Battle of Allenstein

Last updated
You may also be looking for the 1521 Siege of Allenstein.

Battle of Allenstein
Part of the War of the Fourth Coalition
Combat d'infanterie entre les troupes francaises et les troupes russes sur le pont de Bergfried, 3 fevrier 1807 a trois heures de l'apres midi.jpg
Infantry combat between French troops and Russian troops on the Bergfriede bridge, 3 February 1807 at 3 in the afternoon
by Constant Bourgeois, 1807
Date3 February 1807
Location 53°46′40″N20°28′45″E / 53.77778°N 20.47917°E / 53.77778; 20.47917
Result French victory
Belligerents
Flag of France (1794-1815, 1830-1958).svg French Empire Flag of Russia.svg Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Flag of France (1794-1815, 1830-1958).svg Joachim Murat
Flag of France (1794-1815, 1830-1958).svg Jean-de-Dieu Soult
Flag of Russia.svg Levin August
Flag of Russia.svg Nikolay Kamensky
Strength
IV Corps
Milhaud's dragoon div. [1]
Kamensky's division [1]
Casualties and losses
unknown 800 dead and wounded
300 captured
6 cannons captured
[2]
Battle of Allenstein
 current battle
 Napoleon not in command
 Napoleon in command

The Battle of Allenstein (or Olsztyn), also known as the Battle of Jonkowo (or Jankowo, Inkowo, Jonkendorf) [3] and the battle of Bergfriede , [4] was a military engagement during the early stages of the 1807 Fourth Coalition Napoleonic campaign. While the battle resulted in a French field victory and allowed for a successful pursuit of the Russian army, it failed to produce the decisive engagement that Napoleon was seeking. [1] [2]

Contents

Context

The Eylau campaign map. Battle of Prussia-Eylau.JPG
The Eylau campaign map.
The Eylau campaign. Positions on 3 February 1807. Jena to Eylau - the disgrace and the redemption of the Old-Prussian army, a study in military history (1913) (14597886000).jpg
The Eylau campaign. Positions on 3 February 1807.

After crushing the Prussian forces in 1806, Napoleon and his Grande Armée advanced east into the eastern provinces of Prussia, with the aim of bringing the Russian there army to give decisive battle. However, the arrival of winter led the Emperor to order his army to winter quarters, thinking that the Russians will do the same. In order to exploit this misapprehension, the Russian commander Levin August von Bennigsen decided to take the initiative and, towards the end of January set his troops in motion to attack the weak French left, crush it and fall behind the French army. [5]

Quite fortuitously, the French of Michel Ney's Corps, who had disobeyed orders and overextended his foraging array, encountered the Russian advance guard. Thus Napoleon was able to read into Bennigsen's intentions and set up what was supposed to be the decisive manoeuvre of the campaign. Ordering his left wing to fall back in order to pull in the Russian army westwards, the Emperor directed the bulk of his forces northwards, towards Allenstein, in a bid to outflank the unsuspecting enemy and fall behind it with superior forces. [5]

As chance would have it, the Russians intercepted a crucial dispatch, in which the Chief of Staff, Louis Alexandre Berthier, was explaining the entire plan to the commander of the left wing corps, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. This allowed Bennigsen to realize the mortal danger in which his army lay and begin a precipitated retreat northeast. [5]

Battle

Battle of Allenstein or Jonkowo Battle of Allenstein (Jonkowo).png
Battle of Allenstein or Jonkowo

Meanwhile, oblivious of the Russian retreat, the French pursued their intended manoeuvre, pushing their advance guard, elements of the Reserve Cavalry Corps of Joachim Murat, supported by Jean-de-Dieu Soult's Corps, towards the Alle river. [1]

On February 3, these troops arrived at Allenstein and the Inkowo plateau, where they discovered a portion of the retreating Russian army. Seeing an opportunity for a major battle, Napoleon ordered four more army corps to march to the battlefield. He detailed Murat to delay his attack in order to wait for reinforcements and, as soon as these reached the battlefield, attack the Russians frontally using Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire's division, while Soult would march to flank the enemy. [1]

On the Russian side, General Nikolay Kamensky was forced to accept battle rather than retreat, in order to protect the strategic Liebstadt road and the bridges over the Alle in Bergfriede, which were key for the successful retreat of the rest of the army. He was helped in his task by the fact the French only attacked towards 15:00 hours, a delay caused by Napoleon's orders to Murat. When the French eventually attacked, the Russians were prepared and used their fifteen cannon and musketry to inflict heavy losses to the advancing enemy. Nevertheless, the Russian tactical disposition, defending a defilé rather than occupying high ground, soon forced them to give ground under the pressure. [2]

