The Emperor attempted to direct the Spanish War from Paris. In his
desire to secure all Southern Spain, he stripped Marmont's army to
reinforce Suchet in his conquest of Valencia. Accordingly in January the
Marshal was powerless to stop Wellington's dash at Ciudad Rodrigo, and
was unable later to make a sufficient demonstration in Portugal to
relieve the pressure on Badajoz; so both the fortresses fell, and the
Duke of Ragusa was blamed for the Emperor's mistake. He was thereafter
called upon to try to stem the victorious advance of the English into
Spain. Short of men, of horses, and of supplies, he did wonders. Thanks
to his strenuous efforts, supplies were massed at Salamanca, good food
and careful nursing emptied the hospitals and filled the ranks, and the
cavalry was supplied with remounts by dismounting the "field officers"
of the infantry. The month of July saw an interesting duel round
Salamanca between Marmont and Wellington. The two armies were very
nearly equal in numbers, the French having forty-seven thousand men and
the English forty-four thousand. The French had the advantage of a broad
base with lines of retreat either on Burgos or Madrid. The English had
to cover their single line of communication, which ran through Ciudad
Rodrigo. The French had the further advantage that their infantry
marched better than the English. Owing to these causes their commander
was so far able to outgeneral his adversary that by July 22nd he was
actually threatening the English line of retreat. But a tactical mistake
threw away all these strategic advantages. In his eagerness he allowed
his leading division to get too extended, forgetting that he was
performing the dangerous operation of a flank march. Wellington waited
till he saw his opportunity and then threw himself on the weak French
centre and cut the French army in half, thus proving his famous dictum
that the great general is not he who makes fewest mistakes, but he who
can best take advantage of the mistakes of his enemy. Marmont saw his
error as soon as the English attack began, but a wound from a cannon
ball disabled him at the very commencement of the action. This injury to
his arm was so serious that he had to throw up his command and return to
France, and for the whole of the next year he had to wear his arm in a
sling.
Napoleon, furious with the Marshal for his ill-success, most unjustly
blamed him for not waiting for reinforcements: these actually arrived
two days after the battle. Joseph, however, had told him distinctly that
he was not going to send him any help, and if it had not been for his
tactical blunders, Marmont would undoubtedly have caused Wellington to
fall back on Portugal. But in 1812 the exigencies of war demanded that
France should send forth every soldier, and accordingly in March the
Duke of Ragusa was gazetted to the command of the sixth corps, which was
forming in the valley of the Maine. On taking up this command he found
that his corps was mainly composed of sailors drafted from the useless
ships, and of recruits, while his artillery had no horses and his
cavalry did not exist. With these raw troops he had to undergo some
difficult experiences at Luetzen and Bautzen, but, as the campaign
progressed, he moulded them into shape, and his divisions did good
service in the fighting in Silesia and round Dresden. At the rout after
the battle of Leipzig, Marmont, like most of the higher officers of the
army, thought more of his personal safety than of his honour, and
allowed himself to be escorted from the field by his staff officers.
But in the campaign of 1814 he made amends for all his former blunders,
and his fighting record stands high indeed. At Saint-Dizier, La
Rothiere, Arcis-sur-Aube, Nogent, Sezanne, and Champaubert, he held his
own or defeated the enemy with inferior numbers in every case. Once only
at Laon did he allow himself to be surprised. When the end came it was
Marmont who, at Joseph's command, had to hand over Paris to the Allies.
Thereafter he was faced with a terrible problem. His army was sick of
fighting, officers and men demanded peace. He had to decide whether his
duty to Napoleon was the same as his duty to France. Unfortunately he
acted hurriedly, and, without informing the Emperor, entered into
negotiations with the enemy. The result was far-reaching, for his
conduct showed Alexander that the army was sick of war and would no
longer fight for Napoleon. It thus cut away the ground of the
Commissioners who were trying, by trading on the prestige of the Emperor
and the fear of his name, to persuade the Czar to accept Napoleon's
abdication on behalf of his son, the King of Rome. The Marshal's enemies
put down his action to ill-will against the Emperor for withholding for
so long the marshalate and for his treatment after Salamanca. But
Marmont asserted that it was patriotism which dictated his action, and
further maintained that Napoleon himself ought to have approved of his
action, quoting a conversation held in 1813. "If the enemy invaded
France," said the Emperor, "and seized the heights of Montmartre, you
would naturally believe that the safety of your country would command
you to leave me, and if you did so you would be a good Frenchman, a
brave man, a conscientious man, but not a man of honour."
