Battle of Inkovo | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the French invasion of Russia | |||||||
Cossacks were an irregular Russian cavalry best suited for the attack of the enemy’s supply lines without joining a regular battle. | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
French Empire Prussia Württemberg Duchy of Warsaw | Russian Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
General Sebastiani Eberhard Graf von Waldburg Wurzach (POW) | Matvei Platov | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
2nd Light Cavalry Division [1] | Cossack corps [1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
600–1,200 killed or wounded, 300–500 captured [1] [2] [3] | 300 killed or wounded [1] |
The Battle of Inkovo took place on 8 August 1812, between the Cossack corps of General Platov and the 2nd Light Cavalry Division of General Sebastiani and ended as a minor Russian victory. [3]
As Barclay de Tolly's and Pyotr Bagration's army were separated, Napoleon tried in vain to defeat them before they could unite. But Barclay de Tolly under political pressure had to attack Napoleon and the Russian offensive began west on the north bank of the Dnieper on 7 August, but relying on a false report Barclay de Tolly abandoned the move west. [2] [3]
The altered orders had not reached General Platov on his advance and he clashed with General Sebastiani's 2nd Light Cavalry Division near Inkovo. The French were first forced to retreat. Being reinforced the French force then repulsed the pursuing Russians. The fighting ended three miles east of Rudnya in the west of Inkovo. [2] [3]
The battle of Inkovo was a Russian victory. The French casualties were 600 men, including 11 officers and 300 other ranks captured. The Russian offensive had been abandoned, allowing Napoleon to continue his attack on Smolensk. [2]
Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration was a Russian general and prince of Georgian origin, prominent during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
The Battle of Borodino took place near the village of Borodino on 7 September [O.S. 26 August] 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The Grande Armée won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army, but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon fought against General Mikhail Kutuzov, whom the Emperor Alexander I of Russia had appointed to replace Barclay de Tolly on 29 August [O.S. 17 August] 1812 after the Battle of Smolensk. After the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon remained on the battlefield with his army; the Imperial Russian forces retreated in an orderly fashion southwards. Because the Imperial Russian army had weakened the Grande Armée, they allowed the French occupation of Moscow, using scorched earth tactics on their own population to trap Napoleon and his men with their own largest city. The failure of the Grande Armée to completely destroy the Imperial Russian army, and in particular Napoleon's reluctance to deploy his Imperial Guard due to Napoleon's wishes to negotiate with Alexander to make him join against the British, has been widely criticised by historians as a large blunder, as it allowed the Imperial Russian army to continue its retreat into territory increasingly hostile to the French.
Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly was a Russian field marshal who figured prominently in the Napoleonic Wars.
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.
The Battle of Smolensk was the first major battle of the French invasion of Russia. It took place on 16–18 August 1812 and involved about 45,000 men of the Grande Armée under Emperor Napoleon I against about 30,000 Russian troops under General Barclay de Tolly. Napoleon occupied Smolensk by driving out Prince Pyotr Bagration's Second Army. The French artillery bombardment burned the city to the ground. Of 2,250 buildings, 84% were destroyed with only 350 surviving intact. Of the city's 15,000 inhabitants, about 1,000 were left at the end of the battle inside the smoking ruins. With over 15,000 casualties, it was one of the bloodiest battles of the invasion.
The Battle of Valutino took place on 19 August 1812, between a corps of French and allied troops led by Marshal Ney, about 35,000 strong, and a strong rear-guard of General Barclay de Tolly's Russian army of about 25,000, commanded by the general himself. The Russians were strongly posted in marshy ground, protected by a small stream, about 20 kilometers east of Smolensk. The French, attacking resolutely, captured the Russian position in the face of considerable physical obstacles.
The Battle of Maloyaroslavets took place on 24 October 1812 as part of the French invasion of Russia. It was Kutuzov's decisive battle to force Napoleon to retreat northwest over Mozhaisk to Smolensk on the devastated route of his advance with a higher probability of starvation. Kutuzov's next attack against the remnants of the Grande Armée, the Battle of Krasnoi, began on 15 November 1812, three weeks later.
The Battle of Krasnoi unfolded from 15 to 18 November 1812 marking a critical episode in Napoleon's arduous retreat from Moscow. Over the course of six skirmishes the Russian forces under field marshal Kutuzov inflicted significant blows upon the remnants of the Grande Armée, already severely weakened by attrition warfare. These confrontations, though not escalated into full-scale battles, led to substantial losses for the French due to their depleted weapons and horses.
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.
The Battle of Vyazma, occurred at the beginning of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. In this encounter a Russian force commanded by General Miloradovich inflicted heavy losses on the rear guard of the Grande Armée. Although the French thwarted Miloradovich's goal of encircling and destroying the corps of Marshal Davout, they withdrew in a partial state of disorder due to ongoing Russian harassment and heavy artillery bombardments. The French reversal at Vyazma, although indecisive, was significant due to its damaging impact on several corps of Napoleon's retreating army.
The Battle of Saltanovka, also known as the Battle of Mogilev, took place on 23 July 1812 during the early stages of the 1812 French invasion of Russia.
The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812, was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the continental blockade of the United Kingdom. Widely studied, Napoleon's incursion into Russia stands as a focal point in military history, recognized as among the most devastating military endeavors globally. In a span of fewer than six months, the campaign exacted a staggering toll, claiming the lives of nearly a million soldiers and civilians.
This is the order of battle of the French invasion of Russia.
Nikolay Alexeyevich Tuchkov was a Russian general of the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790), the suppression of the Kościuszko Uprising and the opposition to the French invasion of Russia. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commander of an infantry corps.
The Battle of Mir took place on 9 and 10 July 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Three Polish Lancers divisions battled against Russian cavalry, ending in the first major Russian victory in the war.
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.
The III Cavalry Corps of the Grande Armée was a French military unit that existed during the Napoleonic Wars. The corps was created in 1812 and reconstituted in 1813 and 1815. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte first mobilized the corps for the invasion of Russia. Commanded by General Emmanuel de Grouchy, two divisions of the corps fought at Borodino, Tarutino, and Vyazma. A third division fought at the First and Second battles of Polotsk and the Berezina. During the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1813, General Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova led the corps at Großbeeren, Dennewitz, Leipzig, and Hanau.
The IV Cavalry Corps of the Grande Armée was a French military unit that existed during the Napoleonic Wars. The corps was created in 1812 and rebuilt in 1813 and 1815. Emperor Napoleon I first organized the corps for the invasion of Russia. Under General Victor de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg, the corps fought at Borodino. During the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1813, General François Étienne de Kellermann commanded the all-Polish corps at Leipzig.
The Battle of Kobrin, or the Battle of Kobryn, took place on 27 July 1812 between the Russian and Saxon forces in the city of Kobrin (Kobryn) at the initial stage of the French invasion of Russia. The battle was a clear victory of the Russian forces.
The Council at Fili was a military council, which was convened on 13 September 1812 after the Battle of Borodino during the French invasion of Russia by Commander-in-Chief Mikhail Kutuzov in the village of Fili, west of Moscow. The question was asked whether, after the orderly retreat from the Battle of Borodino that Napoleon had won despite great losses of the Grand Armee, to give another battle near Moscow or to abandon the city without a fight.