Riding high from its victories over the Prussians at Jena and Auerstedt in October 1806, Napoleon's Grande Armée pushed into Poland. Following a series of minor actions, he elected to enter winter quarters to give his men a chance to recover from the campaigning season. Opposing the French were Russian forces led by General Count von Bennigsen. Seeing an opportunity to strike at the French, he began moving against the isolated corps of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. Sensing a chance to cripple the Russians, Napoleon ordered Bernadotte to fall back while he moved with the main army to cut off the Russians.
Slowly drawing Bennigsen into his trap, Napoleon was foiled when a copy of his plan was captured by the Russians. Pursuing Bennigsen, the French army became spread over the countryside. On February 7, the Russians turned to make a stand near Eylau. Quickly trying to reconcentrate his army, Napoleon entered the coming battle badly outnumbered. Arriving at Eylau around 2:00 PM, the corps of Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult and the cavalry of Marshal Joachim Murat began deploying and were quickly reinforced by the corps of Marshal Pierre Augereau and the Imperial Guard.
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