While Schwarzenberg was following Sacken, Admiral Chichagov pursued his way to Minsk. The town was full of vast magazines of every kind, besides thousands of sick and wounded. Yet no attempt had been made to fortify it, and the force immediately available for its defence consisted only of two small French battalions, a weak Württemberg regiment, some depôts, and 4 Lithuanian battalions and 4 squadrons newly raised and untrustworthy. Instead of keeping his troops united near Minsk and Borisov, Bronikowski formed a field force under General Kossecki, which he sent forward on the road to Slonim. Dombrowski, hearing of Chichagov’s advance, hastened to collect his division, but it was so scattered in his effort to fulfil his multitudinous duties that it could not arrive in time.
Having once made up his mind to ignore Schwarzenberg and push on to Minsk, the Admiral wasted no time. He sent off Colonel Chernishev with a regiment of Cossacks to explain the situation to Wittgenstein, and on November 9th started Lambert and Sabaniev for Minsk. In defence of his slowness hitherto it must be said that, besides the menace of Schwarzenberg in his rear, he was much pestered by orders from Kutuzov, which were usually too old to be applicable to the situation. He was directed to entrench himself on the Berezina, and he had only a single competent engineer officer. He was ordered to reinforce the garrison of Kiev, lest Napoleon should follow the example of Charles XII and move southward! To further weaken his army was madness, but Chichagov diverted some drafts to Kiev, and held on for Minsk, Lambert leading, Sabaniev and Voïnov following, and Chaplitz bringing up the rear. At Nesvizh, on the 12th, General Lüders joined. On the 13th Kossecki’s column was found by Lambert holding the bridge over the Niemen at Novi-Svergen. Kossecki had only 4 Lithuanian battalions and a solitary gun. He had vainly represented to Bronikowski the strength of the advancing enemy, and begged permission to retire. Lambert easily carried the bridge, capturing the gun and about 1000 prisoners. Kossecki fell back towards Minsk, and on the way was reinforced by a small battalion of the French 46th, 300 French cavalry, 150 Württembergers and 2 guns. On the 15th he was overtaken by Lambert at Koidanow, 18 miles from Minsk, and, after a running fight of several miles, his force was destroyed, only the remnant of the French cavalry, which had fought splendidly, reaching Minsk. The consequences were fatal. Dombrowski was still over 20 miles distant with his advance-guard; not 1500 troops remained in Minsk and Borisov; and Lambert was already half-way from Koidanow. Dombrowski, who had himself hurried on in advance of his troops, saw nothing for it but to abandon Minsk. Next day Bronikowski, with about 1000 men, retreated on Borisov, while Dombrowski turned his troops back to Berezino, hoping thence to reach Borisov before the Russians. Minsk was occupied by Lambert in the afternoon, and there he found no less than 2,000,000 rations of food and 4700 sick and wounded. The hospitals were found to be in a shocking condition.
Chichagov’s whole army was in Minsk by the 18th, and a halt was made to rough-shoe the horses and rest the men. Ertel should have been at hand with his corps; but on pretext of sickness he was still at Mazyr, and only a detachment of 6 battalions, 4 squadrons and a Cossack regiment had been sent forward to Igumen. Chichagov at once despatched Major-General Tuchkov II to supersede him.
On the 19th the Admiral started Lambert for Borisov and Chaplitz for Zembin. Next day Sabaniev marched in the track of Lambert, and Voïnov after Chaplitz. Chichagov accompanied Voïnov, while Langeron was with Sabaniev. A small garrison was left in Minsk, and the Cossack Colonel Lukovkin sent towards Igumen to observe Dombrowski.
Bronikowski had at Borisov and Vseselovo less than 2000 men. Dombrowski reached Borisov at midnight on the 20th, bringing with him 6 battalions and 6 squadrons of his division; his other infantry regiment and 2 squadrons were still behind. Arriving in the dark he bivouacked on the left bank. A French battalion occupied the tête du pont, the 7th Württembergers Borisov; the rest of Bronikowski’s force was at Veselovo, several miles higher up the river opposite Zembin.
Lambert had with him 5 infantry regiments, 28 squadrons and some Cossacks—about 8000 men and 36 guns. Against him Dombrowski could bring less than 5000 in all, with, apparently, 34 guns.
Lambert attacked the bridge-head early on the 21st. The French battalion was driven out, but the Württembergers hurried up from the rear, repulsed the Russians, and gave Dombrowski time to arrive. Again and again Lambert assaulted the works in vain; and the fight raged obstinately well into the afternoon, the 1st and 6th Polish regiments, with their French and German comrades, resisting with magnificent courage. Lambert himself was dangerously wounded. Towards evening, however, the 14th Chasseurs succeeded in turning the works on the right by slipping through a gully, while the bulk of Lambert’s division again assailed them in front. They were finally carried, and the adventurous 14th pressed on so impetuously that they passed the bridge with the flying foe and saved it from destruction. The remains of Dombrowski’s force were hurled through the town in utter confusion, despite their desperate attempts to rally, and pursued by the Russian cavalry towards Lochnitza, on the road to Orsha. Langeron arrived with his leading troops towards the close of the action, and in the evening was joined by Chichagov and Voïnov.
On the Russian side more than 1500 men were killed and wounded, General Engelhart being among the former and Lambert among the latter. Dombrowski’s force lost over 3000 men killed, wounded, and prisoners. Twenty-four guns were taken by the victors.[8] Dombrowski’s rear-guard regiment was attacked on the march by Colonel Lukovkin, and severely mauled before it could recover from the surprise and beat off the Cossacks.
The position of Napoleon now appeared desperate. Seventy thousand men, inspirited by success, were preparing to bar his retreat to the frontier; Minsk and Vitebsk with their magazines, Borisov with its all-important bridge, had passed into the enemy’s hands, and Schwarzenberg, with the one powerful force that remained at Napoleon’s disposal, had been drawn far away to the south-west. The Emperor had with him about Orsha only some 25,000 demoralised men, surrounded by a helpless mob of 40,000 non-combatants of both sexes, the majority in the last stages of misery and despair. He had scarcely any effective cavalry, and not more than 110 badly horsed guns, while to his left rear was a pursuing army three times his strength. So must the position of the defeated conqueror have presented itself to his dismayed followers. It now remains to review the circumstances which rendered it, terrible as it undoubtedly was, somewhat less critical than it might have been.
After Krasnoï, Kutuzov had practically abandoned the pursuit. The condition of his army was very serious; the number of men in the ranks was diminishing daily, while the horses were rapidly breaking down under the effects of hard marching, little forage, and constantly remaining saddled. Buturlin states that the loss by fatigue and hardship since October 24th already amounted to 30,000 men.