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CHAPTER V.

THE military operations on the eastern frontier of Poland,
between the French on one side, and the Russians and Prus-
sians on the other, were prosecuted with the utmost vigour
through the winter of 1806, and through the most inclement
months of the ensuing year. Notwithstanding the austerity
of so northern a climate, the constitution and habits of French-
men, naturally incongenial to such a climate, and the distance of
their native country, the courage and conduct of their leader
had braved all the horrors of the season, and brought them
within sight of the goal of all their labours. The events of a
few days in February, 1807, if prosperous to the French, would
have completed the conquest of the Prussian dominions, and
brought about an immediate peace. These events consisted in
the destruction of the Russian army, and the capture of Konigs-
burg; but the strenuous efforts of the French at Eylau were
defeated by the courage or good fortune of their enemies, and
Bonaparte now perceived the necessity of bringing a greater
force to the field than he had hitherto mustered.

The French had entertained the hopes of finishing this war
without the toil, expence, and delay of sieges. The surrender
of cities is the usual consequence of the defeat of armies.
Having concentered all our forces against the latter, and beaten
all that stands before us, the towns and fortresses, resistance
being hopeless, will fall of themselves. This policy, however,
was very imperfectly pursued, on this occasion, by the French.
They had thought proper to form the sieges of Colburg, Dant-
zic, and Stralsund, on the Baltic, and of Breslaw, in Silesia,
during their marches and battles in eastern Prussia, and thus,
by dividing their strength, rendered their exertions hazardous
or ineffectual in every quarter. The issue of the contest at
Eylau evinced the necessity of completing one project at a
time, and the French, posting themselves in strong stations,
dispatched considerable reinforcements to the army besieging
Dantzic. The Russians were so much weakened and exhausted
by their losses, that they forbore, for some time, to give their
enemies any disturbance.

The siege of Dantzic is the only incident of this war that
corresponded with the expectations of the world concerning it;
yet its situation on the sea-coast will perhaps account for the

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differences between its destiny and that of the inland fortresses.
By means of the sea, it could be inexhaustibly supplied with
troops, ammunition, and provisions from the most distant quar-
ters, and the evident advantage resulting from the lengthening
this siege made the Russians and Prussians very strenuous
both in defending and supplying it. Dantzic had been so long
a stranger to war, that its ancient defences had crumbled and
disappeared, and it owed its fortifications wholly to the present
exigence.

After the besiegers were reinforced, the attacks became so
frequent and violent, that a surrender became inevitable; yet
this event took place not till the 24th of May, when the trenches
had been opened near two months, and the garrison were
allowed all the honours of war. The city, hitherto for so many
years a scene of peace, industry, and prosperity, was reduced,
by so long a siege, nearly to a desert. A vast number of peo-
ple had early forsaken their dwellings, and retired to Denmark,
Russia, or Sweden. The more bold or indigent, who re-
mained, were exposed to every species of calamity which attend
the movements of armies within and without. Most of the
buildings were destroyed by shot or bombs, and those that re-
mained were either uninhabitable or crowded by soldiers.
Such, however, is the revivifying influence of peace, and the
local advantages of situation, that Dantzic will regain its former
opulence, and any traces of the siege be hardly visible in three
or four years.

Breslaw, the capital of Silesia, after being nearly reduced to
ruin, had previously surrendered to the French and Bavarians,
under Jerome Bonaparte, and these two events enabled Bona-
parte to augment his army with fifty or eighty thousand men.
Except the remote and inconsiderable fortress of Stralsund, all
northern Germany was now subdued, and the French were at
liberty to bend their whole force against the last remnant of the
Prussian empire.

During these transactions the hostile armies remained inac-
tive. The French waited till the reinforcements from France,
Germany, and the neighbourhood of Dantzic should arrive.
The inactivity of the Russians is not explained in any public or
authentic document. The disadvantage of pausing till their ene-
mies had combined all their scattered forces could not be over-
looked. Therefore this delay on the side of the Russians could
arise from nothing but the prospect of receiving additional
forces from the inland provinces, or from being destitute of the
due supplies for an army. There are many circumstances
which lead us to conclude that the latter was the principal cause,

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and that this defect was by no means fully supplied, even when
they began to move.

