Eylau: A Russian View
Introduction
by Patrick E. Wilson, UK
 |
In recognition of his victory at the Battle of Pultusk, General of Cavalry Baron Levin August Benningsen received from
Tsar Alexander I of Russia the Order of St. George, and, what he wanted even more, chief commend of the Russian Army in Poland. General of Infantry Count Freidrich Wilhelm Buxhowden, his superior and an ineffectual general best remembered for being drunk during the Battle of Austerlitz, was recalled. Thus giving Benningsen a free hand to conduct the war as he saw fit and one of the first decisions was to put in motion a plan of operations that had been discussed a week
earlier at a council of war held by Buxhowden. This plan, which was actually Buxhowden’s, involved the use of the Forest of Johannisburg as screen whilst the main Russian Army marched north-west to attack and destroy the French left wing under Marechal Jean-Baptiste-Jules Bernadotte or the Prince of Ponte-Corvo as he was then called. Benningsen hoped that this plan would result in the destruction of at least one French Corps d’Armée and cause Napoleon to retreat behind the Vistula River.
Leaving General Sedmaratski’s 6th Division at Goniondz to cover the rest of the Army and maintain contact with General Essen I and the Moldavian divisions;
Benningsen marched off to destroy the Prince of Ponte-Corvo's Corps d’Armée. Unfortunately for Benningsen, Marechal Michel Ney’s Corps d’Armée to
Bernadotte’s right had advanced without orders to procure supplies, and had troops dispersed over a wide area, all of which lay in the path of Benningsen’s advance. It was therefore not long before Benningsen’s advance guard under General Markov began to encounter Ney’s detachments.
On the 21st January near Langheim a whole squadron of the 3rd Hussars under Captain St. Aubain Le Brun was taken prisoner by Prince Dimitri Galitzin. On 24th General Barclay de Tolly at the head of a squadron of the Isoum Hussars and 50 Cossacks attacked and defeated two squadrons of French Dragoons, taking two Captains and 29 troopers prisoner.
[1]
That same day General Markov engaged at least three enemy regiments at Liebstadt, killing about 300 and taking 18 officers, including a Colonel Fabre, and 291 troopers prisoner. These engagements forced Ney to withdraw his troops before they were all destroyed and give Bernadotte warning that something was about to happen. The fighting at Liebstadt was also a prelude to the Combat of Mohrungen where Bernadotte faced the Russians alone.
Eylau: A Russian View by Patrick E. Wilson, UK
|