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Confident that both Barclay and Bagration would be finally trapped, Napoléon issued the order of the day to the army and advanced in pursuit of Barclay’s army, hoping to engage him at his defensive position at Vitebsk on the Danube. On July 28 when Napoléon entered Vitebsk, to his chagrin, he found out that Barclay had eluded him and withdrawn his army the night before, heading eastward and ultimately joining Bagration’s second army. Napoléon had hoped to catch up with Barclay’s army at Polotsk but was surprised to find out the enemy had withdrawn to Vitebsk; as he marched to Vitebsk in hot pursuit of Barclay’s army, his flank was under threat by General Tormassov’s third army, positioned near Brest-Litovsk and Wittgenstein’s army, now taking up position at Polotsk.
This precarious situation was averted by Napoléon’s back up force of his second army. In a two-pronged attack, Prince Schwarzenberg, at the head of his Austrian corps, supported by Reynier VII, blocked Tormassov’s advance, inflicting losses on the Russians and driving him back, while Saint-Cyr’s Bavarian VI corps and Oudinot’s II corps attacked and defeated General Wittgenstein at Polotsk, eliminating the immediate threat to the French left flank. As a result, General Saint-Cyr was awarded a Marshal’s baton in acknowledgement of his bravery. This was the first time Napoléon had awarded a Marshal’s Baton to one of his generals on the battlefield. As for Marshal Oudinot, he was lucky not to have been killed in action; he was wounded and had to be taken off the battlefield for medical attention.
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