Towards the end of the afternoon, Soult, with the 24th Light and 4th Line regiments began his flanking attack and, after some ferocious combat, pushed the Russians beyond the Alle, capturing an intact Bergfriede bridge. With night falling and his position completely compromised, Bennigsen decided to hasten his retreat and ordered Kamensky to extricate his force and withdraw to Deppen. Both sides suffered relatively high losses, with the Russians forced to abandon six cannon and three hundred prisoners on the field of battle. [1]

Result

Despite this tactical success, Napoleon failed to bring the Russians to give decisive battle, requiring a further exhausting wintertime pursuit. Nevertheless, the French did capture the intact strategic bridges over the Alle, which the Russians omitted to blow up. [6]

French pursuit resumed the next day, resulting in the capture of sixteen cannon, while the day after Soult captured no less than 1200 prisoners. A series of skirmishes led to the Battle of Hoff on February 6, followed by the Battle of Eylau, one of the bloodiest engagements of the entire Napoleonic Wars. [2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pigeard 2004, pp. 34–35.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hourtoulle 2007, pp. 46–47.
  3. Battle of Jonkowo, 3 February 1807 historyofwar.org
  4. Бергфриде // Sytin Military Encyclopedia. Vol. 4: "Б — Бомба", pp. 476—477
  5. 1 2 3 Hourtoulle 2007, p. 45.
  6. Tulard 1999, p. 68.
  7. Plac Trzech Krzyży w Olsztynie, polskaniezwykla.pl
  8. Adam Gąsior Obiad na plebanii w Jonkowie, napoleon.org.pl

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Lützen (1813)</span> 1813 battle during the War of the Sixth Coalition

In the Battle of Lützen, Napoleon I of France defeated an allied army of the Sixth Coalition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Eylau</span> 1807 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The Battle of Eylau, or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, was a bloody and strategically inconclusive battle on 7 and 8 February 1807 between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Levin August von Bennigsen near the town of Preussisch Eylau in East Prussia. Late in the battle, the Russians received timely reinforcements from a Prussian division of von L'Estocq. After 1945, the town was renamed Bagrationovsk as part of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The engagement was fought during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Friedland</span> 1807 battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The Battle of Friedland was a major engagement of the Napoleonic Wars between the armies of the French Empire commanded by Napoleon I and the armies of the Russian Empire led by Count von Bennigsen. Napoleon and the French obtained a decisive victory that routed much of the Russian army, which retreated chaotically over the Alle River by the end of the fighting. The battlefield is located in modern-day Kaliningrad Oblast, near the town of Pravdinsk, Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Vauchamps</span> 1814 battle of the War of the Sixth Coalition

The Battle of Vauchamps was the final major engagement of the Six Days Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition. It resulted in a part of the Grande Armée under Napoleon I defeating a superior Prussian and Russian force of the Army of Silesia under Field-marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levin August von Bennigsen</span> German general serving Russia (1745–1826)

Levin August Gottlieb Theophil, Grafvon Bennigsen was a German general in the service of the Russian Empire. Bennigsen made a name for himself in Russian history as the man who fought Napoleon Bonaparte with distinction at the Battle of Preussisch Eylau; but, carrying ill-health, he was then defeated at Friedland. Bennigsen was also playing a pivotal role in decisively defeating Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Caldiero (1805)</span> 1805 Battle during the War of the Third Coalition

The Battle of Caldiero took place on 30 October 1805, pitting the French Armée d'Italie under Marshal André Masséna against an Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. The French engaged only some of their forces, around 33,000 men, but Archduke Charles engaged the bulk of his army, 49,000 men, leaving out Paul Davidovich's corps to defend the lower Adige and Franz Seraph of Orsini-Rosenberg's corps to cover the Austrian right against any flanking maneuvers. The fighting took place at Caldiero, 15 kilometres east of Verona, during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Pułtusk (1806)</span> 1806 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The Battle of Pułtusk took place on 26 December 1806 during the War of the Fourth Coalition near Pułtusk, Poland. Despite their strong numerical superiority and artillery, the Russians suffered the French attacks, before retiring the next day having suffered greater losses than the French, disorganizing their army for the rest of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ostrovno</span> 1812 battle during the French invasion of Russia

The Battle of Ostrovno was a military engagement that took place on 25 July 1812, between French forces under the command of King of Naples Joachim Murat and Russian forces under General Ostermann-Tolstoy and ended with the Russian forces retreating from the battlefield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Heilsberg</span> 1807 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The Battle of Heilsberg took place on 10 June 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Tarutino</span> 1812 battle during the French invasion of Russia

