Battle of Eylau The Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch - Eylau , 7 and 8 February 1807 , was a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoléon ' s " Grande Armée " and a Russian Empire army under Levin August , Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preußisch Eylau in East Prussia . Late in the battle , the Russians received a timely reinforcement from a Prussian division . The town is now called Bagrationovsk and it is a part of Kaliningrad Oblast , Russia . The engagement was fought during the War of the Fourth Coalition , part of the Napoleonic Wars . Of all Napoleonic battles , this is considered to be the most uncertain and mysterious due to several reasons — mainly the strength of Murat ' s reserve cavalry . Napoleon ' s armies 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 2 December 1805 . Austerlitz forced the Austrians to sue for peace and their Russian allies to withdraw from the conflict . On 14 October 1806 , Napoleon crushed the armies of the Kingdom of Prussia at the Battle of Jena - Auerstedt . After a rapid pursuit , the broken pieces of the Prussian army were destroyed at the Battles of Prenzlau and Lübeck and in a series of capitulations at Erfurt , Pasewalk , Stettin , Magdeburg , and Hamelin . Eylau was the first serious check to the " Grande Armée " and the myth of Napoleon ' s invincibility was badly shaken . In late January , Bennigsen ' s Russian army went on the offensive in East Prussia , pushing far to the west . Napoleon 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 rapidly withdrew to the northeast to avoid being cut off . The French pursued for several days and found the Russians drawn up for battle at Eylau . In a vicious evening clash , the French captured the village with heavy losses on both sides . The following day brought even more serious fighting . Early in the battle , a frontal attack by Napoleon failed with catastrophic losses . To retrieve the situation , the emperor launched a massed cavalry charge against the Russians . This bought enough time for the French right wing to throw its weight into the contest . Soon , the Russian left wing was bent back at an acute angle and Bennigsen ' s army was in danger of collapse . A Prussian corps belatedly arrived and saved the day by pushing back the French right wing . As darkness fell , a French corps tardily appeared on the French left flank . That night Bennigsen decided to retreat , leaving Napoleon in possession of a snowy battlefield covered with thousands of corpses and many more wounded . Prelude . With the Prussian army reduced to a handful of harried fugitives after Jena - Auerstedt , Napoléon occupied the major cities of Germany and marched on east in pursuit of the remaining forces opposed to him . These were largely Russians under the command of the frail 68 - year - old Field Marshal Mikhail Kamensky . The old marshal was unwilling to risk battle , and continued to retreat , leaving the Grande Armée free to enter Poland almost unopposed . Nevertheless , as the French pressed aggressively eastward across the Vistula , they found the Russians defending the line of the Wkra River . The French seized a crossing over the Wkra on 23 December at the Battle of Czarnowo . Russian resistance soon stiffened and on 26 December the two armies clashed at the Battles of Pułtusk and Gołymin . After these fierce engagements Napoléon ' s troops took up winter quarters in Poland to recuperate after a victorious but exhausting campaign . In January 1807 , the new Russian army commander Levin August , Count von Bennigsen attempted to surprise the French left wing by shifting the bulk of his army north from Nowogród to East Prussia . Incorporating a Prussian corps on his right flank , he first bumped into elements of the VI Corps of Marshal Michel Ney , who had disobeyed his emperor ' s orders and advanced far north of his assigned winter cantonments . Having cleared Ney ' s troops out of the way , the Russians rolled down on the isolated French I Corps under Marshal Jean - Baptiste Bernadotte . Tough fighting at the Battle of Mohrungen allowed Bernadotte ' s corps to escape serious damage and pull back to the southwest . With his customary inventiveness , Napoléon saw an opportunity to turn the situation to his own advantage . He instructed Bernadotte to withdraw before Bennigsen ' s forces , and ordered the balance of the Grande Armée to strike northward . This maneuver might envelop the Russian army ' s left flank and cut off its retreat to the east . By a stroke of luck , a band of Cossacks captured a messenger carrying Napoleon ' s plans to Bernadotte and quickly forwarded the information to General Pyotr Bagration . At once Bernadotte was left unawares and a forewarned Bennigsen immediately ordered a retreat east to Jonkowo to avoid the trap . As Bennigsen hurriedly assembled his army at Jonkowo , elements of Marshal Nicolas Soult ' s IV Corps reached a position on his left rear on 3 February . That day , General of Division Jean François Leval clashed with Lieutenant General Nikolay Kamensky ' s 14th Division at Bergfried ( Berkweda ) on the Alle ( Łyna ) River , which flows roughly northward in the area . The French reported 306 casualties while