(just two hundred big guns against the Russians), he wanted to wait until
all his fo rces came up before giving battle. But the initial skirmish soon
escalated into all-out, sanguinary conflict. Starting at^2 p.m. on 7
February, the battle raged on until 10 p.m., with artillery flashes lighting
up the night sky. Each side sustained about 4,000 casualties but there was
little chance of survival fo r the wounded on a night when temperatures
plummeted to thirty degrees below zero. After spending a frightful night
in the open, troops on both sides greeted the dawn, to find almost
continual snowstorms driving into their faces. Squinting and blinking
into the white hell, 75,000 Frenchmen prepared to do battle with roughly
the same number of Russians: Bennigsen still had a marked superiority in
artillery. Ever dreaming of a second Cannae, Napoleon ordered Soult to
attempt the 'pinning' operation while Davout and Ney tried to work
round the flanks; Augereau and Murat would be held fo r the decisive
attack, with the Guard in reserve.
The Russians opened fire at 8 a.m. and soon a fu ll-scale artillery duel
was raging. At 8.30 Napoleon ordered Soult to attack the Russian right,
to divert attention from the left where the decisive stroke would be
delivered. But the Russians got their assault in first. Marching across the
frozen lakes and marshes from about 9 a.m. on, they drove Soult rapidly
back to Eylau, where a desperate struggle commenced. Even more
menacingly, the Russians then started making inroads on the French left.
Napoleon had neither anticipated this assault nor the speed with which
Soult was driven back. He had no option but to order fo rward the reserve
under Augereau with General St-Hilaire to contain the Russian left. This
was risky and premature, for Davout was not yet on the scene, but
Napoleon hoped he could stabilize the battle situation until he had his
trump cards ready.
Proceeding in a heavy blizzard, Augereau's corps advanced deployed
instead of in column. In the blinding snowstorm they quickly lost sight of
their targets and blundered straight into the path of the Russian 7o-gun
battery, where they were cut to pieces at point-blank range. St-Hilaire's
division did manage to reach its target but without their intended
comrades in Augereau's corps could not effect a breakthrough. By 10.30
a.m. the battle appeared lost, with Soult driven back, Augereau's corps
annihilated and St-Hilaire's division halted. An ominous gap appeared in
the centre of the French line, and Bennigsen clearly held all the cards.
Even while the remains of Augereau's corps were being slaughtered,
some 6,ooo Russians penetrated the town of Eylau. Napoleon, who had
been using the belltower as his vantage point, would certainly have been
marcin
(Marcin)
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