The Battle of Tarutino was a part of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. In the battle, Russian troops under the general command of Bennigsen, on instructions from Kutuzov, launched an attack and defeated French troops under the command of Joachim Murat. The battle is sometimes called the Battle of Vinkovo or the Battle of the Chernishnya after the local river. Many historians claim that the latter name is more fitting because the village of Tarutino was 8 km from the described events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Golymin</span> 1806 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The Battle of Golymin took place on 26 December 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars at Gołymin, Poland, between around 17,000 Russian soldiers with 28 guns under Prince Golitsyn and 38,000 French soldiers under Marshal Murat. The Russian forces disengaged successfully from the superior French forces. The battle took place on the same day as the Battle of Pułtusk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard</span> Military unit

The Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard was a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the senior Old Guard cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard and from 1806 were brigaded together with the Dragoons of the Imperial Guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Magdeburg (1806)</span> 1806 Siege during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The siege of Magdeburg took place from 25 October to 8 November 1806 during the war of the Fourth Coalition. A French force, initially under the command of Marshal Joachim Murat, then a French army Corps under the command of Marshal Michel Ney laid siege and eventually obtained the surrender of Franz Kasimir von Kleist's Prussian force that had taken refuge in Magdeburg, Prussia's second city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Mohrungen</span> 1807 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

In the Battle of Mohrungen on 25 January 1807, most of a First French Empire corps under the leadership of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought a strong Russian Empire advance guard led by Major General Yevgeni Ivanovich Markov. The French pushed back the main Russian force, but a cavalry raid on the French supply train caused Bernadotte to call off his attacks. After driving off the cavalry, Bernadotte withdrew and the town was occupied by the army of General Levin August, Count von Bennigsen. The fighting took place in and around Morąg in northern Poland, which in 1807 was the East Prussian town of Mohrungen. The action was part of the War of the Fourth Coalition in the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Vitebsk (1812)</span> 1812 battle during the French invasion of Russia

The battle of Vitebsk, sometimes spelled Witepsk, was a military engagement that took place on 26 and 27 July 1812 during the French invasion of Russia. The battle put a French force, under the command of Emperor Napoleon I, in combat with Russian rearguard forces under General Petr Konovnitsyn and Peter von der Pahlen and ended with the Russian forces making a strategic retreat from the battlefield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Czarnowo</span> 1806 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

The Battle of Czarnowo on the night of 23–24 December 1806 saw troops of the First French Empire under the eye of Emperor Napoleon I launch an evening assault crossing of the Wkra River against Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy's defending Russian Empire forces. The attackers, part of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout's III Corps, succeeded in crossing the Wkra at its mouth and pressed eastward to the village of Czarnowo. After an all-night struggle, the Russian commander withdrew his troops to the east, ending this War of the Fourth Coalition action. Czarnowo is located on the north bank of the Narew River 33 kilometres (21 mi) north-northwest of Warsaw, Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen</span> 1807 Battle during the War of the Fourth Coalition

In the Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen on 5 and 6 June 1807, troops of the Russian Empire led by General Levin August, Count von Bennigsen attacked the First French Empire corps of Marshal Michel Ney. The Russians pressed back their opponents in an action that saw Ney fight a brilliant rearguard action with his heavily outnumbered forces. During the 6th, Ney successfully disengaged his troops and pulled back to the west side of the Pasłęka (Passarge) River. The action occurred during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Dobre Miasto (Guttstadt) is on Route 51 about 20 kilometers (12 mi) southwest of Lidzbark Warmiński (Heilsberg) and 24 kilometers (15 mi) north of Olsztyn (Allenstein). The fighting occurred along Route 580 which runs southwest from Guttstadt to Kalisty (Deppen) on the Pasłęka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel-François Lhéritier</span>

Baron Samuel-François Lhéritier de Chézelles was a French soldier who rose through the ranks during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, eventually gaining promotion to the military rank of Général de Division.

<i>Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau</i> Painting by Antoine-Jean Gros

Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau is an oil painting of 1808 by French Romantic painter Antoine-Jean Gros. Completed during the winter of 1807–1808, the work became an icon of the emerging style of French Romanticism. It depicts a moment from the aftermath of the bloody Battle of Eylau in which Napoléon Bonaparte surveys the battlefield where his Grande Armée secured a costly victory against the Russians. Although Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau retains elements of history painting, it is by far Gros's most realistic work depicting Napoleon and breaks from the subtlety of Neoclassicism. The painting is housed at the Louvre in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tirailleurs du Po</span> Military unit

The Tirailleurs du Pô was a specialist light infantry corps of the French Imperial Army, forming part of the Italian Corps of the Foreign Troops Contingent. Though a short-lived unit, the Po Tirailleurs would, along with the Corsican Tirailleurs, serve with distinction in the early campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. Actions included the Battle of Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Heilsberg, and Wagram, where both units were notably engaged. Following a reorganisation of the independent foreign units in 1811, several battalions were merged to form the 11th Light Infantry Regiment, which the Po Tirailleurs continued into.

References