The defection of the Duke of Ragusa came as a bitter blow to Napoleon.
"That Marmont should do such a thing," cried the fallen Emperor, "a man
with whom I have shared my bread, whom I drew out of obscurity!
Ungrateful villain, he will be more unhappy than I." The prophecy was
true. The Duke of Ragusa stuck to the Bourbons and refused to join
Napoleon during the Hundred Days, going to Ghent as chief of the
military household of the exiled King. He returned with Louis to Paris,
and was made major-general of the Royal Guard and a peer of France, in
which capacity he sat as one of the judges who condemned Ney to death.
But men looked askance at him, and from 1817 he lived in retirement,
occupying his leisure in experimental farming, with great injury to his
purse, for his elaborate scheme of housing his sheep in three-storied
barns and clothing them in coats made of skin was most unprofitable.
Retirement was a bitter blow to the keen soldier, but the Bourbon
monarchs clearly understood that the deserter of Napoleon and the judge
of Marshal Ney could never be popular with the army.
Still, when in July, 1830, discontent was seething, Charles X.
remembered his sterling qualities and summoned him to Paris as governor
of the city. It was an unfortunate nomination, for the Marshal's
unpopularity weakened the bonds of discipline, whilst his eagerness to
show his loyalty caused him to adopt such measures as the King ordered,
irrespective of their military worth. In vain he warned the King that
this was not a revolt but a revolution; the counsels of Polignac were
all powerful. The Marshal's political suggestions were unheeded and his
military plans overridden. The mass of the troops of the line, kept for
long hours without food in the streets, mutinied and went over to the
populace, while those who remained loyal, and the royal guards, instead
of being concentrated and protected by batteries of artillery, were
frittered away in useless expeditions into outlying parts of the city.
After two days' fighting the royalists had to evacuate the city. Thus it
fell to the lot of the Marshal once more to hand over Paris to the foes
of those to whom his allegiance was due.
The Duke of Ragusa accompanied Charles to Cherbourg and quitted France
in August, 1830, never to return. The remainder of his life was spent in
foreign countries. He made Vienna his headquarters, and from there took
journeys to Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Italy. Deeply interested in
science and history, he devoted his leisure to writing his Memoirs, to
works on military science, philanthropy, and travel. Thus occupied,
though an exile from his country, he lived a busy, active, and on the
whole useful life till death overtook him at Vienna in 1852.
Marshal Marmont has been called one of Napoleon's failures, but this
criticism is one-sided and unjust. True it is that his name is
intimately connected with the failure in Spain and with the fall of the
Empire, but to judge his career by these two instances and to neglect
his other work, is to generalise from an insufficient and casual basis.
