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than with the Russian chief. Buonaparte endeavoured, however, after these repulses, to make it believed in Germany, that both the Prussians and Russians were desirous of peace, and that treaties were on the point of being concluded.. It was given out in his newspapers, that Duroc had gone to St. Peters. burgh, and that the king of Prussia was governed by the counsel of Lombard, Beyme, and Kockyriz, the men who, together with Haug. witz and Lucchesini, had heretofore managed as he wished the court of Berlin. He was desirous to spread a conviction that he possessed the same influence at the court of Memel. Thus he hoped to sow the seeds of jealousy among the allies, and to deter any of the German states from insurrection on the reliance of support, from powers with whom he was likely, very soon, to be on terms of peace, amity, and even in alliance.

The Russians were not induced by the battle of Eylau, and the necessity their main army was under, of retreating behind the Pregel, to give up their original plan of acting on the offensive against the French, and harassing them without ceasing by all means and at all seasons. While the main army of the French still lay at Eylau; 3,000 Russian prisoners were rescued by a squadron of Cossacks, a thousand strong at Wildenbergh, from 15 to 20 leagues on this side of Eylau on the Omulcio, to the south-west of the lakes of Passenheim. General Van Essen, February 15th, at the head of 25,000, advanced to Ostrolenka, along the two banks of the Narew. At the village of Flakis Law-owa he met the advanced guard of general Savary, who commanded the 5th corps of VOL. XLIX.

the French army. On the 16th, at day-break, general Gazan with a part of his division moving towards the advanced guard, met with the enemy on the way to Novogorod, attacked and defeated him. But at the same moment, the Russians by the left bank attacked Ostrolenka, which was defended by general Campana, with a brigade of the di vision of general Gazan, and general Ruffin, with a brigade of the division of general Oudinot. The Russian infantry advanced in seve ral columns. They were suffered to come fairly within the town, as far as half the length of the streets; when they were charged by the French with fixed bayonets. Thrice did the Russians make an attack on the French, and were as often repulsed, leaving the streets covered with the dead. Their loss was so great that they were forced to aban don the town, and take a position behind the sand-hills which cover it: The divisions of generals Souchet and Oudinot advanced, and at noon the heads of their columns arrived at Ostrolenka. General Savary drew up his army in the following manner. General Oudinot commanded the left in two lines; general Souchet the centre; and the general of division Reille, chief of the staff of the army, commanding a brigade of the division of Gazan, formed the right. He covered him. self with all his artillery, and marched against the enemy. General Oudinot putting himself at the head of the cavalry, made a successful charge, and cut in pieces the Cossacks of the Russian rear-guard. A very brisk fire was kept up for a considerable time on both sides. The Russians at last gave way on all sides, and were followed fighting

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for three leagues. The loss of the Russians was 1,300 killed, among whom were two generals, above 1,200 taken, seven pieces of cannon and two standards. The French, according to their accounts, had only 60 men killed, and among these, the general of brigade Campana, an officer of great merit, and it is observed, a native of the department of Marengo.* At Guttenfield, February 12th, 500 French soldiers were made prisoners by Platow, hetman of the Cossacks. On the same day a division of one of the French corps marched to Marienwerder, situated on a small river, called the Leibe, not far from its junction with the Vistula, thirtyfour miles south from Dantzig, and forty-four north-east of Thorn. Seven Prussian squadrons found at this place, were attacked and rout. ed, and 300 men with 250 horses taken. The rest of the Prussians making their escape, took refuge in Dantzig.

On February 16th, the day be. fore Buonaparte began to march from Eylau, for the disposition of his troops in winter quarters, he thought it proper to counteract any notion that might be entertained of this being a retreat, and to keep up the courage of his army, by assuming a very lofty air of triumph, which he did in the following proclamation, dated Prussian Eylau, February 16th."Soldiers, we had begun to enjoy a little repose in our winter quarters, when the enemy attacked the first corps, and shewed themselves on the Lower Vistula. We broke up and marched against him; we have pursued him sword in aand, 80 leagues; he has fled to his strong holds, and retired beyond the

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Pregel. In the battles of Berg fried, Deppen, Hoff, and Eylau, w. have taken from him, 65 pieces o cannon, and 16 standards, beside the loss of more than 40,000 men in killed, wounded, and taken pri soners. The heroes, who, on ou side, remain in the bed of honour have died a glorious death. It is th death of a true soldier. Their rela tives will always have a just clair to our care and beneficence. ving thus defeated all the enterprise of the enemy, we shall return to wards the Vistula, and resume ou winter quarters. Those who shal dare to disturb these quarters, shal have reason to repent: for whethe beyond the Vistula, or on the othe side of the Danube, whether in th middle of winter or the beginnin of autumn, we will still be foun French soldiers, and soldiers of th grand army."

