Aspern-Essling the Marshal had a large share in preventing a complete
catastrophe. As soon as he heard of the breaking of the bridge he set
about to organise a flotilla of boats, and it was thanks to the supplies
of ammunition thus ferried across that the French troops on the north
bank were able to hold their own and cover the retreat to the Isle of
Lobau. While both sides were concentrating every available man for the
great battle of Wagram, Davout was entrusted with the task of watching
the Archduke John, whose army at Pressburg was the rallying point for
the Hungarians. The moment the French preparations were complete, the
Marshal, leaving a strong screen in front of the Archduke, swiftly fell
back on the Isle of Lobau, and by thus hoodwinking the Archduke gave the
Emperor an advantage of fifty thousand troops over the enemy. The Prince
of Eckmuehl's duty at the battle of Wagram was to turn the left flank of
the enemy and, while interposing his corps between the two Archdukes, at
the same time to threaten the enemy's rear and give an opportunity to
the French centre to drive home a successful attack. It was a most
difficult and dangerous operation, for at any moment the Archduke John
might appear on the exposed right flank. Whilst Davout was marching and
fighting to achieve his purpose, the main battle went against the
French. The left and centre were thrown back, and it seemed as if the
Austrians were bound to capture the bridge at Enzerdorff. Amid cries of
"All is lost!" the French reserve artillery and baggage trains fled in
confusion. But relief came at the critical moment, for the Prince of
Eckmuehl, hurling his steel-clad cuirassiers on the unbroken Austrian
foot, losing nearly all his generals in the desperate hand-to-hand
fighting on the slopes of the Neusiedel, at last gained the top of the
plateau and forced the enemy to throw back his left flank and weaken his
centre. The moment the Emperor saw the guns appear on the summit of the
Neusiedel, he launched Macdonald's corps against the Austrian centre and
sent his aide-de-camp to Massena to tell him "to commence the attack ...
the battle is gained." But Davout was unable to pursue his advantage
over the enemy's left, for at the moment he gained the top of the
plateau news arrived that Prince John's advance guard was in touch with
his scouts; accordingly he halted and drew up in battle formation, ready
at any moment to face the Hungarian troops should they attempt to attack
his rear. Fortunately for the French the Archduke John forgot that an
enemy is never so weak as after a successful attack, and instead of
hurling his fresh troops on the weakened and disorganised French, he
halted, and withdrew after dark towards Pressburg. When, during the
pursuit of the battle, the Archduke Charles sent in a flag of truce
offering to discuss terms, the Emperor called a council of war. There
was a certain amount of difference of opinion, but Davout was for
continuing the fight, pointing out that "once master of the road from
Bruenn, in two hours it would be possible to concentrate thirty thousand
men across the Archduke's line of retreat." The Marshal's arguments
seemed about to prevail when news arrived that Bruyere, commanding the
cavalry, was seriously wounded. Thereon the Emperor changed his mind,
crying out, "Look at it: death hovers over all my generals. Who knows
but that within two hours I shall not hear that you are taken off? No;
enough blood has been spilled; I accept the suspension of hostilities."
After the evacuation of the conquered territories the Marshal was
appointed to command the Army of Germany. His duties were to enforce the
continental system and to keep a stern eye on Prussia. The marriage with
Marie Louise for the time being relieved tension in Central Europe, and
accordingly in 1810 Davout was able to enjoy long periods of leave. He
was present as colonel-general of the Guard at the imperial wedding, and
at the interment of Lannes's remains in the Pantheon, and he did his
turn of duty as general in attendance on the imperial household. His
letters to his wife throw an interesting light on the imperial menage.
The officers in attendance were supplied with good, comfortable rooms
and food, but had to find their own linen, plates, wax candles,
firewood, and kitchen utensils; in a postscript he adds, "Not only must
you send me all the above, but add towels, sheets, pillow-cases, &c.;
until these arrive I have to sleep on the bare mattress."
