Eylau

French Cavalry
Men & Horses
Myth & Glory
The Charge
Russian Army
The Weather
Bibliography
Photographs

The Charge

The preparation for Murat's charge (?) must indeed have trodden the snow down greatly, and also the movement of large bodies of infantry would add to this reduction in its depth; however snow does not disappear when ridden over or walked through by masses of men and horses, but rather remains deep in places and at others becomes so compacted that it turns into a veritable ice-rink; also the fact that the ground underneath the snow was iron hard from the severe frosts of the previous days must have made any movement treacherous. These factors must be taken into account when we consider the method employed by the French cavalry for their attack.

There is some proof of the way in which the French advanced to the attack, which comes from, 'Souvenire de Capitain Parquin'. Parquin tells us that, 'Towards two o'clock in the afternoon an enormous mass of cavalry (Russian) was set in motion and advanced towards us at a walk; the snow and marshy (sic) ground not permitting any faster pace' [Rogers pp50]. With such an eyewitness account we may therefore safely say that the conditions would be the same for the French as for the Russians, and that when Murat led his squadrons forward he would have chosen a formation that took this into consideration.

Simon Fort: The Battle Of Eylau

It is my opinion that the French cavalry adopted a en muraille formation, in great depth. The en muraille deployment consisted of each regiment forming its squadrons in line immediately beside each other. There were no intervals between each squadron, and they rode forward boot to boot [Nosworthy pp??]. The front of Murat's column would therefore be approximately 300 meters wide and, allowing for all of the reserve cavalry and the Guard forming one behind the other, and only minimal space between each regiment, would be some 900-1,200 meters from the head of the column to its rear. Indeed just such a formation is depicted by one of the more down to earth battle-painters, Simeon Fort in one of his Aquarelle's, "La bataille d'Eylau", (Musee de Versailles).  Here we can see that, given the conditions of the field, and just as importantly the condition of the men and horses, that Murat used his troopers like a battering ram, or bulldozer, to literally smash his way through the Russian lines. Not only this, but when we take into account the fact that trumpet calls would be difficult to communicate to each squadron over an extended distance owing to the wind, and that officers orders would not be heard due to the same factor, then this type of tight grouping would make control and command far more reliable. At a walking pace the French cavalry would not over-exert their already much fatigued mounts, and the fact they were attacking Russian infantry and cavalry who were "masking" their own artillery as they advanced after the defeat of Augereau's Corps meant that they only had to receive the fire of Russian muskets, and possibly not much of this either when we reflect on what the weather could do, not only to these weapons, but also to the cartridges and powder used to make them effective.

[Petre pp185] tells of the Russian cavalry, 'going down before the shock', and this could be taken quite literally when we picture the great mass of flesh and steel of the French juggernaut smashing aside anything that stood in its way, and that the momentum of so many thousands pressing on from behind would make this impact even greater.

[Petre pp185] hints at what the French formation was like when he writes, 'this great line of cavalry, followed by others, poured in successive waves up the slope'. The 'slope' however creates yet another problem, since the Russians were advancing in their turn they would have been descending from their position, which was on a slight rise of ground, and just what slope the French cavalry had to climb is debatable. Not only that but with the onset of sporadic blizzards any form of gradient would cause drifting which in turn would make the snow even deeper and difficult to negotiate. That the Russian cavalry and infantry were halted in their forward movement is not in dispute, but just how they received the French attack has never been fully explained.