The first and leading considera tion in the choice of positions fo winter quarters for the French ar my, was, to cover the line of th Vistula, and to favour the reduction of Colberg, Graudenz, and abov all of Dantzig. It was therefor concentrated in cantonments, be hind, that is, to the westward o the Passarge, a small river which passing by the town of Braunsberg discharges itself, a little below thi place, into the Frisch-haaf. Th prince of Ponte Corvo, Bernadotte with his corps, lay at Prussian Hol land, and Braunsberg;. marsha Soult, with his at Leibstadt an Mohrungen; marshal Ney, at Gut stadt; marshal Daveust, at Allen stein, Hohenstein, and Deppen; Polonese corps of observation, com manded by general Zayon cheek at Niedenbourg; marshal Le Febvr

• $2d and 63d Bulletins of the grand French army.

befor

before Dantzig; the 5th corps of the French army, was stationed at Omulew; and the 8th as a corps of observation, in Swedish Pomerania. There was a corps under Jerome, or prince Jerome Buonaparte, émployed in the reduction of the fortresses of Silesia. The Bavarian division, commanded by the heir apparent, or as the French style him, the crown-prince of Bavaria, serving under Jerome, lay at this time at Warsaw, and was on its route to join the French army. There was still a strong garrison at Thorn, where general Rapp, Buonaparte's aid-decamp, was appointed governor, in the room of marshal Le Febvre, now employed in the siege of Dantzig. The head quarters were at Osterode, nearly equidistant between Thorn, which formed as it were a bastion, on the right of the French, supposing their eye still directed to the east, and Marienwerder, and Elbing, with the Isle of Nogat, which supported the left. And, for maintaining a communication between the opposite banks of the Vistula, as well as for securing a retreat, in case of any disaster, in the course of future operations, the tètes-du-pont, or fortified bridges at Praga, Modlin, Dirchaw, in the palatinate of Ulm and Thorn, were pat in a proper state of defence, and new ones constructed at Marienburg, and Marienwerder. From the country around Marienwerder, and Elbing, which, particularly the Isle of Nogat, is exceedingly fertile, the French army was abundantly supplied with provisions.*

It was now the immediate object of Buonaparte, to refresh and reeruit his army, and to secure the

possession or command of the countries he had over-run, by reducing the Prussian fortresses that still held out on the Vistula, and the Oder. But the Russians, determined and resolute in their purpose to give him no rest, engaged the French in continued skirmishes, and in some very sharp actions, which were attended with considerable loss to both parties. The most serious of these it may be proper briefly to notice; but we shall hasten to the siege of the more important post and port of Dantzig, to which, after the battle of Eylau, every eye was turned.

A Russian detachment marched, February 26th, against Braunsberg, the head, that is, the most advanced or easterly of the French cantonments. Buonaparte being informed of this, gave orders to the prince of Ponte Corvo, that it should be attacked; the execution of which orders was committed to general Dupont, an officer of great merit, who on the same day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, attacked the Rus. sian detachment, which was 10,000 strong, overthrew it with fixed bayonets, drove it from the town, and across the Passarge, took 16 pieces of cannon, and two stands of colours, and made 2,000 prisoners.

On the side of Gutstadt general Leger Belair, on receiving advico that a Russian column had arrived during the night at Peterswalde, repaired to that village at daybreak, on the 25th; overthrew it, took the general baron de Korff, who commanded it with his staff, several lieutenant colonels and other officers, and 400 men. †

After the affairs of Braunsberg,

65th, 66th, and 67th, Bulletins of the grand French army. +3d Bulletin, of the grand French army. C 2

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and Peterswald, for the encouragement of the French no doubt, particularly the conscripts for the year, whose services were now to be called for, though six months before the time fixed by the constitution, a statement was published of all the taken from the pieces of cannon enemy, by the French, since their arriva on the Vistula. In the engagements of Pultusk and Golymin, they had taken 89 pieces of cannon; at the engagement of Bergfried, 4 pieces; in the retreat of Allenstein, 5 pieces; at the engagement of Deppen, 16 pieces; at the engagement of Hoff, 12 pieces; at the battle of Eylau, 24 pieces; at the engage. ment of Ostrolenka, 9 pieces; and at that of Braunsberg, 6 pieces: in It must .all, 175 pieces of cannon. be owned that an account of the cannon, taken from the enemy, is a more satisfactory proof of success, than of the numbers said to be killed and wounded: for the can. non may be produced, as vouchers of its accuracy. And accordingly we are generally informed by the French gazettes, how the cannon taken were disposed of.

