Battle of the Berezina

French strategic victory.

As the French army retreated from Russia, they were faced with the daunting prospect of crossing the Berezina River. Usually frozen by that time of the year, an unseasonable thaw kept the 100 yard wide river flowing strong, forcing the French to find a bridge. The Russians had the French surrounded and only needed to hold the French until they could bring all their forces to bear on the French retreat. Directly in the path of the French army and determined to keep the French from crossing the river was Admiral Tshitsagov with 34,000 soldiers. Further north, General Wittgenstein with 30,000 soldiers was moving to join with Tshitsagov to hold the French back, while Field Marshal Kutusov with the main Russian army pursued the French army from the rear, but was falling behind and needed time to catch up.

Polish General Dombrowski successfully seized a bridge for the French over the river at Borisov, but the Russians quickly moved in and their superior numbers forced him to withdraw. As the French II Corps arrived in force to retake the bridge, the Russians pulled back to the west bank and destroyed the bridge. Luckily for the French, General Corbineau discovered a ford across the river north of Borisov, and General Eblé had just a few days earlier disobeyed direct orders and not destroyed all of his bridging equipment. Upon learning of these events, Napoleon wasted no time in developing a new plan to build bridges at the ford.

Unfortunately, Russian Admiral Tshitsagov, who had retaken the bridge at Borisov from Dombrowski, was spread out on the opposite side of the river. The first step for the French was to distract the Russians so they could build the bridges and get across without too much difficulty. On the 25th, a large group of French soldiers and camp followers moved south of Borisov and attempted to create as much noise as possible to convince the Russians the main effort would be much further south. Watching the Russians take the bait and move their main force far to the south, the French were elated. Corbineau quickly crossed the river at the ford and drove away the token force that had been left to watch this stretch of the river. Eblé and his engineers then plunged into the freezing waters and began constructing the bridges with whatever they could find.

By one in the afternoon on the 26th, the first bridge was complete. Oudinot, Dombrowski, and Doumerc crossed the river and set up a covering force. Two hours later, the second bridge was done and the artillery began to cross on this bridge. At one point on the 26th one of the bridges broke, which caused a mass panic in which many people died, but Eblé was able to restore order and fix the bridge. By the 27th the Russians had begun to realize what was happening, and Tschitagov attacked in force on the west side of the river, but Oudinot successfully beat off his attacks. At the same time, Russian General Wittgenstein and his 30,000 men attacked on the east side of the river, and Victor's corps managed to hold back the Russian attack. Throughout each of these days, the main army and some of the camp followers continued to cross the bridge as quickly as possible.

The 28th dawned and did not go as well for the French. One of Victor's divisions, that of General Partouneaux, had been ordered to fall back from their position in prepartion for their crossing of the bridge that day. Unfortunately, the general took the wrong road at an unmarked intersection, and ended up marching his division towards the Russians. As Partouneaux began to realize he was on the wrong road, he halted his division and went ahead with his staff to scout out where they were. A Russian cavalry force suddenly appeared and took them all prisoner. Unaware of their general's plight, the division waited for his return, and then began to fight off the growing Russian attacks against it, but were soon overwhelmed by superior numbers.

Due to the loss of that division in Victor's corps, Victor began to have trouble holding back the continuous Russian onslaught, especially on his left flank. The situation worsened to the point that Napoleon ordered an entire brigade, the Baden brigade, back across the river to support Victor. Getting across the bridges back to the other side was easier said than done, as the brigade was going against the flow of everyone else on the bridges, but after some time they successfully crossed and supported Victor.

On the other side, Tshitsagov's major attack was steadily pushing Oudinot back, but he was able to rally his men and hold the line. Marshal Oudinot was severely wounded shortly thereafter, but Marshal Ney was nearby and immediately assumed command and continued to hold the line. Doumerc's cuirassiers then charged the Russians at an opportune moment and were so effective that the Russians fell back and did not attempt to attack on that side of the river again.

Back on the east bank, Victor continued to be pushed back, until Napoleon ordered a massive artillery battery on the west bank to take aim at the Russians on the east bank attacking Victor's left flank. This shattered the momentum of the Russian attack, and General Fournier charged with his cavalry, pushing the Russians further back. The Russians had had enough for one day, and did not attack again, instead preferring to renew the attack the next morning.

Throughout the night the rest of the French army crossed the river, with the last troops getting across at dawn on the 29th. Throughout the many days of the battle, Eblé and many others had urged the camp followers to cross when the soldiers were not crossing, but thousands did not take advantage of these lulls in traffic over the bridge. Reluctantly, Eblé ordered the bridges burned to keep the Russians on the east side of the river from pursuing them. Only now realizing the dire situation, the camp followers who had not crossed panicked and began to attempt to cross the burning bridge. Thousands died as they were burned, crushed by the others, fell into the river and drowned, or left to the Russians.

The army continued west and before long was back in friendly territory. The Battle of the Berezina was a huge strategic success for the French army, as many did not expect to make it out of Russia alive. Troubled by the fact that the main Russian army was moving up behind them, and they were unable to cross the river, Napoleon was not exactly optimistic in the days before the battle. He had ordered his papers burned and many of the standards destroyed to prevent them from falling into Russian hands. The fact that the French had successfully managed to fight off both Russian forces and get the army across intact before the arrival of Kutusov's army was amazing. Unfortunately, the battle had worst costs than many others, as so many of the camp followers died, and Eblé himself was dead within a few weeks from his exertions. Eblé wasn't alone in sacrificing himself for the army, only forty of Eblé's four hundred engineers survived. Nonetheless, the extraordinary performance of so many in the French army enabled it to continue to exist and have a framework from which to build a new army in the coming months.

Sources:

Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1966.

Chandler, David G. Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1979.

• Battle Explanation
• Marbot's Account of the Battle