the lion of the russian army - Florida State University

A grenadier had been separated from his line… [and] was assailed by four
of the enemy, one officer and three soldiers. On perceiving them approach
with fury in their eyes and gestures, like his general [Bagration] he
determined to sell his life dearly, and calling on “God and Suwarroff
[sic]!” he met the first with the contents of his piece: seeing him dead at
his feet, he received the second on the point of his bayonet: the brains of
the third he beat out with the butt end of his musket; and would have sent
the soul of the fourth after those of his comrades, had not the Frenchman’s
heels… carried him far from danger. The undaunted soldier, seeing the
coast clear, quietly regained his regiment, and fell into his place in the
ranks with silence and regularity, as if nothing had happened. 146
Facing overwhelming French forces, Prince Peter slowly began to withdraw with
troops of the left flank. He made another stand at Grund, where the French cut his line of
retreat. 147 For several hours, Bagration repulsed a series of French attacks and then
personally led the counterattack under the heavy French artillery and musket fire. He
succeeded in cutting his way out of encirclement towards Guntersdorf, where two
battalions of Novgorod and 6 th Jager Regiments covered his retreat. 148 By midnight, after
almost eight hours of savage fighting, Bagration finally disengaged and marched in the
wake of the main army. 149 The French troops bivouacked on the battlefield and around
Hollabrunn 150
146
Porter, Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden, 105. The same incident is described
verbatim in Bronenovsky to Lomonosov, 20 November 1805, Russkii arkhiv, 2 (1864): 786.
147 Colin, Campagne de 1805, Revue Historique, 75 (1907) 516-19; Oksman, Campaign of
1805, 77-78; Kwiatkowski, Die Kämpfe bei Schöngrabern und Oberhollabrunn 1805 und 1809,
214.
148
Bagration to Kutuzov, 17 November 1805, Correspondence of Kutuzov, 165; General
Staff Study of 1805 Campaign, RGVIA, f. 846, op. 16, d. 3124, l 91.
149 Bagration marched through Jetzelsdorf - Lechwitz - Frainspitz and arrived to Pohrlitz on
18 November. Egger, Das Gefecht bei Hollabrunn und Schongrabern 1805, 17; Mikhailovsky-
Danilevsky, Campaign of 1805, 124; Mathieu Dumas, Memoirs of His Own Time, (Philadelphia,
1839), II, 145-46.
150
Colin, Campagne de 1805, Revue Historique, 75 (1907): 519. Hugo referred to Sebastiani
attacking Bagration on 17 November at Pohrlitz and capturing 2,000 men. This information was
not verified by any other source, and seems doubtful because, after Schongrabern, Bagration had
243