In the First battle of Polotsk, which took place on August 17-18, 1812, Russian troops under the command of Peter Wittgenstein defeated French troops led by Nicolas Oudinot and stopped their advance to Saint Petersburg. The first battle of Polotsk should be distinguished from the second battle of Polotsk which took place during the same campaign two months later.[1]
After the battle of Klyastitsy and several minor losses Oudinot's Corps retreated to Polotsk. In the early morning of August, 17 the 1st Infantry Corps led by Wittgenstein attacked the French positions near the village of Spas, forcing the French to retreat. Oudinot transported additional units to the sector of the attack and also counterattacked in the centre. By the night both the French and the Russians managed to keep their positions. Oudinot was wounded and had to hand over the administration to Gouvion Saint-Cyr.
The next morning Gouvion Saint-Cyr undertook a major offensive. He managed to mislead Wittgenstein about the area of the offensive, regroup his troops and suddenly attack the left flank and centre of the Russian positions. In the beginning the offensive was a major success, the French troops crushed the Russians and captured seven cannons. When the defeat seemed imminent, Wittgenstein organized cavalry counterattack. It caused a scare among the French who had to ceased the offensive and retreat. On the other hand, Wittgenstein retreated to the Drissa. For the next two months both the French and the Russians ceased any attempts to upset the balance of powers.
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fr:Première bataille de Polotsk hu:Első polocki csata pl:Pierwsza bitwa pod Połockiem ru:Первое сражение под Полоцком (1812) fi:Polotskin ensimmäinen taistelu
Battle of Porto reenactment, in 2009. In the First Battle of Porto (March 28 1809) the French under Marshal Soult defeated the Portuguese under General Parreiras, outside the city of Porto[1] in the Peninsular War. Soult followed up his success by storming the city, with horrible slaughter. It is estimated that 10,000 of the inhabitants perished in the attack.
After the Battle of Corunna, Napoleon ordered Marshal Soult to invade Portugal from the north. He was to seize Oporto by February 1 and Lisbon by February 10. Napoleon failed to take into account either the wretched condition of the roads or the fact that a full-scale guerilla war had broken out in Northern Portugal and Spain.
Soult's II Corps had four infantry divisions, commanded by Major-Generals Pierre Merle (4 battalions each of the 2nd Light, 4th Light and 15th Line; 3 bns. of the 36th Line), Julien Mermet (4 bns. each of the 31st Light, 47th and 122nd Line; 1 bn. each of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Swiss), Etienne Heudelet (2 bns. each of the 22nd and 66th Line; 1 bn. each of the 15th and 32nd Light, 82nd Line, Legion of the Midi, Paris Guard and Hanoverian Legion) and Henri Delaborde (3 bns. each of the 17th Light, 70th and 86th Line). Maj-Gen Jean Franceschi led Soult's corps cavalry (1st Hussars, 8th Dragoons, 22nd and Hanoverian Chasseurs). Attached were Maj-Gen Lahoussaye's 3rd Dragoon (17th, 18th, 19th and 27th Dragoons) and Maj-Gen Lorge's 4th Dragoon Divisions (13th, 15th, 22nd and 25th Dragoons)[2]. In all, Soult had 23,500 men, including 3,100 cavalry [3].
Soult's first attempt to invade Portugal was defeated by local militia on February 16. The French then moved northeast to Orense in Spain, seized an unguarded bridge and marched south. On the way, Franceschi's cavalry overran Maj-Gen Mahy's Spanish brigade at La Trepa on March 6, inflicting 700 casualties. The French crossed into Portugal and occupied Chaves on March 9.
From Chaves, Soult moved west to Braga. East of that city, near Póvoa de Lanhoso and after several days of combat, the French veterans smashed a motley Portuguese army of 2,000 soldiers and several thousand civilian armed with agricultural tools, first under Freire de Andrade and afterwards under Baron Eben. Of Eben's 22,000-man force, 4,000 were reported killed and 400 captured. The French, who lost 600 killed or wounded, also seized 17 Portuguese cannon.
Bishop Castro organized an army of 24,000 men to defend Oporto. Generals Lima and Parreiras commanded two battalions, each of the 6th, 18th and 21st Infantry Regiments, and one battalion of the 9th and other units. The 4,500 Portuguese regulars were supported by 10,000 ordenança (militia) and 9,000 armed citizens. When Soult hurled Merle, Mermet, Heudelet, Franceschi and Lahoussaye at the Portuguese deployed north of the city, Castro's force soon dissolved and the battle became a massacre. The Portuguese regular units were annihilated. The next day, the French stormed the city walls. Thousands of fleeing civilians drowned when a bridge of boats across the Douro River collapsed under their weight and French artillery fire [3]
In the roadstead, Soult captured a squadron of Spanish naval vessels and 30 merchant ships. The French also found large stockpiles of British military stores. In the battle and storming of the city, the French lost 72 officers and 2,000 rank and file casualties. The Portuguese lost about 8,000 killed and 197 cannons captured [2].
