General Pyotr Bagration
Pyotr Bagration was Russia's most admired combat general and was mortally wounded at Borodino. Born in 1765 into a branch of the Georgian royal house of Bagrationi that had entered Russian service, he enlisted as a sergeant in 1782 and rose entirely through fighting. He served under Suvorov in the Turkish wars and in Poland, and in the Italian and Swiss campaigns of 1799, where his vanguard actions at Lecco and the crossing of the Alps made his reputation and where Suvorov treated him as his best subordinate. At Schöngrabern in November 1805 he was given a rearguard of about six thousand men and told to hold a French force several times larger long enough for Kutuzov's army to escape encirclement. He held for a whole day, lost roughly half his command, and fought his way out with his colours. He commanded the advance guard at Austerlitz and fought at Eylau, Heilsberg and Friedland. He led armies against Sweden in 1808, crossing the frozen Gulf of Bothnia to the Åland Islands, and against the Ottomans on the Danube. In 1812 he commanded the Second Western Army, and the campaign's central problem was uniting it with Barclay de Tolly's larger First Army before Napoleon could destroy either. He conducted a long retreat under pressure and joined at Smolensk, quarrelling bitterly with Barclay throughout and denouncing the withdrawal as cowardice. At Borodino in September he held the left, defending the fleches against repeated assaults, and was struck in the leg by a shell fragment. He refused amputation and died of gangrene seventeen days later.
- Lived: 1765 CE – 1812 CE
- Nationality: Russian
- Roles: general
