Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration

Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration (1765–1812) was a Russian general of the Napoleonic Wars descended from the ancient royal Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia. Enlisting in the Russian imperial army as a private in 1782, Bagration became the star pupil and beloved companion of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov, participating in Suvorov's legendary Italian and Swiss expedition of 1799.

In 1805, Bagration held off 30,000 French troops under Murat and Lannes with only 6,000 men at the Battle of Schöngrabern (Hollabrunn), allowing Kutuzov's main army to escape. In 1812, commanding the 2nd Army of the West, Bagration conducted a masterful withdrawal to unite with Barclay de Tolly at Smolensk. On September 7, 1812, at the Battle of Borodino, Bagration defended the pivotal southern earthworks (the 'Bagration flèches') against repeated, desperate French frontal assaults until a cannonball shrapnel shattered his left tibia. He died of gangrene two weeks later, mourned as Russia's greatest battlefield hero.