In 1811 the growing hostility of Russia required the attendance of the
Prince of Eckmuehl at the headquarters of his command. Napoleon knew well
that nobody would be quicker to discern any secret movement hostile to
his interests than the man who in 1808 had done so much to check the
regeneration of Prussia by enforcing his orders, playing on the Prussian
King's fears and exposing the cleverness of the proposals of the
patriotic Stein. The Marshal reached his headquarters at Hamburg early
in February, and soon found his hands full. It was no longer a question
of so disposing the corps committed to his care that he might cripple
the English, "who since the time of Cromwell have played the game of
ruining our commerce," but of preparing a mixed force of French, Poles,
and Saxons, amounting to one hundred and forty thousand, for the
contingencies of a war with Russia, or for the absolute annihilation of
Prussia. To no other of his Marshals did the Emperor entrust the command
of one hundred and forty thousand troops, and consequently the old
enmities and jealousies broke out with renewed force. It was whispered
that the Marshal's income from his investments, pay, and perquisites was
over two million francs a year; that nobody in the imperial family had
anything like as much, and people said it was better to be a Davout than
a Prince Royal. The Prince disregarded all the annoying scandal his wife
sent him from Paris, and quietly busied himself with preparing transport
and equipping magazines for the coming war, diversified by an occasional
thundering declaration informing the King of Prussia that his secret
schemes were well known to the French authorities. But the subterranean
jealousies bore their fruit. Nobody had a good word to say for Davout,
and there was nobody to take his part. Most disastrously for the Grand
Army the misunderstanding which existed between Berthier and Davout
prevented their co-operation; and thus during the Russian campaign the
rash empty-headed Murat had greater weight with Napoleon than Davout,
the cautious yet tenacious old fighter. Accordingly at the battle of
Moskowa, when Napoleon had his last chance of annihilating the Russians,
he refused to listen to the Marshal, who pleaded to be allowed to turn
the Russian left during the night. "No," said the Emperor, "it is too
big a movement; it will take me too much off my objective and make me
lose time." Davout, sure of the wisdom of this advice, once again
renewed his arguments, but the Emperor rudely interrupted him with "You
are always for turning the enemy; it is too dangerous a movement." So
the battle of Moskowa was a disastrous victory, opening as it did the
gates of Moscow without the annihilation of the Russian armed forces in
the field. But it was greatly due to the Marshal that it was a victory
at all, for the Russians fought with the greatest stubbornness; nearly
all the French generals were wounded or killed, and at one moment a
panic seized the troops. Then it was that the Prince of Eckmuehl himself
rallied the broken battalions and led them to the charge. In spite of a
wound in the pit of his stomach, with bare head and uniform encrusted
with mud and blood, he forced his weary soldiers against the foe and, as
at Auerstaedt, by sheer indomitable courage, compelled his troops to beat
the enemy. His corps bore its share in the horrors of the retreat from
Moscow, forming for some time the rear guard.
When Napoleon deserted the relics of the Grand Army at Vilma the
Marshal's difficulties naturally increased, for his enemy Murat was now
in command, and, as he wrote to his wife earlier in the campaign, "I am
worth ten times as much when the Emperor is present, for he alone can
put order into this great complicated machine." But the King of Naples
did not long retain his command: he had not Davout's confidence in
Napoleon and was disgusted with the ill-success of the campaign and
afraid of losing his crown. The Marshal, ever loyal to the Emperor,
would listen to none of the Gascon's diatribes, and told him plainly,
"You are only King by the grace of Napoleon and by the blood of brave
Frenchmen. You can only remain King by Napoleon's aid, and by remaining
united to France. It is black ingratitude which blinds you." So Murat
went off to Italy to plan treason, and Davout returned to Germany to
place his life and reputation at the Emperor's service.
It fell to the Marshal's lot in 1813 to hold Northern Germany as part of
the plan of campaign whereby the advance of the Allies was to be
checked. The Emperor had determined to make an example of the town of
Hamburg, to teach other German cities the fate to be expected by those
who deserted him. His orders were that all those who had taken any share
in the desertion were to be arrested and their goods sequestrated, and
that a contribution of fifty million francs was to be paid by the towns
of Luebeck and Hamburg. The Marshal carried out his orders. Hamburg
writhed impotent at his feet and the "heavy arm of justice fell on the
canaille." Only in the case of the contribution did he make any
deviation from the Emperor's wishes, as it was inexpedient to drive all
the wealthy people out of the state. In pursuance of the Emperor's
plans, by the winter of 1813 Davout had made Hamburg impregnable. He had
laid in huge supplies, and built a bridge of wood two leagues long
joining Haarburg and Hamburg. With a garrison of thirty thousand men,
danger threatened from within rather than from without, for Napoleon's
bitter punishment of Hamburg, ending as it did with the seizure of eight
million marks from the funds of the city bank, had made the name of
France stink in the nostrils of the inhabitants. The Marshal was
determined to hold the town to the last. In December, when provisions
began to fail, the poor were banished from the city; those who refused
to go were threatened with fifty blows of the cane. "At the end of
December people without distinction of sex or age were dragged from
their beds and conveyed out of the town." During the siege the Russian
commander, Bennigsen, attempted by means of spies and proclamations to
raise a rebellion in the fortress, but Davout's grip was too firm to be
shaken, and a few executions cooled the ardour of the spies. It was not
till April 15th that the Marshal was informed by a flag of truce of the
fall of the Empire; not certain of the truth of the news, he refused to
give up his command. At last, on April 28th, official news arrived from
Paris, and on the following day the fifteen thousand men who remained of
the original garrison of thirty thousand swore allegiance to the
Bourbons and mounted the white cockade.
