Napoleon, having vanquished the Prussians, once more turned his arms
against the Russians, who, under the command of Kamenski and Bennigsen,
numbered about one hundred and fifteen thousand men. They were posted
upon the Vistula; but as Napoleon easily passed that great river, they
retired behind the Narew. The passage of this stream was one of the
remarkable achievements of the French, during this portion of the
Emperor’s splendid career.
Having arrived in the night, between the 18th and 19th of December,
1806, Napoleon reconnoitred the position of Marshal Davoust on the
Narew, but a thick fog prevented him from attaining much accurate
intelligence. He made his dispositions for attacking the enemy on the
22d or 23d of December. It is high time, he wrote to Marshal Davoust, to
take our winter quarters; but this cannot be done till we have driven
back the Russians.
The four divisions of General Bennigsen first presented themselves.
Count Tolstoy’s division, posted at Czarnowo, occupied the apex of the
angle formed by the junction of the Ukra and the Narew. That of General
Sacken, also placed in rear towards Lopaczym, guarded the banks of the
Ukra. The division of Prince Gallitzin was in reserve at Pultusk. The
four divisions of General Buxhovden were at a great distance from those
of General Bennigsen, and not calculated to render support to him.
It is easy to perceive that the distribution of the Russian corps was
not judiciously combined in the angle of the Ukra and the Narew, and
that they had not sufficiently concentrated their forces. If, instead of
having a single division at the point of the angle, and one on each side
at too great a distance from the first, lastly, five out of reach, they
had distributed themselves with intelligence over ground so favourable
for the defensive; if they had strongly occupied, first the conflux,
then the two rivers, the Narew from Czarnowo to Pultusk, the Ukra from
Pomichowo to Kolozomb; if they had placed in reserve in a central
position, at Nasielsk, for example, a principal mass, ready to run to
any threatened point, they might have disputed the ground with
advantage. But Generals Bennigsen and Buxhovden were on bad terms; they
disliked to be near each other; and old Kamenski, who had arrived only
on the preceding day, had neither the necessary intelligence nor spirit
for prescribing other dispositions than they had adopted in following
each of them his whim.
Napoleon, who saw the position of the Russians from without only,
certainly concluded that they were intrenched behind the Narew and the
Ukra, for the purpose of guarding the banks, but without knowing how
they were established and distributed there. He thought that it would be
advisable to take, in the first place, the conflux, where it was
probable, they would defend themselves with energy, and having carried
that point, to proceed to the execution of his plan, which consisted in
throwing the Russians, by a wheel from right to left, into the marshy
and woody country in the interior of Poland. In consequence, having
repeated the order to Marshals Ney, Bernadotte and Bessieres, forming
his left, to proceed rapidly from Thorn to Biezun on the upper course of
the Ukra; to Marshals Soult and Augereau, forming in his centre, to set
out from Plock and Modlin, and form a junction at Plonsk on the Ukra; he
put himself at the head of his right, composed of Davoust’s corps,
Lannes’s corps, of the guard, and the reserves, resolved to force
immediately the position of the Russians at the conflux of the Ukra and
the Narew. He left in the works of Praga the Poles of the new levy, with
a division of dragoons, a force sufficient to ward off all accidents, as
the army was not to remove far from Warsaw.
Having arrived on the morning of the 23d of December at Okunin on the
Narew, in wet weather, by muddy and almost impassable roads, Napoleon
alighted, to superintend in person the dispositions of attack. This
general, who, according to some critics, while directing armies of three
hundred thousand men, knew not how to lead a brigade into fire, went
himself to reconnoitre the enemy’s positions, and to place his forces on
the ground, down to the very companies of the voltigeurs.
The Narew had been already crossed at Okunin, below the conflux of the
Ukra and the Narew. To penetrate into the angle formed by those two
rivers, it was necessary to pass either the Narew or the Ukra above
their point of junction. The Ukra, being the narrower of the two, was
deemed preferable for attempting a passage. Advantage had been taken of
an island which divided it into two arms, near its mouth, in order to
diminish the difficulty. On this island the French had established
themselves, and they had yet to pass the second arm to reach the point
of land occupied by the Russians between the Ukra and the Narew. This
point of land, covered with woods, coppices, marshes, &c., looked like
one very dense thicket. Further off, the ground became somewhat clearer,
then rose and formed a steep declivity, which extended from the Narew to
the Ukra. To the right of this natural intrenchment appeared the village
of Czarnowo on the Narew, to the left of the village of Pomichowo on the
Ukra. The Russians had advanced guards of tirailleurs in the thicket,
several battalions and a numerous artillery on the elevated part of the
ground, two battalions in reserve, and all their cavalry in the rear.
