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bare canopy of heaven, facing each other. One division of the French army, under Le Grand, was posted in front of the village; and one under Saint-Hilaire, on its right. The corps of Augereau was placed on its left. That of Davoust had been detached in the evening, to stretch beyond Eylan, and to come round and fall on the left flank of the Russians, if they should not have changed their position. Marshal Ney was like wise in motion to outflank and fall on them on the right.

On the following morning, (February 8) the Russians commenced the attack with a brisk cannonade on the village of Eylau, and by the division under Saint Hilaire. The emperor, with his guards, took post in the church and burying-ground, which the Russians had so well de fended the day before.

To the military eye of Buonaparte, the hill commanding the entrance into the plain, which the French had failed to carry the day before, presented itself still as the most important object of attack. Till this should be carried the centre of his army could not act offensively against the enemy: for, in order to do this, it was necessary that it should stretch into the plain. Marshal Augereau was therefore ordered to advance with his corps, and to open a cannonade against this commanding spot, with 40 pieces of artillery belonging to the imperial guard. A terrible cannonade ensued on both sides. The armies being within half a gun-shot of each other, every shot took effect, and the slaughter on both sides was dreadful. At one time it appeared, from the movements of the Russians, that, impatient of suffering so much without any decisive result, they had a mind

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to outflank the French on their wing. But, in the same insta marshal Davoust, with his shar shooters, appeared, and fell on th rear. Upon this, Augereau's cor filed off in columns to attack occupy the centre of the Russi army, which might otherwise ha overwhelmed Davoust with superi numbers. At the same time, t division under Saint Hilaire, file off to the right to support Davous and eventually to facilitate a jun tion between Davoust and Auge reau, should his assistance becom necessary.

No sooner had these movement commenced, than so thick a fal! o snow covered the two armies, tha they could not see beyond the dis tance of two feet. The point of di rection was lost, and the French columns, inclining too much to the left, wandered about in uncertainty This darkness lasted half an hour. When the weather cleared up,20,000 Russian infantry, supported by cavalry and artillery, by beginning to turn, threatened the division of Saint Hilaire with excision.-At this moment, when destruction hovered over the French army, the greater part of which was straggling in columns, incapable of supporting one another, the cavalry under Murat, supported by the imperial guard under Bessieres, coming round about the division of Saint Hilaire, extricated the French from their critical situation, by making a desperate and successful charge on the formidable mass of the Russian infantry. The Russian cavalry, who endeavoured to oppose this manœuvre, were routed with great slaughter. Two lines of infantry were broken; the third falling back, supported themselves on a wood.

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The issue of the battle, which had to them. It has cost the enemy from 12 to 15,000 prisoners, as many in killed and missing, 45 pieces of artillery, and 18 standards."

been long doubtful, was decided from the moment that Davoust, whose progress was greatly impeded by the weather, was at last enabled to fall upon the rear of the enemy, according to his orders, and drive them from the hilly ground or platform. The Russians, after repeated attempts to repulse that general, retreated, leaving their wounded and 16 picces of cannon on the field of battle.

In a contest, maintained for twelve hours, during the whole of which 300 pieces of cannon vomited death from the opposite lines so near each other, the number of killed and wounded on either side could not be otherwise than very great. The loss of the French, according to their own accounts, consisted exactly in 1000 killed, and 5700 wounded, including 1090 so severely, as to be rendered for ever unfit for service; and that of the Russians in 7000 left; dead on the field of battle*. Among the wounded on the side of the French, were four colonels and five generals, one of whom was marshal Augereau, and another, general Hautpoult, who died of his wounds. In the number of the killed, were four colonels. The eagle of one of the French battalions, according to their own accounts, was lost; that is, no doubt, it was taken by the enemy. "Thus, (the bulletin proceeds,) the Russian expedition which set out on the 27th of January, and which had for its object to stretch out towards Thorn, and turn our left wing, has proved exceedingly fatal

