given by the First Consul, he was never a _persona grata_ with Napoleon.
Accordingly at the beginning of 1800 he was withdrawn from the Army of
Italy and sent as lieutenant to Moreau, who was to operate in the valley
of the Danube while Bonaparte reserved the theatre of Italy for
himself. It was most unfortunate for St. Cyr that he was supposed to
belong to the Moreau faction, for day by day the struggle between that
general and the First Consul became more bitter. Moreau took no trouble
to conceal his dislike of Bonaparte, and on hearing a rumour that the
First Consul intended to take command of the Army of the Rhine and
install him as second in command, he lost his temper and told his staff
at dinner "that he did not want a little tin Louis XIV. with his army,
and that if the First Consul came he would go." Meanwhile great friction
arose between the general and his new commander-in-chief. St. Cyr, proud
of his late achievements, severely criticised the plans and organisation
of his chief, who was extremely indignant at the idea that anybody
should doubt his ability to manage an army of one hundred and thirty
thousand men, and at the same time to command in person the reserve
corps of twenty-five thousand; so Moreau belittled St. Cyr's
achievements. St. Cyr at D'Engen, Mosskirch, and Biberach showed his
accustomed skill as a tactician, but failed to keep in touch with the
columns on his right and left, and increased his reputation as a jealous
fighter. The second battle of Biberach was a masterpiece of audacity,
and to his dying day the general, when recalling his success, always
maintained, "On that day I was a man." During the operations round Ulm
relations became still more strained, and St. Cyr was glad to seize the
excuse of a wound to demand his return to France. The First Consul took
the line which he always pursued with those whom he disliked but feared.
He rewarded St. Cyr by making him a Councillor of State, and at the same
time he got him out of the way by sending him on a diplomatic mission to
Spain. The general remained at Madrid till August, 1802, and then after
a short period of leave at Paris he was despatched in 1803 to command
the army at Faenza which was to occupy the kingdom of Naples after the
rupture of the treaty of Amiens. During the two years spent in command
of the army of occupation he had many opportunities of showing his
patience and diplomatic skill. The court of Naples had to be treated
with all honour but watched with the greatest care, every effort had to
be made to maintain outwardly an appearance of great cordiality, while
Napoleon's demands had to be insisted on to the letter. The situation
was further complicated by the continued interference of Murat, who
commanded the Army of Italy, and who desired to have the Army of Naples
under his control. The strictest discipline had to be maintained among
the troops to prevent the Neapolitans having any handle to use against
the army of occupation. So successfully did St. Cyr keep his troops in
hand that the Neapolitan minister wrote in his next despatch to the
Queen, "Madame, we can make nothing of that point; these men are not
soldiers, they are monks." In spite of many an anxious moment these two
years in Naples were pleasant years for the general, who delighted in
the congenial society of the many men of letters who were attached to
his army, for, as Paul Louis Corne wrote of him, "He is a man of merit,
a learned man, perhaps the most learned of men in the gentle art of
massacre, a pleasant man in private life, a great friend of mine." But
there was one great disappointment connected with this Neapolitan
command, for in 1804 St. Cyr found his name excluded from the list of
Marshals, and the empty title of colonel-general of the cuirassiers and
the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour in no way made amends for this
disappointment.
The outbreak of the war with Austria in the autumn of 1805 caused
Napoleon to withdraw the army of occupation from Naples, and St. Cyr
hastened north in time to help Massena drive the Austrians out of Styria
and Carinthia. He greatly distinguished himself at Castel Franco, where
with a smaller force he captured the whole of a column of the enemy
under the Prince de Rohan. A month later he was sent back in haste with
thirty thousand men to reinvade Naples, which Napoleon had given as a
kingdom to his brother Joseph, but on hearing that he was to act as a
subordinate to Massena he threw up his command and withdrew to Paris.
This independent conduct increased Napoleon's dislike for him, and he
was peremptorily ordered to return to Naples, where he remained till
August, 1806.
It was not till two years later that the Emperor once again employed St.