Napoleon repaired to the island, mounted the roof of a barn by means of
a ladder, studied the position of the Russians with a telescope, and
immediately made the following dispositions. He scattered a great
quantity of tirailleurs all along the Ukra, and to a considerable
distance above the point of passage. He ordered them to keep up a brisk
firing, and to kindle large fires with damp straw, so as to cover the
bed of the river with a cloud of smoke, and to cause the Russians to
apprehend an attack above the conflux, towards Pomichowo. He even
directed to that quarter Gauthier’s brigade, belonging to Davoust’s
corps, in order the more effectually to draw the enemy’s attention
thither. During the execution of these orders, he collected at dusk all
the companies of voltigeurs of Morand’s division, on the intended point
of passage, and ordered them to fire from one bank to the other, through
the clumps of wood, to drive off the enemy’s posts, while the seamen of
the guard were equipping the craft collected on the Narew. The 17th of
the line and the 13th light infantry were in column, ready to embark by
detachments, and the rest of Morand’s division was assembled in the
rear, in order to pass as soon as the bridge was established. The other
divisions of Davoust’s corps were at the bridge of Okunin, awaiting the
moment for acting. Lannes was advancing from Warsaw to Okunin.
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[Illustration: THE CAMP-FIRE ON THE NAREW. Page 214.]
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The seamen of the guard soon brought some boats, by means of which
several detachments of voltigeurs were conveyed from one bank to the
other. These penetrated into the thicket, while the officers of the
pontoniers and the seamen of the guard were occupied in forming a bridge
of boats with the utmost expedition. At seven in the evening, the bridge
being passable, Morand’s division crossed in close column, and marched
forward, preceded by the 17th of the line and the 13th light infantry,
and by a swarm of tirailleurs. They advanced under cover of the darkness
and the wood. The sappers of the regiment cleared a passage through the
thicket for the infantry. No sooner had they overcome these first
obstacles, than they found themselves unsheltered, opposite to the
elevated plateau which runs from the Narew to the Ukra, and which was
defended either by abattis or by a numerous artillery. The Russians,
amidst the darkness of the night, opened upon the French columns a
continuous fire of grape and musketry, which did some mischief. While
the voltigeurs of Morand’s division and the 13th light infantry
approached as tirailleurs, Colonel Lanusse, at the head of the 17th of
the line, formed in column of attack on the right, to storm the Russian
batteries. He had already carried one of them, when the Russians
advancing in mass upon his left flank, obliged him to fall back. The
rest of Morand’s division came up to the support of the two first
regiments. The 13th light, infantry having exhausted its cartridges, was
replaced by the 30th, and again they marched by the right to attack the
village of Czarnowo, while on the left, General Petit proceeded with
four hundred picked men to the attack of the Russian intrenchments
facing the Ukra, opposite to Pomichowo. In spite of the darkness, they
manœuvred with the utmost order. Two battalions of the 30th and one
of the 17th attacked Czarnowo, one by going along the bank of the Narew,
the two others by directly climbing the plateau on which the village is
seated. These three battalions carried Czarnowo, and, followed by the
51st and the 61st regiments, debouched on the plateau, driving back the
Russians into the plain beyond it. At the same moment General Petit had
assaulted the extremity of the enemy’s intrenchments towards the Ukra,
and, seconded by the fire of artillery, kept up by Gauthier’s brigade
from the other side of the river, had carried them. At midnight, the
assailants were masters of the position of the Russians from the Narew
to the Ukra, but, from the tardiness of their retreat, which could be
discerned in the dark, it was to be inferred that they would return to
the charge, and, for this reason, Marshal Davoust sent the second
brigade of General Gudin’s division to the assistance of General Petit
who was most exposed. During the night, the Russians, as it had been
foreseen, returned three times to the charge, with the intention of
retaking the position which they had lost, and hurling down the French
from the plateau towards that point of woody and marshy ground on which
they had landed. Thrice were they suffered to approach within thirty
paces, and each time the French replying to their attack by a
point-blank fire, brought them to a dead stand, and then, meeting them
with the bayonet, repulsed them. At length, the night being far
advanced, they betook themselves in full retreat, towards Nasielsk.
Never was night action fought with greater order, precision, and
hardihood. The Russians left, killed, wounded and prisoners, about
eighteen hundred men, and a great quantity of artillery. The French had
six hundred wounded, and about one hundred killed.
Napoleon, at his evening camp-fire on the Narew, congratulated General
Morand and Marshal Davoust upon their gallant conduct, and hastened to
reap the benefits of the victory. Then followed a series of actions in
terrible weather, and in a country now hardened with frost, and then
slushed with rain. In all these, the lieutenants of the Emperor, and
especially the indomitable Lannes, gained unfading glory.
[Illustration]
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[Illustration]