Battle of Eylau

Napoléon on the field of Eylau by Antoine-Jean Gros

Date	7–8 February 1807
Location	Preußisch Eylau, East Prussia
Result	Tactical French victory; Strategically inconclusive

Belligerents

French Empire

Russian Empire

Prussia

Commanders and leaders

Napoleon I

Levin August von Bennigsen

Strength

75,000:
Napoleon: 45,000
Ney: 14,500
Davout: 15,000
300 cannons

76,000:
Benningsen: 67,000 Russians
L'Estocq: 9,000 Prussians
400 cannons

Casualties and losses

10,000–30,000

15,000–20,000

The Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, 7 and 8 February 1807, was a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoléon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Levin August, Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preußisch Eylau in East Prussia. Late in the battle, the Russians received a timely reinforcement from a Prussian division of . The town is now called Bagrationovsk and is a part of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The engagement was fought during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Of all Napoleonic battles, this is considered to be the most uncertain and mysterious for several reasons — mainly the strength of Murat's reserve cavalry.

Napoleon's armies previously smashed the army of the Austrian Empire in the Ulm Campaign and the combined Austrian and Russian armies at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Austerlitz forced the Austrians to sue for peace and their Russian allies to withdraw from the conflict. On 14 October 1806, Napoleon crushed the armies of the Kingdom of Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. After a rapid pursuit, the broken pieces of the Prussian army were destroyed at the Battles of Prenzlau and Lübeck and in a series of capitulations at Erfurt, Pasewalk, Stettin, Magdeburg, and Hamelin. Eylau was the first serious check to the Grande Armée and the myth of Napoleon's invincibility was badly shaken. However, the French would end up defeating the Russians later in the year at the Battle of Friedland.

...
Wikipedia