claiming to inflict 1 , 100 on their adversaries . After seizing Allenstein ( Olsztyn ) , Soult moved north on the east bank of the Alle . Meanwhile , Napoleon threatened Bennigsen from the south with Marshal Pierre Augereau ' s VII Corps and Ney ' s troops . Kamensky held the west bank with four Russian battalions and three Prussian artillery batteries . After an initial attack on Bergfried was driven back , the French captured the village and bridge . A Russian counterattack briefly recaptured the bridge . That night , the French remained in possession of the field and Soult claimed that he found 800 Russian dead on the field . Marching at night , Bennigsen retreated directly north to Wolfsdorf ( Wilczowo ) on the 4th . The next day he fell back to the northeast , reaching Burgerswalde on the road to Landsberg ( Górowo Iławeckie ) . By early February the Russian army was in full retreat relentlessly pursued by the French . After several aborted attempts to stand and fight Bennigsen resolved to retreat to the town of Preussisch - Eylau and there 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 were already concentrated . First day . Marshal Soult ' s IV Corps and Marshal Murat ' s cavalry were the first French formations to reach the plateau before Eylau at about 14 : 00 on the 7th . The Russian rearguard under Prince Bagration occupied positions on the plateau about a mile in front of Eylau . The French promptly assaulted these positions and were repulsed . Bagration ' s orders were to offer stiff resistance in order to gain time for Bennigsen ' s heavy artillery to pass through Eylau and to join the Russian Army in its position beyond Eylau . During the afternoon the French were reinforced by Marshal Augereau ' s corps and the Imperial Guard , making up about 45 , 000 soldiers in all . Under pressure of greatly superior forces Bagration conducted an orderly retreat to join the main army . The retreat was covered by another rearguard detachment in Eylau led by Barclay de Tolly . The rearguard action continued when French forces advanced to assault Barclay ' s forces in the town of Eylau . Historians differ on the reasons . Napoléon later claimed that this was on his orders ; that the advance had the dual aims of pinning the Russian force to prevent them retreating yet again , and providing his soldiers with at least some shelter against the terrible cold . Other surviving evidence however , strongly suggests that the advance was unplanned and occurred as the result of an undisciplined skirmish which Marshals Soult and Murat should have acted to quell but did not . Whether or not Napoléon and his generals had in advance the consideration of securing the town in order to provide the soldiers with a shelter for the freezing night , the soldiers may have taken action on their own initiative to secure such a shelter . According to Captain Marbot the Emperor told Marshal Augereau that he disliked night fighting , that he wanted to wait until the morning so that he could count on Davout ' s Corps to come up on the right wing and Ney ' s on the left , and that the high ground before Eylau was a good , easily defensible position on which to wait for reinforcements . Whatever the cause of the fight for the town , it rapidly escalated into a large and bitterly fought engagement , continuing well after night had fallen and resulting in about 4 , 000 casualties to each side , including Barclay , who was shot in the arm and forced to leave the battlefield . Among other officers the French brigadier general Pierre - Charles Lochet was shot and killed . At 22 : 00 Bennigsen ordered the Russians to retreat a short distance , leaving the town to the French . Bennigsen later claimed he abandoned the town to lure the French into attacking his centre the next day . Despite their possession of the town most of the French spent the night in the open , as did all of the Russians . Both sides did without food — the Russians because of their habitual disorganization , the French because of problems with the roads , the weather , and the crush of troops hurrying towards the battle . During the night Bennigsen withdrew some of his troops from the front line to strengthen his reserve . This action resulted in the shortening of his right wing . Second day . Bennigsen had 67 , 000 Russian troops with 400 guns already assembled while the French had only 49 , 000 troops and 300 guns . The Russians could expect to be reinforced by Anton Wilhelm von L ' Estocq ' s detachment of 9 , 000 Prussians ; the French by Marshal Davout ' s depleted III Corps — proud victors of Auerstedt but now only 15 , 000 strong — and Marshal Ney ' s 14 , 000 - strong VI Corps ( making a total of 74 , 000 men ) , which was shadowing the Prussians . Bernadotte ' s I Corps was too far distant to take part . Dawn brought light but little warmth and no great improvement in visibility : the heavy snowstorms continued throughout the day . The opposing forces occupied two parallel ridges . The French were active early on probing the Russian position , particularly on the Russian right wing . Bennigsen , fearing that the French would discover that he had shortened his right , opened the battle by ordering his artillery to fire on the French . The French