Battle of Czarnowo

• 1. Introduction

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  The Battle of Czarnowo began after nightfall on the 23rd of December 1806, when French troops waded into the freezing Wkra River under cover of darkness. Napoleon himself stood on the west bank that morning, observing the Russian positions. The village of Czarnowo, sitting on the north bank of the Narew River north-northwest of Warsaw, was about to change hands multiple times before dawn. What followed was not a grand set-piece engagement but an ugly, grinding battle fought across swampy ground and through pine woods by exhausted soldiers. Who were the men on either side of that river? How did France come to be pressing so deep into Poland in December? And what did this night crossing cost each army before the sun came up?

• 2. Road to the Wkra

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  On the 14th of October 1806, Napoleon shattered the main Prussian armies at Jena-Auerstedt in a single day. His troops captured 25,000 Prussian soldiers, 200 guns, and 60 regimental colors in one engagement. Crippling follow-up defeats at Erfurt, Halle, Magdeburg, and half a dozen other towns left Prussia a spent force. By December, the Prussians could muster only about 6,000 field troops plus the garrisons locked inside Danzig and Graudenz.

  With Prussia effectively finished, the real obstacle was Russia. Field Marshal Mikhail Kamensky commanded roughly 90,000 Russian troops in Poland, organized into two wings under Generals Levin August von Bennigsen and Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden. Kamensky was showing unmistakable signs of mental and physical breakdown by this point, leaving his subordinates to manage the real decisions. Buxhoeveden's wing counted around 29,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry, 1,200 gunners, and 216 artillery pieces. His divisions were veterans of Austerlitz, fought on the 2nd of December 1805, but under strength.

  For the French, Poland brought misery alongside opportunity. The roads turned from deep mud to frozen ruts as winter closed in. Napoleon was forced to issue bonus pay and distribute extra shirts and shoes simply to keep his army moving. Discipline deteriorated. It was during this Polish campaign that Napoleon first used the nickname les grognards, meaning the grumblers, for his battered but stubborn veterans.

  Napoleon's plan for the December offensive assigned Davout, Augereau, and Lannes to push north from Warsaw while Ney, Bernadotte, and Bessières drove east from Thorn to cut off the Prussians. Soult's IV Corps would link the two drives. The strategic aim was to separate General Anton von L'Estocq's Prussians from their Russian allies and force a decisive engagement before winter made operations impossible.

• 3. The Russian Order of Battle

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  Bennigsen's wing fielded 49,000 infantry, 11,000 regular cavalry, 4,000 Cossacks, 2,700 artillerymen, 900 pioneers, and 276 guns on paper. Of those, roughly 55,000 to 60,000 were available for mobile action. The Russian army of 1806 was structured into 18 divisions, each theoretically controlling 82 field pieces. Heavy batteries combined eight 12-pound cannons with four heavy howitzers and two light howitzers; light batteries substituted 6-pound cannons; horse batteries used 6-pounders exclusively.

  Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy held the east bank of the Wkra with nine battalions, two squadrons, one Cossack regiment, 14 guns, and six light guns. His 2nd Division was organized into three infantry brigades: Major General Nikolai Mazovsky commanded the Pavlovski Grenadier and Rostov Musketeer Regiments; Major General Alexander Yakovlevich Sukin led the Petersburg Grenadier and Jeletzsky Musketeer Regiments; Major General Ivan Andreievich Lieven directed the 1st and 20th Jager Regiments. A cavalry brigade under Major General Peter Petrovich Pahlen included the Little Russia Cuirassier, Courland Dragoon, and Soum Hussar Regiments, plus the Malakov and Sissoiev Cossacks.

  Murat's cavalry had occupied Warsaw on the 28th of November, and Napoleon began converting the city into a base of operations. Bennigsen, isolated from Buxhoeveden's wing, first withdrew from the Vistula, then tried to retake his former position, then decided to pull back behind the Wkra after all. Davout's troops occupied the low, swampy island where the Wkra split into two branches near its mouth as early as the night of the 20th of December.

• 4. The Night Crossing

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  Davout had three infantry divisions for the assault: those of Generals of Division Charles Antoine Morand, Louis Friant, and Charles-Etienne Gudin de La Sablonniere. Morand assembled on the island; Friant positioned his troops slightly farther north near Pomiechowo; Gudin held a bridgehead west of Modlin. Napoleon drafted detailed orders and, according to the historical record, their precise execution reflected the quality of Davout's officer corps.

