Heilsberg

First Encounters
The Armies
Preliminaries
The Battle
Other Resources

The Armies

The Russian army that fought at Heilsberg had no corps system during this period and was made up of nine divisions, the first being the Guard. Each division contained one regiment of grenadiers, four regiments of musketeers, one regiment of Jäger (light infantry), two heavy and one light cavalry regiments together with four or five batteries of artillery of twelve guns each. A division had a 'normal' strength of around 12,000 men but this number had been greatly reduced by the losses incurred during the previous heavy marching and fighting, so that, counting the Cossacks, engineers and the artillery reserve, Benningsen could muster around 80,000 troops, including some Prussian contingents of cavalry and artillery. 

Before the battle of Austerliz (2^nd December 1805), General Mikhail Hilarionovich Golenishev-Kutusov had written: 'Do not look for any kind of beauty, or burden the men with anything which might detract from the essentials of the business'. Thus the green uniformed Russian infantry had a basic three deep line for each battalion, while the "manoeuver" was conducted in column of platoons, or double platoons; each battalion comprised four companies and each company was sub-divided into two platoons. The campaign strength of a battalion was about 700 men and three battalions formed a regiment.

Russian regular cavalry was made up of Hussar, Uhlan (Lancers), Dragoon and Cuirassier regiments. Each regiment fielded five squadrons of approximately 100-120 men per squadron. Two or three regiments formed a brigade. The normal formation for cavalry squadrons was in two lines, but Hussar and Uhlan regiments sometimes manoeuverd in smaller groups so as to avoid losses from enemy musket fire. The "heavies" - Dragoons and Cuirassiers charged with the straight sword in two lines per squadron which, owing to the effect of artillery fire, tended to cause them to bunch-up on one another, becoming one vast mass of flesh and steel. 

The Cossacks, who numbered several thousands, were good light horsemen but tended to shy away from a full-blown engagement with anything other than a disorganized body of troops.

In artillery the Russian's almost always had a preponderance over the French. The army was completely re-equipped with new cannon in 1805, from 3 pdr to 6 pdr up to the 12 pdr heavy pieces as well as the 10 and 20 pdr 'licornes' which were howitzers with a flatter trajectory than the smaller caliber cannon. The name, 'licorne' derived from the lifting handles on the top of the gun barrel, which were formed in the shape of prancing unicorns. Counting the 3 pdr guns, of which there were one or two per battalion, the Russian's fielded over 400 cannon as well as a vast wagon and ammunition park of over 4,000 vehicles.

Napoleon's army was basically the legacy left to him by the French revolution, which had been forced to raise masses of conscripts in order to meet the threat of invasion from the English Channel to the Alps. The aristocratic officer class of the Ancien Regime were in exile, in prison, or dead, and the regular army had disintegrated; therefore it had become a matter of improvisation and blundering on that brought about the 'Levee-en-Masse' being introduced in order to confront the large armies of the various foreign powers who were closing in on France.

Thanks to the tactics that had been experimented with over the last decades of the eighteenth century, when the floodgates opened over the Revolutionary French Government in 1792, they had a formation with which to meet the professionally drilled armies of the European powers - the column.

Light infantry companies were pushed forward to form a skirmishing line in front of the main column of attack. These columns were normally formed by battalions, close packed with a frontage of 50 -75 metres, at one metre or so per man, and to a depth that could vary from 15 -25 metres, depending on the proportion to the front, advancing leaving a gap of around 150 metres to allow the skirmishing companies to fall back just prior to the moment of contact to form a reserve or to protect a flank.

The column moved forward at a normal walking pace with senior officers to the front, while the step was beaten out on the drums. At something like one hundred paces from the enemy's line the roll of the drum would change to the thunder of the 'pas -de- charge', and the column would make a sudden dash into the enemy ranks. Normally the sheer impact and weight of numbers would break the enemy's line.

A French army corps could number anything from 10,000 - 30,000 men. Each corps was a small army in itself comprising from two to four, or even more divisions, each of two of four brigades which, in turn, contained one to three regiments of two battalions each. A battalion on active campaign numbered around 600 - 800 men. Each Corps also contained a light cavalry division or brigade together with the corps artillery of some 30 cannon.

French cavalry were good and consisted, like their counterparts in the Russian army, of heavy and light regiments. No lancer units were introduced until 1811 with the exception of "Polish" lancers which Napoleon, impressed by the skill of the Austrian and Russian Uhlans, raised for his guard. The heavy regiments comprised of cuirassiers and carabiniers who were usually held back to form a central reserve. Being mounted on large, heavy horses, their prime function was shock action. The cuirassiers were equipped with a steel breast and back plate, while the carabiniers did not adopt armour until 1809.

Dragoons were used in several ways, including fighting on foot but their main function, after 1805, was to charge with their companions in the heavy units. Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval were the standard light cavalry used primarily for scouting and guarding the flanks. They could however be used in a full-blown charge when circumstances dictated. Both the light and heavy regiments were made-up of four squadrons each, these in turn containing 100-120 men per squadron. 

Polish Lancers in French service 1807

In artillery the French had what was arguably the finest system in Europe. However, with the outbreak of war in 1805 the 6 pdr cannon, which Napoleon had hoped to use as a replacement for the 4 pdr and 8 pdr guns, were found to have faults which caused there eventual abandonment. Foot artillery were supplied with 4,6 and 8 pdr cannon as well as 6 inch howitzers. The 12-pdr guns were used, in the main, for mass battery fire and it was not unusual for the French to combine captured artillery into their corps parks. Soult's Corps, for example, had 48 pieces of ordnance in the 1807, 42 of which were captured from the Austrians during the 1805 Austerlitz campaign.

Although outnumbering the Russian's in Poland, Napoleon could only muster about 35,000 troops at Heilsberg, including 8,000 cavalry.