On May 11th General Gerard arrived to relieve Davout of his command. On
his arrival in France the Prince of Eckmuehl found himself charged with
having fired on the white flag after being informed of Napoleon's
abdication, of appropriating the funds of the Bank of Hamburg, and of
committing arbitrary acts which caused the French name to become odious.
His reply was first that until he had received official information of
the fall of the Empire it was his duty to take measures to prevent
Hamburg being surprised; that the appropriation of the funds of the bank
was the only means of finding money to hold Hamburg; that he was not
responsible for the continental system, and as a soldier he had only
obeyed commands; that as a matter of fact he had contrived to have the
heavy contribution lightened, and lastly, that during the siege he had
only had two spies shot and one French soldier executed for purloining
hospital stores. But in spite of his defence and the prayers of his
fellow Marshals Louis refused to allow Davout to take the oath of
allegiance, and accordingly when, in 1815, Napoleon returned from Elba,
the Prince of Eckmuehl alone of all the Marshals could hasten to the
Emperor without a stain on his honour.
Immediately on his return the Emperor made a great call on the
faithfulness of his friend, and told him he had chosen him as Minister
of War. The Marshal begged for service in the field, but the Emperor was
firm; Davout alone had held to him and all others had the Bourbon taint.
Still the Marshal refused, pleading his brusque manners and well-known
harshness; but at last the Emperor appealed to his pity, pointing out
that all Europe was against him, and asking him if he also was going to
abandon his sovereign. Thereon the Marshal accepted the post. It was no
light burden that he had undertaken, prince of martinets though he was,
to regenerate an army scattered to the winds. Everything was
lacking--men, horses, guns, transports, stores, and ammunition. Yet he
worked wonders, and by the beginning of June the Emperor had a field
army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, with another quarter of a
million troops in formation in France. On the return of the Emperor to
Paris after the disaster at Waterloo the Marshal in vain besought him to
dissolve the assemblies and proclaim a dictatorship, but Napoleon's
spirit was broken and the favourable moment passed by. Meanwhile, the
Emperor remained in idleness at Malmaison, and by the 28th of June the
Prussians arrived near Paris with the intention of capturing him; but
the Prince of Eckmuehl warded off the danger by barricading or burning
the bridges across the Seine and manoeuvring sixty thousand troops in
front of Bluecher. Thanks to this Napoleon escaped to Rochfort, and owed
his safety to Davout, for Bluecher had sworn to catch him, dead or alive.
On the evacuation of Paris the Marshal withdrew westwards with the
remnant of the imperial army, now called the Army of the Loire. But as
soon as Louis had once again ascended the throne he relieved Davout,
making Gouvion St. Cyr Minister of War and Macdonald commander of the
Army of the Loire. The Marshal spent some months in exile, but was
allowed to return to France in 1816. However the mutual distrust between
him and the Bourbons could not be overcome, and, although he took the
oath of allegiance and received the cross of St. Louis, he never
attempted to return to public life, and died of an attack of pleurisy on
June 1, 1823.
The causes of the success of the Prince of Eckmuehl are easy to
ascertain: acute perception, doggedness of purpose, and a devotion which
never faltered or failed, are gifts which are bound to bring success
when added to an exceptional run of good fortune. Among the Marshals
there were many, no doubt, who had as quick a perception and as vivid an
imagination as Davout, but there was no one who had his massive
doggedness and determination, and Bessieres alone perhaps surpassed him
in personal devotion to the Emperor. Much as we may see to blame in his
untiring hounding down of the patriot Stein in Prussia, in his cruel
exactions in Hamburg, and in the remorseless way he treated spies and
deserters, we must remember that he did it all from motives of
patriotism. Moreover, we cannot fail to admire a man who made it a
principle, when he had received rigorous orders, to accept all the odium
arising from their performance because he considered that, since the
sovereign is permanent and the officials are changeable, it is important
that officials should brave the temporary odium of measures which are
but temporary. In his opinion the phrase, "If the King only knew," was a
precious illusion which was one of the foundation-stones of all
government: thus it was that in carrying out severe orders the Marshal
never attempted to shield himself behind the name of the Emperor.
