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Near the village of Serpallen,
overlooking the whole scene, Bennigsen selected the highest
point in the neighborhood to anchor his left. Behind his right,
beyond the villages of Schloditten (Zagorodnoje) and Schmoditten
(Riabinowka), forests of fir trees stretched to the horizon.
Extensive birch woods spread through the valley behind
Bennigsen's center. A thicket of brambles covered the hills
between Sausgarten (Oziornoje), Kutschitten (Znamienskoje) and
Anklappen. A young Russian officer took out his diary and rolled
the pencil between the frozen fingers of his right hand:
We have just arrived. This is the first moment I have had since
leaving Jonkendorf in which to bring my diary up to date. I am
so numbed, mentally and physically, by hunger, cold, and
exertion, that I hardly have the strength or the desire left to
write this down. No army could suffer more than ours has done in
these few days. ... For every mile between Jonkowo and this
place the army has lost 1000 men who have not come within sight
of the enemy. ... Bennigsen drives ahead in his carriage
as usual, and the divisional generals follow their commander's
example. General staff officers and column guides are seldom in
their appointed places, consequently it often happens that all
detachments of the army are marched off at the same moment and
all try to take the same road. This results in the last
divisions having to stand half a day or night in the sun with
empty stomachs and wet feet. We left many dead and many sick men
behind us on the road in this way.
... During a night-march through a wood or a defile the troops
would be obliged to go in single file past some trifling object
which blocked the way, because no one gave the order to remove
the obstacle. ... We had hardly taken 20 to 30 paces before the
order came: 'Halt!' ... This would go on for hours. ... The poor
soldiers glide about like ghosts. You see them asleep on the
march with their heads resting on their neighbors. I myself
arrived half asleep and half awake, and the whole retreat seems
more a dream than reality. |
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In our regiment (the Azov), which has not seen the enemy and
was complete when it marched across the frontier, the
companies are
reduced to 26 or 30 men apiece. The grenadier battalion
scarcely musters 300 men, and the other two are even weaker.
Not all the
regiments have lost so many, it is true, as they had fewer
recruits.
... The French advanced guard dogs our army mercilessly day
and night, and is at this moment driving the main body out
of Eylau before our eyes. We have barely saved our heavy
artillery. We marched off at Landsberg towards evening, and
have been the whole night and all today on the road.
Map Samples
(Click on each for larger view)
Daily maps (January 7, 1807)
Battle maps (Siege of Danzig)
Click here for the
table of contents:
Nr 2
Nr 3
Nr 4
Click here for Sample Appendix / OB
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