replied and the ensuing artillery duel lasted for some time with the French having the best of it because of their more dispersed locations . The start of the artillery duel galvanized Napoleon . Until then he had expected the Russians to continue their retreat . Now he knew he had a fight on his hands . Messengers hurredly were dispatched to Ney ordering him to march on Eylau and join the French left wing . Meanwhile , the French had occupied in force some fullering mill buildings within musket shot of the Russian right wing . Russian jagers ejected the French . Both sides escalated the fight , with the Russians assaulting the French left wing on Windmill Knoll to the left of Eylau . Napoleon interpreted the Russian efforts on his left as a prelude to an attack on Eylau from that quarter . By this time Davout ' s III Corps began to arrive on the Russian left wing . To forestall the perceived Russian attack on Eylau and to pin the Russian army , so that Davout ' s flank attack would be more successful , Napoleon launched an attack against the Russian centre and left with Augereau ' s VII Corps on the left and Saint - Hilaire ' s Division of Soult ' s IV Corps on the right . Augereau was very ill , having to be helped onto his horse . Fate intervened to turn the attack into a disaster . As soon as the French marched off a blizzard descended , causing all direction to be lost . Augereau ' s Corps followed the slope of the land and veered off to the left away from Saint - Hilaire . Augereau ' s advance struck the Russian line at the junction of its right and centre , coming under the fire of the blinded French artillery , and then the point - blank fire of the massive 70 - gun Russian centre battery . Meanwhile , Saint - Hilaire ' s division , advancing alone in the proper direction , was unable to have much effect against the Russian left . Augereau ' s corps was thrown into great confusion with heavy losses , gives Augereau ' s official of 929 killed and 4 , 271 woundeed < / ref > one regiment , the 14th Ligne was unable to retreat and fought to the last man refusing to surrender , its eagle carried off by Marbot its position would be marked by a square of corpses . Bennigsen took full advantage ; falling on Saint - Hilaire ' s division with more cavalry , and bringing up his reserve infantry to attack the devastated French centre . Augereau and the three or four thousand survivors fell back on Eylau , where they were attacked by about 5 , 000 Russian infantry . At one point Napoléon himself , using the church tower as a command post , was nearly captured but members of his personal staff held the Russians off for just long enough to allow some battalions of the Guard to come up . Counter attacked by the Guard ' s bayonette charge and Bruyère ' s cavalry in their rear , the attacking Russian column was nearly destroyed . For four hours the French centre was in great disorder , virtually defenseless and in imminent danger . With his centre almost broken , Napoléon resorted to ordering a massive charge by Murat ' s 11 , 000 - strong cavalry reserve — aside from the Guard , the last major unbloodied body of troops remaining to the French . Cavalry charge at Eylau . Thus began one of the greatest cavalry charges in history . Somewhat obscured by the weather , Murat ' s squadrons charged through the Russian infantry around Eylau and then divided into two groups . The group on the right , Grouchy ' s dragoons , charged into the flank of the Russian cavalry attacking St Hilaire ' s division and scattered them completely . Now led by Murat himself the dragoons wheeled left against the Russian cavalry in the centre and , joined by d ' Hautpoult ' s cuirassier division drove the Russian cavalry back on their infantry . Fresh Russian cavalry forced Murat and the dragoons to retire , but d ' Hautpoult ' s cuirassiers broke through everything and the broken Russian were cut to pieces by fresh regiments of cuirassiers . D ' Hautpoult then rode through the Russian guns chasing off or sabering the gunners and burst through the first line of Russian infantry trampling a battalion of infantry that attempted to stand . The cuirassiers forced their way through the second line of Russians and only after 2 , 500 yards did the charge finally expend its force in front of the Russian reserves . A second wave of cavalry consisting of the Guards and Grouchy ' s dragoons now charged the Russians as they attempted to reform and also rode through both lines of infantry . Another group charged into the Russian infantry in the area where Augereau ' s corps had made its stand . Not content with these heavy blows , the cavalry reformed , wheeled , and charged back again , finally retiring under the protection of the Guard cavalry . Murat had lost 1 , 000 to 1 , 500 well - trained troopers , but relieved the pressure on Augereau , Saint - Hilaire , and Soult paralyzing the Russians long enough to allow Davout to deploy in strength . Rarely had French cavalry played such a pivotal part in a battle . In part this was because , for the first time , Murat ' s men were now mounted on the best cavalry horses in Europe , freshly requisitioned in the aftermath of the conquest of Prussia . Davout ' s corps , about 15 , 000 strong , was now in position and began to drive in the Russian left . Despite the disarray of the Russian centre , Napoléon declined to follow up Murat ' s charge by advancing with the Guard . Such a move may have decisively won the battle , but Napoléon , well aware that 9 , 000 Prussians under L ' Estocq and his chief of staff Gerhard von Scharnhorst were still unaccounted for , judged it wise to retain the Guard in reserve . Through the afternoon , Soult , Augereau , and Murat managed to hold their ground while Davout , assisted by Saint - Hilaire , gradually bent the Russian left back further and further pushing it back to a right angle with the Russian centre . By 15 : 30 it seemed that the Russian cohesion would soon break as their left was in full retreat . For several crucial hours Bennigsen could not be found , he having personally ridden to L ' Estocq to urge that general to hasten the march of his Prussian corps to the battlefield . Bennigsen ' s mission was crowned with success . L ' Estocq ' s 9 , 000 man Prussian force , having lost a third of its strength to Ney ' s pursuit , approached the battlefield via the Russian right and passed completely behind the Russian position to its left wing , gathering strength in doing so by collecting Russian stragglers and adding them to the 6 , 000 Prussian troops . At 16 : 00 L ' Estocq counterattacked by falling on Davout ' s exposed right flank , and the heartened Russians soon launched a fresh attack against Davout . Over the next three hours Davout was halted and forced back to a line running from the village of Kutschitten to near the village of Anklappen towards Saint Hillaire ' s right by Eylau . Davout alert to the danger , formed a battery of his guns on the heights of Klein Sausgarten and personally rallied his troops while his guns drove the Prussians back into the woods . With nightfall , exhaustion set in and fighting on the Russian left petered out . By then the roar of cannons on the Russian right announced Ney ' s arrival . Napoleon had not recalled Ney until 08 : 00 on the morning of the 8th when he realized that the Russians intended to fight . Although within marching distance of the battle , the heavy snow had muffled the sound of cannon fire and Ney was completely unaware of events until a messenger reached him around 10 : 30 . Somewhat delayed by L ' Estocq ' s rearguard , the leading division of Ney ' s corps did not reach the battlefield until around 19 : 00 and immediately swept forward into the Russian right and rear . Bennigsen counterattacked . Bitter fighting continued until 22 : 00 , at which point both sides drew off a little . After a contentious council of war with several of his generals forcefully arguing for continuing the fight for a third day , at 23 : 00 Bennigsen decided to withdraw and , covered by the Cossacks , the Russians silently began to leave . The exhausted French did not even notice until 03 : 00 and were in no condition to pursue . Result . After 14 hours of continuous battle , there was still no result but enormous loss of life . Authorities differ greatly , estimates of Russian casualties range from about 15 , 000 to 20 , 000 killed or wounded and 3 , 000 soldiers , 23 cannon and 16 colors captured . The French lost somewhere between 10 , 000 and 15 , 000 with 5 Eagles lost . Chandler suggests as many as 25 , 000 French casualties , although conceding it is impossible to be certain . The French had gained possession of the battlefield — nothing but a vast expanse of bloodstained snow and frozen corpses — but they had suffered enormous losses and failed to destroy the Russian army . It was left to Marshal Ney to sum up . Riding over the fields of Eylau the following morning , Ney said , " Quel massacre ! Et sans résultat " ( " What a massacre ! And without result " ) . Eylau was not the decisive victory characteristic of Napoleon ' s earlier campaigns , prolonging the war with Russia , until his decisive victory at the Battle of Friedland forced Tsar Alexander I to the peace table at Tilsit . In popular culture . Antoine - Jean Gros painted " Napoléon visitant le champ de bataille d ' Eylau le 9 février 1807 " in Paris in 1808 . The surgeon - in - chief of Napoleon ' s Grand Army , Baron Dominique - Jean Larrey , served the wounded with the flesh of young horses as soup and " bœuf à la mode " . The good results encouraged him to promote the consumption of horse meat in France . The Battle of Eylau forms the early part of the novel " The Schirmer Inheritance " ( 1953 ) by Eric Ambler . The brutal battle and its immediate aftermath are depicted from the point of view of an ordinary soldier , a Prussian cavalry sergeant , who is severely wounded by a French sabre in the later part of the confused fighting and whose only chance of saving his life is to desert and find shelter with Polish peasants in the neighborhood . In the novel " Le Colonel Chabert " of French author Honoré de Balzac , Eylau is the battle where the Colonel describes having been mistakenly reported as killed . The Battle of Eylau was reconstructed in the home computer strategy game " Napoleon at War " released by C . C . S . in 1986 and written by Ken Wright . The second day of the battle was shown in the miniseries " Napoleon " .