Kulnev, a fiery cavalry officer, at once attacked Legrand, sending to Wittgenstein for reinforcements. Legrand was posted between the woods on a front of apparently only 800 yards, half of which was occupied by the mansion and hamlet of Jakubovo. Verdier and Doumerc were on the main road, there being no room wherein to deploy. An obstinate action ensued as reinforcements were thrown in on both sides and without any special success for either. Legrand’s narrow front, though it enabled him to concentrate his infantry, only permitted him to bring into action twelve guns as against 36 Russian pieces. On the 31st Wittgenstein, having collected his whole force, ordered a general attack. The fighting was very fierce. Jakubovo, defended by the 26th Léger, was taken and retaken; but on the whole the French held their own, and there was no sound reason for the retreat which Oudinot ordered. He says that he feared for the security of his left flank, threatened by an enemy twice as strong as himself! This latter idea is scarcely in accordance with his confident advance upon Sebezh. At any rate, he evacuated Jakubovo and retreated across the Nitcha, southward to Sivokhino, pursued and harassed by the Russians who, not unnaturally, claimed the affair as a complete victory. Wittgenstein had actually engaged 18 battalions. He claimed to have taken 900 prisoners and much baggage, but the estimates of the French losses in the Journal of the 1st Corps are greatly exaggerated. The Russians, also, must have lost severely in the fierce fighting about the mansion of Jakubovo; and Oudinot claimed 500 prisoners.
At Sivokhino Oudinot was rejoined by Merle’s division, coming from Drissa. He deliberately left the ford unguarded; and took up a position a little to the southward at the hamlet of Oboiarzina, with his flanks thrown forward and his whole force skilfully concealed in the woods and gullies with which the country abounded.
At daybreak on the 1st of August the impetuous Kulnev was leading the pursuit. He had with him some companies of sharpshooters, 7 infantry battalions, 6 squadrons and a horse battery, with which he crossed the ford and pushed forward into the sort of cul-de-sac formed by Oudinot’s position to the southward. The Marshal had more than 40 guns ranged in a deep curve round the advancing Russian columns. As they opened fire Kulnev realised that something more serious than a mere rear-guard action was toward, and requested Sazonov, whose division was following, to support him. Sazonov sent forward the Tula Regiment and a heavy battery at once, but it was too late. The vanguard was overwhelmed by a furious cross cannonade, and broke before the charge of Verdier’s and Legrand’s infantry. The reinforcements were swept away in the rout; and the Russians poured back through the ford in a wild crowd of struggling men and horses, amid which the French fire made terrible havoc. Kulnev strove desperately to repair the consequences of his fatal impetuosity, but in vain. He was following the retreat when a cannon-ball shattered both his legs, ending at once his despair and his life. He bade his aides carry away his orders and insignia—“lest these French triumph over a Russian general”; and so passed a fiery and enthusiastic spirit who might have rendered his country good service.
Verdier’s division, driving before it the broken Russians, pressed through the ford in hot pursuit. Wittgenstein, who was advancing with his whole force, sent on Major-Generals Prince Iachvil and Helfreich to rally the vanguard, and took up a position at the hamlet of Golovitzi to sustain it, with 48 guns ranged before his line. Berg’s division was on the right and Kosakovki’s on the left. As soon as the remains of the vanguard had passed behind the batteries they opened a heavy cannonade, and Berg and Kozakovski moved forward to the attack. Wittgenstein’s second line, under Sazonov, also moved forward, and as the leading divisions diverged somewhat in their advance some of its battalions filled up the gap thus opened. Verdier, assailed by a greatly superior force, was unable to bear up against it; and was driven back, fighting hard but losing heavily, to Sivokhino, where he repassed the Drissa, covered by Legrand’s division.
The losses of the 2nd Corps from July 30th to August 1st amounted according to Oudinot’s returns (which appear trustworthy) to 464 officers and men killed, 2925 wounded, and 1596 prisoners and missing. This was certainly a gaping chasm in an effective strength of about 28,000 men; but the Russians admitted 4300 casualties, and again there was no solid reason for the French retreat upon Polotsk next day. Napoleon was greatly annoyed, and expressed his angry astonishment at the movement, which appeared to him entirely unnecessary. He ordered Oudinot to resume the offensive and, on August 4th, directed St. Cyr, with the 6th Corps, to reinforce him.
Wittgenstein on August 1st had been wounded, and had handed over the command to D’Auvray. The really indecisive nature of the fighting is shown by the fact that no attempt was made to pursue the French. On the contrary, D’Auvray withdrew by his right towards Dünaburg, in order to rally Hamen’s detachment, which was now to join the 1st Corps. On August 7th he once more took position at Razitzi. He decided to cross the Düna and to destroy Macdonald’s small force at Dünaburg; and to this end was already bridging the river, when he was recalled by a fresh advance of Oudinot from Polotsk.
St. Cyr, with the suffering remains of the Bavarian infantry and artillery—about 12,000 bayonets—reached Polotsk on August 7. Apart from his feeling that his troops were being sacrificed, he was angry at his subordination to Oudinot. St. Cyr had, in truth, a far better right to the Marshal’s bâton, and nothing but Napoleon’s dislike for him had hitherto deprived him of it. Oudinot, leaving the 6th Corps to follow, started westward from Polotsk with the 2nd on the 7th, and on the 9th reached Valéinzi, 8 miles from Drissa. Next day D’Auvray marched from Razitzi; and on the 10th the Russian advance-guard, now under Helfreich, collided with Oudinot’s advance, consisting of his light cavalry, supported by the 11th Léger, at Svolna, a few miles north of Valéinzi. D’Auvray arrived with his main body on the 11th. Expecting that Oudinot would advance in full force, he at first stood on the defensive, but, finding that the bulk of the 2nd Corps remained inactive at Valéinzi, attacked the advance-guard and drove it back. Thereupon, with curious timidity, Oudinot once more, on the 13th, retrograded to Polotsk, where he arrived on the morning of the 16th. On the 13th Hamen joined the Russian 1st Corps, and next day Wittgenstein resumed the command.
Polotsk, a place of much importance in the struggles between Poland and Russia during the 15th and 16th centuries, lies on the right bank of the Düna, at the point where it is joined by the little river Polota. The country around was in 1812 wooded to within a few miles of the town. Polotsk was traversed from north-west to south-east by the Riga-Vitebsk high-road, to which that from St. Petersburg united itself some miles out. From the south-west the Vilna road reached the town across the Düna. A fourth road left the Riga highway on the right a little way from Polotsk, and ran north-eastwards to Nevel.
The advance-guard of the Russians came in contact with the French outposts during the afternoon of the 16th, and the sound of the firing broke up a council-of-war which Oudinot had called to consider the situation.