Very different from this was the account given of the battle of Eylau, by the Russian general, who, in a letter dated on the field of battle, at Prussian Eylau, 8th of February, 1807, assured the emperor, that the enemy had been completely defeated; that a thousand prisoners, and twelve standards, which he had the honour to send to his imperial majesty, had fallen into the hands of the con querors. He had been attacked, he said, that day, on his centre and both his wings, by Buonaparte in person, who, however, had been beaten back at ali points, and every where defeated. His guards had attacked the centre of the Russians several times, and as often been repulsed: several columns of French infantry, and regiments of cuirassiers had been destroyed. The loss of the Russians he believed might exceed 6,000 men ; but that he might estimate, without exaggeration, the loss of the enemy, at more than 12,000+.-The circumstance of the 12 standards taken, appears incredible; yet what shall be said of the clause in the general's letter, men. tioning that they had been sent to the emperor? Was it a kind of patriotic fraud, on the part of the general, or the gazette of St. Petersburg? In either case, it is an instance of the excessive exaggeration in ga. zettes, now more than ever common with both French and Russians, above noted.

Fifty-eighth bulletin of the grand French army, compared with the official narrative of general Bennigsen.

+ Traduction d'une lettre du général baron de Bennigsen, à S. M. l'empereur de Russie, apportée par le lieutenant-colonel Havitzki, aide-de camp de S. M. I. sur le champ de battaille, &c.-See also, Relation officielle transmise par son excellence le baron de Bennigsen, général en chef. Conningsberg, 25 Mars, 1807.

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The character and result of the most bloody battle of Eylau, seem to be exhibited with great candour in a letter written by a Russian officer of the army, three days after the battle." Our army has performed prodigies of valour; though our loss has been very great. It is generally agreed, that it was a miracle we did not lose more: which is ascribed to the excellent discipline and order, which prevailed even in the hottest of the action, and in the midst of such a fire, as was never perhaps witnessed before. For these three days we have been enquiring of each other, On which side the vic. tory lay? This question may appear singular: but in truth it is impossible for me to say, which of the two armies fought with the greatest courage and obstinacy, and did the greatest mischief to the other." It is a very remarkable circumstance, in the battle of Eylau, that there was little or no engagement between the infantry of the two armies. The battle was fought by the artillery and cavalry. The day after the battle presented a horrid scene of dead and dying men: to bury all the dead, required immense labour. A great number of Russian slain, were found with the insignia of their orders. Forty-eight hours after the battle, there were still upwards of 5,000 wounded Russians, whom the French had not been able to carry off. Brandy and bread were carried to them, and they were successively carried to the ambulance, or train of carriages. On the space of a square league were seen 9 or 10,000 dead bodies; 4 or 5,000 horses killed;

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whole lines of Russian knapsacks broken pieces of muskets and sa bres; the ground covered with can non-balls, howitzer shells, and am munition; twenty-four pieces o cannon, near which lay the bodie of their drivers, killed at the mo ment when they were endeavouring to carry them off. All this was the more conspicuous, as the ground was covered with snow. The 5,000 wounded Russians were all conveyed in sledges to Thorn, and to the French hospitals, on the left bank of the Vistula. The surgeons observed with astonishment, that the fatigue of this conveyance did no harm to the wounded +.

At the same time that marshal Davoust attacked the elevated ground, the possession of which was so warmly disputed, marshal Ney came round by Altorf, driving before him the same column which he had attacked at Deppen, and, in the evening, occupied the village of Schoneditton. The Russian general therefore, harassed on his flanks by Davoust and Ney, who threatened to cut off his rearguard, ordered several battalions of grenadiers to make an attack on Schoneditton; which was accordingly made at 8 o'clock at night, but without effect. The next day, (February 9) the Russians were pursued as far as the river Frischeling, while they retreated behind the Pregel. The French gazette says in conclusion, "This expedition is ended. The enemy is beaten and driven back eighty leagues from the Vistula. The French army is going to return to its winter quarters."

Dated, Tilsit, ville du royaume de Prusse, près de Niemen, à 20 lieues nordeste de Koningsberg, le 11 Fevrier 1807.