The Duke of Ragusa owed his marshalate, like many others, to his
intimacy with Napoleon, but unlike several of the Marshals he really
earned his baton. His great powers of organisation, so unstintedly given
to the re-armament of France and Italy, and his work of regeneration in
Dalmatia, together with his military operations in Styria, Spain, and
during the campaign of 1814, mark him out as a soldier of great
capabilities. Organisation was his strong point, but he also possessed
great physical bravery and many of the qualities of a commander. His
love for his profession was great, and not only had he graduated under
Napoleon's eye, but much of his time was spent in studying his calling
from a scientific and historical point of view. As a strategist he
probably stood as high as any of his fellow Marshals, and his operations
in Dalmatia, Spain, and France deserve the careful study of all students
of military history. But he failed as a tactician. Salamanca and Laon
prove not only that he made mistakes and had not the faculty of
retrieving his errors, but above all he lacked the capacity of seizing
on the mistakes of his enemy. In 1811 at El Bodin he had Wellington at
his mercy, but he hesitated to strike, for he could not believe his
great opponent could make the glaring error of leaving his divisions
unsupported. Again and again during his career he showed that lack of
resolution which was responsible for his last catastrophe in Paris,
where he allowed his own judgment to be overruled by King Charles's
personal desires. In a word, he had the gift of a great
quartermaster-general rather than of a commander-in-chief. As a man the
Marshal's character is an interesting study. In youth the thirst for
personal glory and ambition were the dominant traits, and what stability
he had he drew from his proud sense of honour, which refused to allow
him to take plunder or bribes. But responsibility developed many latent
qualities. The desire to keep his troops efficient led him to pay
especial care to their physical well-being, and from doing this as a
duty he learned to do it as a labour of love. As time went on, desire
for personal glory became merged in keen delight in the glory of France,
and hence grew up a patriotism which rightly or wrongly led to the
scenes of 1814 and 1830. Misfortune also had its share in the enlarging
of his character. His unhappy marriage, his bitterness at the
withholding of the marshalate, his unpopularity after 1814, led him to
remember his father's warning that success is not everything, and turned
his attention to the development of those scientific and literary
abilities to which he had always shown strong leanings. Hence, though
the blight of his marriage and his unpopularity, arising from his
desertion of Napoleon, embittered him and caused his Memoirs to teem
with cutting descriptions of his contemporaries and former friends, his
old age, though spent in exile, was soothed by congenial work which
proved "that to the eye of a general he united the accomplishments of a
scholar and the heart of a philanthropist."
XI
LOUIS GABRIEL SUCHET, MARSHAL, DUKE OF ALBUFERA
Louis Gabriel Suchet, the son of a silk manufacturer, was born at Lyons
on March 2, 1770. His father had acquired a certain eminence by his
discoveries in his profession, and had occupied a prominent place in the
municipality of Lyons. Louis Gabriel, who received a sound education at
the College of Isle Barbe, early showed that he inherited his father's
gifts of organisation and research. In 1792 he entered a corps of
volunteer cavalry. His education and ability soon brought him to the
front, and after two years' service he became lieutenant-colonel of the
eighteenth demi-brigade, in which capacity he took part in the siege of
Toulon. There he had the double good fortune to make prisoner General
O'Hara, the English governor of the fortress, and to gain the friendship
of Bonaparte. Suchet and his brother accompanied the future Emperor on
many a pleasant picnic, and the three were well known among a certain
class of Marseilles society. But this was but a passing phase, and soon
the thirst for glory called the young soldier to sterner things. The
campaigns of 1794-5 in the Maritime Alps, the battle of Loano, and the
fierce fights in 1796 at Lodi, Rivoli, Arcola, and Castiglione proved
Colonel Suchet's undaunted courage and ability as a regimental
commander. In 1797, for his brilliant conduct at Neumarkt, in Styria,
Bonaparte gazetted him general of brigade. In his new capacity Suchet
proved that he could not only carry out orders but act in
semi-independence as a column commander, and as a reward for his success
in Switzerland under General Brune he had the honour of carrying
twenty-three captured stands of colours to the Directory. At Brune's
request he was sent back to Switzerland to act as chief of his staff.
Suchet had to a great extent those qualities which go to make an ideal
staff officer. He had a cheery smile and word for everybody, and his
tall upright figure and genial face inspired confidence in officers and
men alike; as a regimental commander and a general of brigade he had a
sound knowledge of the working of small and large corps, and his early
experience as a cavalry officer and his intimate acquaintance with the
officers of the artillery stood him in good stead. He had a natural
aptitude for drafting orders, and his tact and energy commended him to
all with whom he served, but above all he had the secret of inspiring
those around him with his own vehemence and enthusiasm. Brune, Joubert,
Massena, and Moreau all proved his worth, and Moreau only expressed the
opinion of the others when he said to a friend, "Your general is one of
the best staff officers in all the armies of France." As general of
division Suchet acted as chief of the staff to Joubert in Italy in 1799.