During this portentous interval, the Russian court bega to
regard the approaching contest with some degree of inquietude.
Notwithstanding all the efforts hitherto made, the enemy had
continued to advance. He had made a pause, but merely to
enable many formidable bodies of troops to join him, and mani-
fested no deficiency in the cumbrous and expensive apparatus of
war. France enjoyed, in some sense, the assistance of nume-
rous allies, since Spain, the Saxon states, and the Rhenish con-
federacy were obliged to muster their soldiers under her stan-
dard; whereas Russia was only sustained by the poor remains
of the Prussians, and her military force was partly occupied in
Turkey. The common danger had some influence in strength-
ening the ties between Russia and Great Britain; but the proxi-
mity of the danger to one, and its distance from the other, gave
birth to much discontent and jealousy. Alexander demanded
that Great Britain should augment his army by auxiliaries, or,
which was better, make an irruption into Holland or Westpha-
lia, in force sufficient to divide or distract the attention of the
common enemy. He likewise required money and supplies
for his own troops.

The British government appears to have liberally complied
with the last demand; but their armies remained perfectly still.
A few general officers were dispatched to witness the fray, and
to see that the supplies transmitted were not misapplied or em-
bezzled; but, except some inconsiderble expeditions to La
Plata and the Nile, the military force of the nation was wholly
inactive. As the immediate security of the British islands,
either from insurrection or invasion, was greater at this time
than at any period since the commencement of the war, and as
they had an army, at home and unemployed, of more than
eighty thousand men, conveyable in a few weeks to the scene of
action, it was not surprizing that the Russians should complain
of the remissness of their ally; nor does any probable cause of
this remissness present itself to the mind. As no aid would
avail any thing unless it were very large; as the war was daily
expected to be closed by some decisive battle; as the tenure by
which the British enjoyed the friendship of Alexander was, at
best, very slender and precarious, to send a large force into
Germany or Prussia was extremely hazardous. In the unset-
tled state of the English ministry, to send away half the regular
army, and less would have answered no purpose, was too gi-
gantic a project, and would have put them too much in the
power of their political adversaries. These considerations

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might possibly have influenced the English government to sup-
ply the Russians with arms and money rather than with sol-
diers, though a period of six months, which had elapsed since
the French entered Poland, afforded the parties ample opportu-
nity for adjusting any mode of future co-operation.

However this be, it is certain that, at the close of the month
of May, the Russians and Prussians prepared to anticipate the
attack of the French. It is asserted by some, that the Rus-
sians intended to retreat, and meant their first attack merely to
escape suspicion. Be that as it may, after various projects and
much irresolution, the Russians, under general Bennigsen,
commenced the campaign, on the morning of the fifth of June,
by an attack on Gutstadt, with an intention of destroying the
forces under marshal Ney; but the marshal, with eighteen
thousand men, manœuvred for two days against seventy-five
thousand, and finally effected his retreat on Deppen, with the
the loss of four thousand men and his baggage.

The Prussians had attempted, on the right, to pass the Pas-
sarge, but were repulsed; and a division of the Russians, en-
countering a part of marshal Soult's corps, lost many men; so
that, on the whole, the Russians did not gain any considerable
advantage.

