Battle of Vitebsk (1812) 1812
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 26 July 1812 – 27 July 1812 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1812 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Belarus | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | French invasion of Russia | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 55.1833, 30.1667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The battle of Vitebsk, sometimes spelled Witepsk (Russian: Сражение при реке Лучосе, romanized: Battle of the Luchosa River), was a military engagement that took place on 26 and 27 July 1812 during the French invasion of Russia. The battle put a French force, under the command of Emperor Napoleon I, in combat with Russian rearguard forces under General Pyotr Konovnitsyn (on 26 July) and Peter von der Pahlen (on 27 July) and ended with the Russian forces making a strategic retreat from the battlefield.
The battle occurred as Napoleon was trying to envelop the Russian First Army at Vitebsk and force them to accept battle. The commander of the Russian First Army, General Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, was himself aiming to fight and thus massed the bulk of his forces at Vitebsk, even though he was aware that his chances to win against Napoleon were not good. Barclay's motivation to make a stand resulted from political pressures and from his own desire to improve the army's morale, after weeks of retreating without a fight.
The fighting on 26 July had General Konovnitsyn's rearguard division taking on elements of the French IV Corps and ended with the Russians managing to delay the enemy for the entire day, allowing the bulk of the army to mass at Vitebsk.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Vitebsk (1812) (revision 1370276534), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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