Cyr on active service. But the task he then called upon him to perform
was one that would make any general, who was anxious about his
reputation, hesitate to undertake. For Napoleon sent him with a motley
force of some forty-eight thousand Swiss, Italians, and Germans to
restore French prestige in the mountainous country of Catalonia, and
ended his orders with the words, "Preserve Barcelona for me; if it is
lost I cannot retake it with eighty thousand men." In Barcelona lay the
French general, Duhesme, who had been hustled into that town by the
Spanish regulars and guerillas after the news of the great French
disaster at Baylen. It was absolutely vital to the French to relieve
Duhesme before lack of provisions caused him to surrender, but before
any advance could be made it was necessary to seize the fortress of
Rosas, which lay on the flank of the road from France to Barcelona; this
post St. Cyr successfully took by assault under the very guns of Lord
Dundonald's fleet. But still the problem of relieving Barcelona was a
difficult one. There were two alternative lines of advance: the first
and easier lay along the coast, but was exposed to the guns of the
English fleet; the other road was a mere track through the mountains,
and was accordingly extremely difficult owing to the excellent
opportunities it gave to the guerillas. But St. Cyr, keeping his
seventeen thousand men well in hand and taking every precaution against
ambushes, successfully broke through the lines of regulars and
guerillas, relieved Barcelona, and pushed on down the coast towards
Tarragona. His further advance was stopped by the rapid reorganisation
of the Spanish armies in Catalonia, and it became clear that until
Gerona, which commanded the mountain road to France, was taken, the
French forces in the south would always be in danger of having their
communications cut. Accordingly the Emperor ordered him to return to
assist General Verdier to capture this important town. Gerona had at one
time been a fortress, but it was now simply covered with a feeble
rampart. But the courage of the townspeople and their patriotism was
fired by the example of Saragossa, and their spirit was animated by
their governor, Alvarez, whose order, "Whoever speaks of capitulation or
defeat shall be instantly put to death," was received with shouts of
delight. Owing to quarrels between St. Cyr and Verdier, to the
stubbornness of the defence, and above all to the constant success of
the Spanish General Blake in throwing provisions into the town, the
siege, which commenced by sap and assault, gradually drifted into a mere
blockade, and lasted for six and a half months. At last the Emperor,
angry at the constant bickering between the commanders and at the
protracted siege, superseded St. Cyr by Marshal Augereau. However, it
did not suit that Marshal to take over his command until there seemed a
reasonable prospect of success, and accordingly he waited at Perpignan
for news of the approaching end of the siege. At last St. Cyr in disgust
threw up his command without waiting for the arrival of Augereau. The
Emperor marked this act of insubordination by sending him under arrest
to his country estate and depriving him of all his appointments.
Accordingly one of the few French generals who never sustained a defeat
in Spain passed the next two years of his life in disgrace without
employment, while day by day the French arms were suffering reverses in
the Peninsula.
It was not till 1812 that the Emperor recalled St. Cyr to active
employment and gazetted him to the command of the sixth corps, which,
together with the second corps under the command of Marshal Oudinot, was
employed on the line of the Dwina to cover the communications of the
forces advancing on Moscow. The campaign in Russia showed the general at
his best and at his worst. In the operations round Polotsk his great
tactical ability enabled him with the small forces under his command to
foil again and again the efforts of the Russian commander, Wittgenstein,
but owing to his want of supervision before the winter arrived the sixth
corps, which entered Russia twenty-five thousand strong, had been
reduced to two thousand six hundred bayonets. It was not till his corps
had almost disappeared that he bestirred himself and compelled his
subordinates to look after the well-being and provisions of their men.
Moreover, when placed under the command of Marshal Oudinot, while
carrying out to the letter all orders transmitted to him, he invariably
refused to aid him with his advice, and even during the first battle of
Polotsk, when asked his opinion, he merely bowed and said, "My Lord
Marshal!" as though he would say, "As they have made you a Marshal, you
must know more about the matter than a mere general like me; get out of
it as best you can." But as soon as a wound caused Oudinot to retire
from the field he at once seized the reins of command, and so great was
the influence and confidence that he inspired that in a few hours the
army which Oudinot had left scattered and depressed with its back to a
river, was advancing victoriously and sweeping all before it. But, good
soldier as he was when left in supreme command, he unfortunately would
not act in co-operation with others, and when at the end of October
Victor, with twenty-five thousand troops, arrived to reinforce him, he
seized the opportunity of a wound to throw up his command and return to
France. As one of his critics says, "All that St. Cyr needed to be a
consummate commander was a smaller share of egotism, and the knowledge
to attach men and officers to him by attending to their wants." Still,
Napoleon recognised his services against Wittgenstein by at last making
him a Marshal.
