Battle of Eylau, an engagement of the War of the Third Coalition, fought February 7–8, 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. The first major deadlock suffered by Napoleon, the battle was fought around the East Prussian town of Eylau (modern Bagrationovsk, Russia), 23 miles (37 km) south of Königsberg (Kaliningrad). The unrelenting winter conditions added to the horror of the fighting, as the wounded froze to death in the battle’s aftermath.
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In mid-October of the previous year, Napoleon’s Grande Armée had defeated a large Prussian army at the Battle of Jena, forcing the Prussian king, Frederick William III, to withdraw to Königsberg. Commanded by Count Mikhail Kamensky, a large Russian force moved toward Napoleon’s invading army, but then retreated to a position some 40 miles north of Warsaw. Napoleon entered the city unopposed, then crossed the Vistula River and spent the early winter engaging Russian forces in several small battles that the French won handily.
Intending to trap the Russian army, Napoleon pushed toward Königsberg, but Cossack cavalrymen captured a French courier who was transporting Napoleon’s battle plans to corps commander Marshal Jean Bernadotte. At Eylau, where they made their stand, the 76,000 Russians and Prussians under Leonty Leontyevich Bennigsen (Hanoverian General Levin August von Bennigsen, who succeeded the ineffectual Kamensky) confronted Napoleon shortly after the Russians launched an unexpected counteroffensive. An initial unplanned battle on February 7 cost each side about 4,000 casualties without accomplishing anything, although in the fighting Russian dragoons captured a French imperial eagle standard, a grievous loss of face for the French. Nonetheless, the French took the town of Eylau, while Bennigsen’s troops withdrew to high ground to the east.
On the morning of the 8th, Napoleon had only 41,000 men to the Russians’ much larger force, and he fought a delaying action until his reinforcements arrived. Following an artillery duel, Napoleon tried to stem the Russian advances by cavalry attacks. The first of these was beaten back in a blinding snowstorm, with heavy losses. Meanwhile, three Russian columns headed for the weak French lines, threatening to overwhelm them.
Napoleon ordered a 10,700-man cavalry reserve under Marshal Joachim Murat to charge the advancing columns and the Russian center. In one of the greatest cavalry charges in history, they halted the Russian attack, slashed through the Russian center in two columns, re-formed in a single column in the Russian rear, and plunged through the re-forming lines again. This attack enabled Napoleon to hold his center and overcome the crisis. During the next six hours both sides received reinforcements.
The fighting continued after dark, with the arrival of Marshal Michel Ney’s corps on the French left finally giving the French rough numerical parity with the allies, though Ney failed to encircle the Russians as planned. The stalemate continued until exhaustion ended the fighting at 10:00 pm. During the night, Bennigsen withdrew from the battlefield; the French were in no state to pursue their opponents, and Napoleon was moved to remark, “The Russians have done us great harm.” Both sides claimed victory, then withdrew to winter quarters, not taking up the fighting again until spring.
Losses: Allied Russian-Prussian, 15,000 casualties of 76,000; French, at least 15,000 casualties of 75,000.