The Battle of Borodino

Revisiting Napoleon's Bloodiest Day

3: Bagration Fleches

by LTC Villahermosa and Matt DeLaMater
artwork by Mark Churms and Steven Palatka

The Bagration fleches, named after the Russian commander of the 2nd Army of the West, were three V-shaped earthworks placed to strengthen the Russian left wing (the fleches currently on the battlefield are reconstructions). Each fleche was supported by one battery of Russian artillery (12 guns) deployed to the front, and were defended by one or two battalions of Russian infantry inside the earthworks.

Although only two of three works were visible from the French lines, the fleches were a main focal point of the resounding bombardment opened by the French at 6:00 a.m. This bombardment was delayed for an hour when the French discovered that they had initially deployed too far from the Russian troops - a fantastic blunder for an experienced, veteran army to have committed.

Throughout the day, three major efforts were directed against the fleches. A scene of horrific, indescribable carnage met the men who were fed into this maelstrom. In less than five hours, somewhere between 25,000 to 35,000 men were killed or wounded in or near this small blood-soaked stretch of ground, little over a square mile in size, where more than 500 cannon would be employed.

Once again, as at Shevardino, General Compans' 5th Division of Davout's 1st Corps was the first to assault the position, supported by General Dessaix's 4th Division on their left. Waiting for them, having endured a brutal hour-long barrage by the French artillery concentration (over 100 guns), was the Russian 2nd Converged Grenadier Division.

Sometime after 7:00 a.m., "The Terrible" 57th Regiment, supported by the 24th Legere (light infantry) Regiment, braved a thick hail of Russian fire and managed to storm the Russian's left most (southern) redan, scrambling over the considerable wreckage and carpet of bodies that were strewn throughout. The French grip on the fleche was tenuous, and a Russian counter-attack, buffeted by heavy skirmish fire from the woods to the French right, drove the 57th Line back along with the rest of the division, wounding General Compans in the process. During the Russian attack, Marshal Davout was thrown from his horse, stunning him, with the end result that Davout's attack on the fleches stalled.

Both sides continued to feed in more troops in the fight for control of the fleches. Marshal Michel Ney's 3rd Corps came in with Ledru's 10th Division to bolster the 4th Division, and Ledru's men, supported by Compans' rallied 5th Division (now commanded by Napoleon's ADC General Rapp), succeeded in re-taking the fleches. Once again, the French 57th Line occupied the debris of the southern redan.

Bagration, on the other side, was throwing everything he could into the fight, as well as sending appeals to Barclay for help. As the 2nd Converged Grenadier Division was virtually annihilated in the first attacks, Bagration fed in the 2nd Grenadier Division (which fought at Shevardino two days earlier) and General Sievers' 4th Cavalry Corps in the counter-atttack which had initially repulsed Davout's corps. Now, in response to the second French success, he sent in the splendid white-coated cuirassiers of Duka's 2nd Cuirassier Division. These heavy cavalrymen ran over the Polish and Wurttemberg light cavalry which tried to halt them, and then crashed against the open ends of the redans. Evidently confused by the smoke and the friendly cavalry routing through their positions, the 57th Line was swept away by the fury of the Russian charge.

Yet more French reinforcements now interceded, in the form of the remarkable Wurttemberg infantry of the 25th Division, along with the French 72nd Line Regiment of Ledru's division, to cover the hasty exit of the 5th Division. Badly depleted after their heroic actions at Smolensk, the Wurttembergers none-the-less stemmed the Russian counter-attack, throwing back the spent first wave of the Russian cuirassiers and securing the southern fleche.

Marshal Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, King of Naples, and chief cavalry commander since Egypt, now entered the fray at the head of Nansouty's 1st Reserve Cavalry Corps. On this occasion, Murat's impetuosity and customary sartorial splendor, which rendered him extremely conspicuous, almost proved to be his undoing.

Having led a Wurttemberg cavalry pursuit too far, and with the overly-cautious Nansouty failing to support his attack, Murat was forced to ride pell-mell back toward the Wurttemberg infantry squares in an attempt to escape Duka's second wave of Russian heavy cavalry. Murat was trapped in a fleche and narrowly avoided capture when a party of Wurttemberg infantry rescued him.

With enemy cavalry cuirassiers advancing toward the brave Wurttembergers, Murat, according to legend, repeatedly implored in German for the men to fire, mispronouncing the word such that it sounded like a certain expletive, and provided a strange moment of levity amidst the carnage.

Unfortunately for the Russians, approximately three hours into the fight, Prince Bagration received a wound to his leg. Although he attempted to remain in the saddle and retain command of the left wing, he eventually had to be carried to the rear, where a surgeon operated as Bagration followed the progress of the fight. At this point, the 2nd Army of the West ceased to have any effective overall commander.

The third major effort against the fleches by the French consisted of a massive effort involving Ney's 3rd Corps, the Westphalian 8th Corps, and Latour- Maubourg's 4th Reserve Cavalry Corps, once again supported by large quantities of artillery. This attack relieved the survivors of the earlier combats and carried the position, sweeping ahead only to come up against the last stand of the Russian left, near the village of Semenovskaya, our fifth tour stop.

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