By the retreat of Ney, marshal Davoust was much exposed
at Allenstein; but he was permitted to withdraw without inter-
ruption, and his union with Ney was effected at Deppen on the
8th. Here, early in the morning, the French commenced a
cannonade, and Bonaparte was seen to arrive, and even the
greeting of his troops was heard very distinctly by the Russians.
The attack was a false one; but the French wished to deceive
the Russians with the appearance of their falling back on Oste-
rode; for not only troops marched in that direction in front of
the Russians, but the baggage was also sent on the Osterode
road. It was, however, perceived to return, after making a
circuit through a wood, and move on the way to Liebstadt.
In the evening, the cossacks having successfully attacked some
cavalry which had passed the Passarge, Bennigsen discovered
from the prisoners an intention of his enemy to march directly
from Eldilten to Heilsberg; he therefore directly withdrew his
army behind Gutstadt, and the next morning the French, ad-
vancing from the wood which covered the bridge of Eldilten,
commenced an attack on the Russian rear-guard, which had
been left to observe their movements. Prince Bagrathion and
general Platow effected a masterly retreat, having long resisted
the progress of the enemy by repeated attacks, which obliged
the employment of the whole of their cavalry, the formation of

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several hollow squares of infantry, and the use of a considerable
artillery; and the Russians retired through Gutstadt with very
little loss, and succeeded in burning the bridges.

The next day the French advanced on the left bank of the
Alle to Lannau, and then forced the Russian posts advanced on
the road to Heilsberg; but prince Bagrathion, arriving from
the right bank with ten thousand men, commenced a very se-
vere action. The French, however, determined to annihilate,
if possible, this force; and, therefore, instead of acting against
it with an advanced guard, attacked with large bodies of the
army, and pressed the prince so much, that he was obliged to
send for succours, when the cavalry was ordered to cover his
retreat on the position where batteries had several weeks pre-
viously been constructed, and where now Bennigsen wished to
draw the enemy. The cavalry acted with various success;
and the Prussian squadrons, which had arrived in the morning
from the army of L'Estocq, with the remainder of Kaminsky's
troops which had returned from the Fahrwasser at the mouth
of the Vistula, conducted themselves with great courage; but
all their exertions could not prevent a heavy loss to the infan-
try. However, when the guns on the position began to fire on
the advancing French, they were obliged to recede.

It was about six o'clock when the French columns again
moved forward, with the intention of storming the advanced
battery, and which for a moment they carried; but the right
wing of the Russians charging instantly with the bayonet, the
French were driven back with great slaughter, and the Rus-
sians advanced their line considerably, even throwing their
right on a small wood, situated from their position at the ad-
vance of a musket shot. The action then continued with an
extraordinary cannonade, and an incessant fire of musketry.
A little before ten o'clock, information was received by Ben-
nigsen, that the division of Oudinot's grenadiers was again
about to storm the advanced battery, presuming to succeed
under the favour of the prevailing darkness. Arrangements
were made accordingly, and the column was received with
such discharges of musketry and grape, that the survivors were
obliged to fly in the wildest disorder, behind the wood, where
the Russian right had been thrown, but was withdrawn into the
position during the night; and there was even a partial firing till
day-break, when the cannonade recommenced, as the French
army was seen forming, with the intention to renew the action.

The ground between the two armies was actually covered
with the dead of the French, particularly of their grenadiers;
and the most experienced officers admitted, that on an equal

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space they had never seen such a carnage. As the bodies had
been stripped during the night, by mingled friends and foes, the
spectacle was the more remarkable.

About mid-day the French army was distinctly seen to defile
on the road to Koningsberg, but some troops were left in front
of the Russians, and others on their right. Bennigsen ordered
Kaminsky to march towards Koningsberg with his troops, and
he moved about six o'clock the same evening to anticipate the
enemy. At the same time orders were sent to L'Estocq for his
retreat from Koningsberg. That general had intercepted an or-
der to general Victor, commanding Bernadotte's division (which
marshal had been wounded) directing him to attack L'Estocq
instantly, and march to Koningsberg, so that L'Estocq had pre-
vious notice, and commenced his retreat accordingly. Bennig-
sen, instead of falling on Ney and Davoust, still stationed al-
most within cannot shot, abandoned, during the night, Heils-
berg and his wounded. The enemy made no attack, for it was
seven o'clock in the morning before the bridge could be burnt.
The Russian army reached Bartenstein on the 11th; on the 12th
Shippenbeil; and on the 13th the ground in front of Friedland,
always moving on the right bank of the Alle, except between
Bartenstein and Shippenbeil, where some cavalry marched on
the left bank. Some French dragoons had patroled into Fried-
land on the morning of the 13th, and passed the Alle. These
were attacked and expelled, and some prisoners taken, who in-
formed Bennigsen, that the division of Oudinot was on its march
to Friedland.