Later in the year he commanded one of the divisions of the Army of the
Alps under Massena, and fought against the celebrated Suvaroff. But when
Joubert was hurriedly despatched to Italy he at once demanded to have
Suchet as chief of the staff. On Joubert's death at the battle of Novi,
Suchet served Massena in a similar capacity; the latter was so delighted
with him that he wanted to carry him off to the Army of the Rhine. But
in that disastrous year men of ability could not be spared, and
Bernadotte, as Minister of War, retained him in Italy to aid the new
commander-in-chief "with his clear insight as the public weal demands."
When Massena took command of the Army of Italy in March, he detached
Suchet to cover France on the line of the Var, while he, with the rest
of the army, threw himself into Genoa. The commander-in-chief had
absolute confidence in his lieutenant; he had tried him again and again
in the Swiss campaign, and when Suchet had by a marvellous march escaped
the tangles of the Russians, his only comment had been "I was quite sure
he would bring me back his brigade." The young general acted once again
up to his reputation, and evinced those resources in difficulty, and
that resolution in adversity, which so marked his career. With a mere
handful of troops, by his energy and tactical ability he stemmed the
flood of the Austrian invasion on the Var, and when Napoleon debouched
through the St. Bernard Pass on the enemy's rear, by a masterly return
to the initiative he drove the Austrians before him, and by capturing
seven thousand prisoners he materially lightened the First Consul's
difficulties in the Marengo campaign. Carnot, the War Minister, wrote to
him in eulogistic terms: "The whole Republic had its eyes fixed on the
new Thermopylae. Your bravery was as great and more successful than that
of the Spartans." But in spite of this feat of arms and the unselfish
way he disengaged Dupont from his difficulties at the crossing of the
Mincio, in the campaign which followed Marengo, Suchet found himself
neglected and passed over when the Emperor distributed his new honours
and rewards. In spite of his former friendship and the remembrance of
many a pleasant day spent together in earlier years, Napoleon could not
forgive his stern unbending republicanism. He knew his force of
character too well to think he could influence his opinions by mere
honours, and he determined to see if he could conquer him by neglect.
After holding the office of inspector-general of infantry, Suchet found
himself in 1803 sent to the camp of Boulogne as a mere divisional
commander in Soult's army corps. In the same capacity he loyally served
under Lannes in the Austrian campaign of 1805, and distinguished himself
at Ulm and Austerlitz, where his division had the good fortune to break
the Russian centre. In the following year at Saalfeld and Jena he added
to his reputation, and the Emperor did him the honour of bivouacking in
the middle of his division on the eve of the battle of Jena. Pultusk and
Eylau bore witness to his bravery and address on the battlefield, and
Napoleon began to relent. For his share of the victory of Austerlitz the
Emperor had created him Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour and
presented him with twenty thousand francs; in August, 1807, he gave him
the temporary command of the fifth corps; a few months later he gazetted
him Chevalier of the Iron Crown, and in March, 1808, made him a Count of
the Empire. In 1807 Suchet married one of the Clarys, a relative of
Joseph Bonaparte's wife, and thus to a certain extent bound himself to
the Napoleonic dynasty. Still it was only as a divisional commander of
the fifth corps under Lannes that in 1808 he entered Spain, the scene of
his glory. But when the war brought to light the poor quality of many of
the Marshals, and the approaching conflict with Austria caused him to
withdraw his best lieutenants to the Danube, Napoleon bethought him of
his new relative and former comrade. After the siege of Saragossa he
gave him the command of the third corps, now known as the Army of
Aragon. Suchet's hour of probation had at last arrived. He had so far
shown himself an excellent interpreter of the ideas of others, a man of
energy and resource in carrying out orders; it remained to be seen
whether he could rise to the height of thinking and acting for himself
in the plain of higher strategy.
