396 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period IV. 



and 



consisting of 17,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, 

 eighty-four guns. 



This battle, which took place at Fere Champcnoise, 

 on the 25th March, 1814, was opened by the advanced 

 guard, which consisted of the Russian chevalier guards 

 and cuirassiers. They attacked vigorously the retreating 

 French, who, forming their infantry in squares, were 

 steadily falling back protected by their artillery and 

 cavalry. The allied horse, coming up in great numbers 

 under the Grand Duke Constantine and General Nostitz, 

 soon overthrew the French dragoons, and captured some 

 forty-four guns. A rain-storm wetting the muskets 

 rendered them useless, and the French infantry deprived 

 of their artillery, their weapons dumb and harmless, 

 were seized with a panic, and soon fled in coniusion 

 through Fere Champenoise. The gallant conduct of a 

 regiment of heavy cavalry, under the command of the 

 brave General Le Clerc, who charged with the utmost 

 vigour to cover their retreat, and the approach of night, 

 alone enabled the French marshals to restore order to 

 the remains of their army. 



WhUe this was going on in one portion of the plain, 

 the Emperor Alexander in person, accompanied by the 

 King of Prussia and a large body of cavalry, feU in with 

 a French division under General Pacthod, who was in 

 charge of a great convoy of guns and provisions, and 

 who had been bravely resisting the attacks of Generals 

 Korf and Wassilchikoff, who had attacked him boldly 

 with some of the finest regiments of the Russian cavalry. 



Sir Archibald Alison gives a most vivid description 

 in his " History of Europe " of the gallant fight that 

 ensued after the arrival of the Russian Emperor upon 

 the field. 



" As soon as Alexander was aware that this corps con- 

 sisted of enemies, he took the most prompt measures 

 to encompass them and acconiplish their destruction. 

 The Russian and the Prussian cuirassiers of the guard 

 were formed on the right — Korf's hussars, who had 

 moved parallel to them in their cross march, in front — 

 and WassilchikofF's dragoons on their left rear. Thus 