† 64th bulletin of the grand French army.

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That the main body of the Russian army-not absolutely the whole as will presently appear, forced to fall back eighty leagues from the Vistula, is true, but it is also true that Buonaparte did not find himself in a condition, at this time, again to attack them, and hazard another battle. The Russian army, without any material loss, effected its retreat to Koningsberg.

Buonaparte was now only a short distance from Koningsberg, a grand depository of the enemy. The steeples of this place, which had been held out as a rich prey to the French soldiers, were to be seen from the heights of Eylau. No thing could have been more desirable than to take a place which would at once have been a most advantageous military position, furnished abun. dance of provisions and stores, and gratified the army by pillage. And that the reduction of Koningsberg was accordingly, in fact, his object, appears from a letter addressed to the empress Josephine, by Berthier prince of Neuf-Chatel, the most confidential minister of Buonaparte, on the evening before the battle, dated at Great Glandau, 7th February. "At the approach of his imperial majesty, the Russian army fell back. On the evening of the 6th he had passed Landsberg with the intention of continuing his retreat during the night. The emperor, who commanded the advanced guard, order

ed an attack on the rear of the Russians, which had been lately re-inforced. It was unable to resist the vigour of an attack conducted by his majesty in person.---Tomorrow we shall be at Koningsberg." And an attempt on Koningsberg would, no doubt, have been made, if, after the battle of Eylau, Buonaparte had conceived that he possessed means for accomplishing his object. But this was, in truth, a drawn battle; and the severest check he had received since the commencement of his career, which was in Italy, in 1796.

It was not, however, without some degree of plausibility that both sides claimed the victory, or at least a discomfiture of the design of their opponents. It was the design of Buonaparte to take Koningsberg. He was forced to fall back on the Vistula. It was the design of the Russians to drive the French back beyond the Vistula, to re-take Elbing and Thorn, and to force them to raise the sieges of Colberg, Graudenz, and Dantzig. By a series of successive actions, they had been driven back by the French as far as Eylau, and on the dy after the battle, beyond the Pregel. The French had buried the Russian dead; collected and taken care of the greatest part of their wounded, taken a number of their cannon dismounted in the action; and, finally, remained seven or eight days on the field of battle.

CHAP

CHAP. II.

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Relative Positions in which the French and Russian Armies were placed after the Battle of Eylau.-Pacific Overtures by Buonaparte-Rejected.-Artifices of Buonaparte.-The Russians persevere in their System of acting on the offensive.-Battle of Ostrolenka.-Skirmishes.-Triumphant Proclamation, or Address of Buonaparte to his Army-Positions of the French Army in their Winter Quarters.-Bridges and Tétes.du-Pont on the Vistula. -Continued Skirmishes.-The most important of these.-Artillery taken from the Enemy by the French since their Arrival on the Vistula.-Progress of the Allies of the French, under Jerome Buonaparte, in the reduction of Silesia.-Siege of Dantzig.-Disposition of the grand French Army for protecting the besieging Army.-Dantzig defended by Nature and by Art.-Arrival of the Russian Emperor at Memel-Followed by that of the Archduke Constantine with a Reinforcement to the Russian Army.-Grand Council of War concerning the Relief of Dantzig.-Of two Plans, that which was adopted.-Prussian Force sent for the Relief of Dantzig, defeated.-Attacks of the Russians on the whole Line of the French-Intended to prevent them from reinforcing the Army besieging Dantzig.-Dantzig surrendered on Capitulation -Conditions of this.-State of the Garrison at this time.-The Fort of Weischelnunde also surrendered.-Stralsund-The Siege of it, abandoned by the French, who retire towards the Vistula.-Pursued by the Swedes.-These, advancing beyond the Peene, are discomfited by the French under the Command of Marshal Mortier, and reduced to the necessity of demanding an Armistice; which is granted.-Conditions of this Armistice-The King of Sweden arrives at Stralsund-Reviews and encourages his Army. -Himself encouraged by the Arrival ofan Envoy from Great Britain with Assurances of Succour in Troops and in Money.

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