About 4 p.m., apparently on the hypothesis that St. Cyr had weakened his left to withstand the attack on his right, Wittgenstein ordered Iachvil to assault in earnest the western works. The attempt was hopeless, and could not for a moment have succeeded. Such advantage as the Russians gained was due to a rash counter-attack made by a Swiss regiment and a battalion of Croats. They suffered very heavily and were driven back upon the works, the Croats being mostly captured. But this was all that Iachvil could achieve, though his militia fought with fanatic fury. At nightfall St. Cyr’s position was practically intact; and the Russians had certainly lost far more heavily than the French. While the battle was proceeding, Steingell was approaching by the left bank of the Düna, but was only able to reach the Uchach, 7 or 8 miles west of Polotsk, by the evening of the 18th with his advance-guard. De Chambray criticises him for his slowness; but as he only crossed the Düna on the 16th, and then had nearly 50 miles of bad road to traverse in order to reach Polotsk, the stricture appears unjust. On the 19th Steingell informed Wittgenstein that he was at hand. The bridge at Desna was hardly commenced, and had St. Cyr been a little stronger the position of the Russians would have been even more serious than it was. Wittgenstein’s army had obviously been badly shaken by the fierce fighting of the day before; for he made no attempt to renew the attack until Steingell could join in from the south. This threw an awkward responsibility upon the commander of the weak Finland corps, and exposed him to the risk of destruction should St. Cyr decide to hold Polotsk only as a tête de pont and concentrate a superior force on the left bank of the Düna. To the writer it seems that St. Cyr might have abandoned his outlying works, and left the inner and continuous line to be held by about 14,000 men, while with the remaining 14,000 (allowing for losses) he attacked and defeated Steingell, who had scarcely 10,000 actually in hand. This, however, he did not do; and as the precise strength of the entrenchments is a matter of doubt he was perhaps right. He detached one regiment from each of his divisions, and sent them under General Amey to reinforce Corbineau. A Cuirassier regiment was also directed to the Uchach. Steingell’s advance-guard, only four battalions under Colonel Turshaninov, naturally halted before this accumulation of force and waited for the main body, while Steingell apparently was listening for the sound of Wittgenstein’s guns before advancing on Polotsk. The French containing force took up a fairly strong position among woods and broken ground, and effectually checked the advance of the Finland corps. St. Cyr, however, made up his mind that he was not strong enough to contend at the same time with both Russian forces, and in the evening began to evacuate Polotsk. Iachvil noted the withdrawal of troops and opened fire on his front, the Russian centre and left taking up the ball. The Russians were too late to molest the evacuation of the outer works, but they pushed forward against the inner line round the town. The houses everywhere took fire, partly ignited by the Russian howitzers, partly, as it would seem, burned by the French to clear the front of some of their works, which would otherwise have been masked. The Russian infantry attacks were everywhere repulsed; and during the evening Legrand’s and Maison’s divisions and the Bavarians defiled through the town and crossed the bridge, covered by Merle’s Swiss and Croats. At midnight the Russians entered Polotsk; but the battle was far from its end. Merle and his gallant regiments disputed every inch of the streets with splendid valour, repeatedly repulsing the headlong charges of the Russian infantry. By 2.30 p.m. the whole French army was safe on the left bank of the Düna, and the bridges were destroyed. St. Cyr, as he directed the battle, was severely wounded in the foot, and disabled for the rest of the campaign. He had perhaps committed an error in not merely holding the inner works at Polotsk and thus concentrating a superior force on Steingell; but the steady and successful retreat did him much honour. It seems clear that he was throughout master of his operations; and that Wittgenstein could only press the withdrawal very slightly. The honours of the fighting rested chiefly with the gallant Swiss regiments of Merle’s division, whose conduct in the rear-guard was truly admirable.