It was therefore from a spirit of patriotism, as the servant of the
French Emperor, that Davout pressed relentlessly on those who tried to
shake off the yoke of France. Stern as his nature was, he did not
disguise from himself that his policy bore hardly on the conquered, for
when Napoleon asked him, "How would you behave if I made you King of
Poland?" he replied, "When a man has the honour to be a Frenchman, he
must always be a Frenchman," but he added, "From the day on which I
accepted the crown of Poland I would become entirely and solely a Pole,
and I would act in complete contradiction to your Majesty if the
interests of the people whose chief I was demanded that I should do so."
As a soldier and an administrator, though he is rightly called the
prince of martinets, yet nothing was more abhorrent to his eyes than red
tape. Efficiency was everything, and efficiency he considered was only
to be gained by personal inspection of detail considered in relation to
existing conditions, and not by blind obedience to hard and fast rules.
It was this habit of mind and readiness for all contingencies which won
for him his titles of Duke of Auerstaedt and Prince of Eckmuehl, and made
him the right-hand man of the great Emperor, who confessed that, "If I
am always prepared, it is because before entering on an undertaking, I
have meditated for long and foreseen what may occur. It is not genius
which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in
circumstances unforeseen by others: it is thought and meditation."
IX
JACQUES ETIENNE JOSEPH ALEXANDRE MACDONALD, MARSHAL, DUKE OF TARENTUM
Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexandre Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, was the
son of a Uist crofter, Macachaim. The Macachaims of Uist were a far-off
sept of the Macdonalds of Clanranald. The future Marshal's father was
educated at the Scots College in Paris, and was for some time a tutor in
Clanranald's household. Owing to his knowledge of French he was
entrusted with the duty of helping Flora Macdonald to arrange the escape
of Prince Charles. He accompanied the Prince to France, and obtained a
commission in Ogilvie's regiment of foot. In 1768 Vall Macachaim, or
Neil Macdonald, as he was called in France, retired on a pension of
thirty pounds a year. On this pittance he brought up his family at
Sancerre. The future Marshal was born at Sedan on November 17, 1765. He
was educated for the army at a military academy in Paris, kept by a
Scotchman, Paulet, but, owing to bad mathematics, he was unable to enter
the Artillery and Engineering School. This failure came as a bitter blow
to the keen young soldier, who, after reading Homer, already imagined
himself an Achilles. But in 1784 his chance came; the Dutch, threatened
by the Emperor Joseph II., had to improvise an army, and Macdonald
accepted a pair of colours in a regiment raised by a Frenchman, the
Count de Maillebois. A few months later the regiment was disbanded, as
the Dutch bought the peace they could not gain by arms. The young
officer, thus thrown on his own resources, was glad to accept a
cadetship in Dillon's Irish regiment in the French King's service, and
at the moment the Revolution broke out he was a sub-lieutenant in that
corps. Owing to emigration and the fortune of war, promotion came
quickly. Macdonald also was lucky in having a friend in General
Beurnonville, on whose staff he served till he was transferred to that
of Dumouriez, the commander-in-chief. As a reward for his services at
Jemmappes and elsewhere he was made lieutenant-colonel, and early in
1793 his friend Beurnonville, who had become War Minister, gave him his
colonelcy and the command of the Picardy regiment, one of the four
senior corps of the old French infantry. The young colonel of
twenty-eight could not expect to be always so favoured by fortune.
Dumouriez's failure at Neerwinden and subsequent desertion to the Allies
cast a cloud of suspicion on his protege at a moment when to be
suspected was to be condemned. Luckily, some of the Commissioners from
the Convention could recognise merit, but Macdonald spent many anxious
months amid denunciations and accusations from those who grudged him his
colonelcy. To his intense surprise he was at last summoned before the
dread Commissioners and told that, for his zeal, he was to be promoted
general of brigade. Overcome by this unexpected turn of fortune, he
wished to refuse the honour, and pleaded his youth and inexperience, and
was promptly given the choice of accepting or becoming a "suspect" and
being arrested. Safe for the moment, Macdonald threw himself heart and
soul into his new duties, but still denunciations and accusations were
hurled against him. Fresh Commissioners came from the Assembly, and it
was only their fortunate recall to Paris that saved the general from
arrest. Then came the decree banishing all "ci-devant" nobles.
