Editing Pyotr Bagration (section)

==Napoleonic Wars==

===Battles of Hollabrunn and Austerlitz===

In the course of the [[War of the Third Coalition]], Napoleon's defeat of General [[Karl Mack von Leiberich|Mack]]'s Austrian army at [[Battle of Ulm|Ulm]] on 19 October 1805 led [[Mikhail Kutuzov|Kutuzov]] to consider withdrawing and uniting his forces with reinforcements arriving at [[Brünn]]. Kutuzov ordered Bagration to guard Vienna with just a single regiment to stall a possible French assault. The French marshals [[Joachim Murat|Murat]] and [[Jean Lannes|Lannes]] made a false armistice claim to position themselves near the Danube at Vienna. When the guards were distracted they rushed over the bridge to secure the town. Kutuzov was in hurry to unite his army with the Russian troops commanded by [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden|Buxhoeveden]], so he needed a diversion to delay the French advance. Bagration then took command of the Russian army's rearguard to do so. His combined Russo-Austrian force numbered less than 7,500 men facing a foe more than five times the size. Bagration took up a position 6&nbsp;km north of [[Hollabrunn]], on the hill north above the small town of Schöngrabern, and formed a huge line to trick the French into believing the entire Russian army stood before them. In fact, Marshal Murat hesitated to attack and later even agreed to an offer from Bagration to negotiate an armistice, halting the entire French advance without informing Napoleon. This delay gave Kutuzov enough time to save his army. When word reached Napoleon he was enraged at Murat's obstinate behaviour and ordered him to resume the attack immediately, ending the armistice on 16 November. The vanguard of Lannes's and Murat's 45,000 men attacked Bagration's position repeatedly but were repelled each time, unable to take the hill for some six hours. General Bagration personally led some of the counter-attacks, which drove the French back. Even though his force suffered heavy casualties and destruction seemed inevitable, Bagration managed to manoeuver his remaining troops out of the area and unite with the rest of the Coalition army at Brunn on 18 November 1805. His actions prevented the Russian army from being cut off and destroyed.
[[File: Battle of Austerlitz, Situation at 1800, 1 December 1805.png|thumb|Initial deployments at Austerlitz]]
[[File:Italiiskii Suvorov and Bagration.jpg|thumb|A [[lubok]] depicting Bagration and [[Alexander Suvorov]]]]
Just two weeks later, on 2 December 1805, the opposing armies would meet at [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]]. This time Bagration assumed command over the Coalition army's 13,000 men strong right-wing, opposing Lannes' equally strong French left-wing. When the coalition army started to rout, Bagration too ordered his men to retreat after not achieving any progress against Marshal Lannes, who had the support of elements of Marshal Murat's forces, even though his men fought bravely and fiercely. The battle was lost at that point. While Bagration saw no other option but to commence a strategic withdrawal, Marshal Murat refused Lannes' suggestion to further pursue him so that his corps wouldn't suffer further losses.

===Battle of Eylau===

General Bagration demonstrated his skills as military commander particularly during the brutal [[Battle of Eylau]] which took place in East Prussia on 7 and 8 February 1807 during the [[War of the Fourth Coalition]]. After destroying the Prussian army at [[Battle of Jena–Auerstedt|Jena-Auerstedt]] (October 1806), Napoleon was pursuing Russian forces under Marshal [[Mikhail Kamensky|Kamensky]]. In a series of inconclusive clashes, the French did not reach their ultimate goal of destroying the enemy, while the Russians successfully continued retreating. However, on 7 January 1807 General [[Levin August, Count von Bennigsen]] assumed overall command of the Russian forces and carried out a successful surprise attack on the French left-wing against Marshal [[Michel Ney|Ney]] and further against Marshal [[Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte|Bernadotte]]. Bernadotte managed to evade destruction by winning the [[Battle of Mohrungen]] (25 January 1807) and by retreating. Napoleon saw an opportunity to envelop Bennigsen's unprotected left-wing by instructing Bernadotte to keep retreating and allowing his army to cut off the Russians from their own retreat. By a stroke of luck, a group of Cossacks intercepted a French messenger carrying Napoleon's orders to Bernadotte and quickly reported to General Bagration. Bagration then informed Bennigsen, who immediately halted his offensive and retreated. The French pursued, and after several engagements finally confronted the entire Russian army at Eylau on 7 February 1807. Bagration occupied high ground a mile in front of the town, facing Marshal Soult's IV Corps and Marshal Murat's cavalry. The combined French forces assaulted the plateau, but Bagration's heavily outnumbered troops repulsed them. The general demanded bitter resistance from his men to gain time for Bennigsen's heavy artillery to pass through Eylau and join the main Russian force. During the afternoon the French were reinforced by Marshal [[Pierre Augereau|Augereau]]'s corps and the Imperial Guard, making up about 45,000 soldiers in all. Under pressure from greatly superior numbers, Bagration finally conducted an orderly retreat to join the main Russian army. Russian forces under General [[Barclay de Tolly]] covered the retreat. Despite a clear numerical advantage, the French were not able to achieve a greater victory than eventually driving Bagration's small force off the plateau. Bagration's delaying action and skilful withdrawal enabled the Russian army to escape destruction and consolidate for a decisive battle.

In 1946, Soviet authorities renamed the town of Preußisch Eylau [[Bagrationovsk]] in honour of Pyotr Bagration and of his remarkable skills as a tactician.