Battles of Poltsk, August 17-18 and
November 14, 1812.
This town near the River Dvina was twice
the scene of important actions during the Campaign of 1812 in
Russia. On 18 August Marshall Oudinot and his II Corps, reinforced
by Gouvion St. Cyr's VI Corps to a total of 35,000 men, attacked
General Wittgenstein's Army of Finland after several weeks of
indecisive maneuvering. Oudinot himself was hors de combat with
a wound
received on the evening of the 17th, but Gouvion St. Cyr commanded
in his place the next day with some skill, and Wittgenstein was
driven back over the Dvina. Napoleon awarded St. Cyr his marshal's
baton for this achievement. next, during the retreat from Moscow,
Napoleon ordered Marshal Victor to attack Wittgenstein with hi
IX and the wounded Oudinot's II Corps to avert the danger of the
Army of Finland marching south to link up with other Russian forces
at Minsk or on the Beresina ahead of the retreating main French
army. Victor had six divisions available, and Wittgenstein some
35,000, and the Russians came off decidedly the worse in the encounter,
which centered around the village of Smoliani -- by which name
the battle is alternatively known. This imposed a delay on the
Army of Finland, but Admiral Tshitsagov won the race to the Beresina,
and all forces were converging on the river line by the third
week in November.
