Qualla: Second Battle of Polotsk https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:35 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Second Battle of Polotsk https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk Second Battle of Polotsk: Introduction https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk/ Photo credit probably Vasiliy Fiodorovich Timm (1820-1895)., Public domain. By the third day, much of Polotsk was on fire. Russian artillery had been bombarding the town since the morning of 18 October 1812, and house-to-house combat had reached the streets. Inside the burning town, a Bavarian rear guard fought to keep open a southern road for the retreat of Marshal Saint-Cyr's Franco-Bavarian corps. Outside, General Peter Wittgenstein's Russians - 38,000 of them, against the 15,000 weary French troops still standing - were closing what remained of the encirclement. Two months earlier, Saint-Cyr had won the First Battle of Polotsk with the same forces against the same Russians. The world had changed since then. Napoleon was in Moscow, his Grande Armee freezing, and the northern flank that Polotsk had been built to protect was about to come apart.

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Image: probably Vasiliy Fiodorovich Timm (1820-1895). | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/u9u7-second-battle-of-polotsk-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Second Battle of Polotsk: The Dwina Line https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk/ Photo credit Alex Zelenko, CC BY-SA 4.0. When Napoleon marched on Moscow in the summer of 1812, he left Marshal Oudinot's corps - later commanded by Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr - to hold a defensive bastion at Polotsk on the Dwina River. The position was critical for several reasons. It kept Wittgenstein's Russian army fr...

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Image: Alex Zelenko | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/u9u7-second-battle-of-polotsk-the-dwina-line.mp3 0:06 2 full Second Battle of Polotsk: The Numbers Shift https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk/ Photo credit Alex Zelenko, CC BY-SA 4.0. By mid-October, Russian reinforcements had transformed the situation. Wittgenstein commanded close to 50,000 men - 31,000 regulars and 9,000 militia at Polotsk itself, plus 9,000 more under General Steingall maneuvering toward the French rear. Against this, Saint-Cyr could field ...

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Image: Alex Zelenko | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/u9u7-second-battle-of-polotsk-the-numbers-shift.mp3 0:06 3 full Second Battle of Polotsk: Three Days https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk/ Photo credit Alex Zelenko, CC BY-SA 4.0. The first day's fighting was brutal and inconclusive. Russian columns made seven consecutive frontal assaults on the Polotsk defenses while Steingall pressed in from the east. All seven attacks were beaten back by nightfall, but at heavy cost - Russian losses came to 8,000 to 12,...

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Image: Alex Zelenko | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/u9u7-second-battle-of-polotsk-three-days.mp3 0:06 4 full Second Battle of Polotsk: The Bavarian Rear Guard https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk/ Photo credit Alex Zelenko, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of 20 October, Saint-Cyr had one immediate problem: Steingall sat astride his line of retreat. He ordered his Bavarian contingent - the same Bavarians who had been worn down by months of garrison disease and combat - to drive Steingall back. They did. The Bavarian ...

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Image: Alex Zelenko | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/u9u7-second-battle-of-polotsk-the-bavarian-rear-guard.mp3 0:06 5 full Second Battle of Polotsk: What Polotsk Set Up https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-polotsk/ Photo credit Alex Zelenko, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wittgenstein's victory mattered less for the ground it took than for what it released. With his northern flank gone, Napoleon could no longer count on a defensible line behind which the Grande Armee could winter. The road to the catastrophe at the Berezina opened directly from th...

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Image: Alex Zelenko | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/9/u/7/second-battle-of-polotsk-wp/u9u7-second-battle-of-polotsk-what-polotsk-set-up.mp3 0:06 6 full