St. Cyr being now for the moment in safety, reinforced the force facing Steingell with another French regiment and placed Wrede in command. At 4.30 a.m. on the 20th he fell unexpectedly upon Steingell, whose advance-guard, surprised in its bivouacs, was seized with a panic and dispersed. Buturlin says that 1800 men of 2 regiments of Chasseurs were captured, but as this would appear to be almost their whole strength, and they figure later as at least 2 battalions strong, this is doubtless an exaggeration. Steingell’s main body was not closely supporting the unlucky vanguard, and on its dispersal he hastily collected the remainder of his troops and retreated on Desna, where he crossed the Düna, while Wrede, having disposed of him, rejoined the main body of the French army. Besides St. Cyr, Legrand, the senior divisional commander, was wounded, and the temporary charge of the 2nd and 6th Corps devolved upon Merle. On the 21st he finally retreated from before Polotsk. Wittgenstein, hampered by lack of engineers and bridging material, could not establish a passage over the Düna until the 23rd. Only a detachment of cavalry under Colonel Rüdiger forded the river and skirmished with Merle’s outposts. To make the best of things Wittgenstein detached a division of all arms under General Sazonov to Desna to reinforce Steingell. The latter thereupon on the 23rd repassed the Düna, detached Major-General Vlastov with a force of 8 regular battalions, 1 militia battalion, 3 squadrons of Hussars, a regiment of Cossacks and 12 guns—about 5000 men in all—to observe Dünaburg, and with the rest of his force moved once more up the left bank of the river. On the same day Wittgenstein completed a bridge at Polotsk and began to cross. He had just been joined by two battalions of Novgorod militia, which he left with another militia battalion, 2 batteries, a detachment of regulars and some cavalry and Cossacks to garrison Polotsk.
Merle retreated from before Polotsk in 3 columns, Legrand’s division moving on Bechenkowiczi, Wrede, with the remains of the 6th Corps and Corbineau’s cavalry, on Glubokoië to cover the road to Vilna, the remainder of the 2nd Corps and Doumerc’s Cuirassiers on Chasniki by way of Uchach and Lepel.
Martinien’s lists, probably not quite complete, show 238 officers of the 3 “combatant” arms, almost all of the 2nd Corps, killed and wounded during the three days’ fighting round Polotsk. The French loss would therefore have been in the region of 5000. The number of unwounded prisoners was apparently about 1000. The French lost also 1 gun. The Russians only admit a loss of 3000 killed and wounded, but, seeing the character of the fighting, and that the French were acting on the defensive and covered by entrenchments, this estimate is certainly far too low. Probably, allowing for Steingell’s losses, 8000 would not be too low a figure. Among the wounded were Major-Generals Balk, Hammen and the Prince of Siberia; and Privy Councillor Bibikov and Chamberlain Mordvinov, who commanded militia battalions.
Marshal Victor cannot long have had Napoleon’s instructions in his hands when he was called upon to act upon them. On reaching Smolensk he cantoned his corps between that place and Orsha. His troops appear to have maintained good discipline; and a commencement was made of establishing order in the vicinity. Some officers, at least, succeeded in instilling confidence into the villagers and obtaining supplies by regular methods; and more might have been done had the 9th Corps remained longer in the district. Upon learning from St. Cyr of the large reinforcements which were joining Wittgenstein, Victor sent Dändels’ German division to Vitebsk, and four battalions to Bechenkowiczi to watch the line of the Düna. Then he heard of the abandonment of Polotsk; and it was clear that he must assist the overmatched army of St. Cyr. He accordingly directed Dändels upon Bechenkowiczi; and with the rest of his corps moved towards Chasniki.
The result of the operations about Polotsk therefore had been that the French had been forced to abandon the line of the Düna, and that to sustain them Napoleon’s sole powerful reserve had to be diverted to sustain the retreating 2nd and 6th Corps. Only the small force at Smolensk was now available to reinforce the retreating army of the centre; and there was hardly anything to oppose the advance of Chichagov on the Berezina. On October 25th Napoleon was 70 miles south-west of Moscow, just about to retreat on Smolensk, with the Grand Army of Russia on his left flank able to reach his goal before him. Wittgenstein was advancing from the Düna towards the Berezina, but was faced by an equal or superior force, and might be kept from the main line of communications. Chichagov was at Brest-Litovsk, ready to march on Minsk, with nothing in his front but feeble detachments.
Therefore, in the last days of October, the focus of operations became the Berezina near Borisov. Upon it were converging: (1) Napoleon, nearly 400 miles distant, with an equal or superior enemy attending him on the flank and able to reach Smolensk before him; (2) Wittgenstein, 90 miles away, with an equal French force in his front; (3) Chichagov, 262 miles distant, with hardly anything to oppose him. Schwarzenberg was in rear of Chichagov, and watched by a force at least able to seriously hamper any attempt at pursuit made by him. So the curtain rose upon the last act of the great tragedy, as from every side Napoleon’s armies and those of his enemies set their faces towards the Berezina, soon to acquire a terrible renown in the history of the world.