Eylau · 1807

The first major winter battle of the War of the Fourth Coalition after Prussia collapsed. Russia continued fighting to defend its influence in Poland and East Prussia while Napoleon tried to destroy Bennigsen's army before spring. At the crisis Murat threw the cavalry reserve — some ten thousand horsemen — into a charge often ranked among the greatest cavalry attacks in history. The bloody fight in a snowstorm brought no strategic breakthrough and only delayed the campaign's decision until Friedland.