In yesterday's article The Lament of the Cavalry on the Banks of the Berezina (Part I), I briefly recount the accounts from Hesse, and here I will revisit the battle in the light of Russian and Pakistani records.
▲ Part of the Battle of Beretino in Bogdanovich's "History of the Great Patriotic War of 1812 Based on Reliable Materials", the red and blue are French, and green is the Russian army
The same phase of the battle is described in Buturlin's book as follows, and the background of the Fournier brigade is clear from the beginning:
General Wlasof/Власов) [the R in the picture] encountered enemy outposts near Bytczi/Бытча), and drove them back to Studenki/Студянка), where he found himself in Marshal Victor's main force. The latter deployed the Girard (mistaken for Gérard) division [G] and Daendels divisions on the Stujanka highlands, and were equipped with many artillery. On its façade was a stream surrounded by bushes [a tributary of the Berezina River], and the right flank rested on the Berezina River, but the left wing did not have enough troops to extend the defensive line to the woods that could serve as a support point, and in fact it was suspended, so it had to be covered by two cavalry regiments under General Fournier [H on the left flank of the French army in the picture].
▲▲ Part of the work of Dietz, the Baden court painter Dietz, "The Destruction of Baden's Hussars at the Battle of Beretino in 1812"
General Vlasov set up positions parallel to the French positions on the high ground on the left bank of the creek, and sent Colonel Geengroß (Gerngroß/Гернгросс, misrepresented Herngross) to lead the Mixed Hussar Regiment [formed by the reserve squadrons of the regiments] and the Rotionov Cossack Regiment to attack the left flank of the [French] position. The latter advanced astutely, but was defeated by the onslaught of General Fournier, but the Mixed Hussars then repelled Fournier.
During this period, Quartermaster General Diebitsch/Дибич) formed a 12-gun gun group to counter the enemy's right flank. The fierce fire of this artillery group caused great confusion to the French convoy preparing to cross the river, and the carriages rushed to the bridge and crowded together, so that it was impossible to advance. The various types of vehicles formed a group of unknown shapes and could not move, unguarded and exposed to the ravages of artillery. Marshal Victor judged that he could only ensure the passage of French vehicles by relying on the offensive to repel the artillery group. To this end, he advanced with an infantry column towards the center of the Russian army. The infantry column dispersed under artillery fire into the bushes by the river and then appeared in scattered formations. The [Russian] 24th Hunting Regiment [also in scattered formations] went over to deal with them and repel them. Subsequently, the French had just formed a Guard artillery group on the right bank of the Berezina River [on the west bank] to bombard the Russian left flank, and Marshal Victor advanced under the cover of this artillery group.
General Berg's first line arrived just in time to repel the attack. The Russians deployed 36 cannons to the front, reinforcing the Chevsk Regiment, the 1st Water Regiment, the 10th Petersburg Militia Brigade to the left flank, and later sent the Perm Regiment over, and the French right flank was forced to retreat. As for the right flank of our army [Russians], the 23rd Mounted Artillery Company there repelled Fournier's cavalry, which had been located on high ground slightly far from the bridge.
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The scattered troops in the middle of the enemy army regained the advantage, and General Dibic sent the Nizov regiment and the Voronezh regiment to deal with them, drove the enemy to the side of the creek, and captured a gun group on the other side of the creek. However, Marshal Victor attacked the two regiments, and his reserves, including infantry and cavalry, crushed the two regiments with their backs to the stream, and the enemy reserves continued to win, even successfully breaking into the center of the Russian defensive line. The 11th [light] artillery company that the Russians had put in at this time successfully stopped the enemy advance, and 2 squadrons of cuirassiers and 1 battalion of the Pavlovsk Grenadier Regiment completely repelled it.
Thus, the corsochets that eventually repelled the four squadrons of the Fouriers Brigade were only 2 unarmored reserve squadrons of the Knight Guard and the Horse Guard. The Russian infantry faced by the Fournier Brigade should be the 24th Hunting Regiment mentioned by Butullin and the Nizov and Voronezh Infantry Regiment, the former most of which was engaged in scattered warfare with the French on the front line, and the latter was flanked by cavalry during the engagement with the Girald Division, so it would not deliberately form a phalanx under artillery fire as in the Darwik war report, and the reason why it would write a phalanx was, of course, because the Russian infantry found that the cavalry was approaching and urgently gathered into a temporary formation. The recollection of The Russian Major Steiner Hale also mentions: "The enemy's 4 cavalry squadrons rushed past our scattered troops, ready to cut into the column of our rear [Voronezh Regiment] and capture the artillery it was responsible for covering." The later history of the Baden Hussar Regiment is clearly a reference to butuerlin's work, which is recorded as follows:
▲ Ditz painting panorama
At the beginning of the battle, General Fournier was wounded, after which Colonel von La Roche took over the command of the two regiments and asked the marshal to launch a second assault on the Russian infantry. He commanded the Hussars to attack with the assistance of the Hesse hussars. The Russian infantry was lined up in a phalanx, supported by artillery. A battalion of the Russian 34th Hunting Regiment [apparently a mistake of the 24th Hunting Regiment, since the 34th Hunting Regiment was not at all on the Battlefield of the Beretzina River] fired a close-range salvo, but the hussars then rushed over and immediately broke through the phalanx, hacking some and taking another. The Hussars suffered heavy losses in the Russian salvo and subsequent bayonet battles. After handing over some 500 prisoners of war to the Hussar Regiment, the Hussar Regiment continued to pursue the scattered Russian infantry, capturing many Russian artillery. At this moment, the enemy's 2 squadrons of cuirassier cavalry [the author of the regimental history had already lowered an overestimation based on Buturlin's writings] advanced forward, and the hussars were unable to transport the artillery... Colonel von La Roche led the few hussars he could muster to engage the cuirassiers. After von La Roche's mount died, he was also wounded, and several people around him were scattered and himself became a prisoner of war. Subsequently, as several French cannons turned their heads to bombard the Russian cuirassiers, Sergeant Springer and Sergeant Dünkel managed to free the Colonel.
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The Hussar Regiment was severely damaged, with Colonel von La Roche, Captain Bischov and three lieutenants wounded, in addition to 150 killed, wounded or missing.
In short, Fournier's less than 400 cavalry did indeed do their duty, showing a commendable performance from both sides. But whether Fournier-Sallovezé commanded the battle, and whether the achievements of the light cavalry were as astonishing as in several French records, are questions that deserve the reader's continued consideration and inquiry.