Macdonald, fearing after this order that if he met with the slightest
check he would be greeted with cries of treachery, demanded written
orders from the new Commissioners confirming him in his employment.
These were refused, as also his resignation, with the curt reply, "If
you leave the army we will have you arrested and brought to trial." In
this dilemma he found a friend in the representative Isore, who, struck
by his ability and industry, took up his cause, and from that moment
Macdonald had nothing to fear from the revolutionary tribunal.
[Illustration: JACQUES ETIENNE MACDONALD, DUKE OF TARENTUM
FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY DELPECH]
In November, 1794, he was quite unexpectedly gazetted general of
division in the army of Pichegru, and took part in the winter campaign
against Holland, where he proved his capacity by seizing the occasion of
a hard frost to cross the Vaal on the ice and surprise the
Anglo-Hanoverian force at Nimeguen. A few days later, during the general
advance, he captured Naarden, the masterpiece of the great engineer
Cohorn. Proud of his success, he hastened to inform the
commander-in-chief, Pichegru, and was greeted by a laugh, and, "Bah! I
pay no attention now to anything less than the surrender of provinces."
The blase commander-in-chief a week or two later himself performed the
exploit of capturing the ice-bound Dutch fleet with a cavalry brigade
and a battery of horse artillery.
After serving on the Rhine in 1796 Macdonald was transferred in 1798 to
the Army of Italy, and sent to Rome to relieve Gouvion St. Cyr. When war
broke out between France and Naples, the troops in Southern Italy were
formed into the Army of Naples under Championnet. The commander-in-chief
overrated the fighting qualities of the Neapolitan troops and thought it
prudent to evacuate Rome. Macdonald was entrusted with this duty, and
was further required to cover the concentration of Championnet's army.
The hard-headed Scotchman had, however, gauged to a nicety the morale of
the Neapolitan army, and, although he had but five thousand troops
against forty thousand Neapolitans, under the celebrated Austrian
general Mack, he engaged the enemy at Civita Castellana, defeated them,
followed them up, drove them out of Rome and over the frontier, and
practically annihilated the whole force. Unfortunately he wrote a
comical account of the operations to his chief, who, having no sense of
humour, felt that his evacuation of Rome had, to say the least of it,
been hurried and undignified. Championnet therefore greeted his
victorious lieutenant with the words, "You want to make me pass for a
damned fool," and no explanations could appease his rage. So bitter
became the quarrel that Macdonald had to resign his command.
By February, 1799, Championnet had fallen into disgrace with the
Directory, and Macdonald was gazetted in his place commander-in-chief.
When he arrived in Naples and took up his command the situation seemed
quiet. But the far-seeing soldier read the signs of the times. The elite
of the French army was locked up in Egypt. Austria and Russia were bent
on extinguishing France and her revolutionary ideas. Accordingly the
general at once set about quietly concentrating his troops to meet an
invasion of Northern Italy by the Allies. With his keen military insight
he desired to evacuate all Southern Italy, retaining only such
fortresses as could be well supplied. But the principle of keeping
everything gained the day. Still, on the news of Scherer's defeat at
Magnano by the impetuous Suvaroff, the Army of Naples was ready at once
to start for the north, and set off to try and pick up communication
with General Moreau, who was re-forming the Army of Italy at Genoa. The
idea was that a concentrated movement should be made against the Allies
through the Apennines. Unfortunately there existed a bitter rivalry
between the Army of Italy and the Army of Naples. Consequently on June
17th Macdonald found himself with twenty-five thousand men near
Piacenza, in the presence of the enemy, with no support save two
divisions of the Army of Italy, which had come in from Bologna, and
whose commanders were jealous of his orders. Still there was always the
hope that Moreau might after all be coming to his assistance, and
accordingly he determined to stand and fight. In the action of June
17th, owing to the lack of co-operation from one of the attached
divisions, the general was ridden over by a division of the enemy's
cavalry. Carried about in a litter, he directed all movements during the
18th, and held the enemy at bay along the mountain torrent of the
Trebbia. On the 19th he determined to take the initiative, but, owing to
the collapse of the attached division which formed his centre, he had to
fall back on his old position, which he held throughout the whole day.
During the three days' fighting on the Trebbia the French had lost a
third of their men and nearly all their officers. Still, early on the
morning of the 20th the retreat was effected in good order, save that
one of the attached divisions under Victor started so late that it was
overtaken by the enemy and abandoned all its guns. But Macdonald at once
returned to its aid and saved the artillery, for, as he sarcastically
wrote to Victor, "he found neither friends nor foes." Both sides had run
away.