Napoleon, having vanquished the Prussians, once more turned his arms against the Russians, who, under the command of Kamenski and Bennigsen, numbered about one hundred and fifteen thousand men. They were posted upon the Vistula; but as Napoleon easily passed that great river, they retired behind the Narew. The passage of this stream was one of the remarkable achievements of the French, during this portion of the Emperor’s splendid career.
Having arrived in the night, between the 18th and 19th of December, 1806, Napoleon reconnoitred the position of Marshal Davoust on the Narew, but a thick fog prevented him from attaining much accurate intelligence. He made his dispositions for attacking the enemy on the 22d or 23d of December. It is high time, he wrote to Marshal Davoust, to take our winter quarters; but this cannot be done till we have driven back the Russians.
The four divisions of General Bennigsen first presented themselves. Count Tolstoy’s division, posted at Czarnowo, occupied the apex of the angle formed by the junction of the Ukra and the Narew. That of General Sacken, also placed in rear towards Lopaczym, guarded the banks of the Ukra. The division of Prince Gallitzin was in reserve at Pultusk. The four divisions of General Buxhovden were at a great distance from those of General Bennigsen, and not calculated to render support to him.
It is easy to perceive that the distribution of the Russian corps was not judiciously combined in the angle of the Ukra and the Narew, and that they had not sufficiently concentrated their forces. If, instead of having a single division at the point of the angle, and one on each side at too great a distance from the first, lastly, five out of reach, they had distributed themselves with intelligence over ground so favourable for the defensive; if they had strongly occupied, first the conflux, then the two rivers, the Narew from Czarnowo to Pultusk, the Ukra from Pomichowo to Kolozomb; if they had placed in reserve in a central position, at Nasielsk, for example, a principal mass, ready to run to any threatened point, they might have disputed the ground with advantage. But Generals Bennigsen and Buxhovden were on bad terms; they disliked to be near each other; and old Kamenski, who had arrived only on the preceding day, had neither the necessary intelligence nor spirit for prescribing other dispositions than they had adopted in following each of them his whim.
Napoleon, who saw the position of the Russians from without only, certainly concluded that they were intrenched behind the Narew and the Ukra, for the purpose of guarding the banks, but without knowing how they were established and distributed there. He thought that it would be advisable to take, in the first place, the conflux, where it was probable, they would defend themselves with energy, and having carried that point, to proceed to the execution of his plan, which consisted in throwing the Russians, by a wheel from right to left, into the marshy and woody country in the interior of Poland. In consequence, having repeated the order to Marshals Ney, Bernadotte and Bessieres, forming his left, to proceed rapidly from Thorn to Biezun on the upper course of the Ukra; to Marshals Soult and Augereau, forming in his centre, to set out from Plock and Modlin, and form a junction at Plonsk on the Ukra; he put himself at the head of his right, composed of Davoust’s corps, Lannes’s corps, of the guard, and the reserves, resolved to force immediately the position of the Russians at the conflux of the Ukra and the Narew. He left in the works of Praga the Poles of the new levy, with a division of dragoons, a force sufficient to ward off all accidents, as the army was not to remove far from Warsaw.
Having arrived on the morning of the 23d of December at Okunin on the Narew, in wet weather, by muddy and almost impassable roads, Napoleon alighted, to superintend in person the dispositions of attack. This general, who, according to some critics, while directing armies of three hundred thousand men, knew not how to lead a brigade into fire, went himself to reconnoitre the enemy’s positions, and to place his forces on the ground, down to the very companies of the voltigeurs.
The Narew had been already crossed at Okunin, below the conflux of the Ukra and the Narew. To penetrate into the angle formed by those two rivers, it was necessary to pass either the Narew or the Ukra above their point of junction. The Ukra, being the narrower of the two, was deemed preferable for attempting a passage. Advantage had been taken of an island which divided it into two arms, near its mouth, in order to diminish the difficulty. On this island the French had established themselves, and they had yet to pass the second arm to reach the point of land occupied by the Russians between the Ukra and the Narew. This point of land, covered with woods, coppices, marshes, &c., looked like one very dense thicket. Further off, the ground became somewhat clearer, then rose and formed a steep declivity, which extended from the Narew to the Ukra. To the right of this natural intrenchment appeared the village of Czarnowo on the Narew, to the left of the village of Pomichowo on the Ukra. The Russians had advanced guards of tirailleurs in the thicket, several battalions and a numerous artillery on the elevated part of the ground, two battalions in reserve, and all their cavalry in the rear. Napoleon repaired to the island, mounted the roof of a barn by means of a ladder, studied the position of the Russians with a telescope, and immediately made the following dispositions. He scattered a great quantity of tirailleurs all along the Ukra, and to a considerable distance above the point of passage. He ordered them to keep up a brisk firing, and to kindle large fires with damp straw, so as to cover the bed of the river with a cloud of smoke, and to cause the Russians to apprehend an attack above the conflux, towards Pomichowo. He even directed to that quarter Gauthier’s brigade, belonging to Davoust’s corps, in order the more effectually to draw the enemy’s attention thither. During the execution of these orders, he collected at dusk all the companies of voltigeurs of Morand’s division, on the intended point of passage, and ordered them to fire from one bank to the other, through the clumps of wood, to drive off the enemy’s posts, while the seamen of the guard were equipping the craft collected on the Narew. The 17th of the line and the 13th light infantry were in column, ready to embark by detachments, and the rest of Morand’s division was assembled in the rear, in order to pass as soon as the bridge was established. The other divisions of Davoust’s corps were at the bridge of Okunin, awaiting the moment for acting. Lannes was advancing from Warsaw to Okunin.