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Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
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Bonaparte sometimes picked the wrong
venue to fight and wound up with something between a victory and a defeat. A
hybrid in the win/loss column.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Eylau The Battle of Eylau was a
module for one of these hybrids and also became a
tract for further defeats of Napoleon as it showed that Bonaparte was not invincible at war involving large standing armies.
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After 14 hours of continuous battle, there was still no result but enormous loss of life. Authorities[who?] differ greatly, estimates of Russian casualties range from about 15,000 to 20,000 killed or wounded and 3,000 soldiers, 23 cannon and 16 colors captured.[16] The French lost somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000[17] with 5 Eagles lost. Chandler suggests as many as 25,000 French casualties, although conceding it is impossible to be certain.[18] The French had gained possession of the battlefield — nothing but a vast expanse of bloodstained snow and frozen corpses — but they had suffered enormous losses and failed to destroy the Russian army.
It was left to Marshal Ney to sum up. Riding over the fields of Eylau the following morning, Ney said, Quel massacre! Et sans résultat ("What a massacre! And without result").
Eylau was not the decisive victory characteristic of Napoleon's earlier campaigns, prolonging the war with Russia, until his decisive victory at the Battle of Friedland forced Tsar Alexander I to the peace table at Tilsit.
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