  At 7:00 PM on the 23rd, Morand deployed his troops into three columns, each headed by a single battalion. French voltigeur companies, the light infantry skirmishers, crossed the Wkra by boat while artillery on the west bank fired canister to suppress the defenders. As the voltigeurs established covering positions, engineers built three bridges. Once the spans were ready, Morand's infantry crossed. The 17th Light Infantry Regiment and three cavalry squadrons were among the first units over. General of Brigade Claude Petit led a task force from Gudin's division across the bridge nearest the Bug-Narew and moved up the east bank.

  The 17th Light rushed forward and drove the Russians out of Czarnowo. Ostermann-Tolstoy's defenders rallied quickly and counterattacked, recapturing the village. A lull followed as Morand brought up reinforcements. He sent the 30th Line Infantry Regiment in three coordinated thrusts: one battalion along the riverbank, one frontally, and one through a pine woods on the left. The Russians repelled this attack too. Ostermann-Tolstoy, fearing for his heavy guns, ordered his artillery to the rear. The French pressed a third time and finally took Czarnowo, pushing their line east of the village.

  Petit's force of about 400 men, supported by six guns on the west bank, cleared Russian redoubts opposite Pomiechowo. Russian cavalry charged his detachment and was driven off. Davout sent additional troops from Gudin's division to reinforce Petit, who held the redoubts against subsequent Russian infantry attacks.

• 5. Withdrawal and Pursuit

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  At 4:00 AM on the 24th of December, Ostermann-Tolstoy issued orders for retreat while continuing to press Petit's position. Three late-arriving Russian battalions and four squadrons covered the withdrawal. The Russians pulled back east in good order.

  Friant's division moved up at 4:00 AM to relieve Morand's exhausted troops. Together with Davout's light cavalry under General of Brigade Jacob Francois Marulaz and a dragoon regiment, Friant's soldiers chased the retreating Russians to the town of Nasielsk, where three Russian guns were captured. The Russians fought back hard enough to stop the French advance at Nasielsk that day.

  The casualty figures are contested across sources. Ostermann-Tolstoy claimed 500 Russian losses. Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky's history put Russian killed and wounded at 853, including three generals wounded. Davout reported 807 French casualties, with particularly heavy losses among officers. Historian David G. Chandler estimated roughly 1,400 total on both sides. Digby Smith's accounting placed French losses at 16 officers and 830 men, and Russian losses at 41 officers and 1,360 men plus five guns captured; Smith's Russian total included 500 prisoners.

• 6. Biezun, Kolozab, and Soldau

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  On the 19th of December, Grouchy's dragoons of Bessières' II Cavalry Corps had seized Biezun. L'Estocq sent two infantry regiments, a dragoon regiment, two hussar regiments, and a horse artillery battery to retake it. When this Prussian force arrived on the 23rd, it found Grouchy heavily reinforced. Grouchy attacked and drove the Prussians back toward Soldau. Major Karl Anton Stephan de La Roche-Aymon commanded the Prussian units at the center of the fighting, which included half the Towarcys Uhlan Regiment and the Schleiffen Grenadier Battalion. Around 500 Prussian infantry and five guns were trapped against a swampy forest and captured.

  At Kolozab and Sochocin on the 24th, Marshal Pierre Augereau's VII Corps attempted its own Wkra crossing. Barclay de Tolly defended with three battalions and three squadrons at Sochocin, three more battalions and two squadrons at Kolozab, and three battalions in the wooded ground between the villages. The bridges at both places had been burned; the Kolozab crossing was backed by 12 artillery pieces. Heudelet's 2nd Division failed twice to rebuild the Sochocin bridge under fire. Desjardins' 1st Division had better results: grenadiers of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Line Infantry, picked their way across the partly destroyed Kolozab bridge and held a foothold under counterattack. General of Brigade Pierre Belon Lapisse took a task force downstream to Pruszkowo, surprised the bridge guard, and crossed unopposed. Milhaud's cavalry then captured the entire baggage train of the Russian 2nd Division. Augereau reported 66 killed and 452 wounded.

  On Christmas Day, General of Division Jean Gabriel Marchand attacked the single Prussian battalion at Soldau with two regiments and drove it out by 2:00 PM. L'Estocq counterattacked at around 5:00 PM with the Ruchel Infantry Regiment Number 2 and the Schoning Infantry Regiment Number 11, totaling 3,000 men and eight 12-pound guns, but could not break into the town despite hand-to-hand fighting. Marchand's force of about 6,000 troops suffered 220 casualties, including General of Brigade Francois Pierre Felix Vonderweidt. L'Estocq retreated north to Neidenberg, cutting contact with the Russian army. On the 26th of December, the campaign's intensity peaked further: Bennigsen with 40,600 troops faced 26,000 French under Lannes at Pultusk, while Golitsyn and 9,000 Russians fought off Augereau's 16,000 at Golymin.