Battle of Pułtusk, 1806: Lannes against Bennigsen in the snow

Pułtusk was one of two battles fought on the same day in December 1806, the other at Gołymin, and neither gave Napoleon what he wanted. John Rickard of HistoryOfWar.org calls it a draw and one of the first hints that the Russians might be a difficult opponent for Napoleon.²

The race to catch the Russians

In November Napoleon reached the Vistula and occupied Warsaw. The Russian army of the elderly Field Marshal Mikhail Kamensky fell back toward Ostrołęka, and on 23 December Davout's corps forced a crossing of the Wkra at Czarnowo. Kamensky ordered a general retreat, and Napoleon set his whole army in motion to trap the Russians before they could escape.³

The Russian command was divided. Kamensky was old and increasingly ill, and his two chief subordinates, Bennigsen and Buxhoeveden, were rivals who found it hard to work together. Ignoring the order to retreat, Bennigsen decided to make a stand at Pułtusk. Marshal Jean Lannes, with the V Corps, was ordered toward the town.⁴

Two armies of unequal size

The strengths are given differently. Rickard puts Lannes at around 20,000 men in the two divisions of Gazan and Suchet, and Bennigsen at around 40,000; World History Encyclopedia gives 25,000 French against 35,000 Russians. Either way, the French were badly outnumbered, and Lannes knew there was a strong Russian force at Pułtusk without knowing how strong.⁵

Bennigsen drew up his army along the road from Pułtusk to Gołymin, in three lines behind a low ridge that hid most of it from the south. Barclay de Tolly held the woods near the village of Mosin, now Moszyn, on the right, and General Baggovut held the left and the bridge over the Narew.⁶

Mud and snow

The weather had been freezing and thawing for days. On 26 December it was thawing, and the roads were deep in mud. Lannes's corps set out at 7 a.m. and made painfully slow progress. Riding ahead to look at the Russian line, he could see the troops on the flanks but not the main body behind the ridge, so he expected the main fighting on the wings.⁷

In Rickard's account, the attack began at about 11 a.m. On the French right, Claparède's light infantry and Treilhard's light cavalry drove back Baggovut's cavalry and jägers, but in a snowstorm the center under Wedell exposed its flank to a Russian counterattack, and the French horsemen who reached the top of the ridge were cut up by the guns of the main line. On the left, Suchet's 34th Line pushed back Barclay de Tolly and took a battery in the Mosin woods, then ran into his reserves and was driven back. By about 2 p.m. Lannes was in danger of being overwhelmed. World History Encyclopedia adds that his men took Pułtusk itself, only to be forced out again by a Russian counterattack.⁸

A division out of the snow

According to Rickard, the French were saved by a division of Davout's corps under General d'Aultanne, which had been sent to intercept a Russian column and marched toward the sound of the guns. It arrived between 2 and 3 p.m., about 7,000 men with a single gun, and attacked the Russian right near Mosin. Bennigsen swung half his line to face it, which eased the pressure on Lannes but opened a gap between the two French forces. Barclay de Tolly sent twenty squadrons into it; the 85th Line beat off charge after charge, the last at about 8 p.m., hours after dark and in falling snow.⁹

On the other wing Gazan briefly forced Baggovut back and took his guns, until Ostermann-Tolstoy brought up cavalry, guns and fresh infantry and the French had to give them up. As night fell the French returned to their starting positions.¹⁰

Who won?

The losses are uncertain. Official French reports played them down; Rickard writes that most sources put the French loss at about 7,000 men, and Bennigsen's at perhaps 2,000 killed and 3,000 wounded or missing.¹¹

Bennigsen claimed a victory because he had thrown back the French attack, and afterwards said he had faced 60,000 men under Napoleon himself, which may explain why he did so little with his advantage. Napoleon was not there. Lannes could say that the Russians retreated, and they did: on the night of 26 to 27 December Bennigsen crossed the Narew and reached Ostrołęka on 28 December, more from fear of being outflanked by the rest of Napoleon's army than because of Lannes. Nathan Jensen of FrenchEmpire.net sums it up: the French fell back to their positions and the Russians withdrew under cover of darkness.¹² › Napoleon Bonaparte

The same day, at Gołymin, Davout and Augereau fought a Russian force under Prince Golitsyn, which held out until dark and slipped away. On 28 December Napoleon ended the pursuit and sent his army into winter quarters. Kamensky resigned, and Bennigsen, the man who had stood at Pułtusk, was given command of the Russian army. Six weeks later he fought Napoleon to a bloody standstill at Eylau.¹³