|
The Battle of Eylau - Bill - the campaign of 1807 has to be your next project !!!! - I hanve to think it would be a high demand game
Riding high from its victories over the Prussians at Jena and Auerstedt in October 1806, Napoleon's Grande Armée pushed into Poland. Opposing the French were Russian forces led by General Count von Bennigsen. Seeing an opportunity to strike at the French, Bennigsen began moving against the isolated corps of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. Sensing a chance to cripple the Russians, Napoleon ordered Bernadotte to fall back while he moved with the main army to cut off the Russians.
Slowly drawing Bennigsen into his trap, Napoleon was foiled when a copy of his plan was captured by the Russians. Pursuing Bennigsen, the French army became spread over the countryside. On February 7 1807 , the Russians turned to make a stand near Eylau. Quickly trying to reconcentrate his army, Napoleon entered the coming battle badly outnumbered. Arriving at Eylau around 2:00 PM, the corps of Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult and the cavalry of Marshal Joachim Murat began deploying and were quickly reinforced by the corps of Marshal Pierre Augereau and the Imperial Guard.
Entering the fight with 45,000 men to Bennigsen's 67,000, Napoleon was awaiting the arrival of Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout and Marshal Michel Ney with their corps. Late in the day on the 7th, French troops began pushing into Eylau, opening a bitter struggle for the village that lasted well into the night. Costing each side around 4,000 casualties
Fighting resumed after dawn on February 8, with a large-scale artillery duel as heavy snow storms swept across the battlefield. Awaiting the arrival of reinforcements, Napoleon ordered Soult's IV Corps to attack the Russian lines with the goal of fixing them in place. Moving forward, Soult was beaten back as Bennigsen ordered an attack on the French left as well as sendimg cavalry against the head of Davout's corps which was arriving on the right. With the battle turning in the Russians' favor, Napoleon ordered Augereau to attack the Russian left with his VII Corps to relieve pressure on the French right.
Augereau advanced his corp, supported by the division of General Louis Vincent Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire. As the VII Corps advanced it became lost in the blowing snow arriving at the center of the Russian instead of the left. Hit with fire from a 70-gun Russian battery, as well as the blinded French artillery, the VII Corps was badly decimated with Augereau falling wounded. Advancing correctly, Saint-Hilaire's outnumbered division had little impact on the Russian left.
Retreating back on Eylau with 3,000-4,000 survivors, the remnants of the VII Corps were soon attacked by Bennigsen's reserve infantry. Fighting a desperate battle, in which Napoleon was nearly captured, the center of the French line began to waver. Though reinforced by brigades from the Imperial Guard, Napoleon ordered Murat to charge forward with his cavalry to save the center. Riding out in one of the grandest charges of the war, Murat's men split into two wings with one turning to rescue Saint-Hilaire's men and the other charging into the Russians attacking Eylau.
Rejoining, Murat charged into the center of the Russian lines, destroying the batteries that had devastated the VII Corps. Retiring back to the French lines, Murat's horsemen had rescued the situation and allowed Davout's corps to deploy and join the battle. Though the Russian center was in shambles, Napoleon opted not to send the Imperial Guard forward as it was known that a 9,000-man Prussian force under General Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq was in the area.
Instead, he advanced Davout's corp with assistance from Saint-Hilaire. As the afternoon wore on, they were able to push back the Russian left. Around 3:30, with the Russian line about to break, L'Estocq appeared and struck at Davout's exposed flank, forcing the French to fall back to their original positions. With the arrival of evening, Ney's corps marched onto the field around 7:00. Immediately deploying, they pressed an attack into the Russian right which lasted until 10:00. An hour later, Bennigsen ordered the army to quietly withdraw from the field. The exhausted French did not realize that the Russians had departed until around 3:00 AM on February 9.
A stalemate, the Battle of Eylau was the first major setback encountered by Napoleon and the Grande Armée. In two days fighting, the Russians and French each suffered around 15,000 casualties. The Battle of Eylau led to a continuation of the fighting which did not end until the Battle of Friedland in June. Decisively defeating the Russians, Napoleon's victory at Friedland effectively ended the War of the Fourth Coalition.
|
NWC
Login
FAQ
