The Battle of Friedland

The Russian General Gortchakow had gathered 40,000 men in the north of Friedland, while, under the command of Bagartion, 27,000 Russian soldiers occupied the area of Sortlacks in the south.

It is to be Pierre Wagener's first participation in a truly bloody occurrence. How right he was with his sentence: Many more people will have to die.

When, on the afternoon of the 14^th of June, Marshall Ney attacked the Russian (prince) Bagration in the forest of Sortlack, he was put under fire by the Russian artillery which had taken position on a hill at the right bank of the river Alle, and was attacked by the Kollogribow cavalry. At about 6 o'clock, Napoleon came to the support through the Victor army corps, followed by the 4^th dragon-division under La Houssaye. This is how Sauzey describes this attack: The Houssaye division dashes toward their turn with the pouring in of their 1,800 horses and surges against the waves of assault by the Russian squadrons in a grandiose display where the last peaks of the enemy infantry went down, scattered in the planes of Sortlack.

The division counted 42 dead, 2 of them officers, 58 injured, 7 of whom were officers. The 19^th dragons mourned 9 dead (2 officers; Ltd. Grivel and Ltd. Duterte), and 19 injured (2 officers; Paris and Suzainnecourt).

After the fall of Friedland, our regiment pushed on to Tilsit. On the 8 ^th and 9^th of July, it is located in this city, when the long wished-for peace-treaty is signed there. Afterward, the 19^th dragons draw back to the area of Neukirch. It numbers 27 officers, 558 riders, and 556 horses. Their path continues on toward Warshaw. The position of General Laplanche is now replaced by Brigadier-General Rioul d'Avenay.

In October 1807, the regiment is located in Breslau (Wroclaw), garrison-city of the 4^th division. From here, Pierre Wagener writes to his mother:

Heart-dearest mother. I greet you all most happily, sister, brother, brother-in-law, and all my large family, and also Dominicus Wilhelm. I have received a letter with great happiness, that is why I have assumed that you are still in good health. And the money that you have sent, I have received. I cannot write much about myself, but the talk is going strong about more war. And there is a great illness amongst the people. We are still located in Schlesingen in Prussia, and I plead with you to please again send me 2 Luderen (read: Louis d' Or), because I am greatly in need. Because I have spent 7 weeks in the hospital and everything is very expensive. Because one can't live if one doesn't have money. And when you respond, please write to me where Michel Gruber is standing (read: located).

Put his address into my letter. Peter Wagener in the 19^th regiment, dragon in the 6^th company in the 5^th corps in the 4^th division of dragons in Breslau in Schlesingen.^[63]

About the illness that Pierre Wagener mentions in his account, Tulard writes:

The history of the illnesses observed in the Grande Armée during the campaign of Prussia and Poland is detailed in the reports of Coste and Percy. The authors underlined the importance of the fevers, of which they distinguished 3 kinds: the seasonal fevers coming from the camps, typhoid and dysentery, swamp fevers, and the hospital fevers, the types of which are typhus, septicemia, and pneumonia. As inevitable as well as undesirable road companions, the soldiers had various ectoparasites and intestinal illnesses. They suffered from skin diseases, scabies, jaundice, scurvy, and syphilis. Cases of smallpox were not the exception...

The worst of all the illness known to have occurred during the Empire among the napoleonic regiments were without a doubt exanthemic typhus. It is said that the sun of Austerlitz was so blinding that it prevented the sight of the horrors of the Brünn hospitals.

[63] LAUX Archiv, Kayl.