7 February 1807
The fight for the town
Soult’s IV Corps and Murat’s cavalry reach the plateau before Eylau at about 2 p.m. on 7 February. Bagration’s rearguard holds a position about a mile in front of the town and throws back the first French attack, gaining time for Bennigsen’s heavy artillery to pass through Eylau. As Augereau’s corps and the Imperial Guard come up, giving Napoleon about 45,000 men, Bagration falls back in order to the main army.
The fight for the churchyard at Eylau, painting by Jean-Antoine-Siméon Fort, 19th centuryWikimedia Commons, Jean-Antoine-Siméon Fort, Public domain (Battle of Eylau 1807 - attack of the cemetery, by Jean-Antoine-Siméon.jpg)
A second rearguard under Barclay de Tolly holds the town itself. The French attack it in the evening, by Napoleon’s later account on his orders, though other evidence suggests a skirmish that got out of hand. The fight in the streets and around the churchyard goes on long after dark and costs each side about 4,000 men. Barclay is shot in the arm, and at 10 p.m. Bennigsen gives up the town and draws his line back a short distance. Most of both armies spend the freezing night in the open without food.
Sources
- F. Loraine Petre, Napoleon’s Campaign in Poland 1806–1807 (1901).
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
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