Battle of Pultusk, 26 December 1806

This battle was an indecisive engagement between the Russo-Prussian forces and the French army

British Museum catalogue: 'A battle between sturdy bears and skinny apes, representing the Russians and French at Pultusk. The apes are armed with pincers, with which they attempt to draw the teeth of the bears; they advance from the right across the river Bug, in which many are drowning. The Russians, with their standard of a double eagle, advance with fixed bayonets against the French. Their leader, not a bear, is encased from waist to ankles in a cask...he points with his saber at the enemy. Behind, another Russian officer shovels French apes into an oven, shaped like a Nissen hut...On the French side, an officer has the head of a cat and the body of a rat, with a collar inscribed Mew, and belt, Rat [Murat]. Napoleon, a rat-officer wearing a feathered bicorne, is astride the branch of a bare tree hanging over the water...Behind the rats advance the heads of Poles, wearing high fur busbies, and supported on tall poles...Above the battle flies a Russian officer with feathered wings and raised sword.' 

Inscribed 1812 on print British Museum catalogue: 'On 26 December 1806 there was a fierce but indecisive action at Pultusk between the French under Lannes and the Russians under Bennigsen and Buxhowden. Though the French were outnumbered and hampered by mud the Russians continued their retreat. Kamenskoi, the Russian commander in chief, had lost his head before the battle, ordering retreat and hurrying to the frontier. The 47th French Bulletin claimed Pultusk as a complete victory; the Russian official report claimed a complete Russian victory.'                 

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