the battle, the Russians receive a timely reinforcement from a Prussian division of von L'Estocq.
The town is now called Bagrationovsk and is a part of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.
The engagement is fought during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.
Napoleon's armies had previously smashed the army of the Austrian Empire in the Ulm Campaign and the combined Austrian and Russian armies at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805.
On October 14, 1806, Napoleon had crushed the armies of the Kingdom of Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt and hunted down the scattered Prussians at Prenzlau, Lübeck, Erfurt, Pasewalk, Stettin, Magdeburg and Hamelin.
In late January, Bennigsen's Russian army had gone on the offensive in East Prussia, pushing far to the west.
Napoleon had reacted by mounting a counteroffensive to the north, hoping to prevent their retreat to the east.
After his Cossacks captured a copy of Napoleon's orders, Bennigsen had rapidly withdrawn to the northeast to avoid being cut off.
The French had pursued for several days and found the Russians drawn up for battle at Eylau.
In a vicious evening clash, the French capture the village with heavy losses on both sides.
The following day brings even more serious fighting.
Early in the battle, a frontal attack by Napoleon failswith catastrophic losses.
To retrieve the situation, the emperor launches a massed cavalry charge against the Russians.
This buys enough time for the French right wing to throw its weight into the contest.
Soon, the Russian left wing is bent back at an acute angle and Bennigsen's army is in danger of collapse.
A Prussian corps belatedly arrives and saves the day by pushing back the French right wing.
As darkness falls, a French corps tardily appears on the French left flank.
That night Bennigsen decides to retreat, leaving Napoleon in possession of a snowy battlefield covered with thousands of corpses and many more wounded.
Eylau is the first serious check to the Grande Armée and the myth of Napoleon's invincibility is badly shaken.
The French will go on to win the war by decisively defeating the Russians on June14 at the Battle of Friedland.
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After several aborted attempts to stand and fight, Bennigsen resolves to retreat to the town of Preussisch-Eylau and here make a stand.
During the pursuit, perhaps influenced by the dreadful state of the Polish roads, the savage winter weather and the relative ease with which his forces had dealt with Prussia, Napoléon had allowed the Grande Armée to become more spread out than was his custom.
In contrast, Bennigsen's forces are already concentrated.
The Russians fight Soult's corps for possession of Eylau on February 7.
Daybreak on February 8 sees forty-four thousand five hundred French troops on the field against sixty-seven thousand Russians, but after receiving reinforcements the French had seventy-five thousand men against seventy-six thousand.
Napoleon hopes to pin Bennigsen's army long enough to allow Ney's and Davout's troops to outflank the Russians.
A fierce struggle ensues, made worse by a blinding snowstorm on the battlefield.
The French find themselves in dire straits until a massed cavalry charge, made by ten thousand seven hundred troopers formed in eighty squadrons, relieves the pressure on the center.
Davout's arrival means the attack on the Russian left can commence, but the assault is blunted when a Prussian force under Lestoq suddenly appears on the battlefield and, with Russian help, throws the French back.
Ney comes too late to effect any meaningful decision, so Bennigsen retreats.
After fourteen hours of continuous battle, there is still no result but enormous loss of life.
Casualties at this indecisive battle are horrific, perhaps twenty-five thousand on each side.
More importantly, however, the lack of a decisive victory by either side means that the war will go on
Authors differ greatly in their assessments of the relative losses: estimates of Russian casualties range from about fifteen thousand to twenty thousand killed or wounded and three thousand soldiers, twenty-three cannon and sixteen colors captured.
Count von Bennigsen estimates his losses at up to nine thousand dead and seven thousand wounded.
The French lose somewhere between ten thousand to fifteen thousand and twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand, with five Eagles lost.
The French have gained possession of the battlefield—nothing but a vast expanse of bloodstained snow and frozen corpses—but they have suffered enormous losses and failed to destroy the Russian army.
The inconclusive Battle of Eylau is a major contrast to the decisive victories that had characterized Napoleon's earlier campaigns.
By halting the French advance and leaving the two sides exhausted but evenly matched, it serves only to prolong the war.