Soult did not have very long to enjoy his success. Almost at once, the ordenança cut his communications with Spain and a 1,300-man garrison was gobbled up by Francisco Silveira's Portuguese force in the Siege of Chaves. The French marshal started planning a retreat. The next action was the Battle of Grijó. The city was retaken on May 12 by the British and Portuguese under Wellesley in the Second Battle of Porto.
fr:Bataille de Porto it:Battaglia d'Oporto (marzo 1809)
The First Battle of Petersburg was an unsuccessful Union assault against the earthworks fortifications—the Dimmock Line—protecting the city of Petersburg, Virginia, June 9, 1864, during the American Civil War. Because of the rag-tag group of defenders involved, it is sometimes known as the Battle of Old Men and Young Boys.
In early June 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee were engaged in the Overland Campaign, facing each other in their trenches after the bloody Battle of Cold Harbor. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler was bottled up in the Bermuda Hundred area to the east of Richmond, Virginia, attempting to distract Lee by attacking Richmond. Butler realized that Richmond was supplied by railroads that converged in the city of Petersburg, to the south, and that taking Petersburg would cripple Lee's supply lines. He was also aware that Confederate troops had been moving north to reinforce Lee, leaving the defenses of Petersburg in a vulnerable state. Sensitive to his failure in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, Butler sought to achieve a success to vindicate his generalship. He wrote, "the capture of Petersburg lay near my heart."[1]
Petersburg was protected by fortifications known as the Dimmock Line, a line of earthworks long, east of the city, including 55 artillery batteries, and anchored on the Appomattox River. The 2,500 Confederates stretched thin along this defensive line were commanded by a former Virginia governor, Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise; the overall defense of Richmond and Petersburg was the responsibility of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.[2]
Butler's plan was formulated on the afternoon of June 8, 1864, calling for three columns to cross the Appomattox and advance from City Point (now named Hopewell, Virginia) with 4,500 men. The first and second consisted of infantry from Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps and U.S. Colored Troops from Brig. Gen. Edward W. Hinks's 3rd Division of XVIII Corps, which would attack the Dimmock Line east of the city. The third was 1,300 cavalrymen under Brig. Gen. August Kautz, who would sweep around Petersburg and strike it from the southeast. If any of these three forces made a breakthrough, it would be able to move into the rear of the defenders opposing the other two. Butler originally designated Hinks to command the operation, but Gillmore insisted that he was the senior officer and Butler later complained, "I was fool enough to yield to him."[3]
The troops moved out on the night of June 8, but made poor progress. The column of Gillmore's infantry got lost in the dark. Although Hinks arrived on time, he was ordered to wait for Gillmore so that all of the infantry could cross before the cavalry. Eventually the infantry crossed by 3:40 a.m. on June 9 and were ordered to move forward against the enemy's picket line at daylight. By 7 a.m., both Gillmore and Hinks had encountered the enemy, but stopped at their fronts. Gillmore, an engineering officer with no experience leading troops in combat, hesitated at the sight of the formidable earthworks. Hinks also felt that the Confederate defenses were too strong and that he could not move forward unless Gillmore attacked with him. Gillmore told Hinks that he would attack but that both of the infantry columns should await the cavalry assault from the south.[4]
Kautz's men did not arrive until noon, however, having been delayed en route by numerous enemy pickets. They assaulted the Dimmock Line where it crossed the Jerusalem Plank Road (present-day U.S. Route 301), at Battery 27, also known as Rives's Salient, with 150 militiamen, commanded by Maj. Fletcher H. Archer, manning two artillery lunettes. Kautz launched a probing attack by the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry against the militiamen, then paused and ordered his men to dismount. Confederate Brig. Gen. Raleigh E. Colston, who happened to be in the city without assignment at the time, brought forward a 12-pound howitzer to fire at the Union cavalrymen, but found that he had no antipersonnel rounds. Colston retreated under pressure as the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry, the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry, and the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry began to flank him.[5]
Kautz then launched his main attack by the 11th Pennsylvania against the Home Guard, a group consisting primarily of teenagers, elderly men, and some wounded soldiers from city hospitals. The Home Guards retreated to the city with heavy losses, but by this time Beauregard had been able to bring reinforcements from Richmond to bear: the 4th North Carolina Cavalry, part of the 7th Confederate States Cavalry from the Bermuda Hundred line, and an artillery battery. They were able to repulse the Union assault. Kautz, hearing no activity on Gillmore's front, presumed that he was left on his own and withdrew.[6]
Confederate casualties were about 80, Union 40.[7] Butler was furious with Gillmore's timidity and incompetence and arrested him. Gillmore requested a court of inquiry, which was never convened, but Grant later reassigned him and the incident was dropped.[8] On June 14–17, Grant and the Army of the Potomac slipped away from Lee and crossed the James River. They began moving towards Petersburg to support and renew Butler's assaults. The Second Battle of Petersburg and the Siege of Petersburg would soon follow.
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