Bennigsen, wishing to occupy the town for the night, ordered
several regiments across the river, and made them take post on
the other side of the town. At four o'clock in the morning, this
cavalry was attacked by the French from the wood which bor-
dered the plain in front of the town. The general, imagining
that Oudinot's division only opposed him, retarded his march
on Wehlau, where he was going, and ordered one of his divi-
sions to cross and support the cavalry. The French showing
more force, the general was induced to order another division
over, and a battle commenced without an object, in a position
untenable, and where his troops could not gain a victory, but
might probably be ruined.

This great catastrophe, however, was spared by the fault of
the French, who did not attack on both sides of the river, where
any retreat would have been impracticable. The position in
which Bennigsen threw his troops was apparently an equal plain,
but divided by a deep ravine full of water, and nearly impassa-
ble, which ran in the direction of Domnau to Friedland, where,

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on the left side of the town, a lake was formed, and which in-
tersected the right of the left of the Russians from the left of
their centre. A thick wood, about a mile and a half from Fried-
land, on the skirts of which rose an elevated ground, bordered
the plain from the Alle, nearly in a semicircle, except towards
the left extremity, where there was an open space. In front of
this wood, a mile from the town, and nearly opposite the cen-
tre, was the small village of Henrichscroof. From a little to
the left of this village down to the Alle, south of Friedland,
was the theatre of action.

About seven o'clock the French made a movement, with ca-
valry and infantry, to gain the village on the plain; and as the
division of Russians destined to occupy it was only on its march
from the Alle, they succeeded in possessing themselves of it
and of three guns, which had hastily advanced. Twelve Rus-
sian squadrons had been ordered to resist their movement. The
French cavalry charged them, and they fled; but the infantry
approaching, the French lost many men, particularly cuiras-
siers, in the pursuit. At the same time, the French infantry
advanced from the village to turn the right of the Russians, be-
fore their reinforcement took post, but twenty pieces of cannon
tore their column of twenty-five hundred men to pieces, and it
fled, leaving about a thousand killed and wounded. The efforts
of the French now relaxed, and about eleven o'clock, the Rus-
sians having nearly passed all their army, about forty-five thou-
sand men, and detached eight thousand of their best troops to
secure Allenberg and Wehlau, the French commenced a re-
treat, when Bennigsen ordered the left to advance and gain the
wood. The chasseurs of the guards, directed to perform this
service, executed it, and killed and took in the wood a great
number of their enemy. Some columns of the French still re-
maining there, they were obliged to retire, from precaution,
behind a village on the banks of the Alle, and a few hundred
paces in front of the wood. About mid-day, a considerable
French reinforcement was discovered, and instantly the contest
was renewed with great fury, for the enemy, advancing with a
considerable discharge of field-pieces, were answered by all the
Russian artillery, ever eager to fire. The Russian cavalry had
endeavoured to gain the left of the enemy: having succeeded,
a party charged the French cuirassiers, who ran away; but, be-
ing met by some officers, they rallied, and turned on their pur-
suers, who checked their career: but, though both parties mu-
tually declined the shock, they advanced till they met sword to
sword, when the Russians were overpowered, after a few mi-
nutes' contest; but, as they were withdrawing, a Russian regi-


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ment charged on the flank of the French, and broke through
them. At this instant a French regiment charged in the same
manner the successful Russians, and a battle ensued, which ter-
minated in the total rout of the French cavalry, and the ground
was strewed with their men and horses.

