The first combat of importance during the Russian campaign was fought at Ostrowna. On the 18th of July, Napoleon reached Klubokoe. There he was informed that the Russian general, Barclay de Tolly, had abandoned the camp at Drissa, and was marching towards Witepsk. He immediately ordered all his corps upon Beszenkowici; and so admirable and precise were his combinations, that the whole of his immense mass of armies reached the place in one day. Segur has graphically described the apparent chaos of confusion which seemed to result from that very regularity itself. The columns of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, presenting themselves on every side; the rush, the crossing, the jostling; the contention for quarters, and for forage and provisions; the aides-de-camp bearing important orders vainly struggling to open a passage. At length, before mid night, order had taken the place of this apparent anarchy. The vast collection of troops had flowed off towards Ostrowno, or been quartered in the town, and profound silence succeeded the tumult. The Russian army had got the start of Napoleon, and now occupied Witepsk.

The first combat of Ostrowno took place on the 25th of July. The Russian infantry, protected by a wood, fiercely contested the ground, but were beaten back at every point by the repeated charges of Murat, seconded by the eighth regiment of infantry, and the divisions of Bruyeres and St. Germains; and at length the division of Delzons coming up completed the victory of the French. On the 26th, the Russians who had been reinforced, and had occupied a very strong position, seemed disposed to renew the struggle. Barclay had thrown forward this portion of his force to retard the French advance, while he daily looked for the junction of Bagration. The French van had also been reinforced; Prince Eugene with the Italian division having joined in the night. The numbers and strong position of the Russians gave them an immense superiority in the beginning of the day. They attacked with fury, issuing in large masses out of their woods with deafening war cries. The French regiments opposed to this onset were mowed down, beaten back, and in danger of an irretrievable rout. At this critical moment, Murat placed himself at the head of a regiment of Polish lancers, and with word and gesture incited them to an unanimous and energetic rush. Roused by his address, and inspired with rage at the sight of their oppressors, they obeyed with impetuosity. His object had been to launch them against the enemy, not to mingle personally in the torrent of the fight, which must disqualify him for the command; but their lances were in their rests, and closely filed behind him; they occupied the whole width of the ground; they hurried him forwards at the full speed of their horses, and he was absolutely compelled to charge at their head, which he did, as the eye-witnesses affirm, “with an admirable grace,” his plumed hat and splendid uniform giving him on this occasion, and numberless others in which he displayed a most joyous and reckless courage, the air of some knight of romance. This impetuous onset was seconded by the other French leaders. Eugene, General Girardin, and General Pire attacked at the head of their columns, and finally the wood was gained. The Russians retreated, and disappeared from view in a forest two leagues in depth, into the recesses of which even the impetuosity of Murat hesitated to follow. The forest was the last obstacle which hid Witepsk from their view. At this moment of uncertainty, Napoleon appeared with the main body of the army, and all difficulties and uncertainties soon vanished. After hearing the report of the two princes, he went without delay to the highest point of ground he could reach. There he observed long and carefully the nature of the position, and calculated the movements of his enemies; he then ordered an immediate advance. The whole army rapidly traversed the forest, and began to debouch upon the plain of Witepsk before night-fall. The approaching darkness, the multitude of Russian watch-fires which covered the open ground, and the time requisite to complete the extrication of his several divisions from the defiles of the forest, obliged Napoleon to halt at this point. He believed himself to be in presence of the main Russian army, and on the eve of the great battle he so ardently desired. He left his tent, and repaired to his advanced posts before daybreak on the 27th, and the first rays of the sun shewed him the whole of Barclay’s forces encamped on an elevated position, commanding all the avenues of Witepsk. The deep channel of the river Lucszissa marked the foot of this position, and ten thousand cavalry and a body of infantry were stationed in advance of the river to dispute its approaches; the main body of the Russian infantry was in the centre on the high road; its left, on woody eminences; its right, supported by cavalry, resting on the Dwina.

