Rayevsky's battery: history

The Battle of Borodino is one of the greatest and most famous battles in the history of mankind. The Russian army has shown heroism, which has been admired for more than two centuries. One of the most strategically important points on the field during the Battle of Borodino was Rayevsky's battery, so the French made great efforts to seize it.

Raevsky's battery is a hill in Borodino A field from which Russian positions to the west and east were very clearly visible, from the Novaya Smolenskaya road to Bagrationovye flushes.

On the mound were 18 guns, several also stood on the sides. Few guns remained on the hill itself, the rest were in the phalanx behind. The defense of the hill was led by Lieutenant-General Nikolai Rayevsky, commander of the 7th Infantry Regiment.

Battery Rayevsky ("War and Peace" by Tolstoy)

Several chapters are devoted to the description of the battle itself. Pierre Bezukhov never served in the army and had absolutely no idea what it was. But he came to the front out of a sense of patriotism and the desire not so much to fight and kill enemies as to feel himself a participant in such a grandiose and so much meaningful battle for his homeland.

Pierre on the battery Rayevsky really gets to know the war. At first he observes from the side, understanding nothing and feeling himself not at ease, but then Pierre takes an unusual sight.

Raevsky's battery was also called the "key of the Borodino position", because after its capture the defense of the Russian army was repeatedly complicated. The French occupied the village of Borodino for about six hours, put heavy artillery guns in the southeast and began shelling Rayevsky's batteries from the flanks.

The first attempt to take the position of "Rayevsky's Battery" was undertaken by the French infantry around 9 o'clock in the morning. First, the two divisions quickly came from the west. The Russians fired from guns from their positions, but when the enemy was at a distance of 100 paces, an order was given to fire, and the French ranks began to thin faster and faster. Soon the enemy could not stand it and ran.

At about 10 am the French made a second attempt to take Raevsky's battery. By that time, the Russian reserve forces had approached, and the situation in Bagration's flushes had improved. In the second attack, General Moran's division took part, which swiftly stepped forward and managed to hide in thick powder smoke before being shot by the Russians. Suddenly, the division of Moran promptly stepped through the parapet and seized Rayevsky's battery. But the Russians under the command of the sent General Yermolov again forced the French to flee.

Both the Russians and the French suffered considerable losses. Only by the first hour of the day, setting a fair amount of artillery on the Bagration flushes, the French decided on a third attack. This time Rayevsky's battery was attacked by 6 divisions. The cavalry went on the offensive both from the front and from the rear of the battery. But the Russian horse troops, standing behind the infantry, repulsed these attacks. Then the French went infantry immediately from all sides. A hot battle ensued. Barclay de Tolly and seriously ill General Likhachev took part in it. The French suffered heavy losses, but at the beginning of the 5th hour Raevsky's battery was seized, and the Russians were forced to retreat to Kutuzov's borders.