The French, being discomfited here, covered their front with
artillery, and played from it on the Russian army, which was ex-
posed to every musket ball, but stood erect as if disdaining
their fire, while the French supporting lines lay down, in order
to be covered by high grass; and their main columns were
sheltered int he wood from any kind of danger. This tremen-
dous storm of bullets the Russians endured till 6 o'clock in the
evening. Their fortitude was the more extraordinary, as they
had been for twelve days making the most painful marches,
with scarcely any repose or food, and, for many hours before and
during the battle, they had not eaten a morsel of any kind, and
yet not a murmur was heard, nor did any man shrink from his
station.

About three o'clock Bonaparte arrived with his whole army
from Prussian Eylau, and reposed his troops till six o'clock,
when the cavalry mounted, and his infantry began to advance.
Bennigsen had known of the proposed attack about half an hour
before, but he had not a regiment in reserve. He directed, in-
deed, his line to be rendered more compact, but the loss of
twelve thousand men had made great intervals. A few mo-
ments before the attack commenced, he had ordered his cavalry
to form behind his centre, as the enemy had withdrawn all their
forces towards his left; but there was no time for the execution
of this order, nor for himself to mount on horseback, before
the enemy's battery of forty pieces of cannon thundered on the
guards stationed on the left, and several columns of immense
depth rushed forward, the principal one directing itself along
the ravine. The regiment of guards and the battalion of mili-
tia, which were considerably advanced, gave way at the ap-
proach of the French. The guards, impatient under the can-
non shot, which plunged through their ranks, moved forward,
but not with regularity or compact order, and were driven back
on the town, where for some time they maintained themselves,
and till the fugitives of the chasseurs and militia had passed the
bridges, when they also retired, and an order was given for the
destruction of the pontoons and the conflagration of the town
bridge, which was executed effectually. The town was set on
fire in a quarter where the Russians who were dangerously
wounded were deposited, so that they perished in the flames,
which raged for several hours. The centre had repulsed the at-

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tack made on it; but when the French gained its flank, retreat
was necessary, but so difficult was it, that there was no prospect
of effecting it. At this moment the horse guards and two other
regiments charged the columns pressing them, and routed one
so completely, that the Russian infantry gained the town, and
were preparing to pass the bridge, when the flames showed them
its fate, and their probable destruction. At this critical conjunc-
ture, however, a ford was accidentally discovered, but the river
was breast deep, with very steep banks. The infantry, never-
theless, not only passed in safety, but the artillery ventured the
passage, and ascended the opposite bank. The remaining am-
munition was then destroyed, but in no considerable quantity, as
the firing had been so great during the day that little remained;
and this indeed may be justly stated as one of the causes which
occasioned the defeat; for many guns had been withdrawn, and
the Russian line was no longer covered by an adequate artillery,
when the enemy's batteries, previous to the attack, commenced
the fire. The right wing, consisting chiefly of cavalry, also re-
tired by the same ford, and saved their artillery. Bennigsen ral-
lied the troops of the left wing, at a wood, about a mile distant,
on the Wehlau road, which prevented the pursuit of the enemy,
and gave time for the guns and baggage to gain Allenberg, from
which place the Russians marched to Wehlau, where the Pregel
was passed on a single bridge, and in presence of the French,
who detached four thousand men as a corps of observation ra-
ther than offence, as they moved on the left bank of the Alle,
but kept post within cannon shot of the bridge. The whole of
the Russian army passed without any interruption or loss, on the
seventeenth; the bridge was burnt, and the troops moved to Pe-
pelke, where the army of L'Estocq and Kaminski joined the
main army, after having effected their own junction at Peters-
walde, entered Koningsberg, evacuated that town, with an im-
mense equipage, crossed the Domnau at Leibau, with compa-
ratively small loss, the principal of which was by desertion.

On the eighteenth the Russian army collected and marched to
Tilsit, and there again crossed the river on a single bridge, and
where the protection of a rear-guard was very difficult. The
whole of the baggage having gained the right bank of the Me-
mel, the bridge was burnt, and the enemy almost instantly enter-
ed the town, where there was some partial firing of musketry
from the sentries, which ceased by agreement.