26 – 27 November 1812
The bridges at Studienka
On 25 November Eblé’s pontonniers begin work at Studienka, where the river is 20 to 30 metres wide, full of drifting ice and bordered by swampy banks. On the morning of 26 November the French find that Yefim Chaplits’s Russian detachment has left its camp at Brili on the far bank. Forty cavalrymen cross the river and cover 400 men who follow in boats and secure the west bank.
Studienka, the place of the crossing, lithograph after Barthélemy Lauvergne, 1840Wikimedia Commons, Léon Sabatier / Barthélemy Lauvergne, Public domain (Studzionka, Biarezina. Студзёнка, Бярэзіна (Lauvergne, 1840).jpg)
The smaller bridge, for infantry, is finished by 1 pm, and Oudinot crosses with 7,000 men and takes up a position facing south towards Borisov. The larger bridge, for guns and wagons, is finished later in the afternoon but breaks twice. Napoleon and the Guard are across by midday on 27 November, and the corps of Davout and Eugène follow before night.
Victor’s IX Corps stays on the east bank to hold off Wittgenstein, who has reached Borisov. On 27 November Louis Partouneaux’s division of Victor’s corps is overwhelmed by Wittgenstein’s army at Staroi-Borisov and surrenders with more than 8,000 men.
Sources
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
- Adam Zamoyski, Moscow 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March (2004).
- Paul Britten Austin, 1812: The Great Retreat (1996).
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