[Illustration: LOUIS GABRIEL SUCHET, DUKE OF ALBUFERA
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY POLLET]
The situation the new general was called on to meet might have depressed
a weaker man. The third corps or Army of Aragon had been severely shaken
by the long, stubborn siege of Saragossa. Many of its best officers and
men were dead or invalided to France; the ranks were full of raw
recruits who had not yet felt the bit of discipline. There were no
magazines, the men's pay was months in arrear, the morale of the troops
was bad; but the General was told that he must expect no reinforcements
and that his army must live off the province of Aragon. To increase his
difficulties further he was informed that, while lending an obedient ear
to all commands from Madrid, he was really to obey orders which came
from the major-general in Paris. Meanwhile, all around him Aragon and
even Saragossa were seething with discontent, and Spanish forces, elated
by partial success, were springing up on all sides. It was thus situated
that Suchet had his first experience of commanding in war, and of
showing that success depends on achieving the object desired with the
means at hand. Luckily for his reputation he fulfilled Napoleon's dictum
that "a general should above all be cool-headed in order to estimate
things at their value: he must not be moved by good or bad news. The
sensations which he daily receives must be so classed in his mind that
each should occupy its appropriate place." Accordingly he at once
grasped the vital points of the problem, and strove to restore the
morale of the troops so that he might be in a position to meet and
overcome the organised forces which were moving against him. His first
step was to hold a review of his new command, and then he proceeded to
visit his troops in their quarters and to get into personal touch with
the officers and men by watching them at their company and battalion
drills, encouraging them and supervising the interior economy of the
various regiments and brigades. His reputation and his personal
magnetism soon began to effect a complete change in his army. But
unfortunately the enemy, fighting in their own country, where every
inhabitant was a spy on their side, knew as well as the general himself
the exact state of the French morale, the position of every unit, and
the strength of each company and squadron. So accurate was their
information that on one occasion, when a battalion was despatched on a
reconnaissance to occupy a small town, and the officer commanding
demanded a thousand rations for his men and a hundred for his horse, the
Alcalde at once replied, "I know that I must furnish rations for your
troops, but I will only supply seven hundred and eighty for the men and
sixty for the horses," as he knew beforehand the exact number of men and
horses in the column.
The Spanish General Blake, with this wonderful intelligence organisation
at his command, called together his troops, and took the initiative
against the new French commander by advancing towards Saragossa. Suchet,
recognising the importance of utilising to the full the elan which the
French soldier always derives from the sense of attacking, advanced to
meet him near Alcaniz, but Blake easily beat off the French attack. So
demoralised was the Army of Aragon that on the following night, when a
drummer cried out that he saw the Spanish cavalry advancing, an entire
infantry regiment threw down their arms before this phantom charge. The
offender was brought at once before a drumhead court martial and shot,
but with troops in such a condition the French commander very wisely
slowly fell back the next day towards Saragossa. The situation was
extremely critical: a hurried retreat would have roused all Aragon to
the attack; fortunately the morale of the Spanish troops was also none
too good, and Blake waited for reinforcements before advancing.
Meanwhile Suchet spent every hour reorganising his army, visiting with
speedy punishment all slackness, encouraging where possible by praise,
everywhere showing a cheerfulness and confidence he was far from
feeling. Every day the troops were drilled or attended musketry
practice; the ordinary routine of peace was carried out in every detail,
and the civil and military life of Saragossa showed no signs of the
greatness of this crisis. Meanwhile care and attention soon showed their
effect, and when three weeks later the enemy appeared at Maria before
Saragossa, Suchet had under his command a force full of zealous desire
to wipe out its late disgrace and absolutely confident in its general.
Fortunately the Spanish commander, by attempting a wide encircling
movement, weakened his numerical superiority, and Suchet, as usual
assuming the offensive, broke the Spanish centre with his cavalry,
hurled his infantry into the gap, and amid a terrific thunder-shower
drove the Spanish from the field. The battle before Saragossa saved
Aragon for the French, but it did not satisfy their commander, who knew
that "to move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of
victory is the secret of successful war"; accordingly with his now
elated troops he pursued the enemy and attacked them at Belchite. The
Spanish morale was completely broken; a chance shot at the commencement
of the engagement blew up an ammunition wagon, and thereon the whole
army turned and bolted; for the rest of the war, no regular resistance
existed in Aragon.