Napoleon took his station on an insulated hill in view of both armies. Here, surrounded by a circle of chasseurs of his guard, he directed the movements of his troops as they successively advanced to form in line of battle. Two hundred Parisian voltigeurs of the ninth regiment of the line, were the first who debouched, and were ranged on the left in front of the Russian cavalry, and resting, like it, on the Dwina; they were followed by the sixteenth chasseurs and some artillery. The Russians looked on with coolness, offering no opposition. This favorable state of inaction was suddenly interrupted by Murat. Intoxicated at the brilliant and imposing assemblage of so many thousands of spectators, he precipitated the French chasseurs upon the whole Russian cavalry. They were met by an overwhelming opposition; broken, put to flight, and the foremost cut to pieces. The King of Naples, stung to the quick at this result, threw himself into the thickest of the rout and confusion, sword in hand. His life had nearly been forfeited to his headstrong valor. A furious and well-directed blow was just descending on his head, aimed from behind by a Russian trooper, and it was only averted by a sudden slash from the sabre of the orderly who attended Murat, which cut off the trooper’s arm. The consequences of these rash proceedings did not stop here. The successful resistance of the Russian cavalry impelled them to advance nearly as far as the hill on which Napoleon was posted, and his guard with great difficulty drove them back by repeated discharges of their carbines. The two hundred Parisian voltigeurs, left in an isolated position by the disorder into which the chasseurs had been thrown, were next placed in imminent peril. The Russian cavalry in returning to the main body, attacked and surrounded the voltigeurs. Both armies, spectators of this sudden and unequal conflict, regarded that small band of men as utterly lost. To the amazement of both French and Russians, however, this handful of apparent victims was presently seen to emerge unhurt from the dense cloud of assailants, who continued their original movement upon their own position. The voltigeurs had rapidly thrown themselves into square on a woody and broken space of ground, close to the river. Here the Russian cavalry could not act, while the steady fire of the voltigeurs made such havoc that their assailants were glad to leave them as they found them. Napoleon sent the cross of the Legion of Honor to every one of them on the spot.

The remainder of the day was spent by Napoleon in stationing his army; in waiting for the successive arrivals of different corps,—to be brief, in preparing for a decisive battle on the morrow. The more ardent of his generals wished that he had not waited till “the morrow,” and when he took leave of Murat with the words, “To-morrow you will see the sun of Austerlitz,” the King of Naples incredulously shook his head, saying, that “Barclay only assumed that posture of defiance, the better to ensure his retreat;” and then, with a temerity, verging on the ludicrous, gave vent to his impatient irritation by ordering his tent to be pitched on the banks of the Lucszissa, nearly in the midst of the enemy, that he might be the first to catch the sounds of their retreat.

Murat was right. The Russians retreated while the Emperor was preparing to make Witepsk the scene of a decisive battle. At daybreak, Murat came to inform the Emperor that he was going in pursuit of the Russians who were no longer in sight. Napoleon would not at first credit the report, but their empty camp soon convinced him of the truth. There was not even a trace to indicate the route Barclay had taken. The army then entered Witepsk, and found it deserted. They then followed in pursuit for six leagues, through a deep and burning sand, and during the march the soldiers suffered dreadfully from thirst. At last, night put an end to their progress at Agliaponorchtchina. While the troops were busy in procuring some muddy water to drink, Napoleon held a council, the result of which was, that it was useless to pursue the Russian army any further at present, and that it was advisable to halt where they were, on the borders of Old Russia. As soon as the Emperor had formed this resolution, he returned to Witepsk with his guards. On entering his head-quarters in that city on the 28th, he took off his sword, and laid it down on the maps which covered his table. “Here!” said he, “I halt. I want to reconnoitre, to rally, to rest my army, and to organize Poland. The campaign of 1812 is over; that of 1813 will do the rest.” Ah! well for him would it have been, had he been content with the laurels that were heaped upon his head, and fallen back then to devote himself to the restoration of Poland. But his faith in his star had not yet been weakened, and on, on—he would press, till checked by obstacles which no human power could overcome.