French victory at Eylau

Didn't they IOTL?

If you meant a decisive victory, well you would have ended with a earlier Friedland and Tilsit Treaty : maybe less convenient clauses for Russia but I don't see how Napoleon could prevent, by exemple, Alexander to take Finland.
 
Didn't they IOTL?

If you meant a decisive victory, well you would have ended with a earlier Friedland and Tilsit Treaty : maybe less convenient clauses for Russia but I don't see how Napoleon could prevent, by exemple, Alexander to take Finland.

Perhaps a more disciplined end of the first day and the fighting over Eylau itself.

It's hardly fair though. Napoleon and his officer corps were the best there was at the time. If they did as they did it would be hard to improve on it.
 
Most historians agree that it was a bloody stalemate.

Even though the Russians retreated, the French suffered significant casualties and achieved only a little.

I wanted to know what would happen if some of the earlier reverses (some of which came from Augereau & Saint-Hillaire's disastrous attack) were averted or minimized, and the battle would end differently.
 
LSCatilina said:
The consensus seems to be it was a strategical stalemate, while a tactical victory for Napoleon. That it was bloody was important, but the battle didn't had a great significance on the course of events itself.
It's sort of what I understood too. Eylau is a battle that is mostly remembered because of how bloody it was and how romanticised it's been. And I think because of that, Eylau tends to overshadow the Battle of Friedland, which was actually a decisive victory for Napoleon and the battle that ended the war.
 
Most historians agree that it was a bloody stalemate.

Even though the Russians retreated, the French suffered significant casualties and achieved only a little.

I wanted to know what would happen if some of the earlier reverses (some of which came from Augereau & Saint-Hillaire's disastrous attack) were averted or minimized, and the battle would end differently.

The Russians suffered more lethal casualties, and even lost prisoners, and they retreat...

So if in your opinion, the battle is not a french victory because the Russians weren't crushed and needn't beg for peace the day after... Yes it is a not a french victory...
 
If Eylau IOTL was a minor French victory it was only so because the Russians decided to retreat.

There are a couple of things that could have gone better for the French on the second day

1 Augereau's attack did not turn into the disaster it actually was. This would have avoided what was a serious crisis for Napoleon and given him a reasonable additional corps that could have effectively supported Davout;s attack in the afternoon.

2 Lestoq's Prussian division did not arrive as and when it did. Or perhasps ailed to arrive at all. It was Lestoq's counter attack against Davout that stopped what seemed to be an imminent French victory

3 Earlier arrival on the battlefield by Ney's Corps. With a couple of extra hours of daylight Ney could have enveloped the Russian left flank. The result of this might well have been a Napoleonic Cannae
 
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