The Battle of Ostrovno (French: Combat d'Ostrowno) was a military engagement that took place on 25 July 1812, between French forces under the command of King of Naples Joachim Murat and Russian forces under General Ostermann-Tolstoy and ended with the Russian forces retreating from the battlefield. Context With the beginning of the Russian campaign in late June 1812, Emperor Napoleon I launched a series of envelopment maneuvers with his Grande Armée. With the Russian Imperial armies before him, Napoleon's first such maneuver at Vilna, failed without any engagement taking place. Napoleon then launched a second such attempt aimed toward Vitebsk in a bid to turn the main Russian army under Barclay de Tolly. With French forces moving through different routes in the direction of Vitebsk, a first major engagement took place on 25 July near Ostrowno, 30 kilometers west of Vitebsk, when General Etienne de Nansouty's 1st Cavalry Reserve Corps encountered the forces of Russian General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy. Battle Early on the morning of 25 July, General Nansouty set two of his divisions in motion, from the village of Boudilova and towards Ostrovno, in accordance with the orders he had received from the Emperor. Meanwhile, Murat, commanding the French forces in this sector, departed from the village of Beshankovichy with two battalions of the 8th Light infantry regiment, and headed towards Nansouty's position. Following Murat was the entire IV Army Corps of Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais, spearheaded by the division of General Delzons, which was followed at some distance by that of General Broussier. With Murat not yet on the field of battle, Nansouty's men encountered the vanguard of the Russian IV Corps, namely the 11th division under General Choglokov, the 23rd division of General Bakhmetiev, some cavalry and an artillery support of 66 pieces. Nansouty had under his command the light cavalry division of Bruyères (brigades Jacquinot, Piré and Nienwiewski) and the heavy cavalry division of Saint-Germain. In a bid to pin down the enemy and despite the disproportion in forces, Nansouty sent forward Piré's brigade (16th Chasseurs à cheval and 9th Chevau-légers lanciers) in a successful charge that dislodged the Russian vanguard and took 150 prisoners of war and 8 artillery pieces. Murat then arrived on the battlefield with reinforcements, deploying his two battalions of light infantry, and assuming personal command of Saint-Germain's cuirassier division. With the cuirassiers successfully countercharging and repulsing a Russian Dragoon regiment that