The attempts of the Russians, on the Lower Vistula, being frustrated by the engagements of Bergfried, Deppen, and Hoff, and the great battle of Eylau; Buonaparte was at leisure to form the blockade, and to push the siege of Dantzig. The proper positions being taken, and works necessary for the complete investment of this place constructed, trenches were opened before it, on the night between the 2d and 3d of April. But it was necessary, for carrying on the siege, to bring battering cannon, from the fortres

ses of Silesia, upwards of one hur
Part of this artiller
dred leagues.
arrived on the 12th, and the re
on the 24th.

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Buonaparte, that he might I nearer to Graudenz, and Dantzi had by this time moved his hea quarters, from Osterode, to the cas The gran tle of Finkenstein. French army formed a semicirc around the corps under Le Febvre employed in besieging those tw fortresses; which corps was con posed chiefly of Polanders, Hessian Badenese, and other troops of th confederation of the Rhine.* left wing extended from Elbing t Braunsberg, along the course of th Passarge, on which were construct ed têtes-du-pont, as far as Gu stadt. The centre retired a littl behind this line to Prussian Holland Liebstadt, and Mohringen. Fro Gutstadt, the army extended by chain of posts, to Allenstein. An the left wing communicated throug Ortelsburg, with the left of th corps of Massena, whose right wa posted on the river Bug, an stretched from thence to the mout of the Narew. The left wing the French, for the whole extent the line, along the Passarge, wa covered with a great number of en trenchments and batteries. In from Fo of the centre and the right wing, wer vast forests, and morasses. security against accidents in th rear, a post was occupied betwee the Passarge and the Vistula, an here were established some maga zines.

The right wing of the allied army composed of the wrecks of th Prussians, and who had not bee engaged in the battle of Jena, ex

Thus these Poles and Germans were themselves invested, and held to thei work, by the exterior army.

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tended from the Frisch-haaf, along the right bank of the Passarge, as far as Wormditt. At this place, the channel of the river was both so shallow and so narrow, that deserters were in the practice of fording it. The Prussians were a fine body of men, loyal, brave, and well disciplined. They were under the immediate command of general Blucher. The Russian army occupied Wormditt, and stretched from thence over Heilsberg, Bartenstein, and Schippenbell. Before the centre, and each of the wings of the Russian army, there was an advan. ad guard. The left wing was commanded by Platow, hetman or chief of the Cossacks, who pushed detachments as far as Ortelsburg, where several actions took place; while on every other part of the line, there was a tacit armistice. A considerable body of Russians, also a recent reinforcement, was stationed near the Narew. Besides the grand French army, opposed to the line of the Russo-Prussian, there was the corps of Le Febvre, before Dantzig and Colberg, already mentioned, There was an army also noticed above, of Bavarians and Wirtem. bergers, under Jerome, aliàs prince Jerome, in Silesia, occupied in completing the reduction of the fortresses. And in addition to the whole, a grand army of observation had begun to assemble from different, and some of those very remote countries under the orders of marshal Brune, in Pomerania, whose head quarters were established provisionally at Stettin. This army, when completed, was to be 80,000 strong, half French troops, te other half confederates of the Rhine,

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Hollanders and Spaniards. Germans that formed part of the army of observation, were furnished chiefly by the king of Bavaria, the grand duke of Baden, and the grand duke of Wurtzburg. The king of Wirtemberg sent three, new regiments to recruit the army, under Jerome in Silesia. To the grand army was added a new levy of 15,000 Poles, 3,000 of which were cavalry. To the Saxon troops serving in the grand army, three now regiments were added, and 15 men to each company of the old ones. "In a word," says a Leyden gazette of that day, wholly, like all other gazettes on the Rhine, under the direction of Buonaparte, "all the states of Germany, in alliance with France, second with vigour, the vast designs of their new emperor, and spare no trouble or expence, for furthering to that great monarch the means of supporting with honour the contest in which he is engaged, and which has for its object, the restoration of peace to suffering humanity. For this end all the membors of the confederation have resolved to double their contingents." It is not easy to say whether this spectacle of Germans, destroying Germans, as well as Russians, and others at the uod of a foreign usurper, of a foreign throne, is most calculated to excite indignation, commiseration, or contempt. Nothing could possibly have been more humiliating to the Germans, except perhaps the idea entertained by their oppressor, that their miserable vanity might be gratified by his praises of their zeal and vigour, in such a cause, nay, and by the smiles of his youngest brother.

* 75th Bulletin, of the grand French army. 73d Bulletin of the grand French army. C 3

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