An attack of typhus and a burst blood-vessel deprived the Emperor of his
new Marshal's assistance until after the armistice of Dresden. This was
the first occasion on which the two had actually come into close
contact, and Napoleon quickly saw that "thrawn" and jealous as St. Cyr
undoubtedly was, his clearness of brain made his advice of the highest
importance, while St. Cyr speedily fell under the charm of the great
Emperor. Accordingly all through the campaign Napoleon constantly came
to him for advice, which was never withheld. Remembering also his great
reputation as a master of mountain warfare, the Emperor entrusted him
with the duty of holding the highland passes leading by Pirna on to
Dresden, while he himself hurried off to Silesia. In the great battle
round Dresden the Marshal's twenty thousand raw recruits played their
part nobly. Napoleon, to cover his own mistakes, laid the blame of
Vandamme's disaster on St. Cyr and Marmont, but in his private letter to
the Marshal he placed the blame on Vandamme, as he wrote, "That unhappy
Vandamme, who seems to have killed himself, had not a sentinel on the
mountain nor a reserve anywhere." When the Emperor fell back on Leipzig
he entrusted the defence of Dresden to St. Cyr, leaving him twenty-two
thousand troops and provisions for eight days. After a siege of a month
the Marshal was compelled for lack of powder to surrender with the
honours of war, but the Allies, after the evacuation of the town,
refused to carry out the terms of the surrender, and retained him and
his troops as prisoners of war; consequently he took no part in the
campaign of 1814. During the Hundred Days he remained quietly at his
country estate, but on the second Restoration he was called upon to
undertake the duties of Minister of War, to disband the old army and to
organise the new forces of France; his tenure of office was short, as he
refused to serve a ministry which proposed to cede French territory to
the enemy. In May, 1817, on the accession of a Liberal ministry, he once
again took office, and during this period he laid the foundation of the
General Staff of the Army, but in November, 1819, he resigned, and lived
in retirement till he died at Hyeres on March 17, 1830.
During his hours of leisure the Marshal wrote his Memoirs, which he
intended to aid the future historian of the French wars. These Memoirs
show how clear and cutting his judgments were, both of men and matters,
and his criticisms throw many useful lights on Napoleon's character and
his methods of warfare, while they also to a great extent reveal his own
character. No one who reads them can doubt that St. Cyr was a great
strategist, while his powers as a tactician are proved by his
never-failing success on the field of battle. But in spite of these
talents the Marshal's actual record as a soldier is spoiled by his
defects of character. A great believer in living by rule, he had two
maxims which he ever clung to. First, that in war acts of kindness are
too often harmful; second, the old adage of Machiavelli, "That a victory
destroys the effect of the worst operation, and that the man who knows
how to give battle can be pardoned every fault that he may have before
committed in his military career." It is to these two maxims that we
must attribute the want of supervision he showed over his troops and his
absolute lack of cordiality towards his fellow Marshals and generals,
which gave him the nickname of the "Bad bed-fellow." For that he did not
lack the talents of an organiser is shown by the way, when roused, he
provided for his troops in Russia, and also by the success of his
efforts when Minister of War. But of all his gifts undoubtedly the most
useful was his absolute coolness: no matter how badly the fight went, no
matter if he were run away with in his carriage and carried straight
through a brigade of the enemy's horse, he never was ruffled, never lost
his clear grip on the situation. His bitter enemy, Macdonald, well
summed up his character in answer to Louis XVIII.'s questions as to
whether he was lazy. "I am not aware of it," said the Duke of Tarentum.
"He is a man of great military capacity, firm, honest, but jealous of
other peoples' merit. In the army he is regarded as what is called a
'bad bed-fellow.' In the coldest manner possible he allowed his
neighbours to be beaten, without attempting to assist them, and then
criticised them afterwards. But this opinion, not uncommon among
soldiers, is perhaps exaggerated, and he is admitted to have calmness
and great capabilities."
XIII
BON ADRIEN JEANNOT DE MONCEY, MARSHAL, DUKE OF CONEGLIANO
The glamour of war appeals strongly to most men, to some it calls with
irresistible demand. Such an one was the Duke of Conegliano. Born on
July 31, 1754, at Palise, a little village of Besancon, the son of a
well-to-do lawyer, Bon Adrien Jeannot loathed scholarship and loved
adventure. When but fifteen years old the future Marshal ran away from
school and enlisted in the Conti regiment of infantry. After six months'
service he reluctantly agreed to the purchase of his discharge by his
father; but very soon ran away again to enlist in the regiment of
Champagne. He served with this regiment till 1773, when, finding that
his hopes of gaining a commission were disappointed, he once again
bought himself out. A few months, however, spent in the study of the law
only served to increase his hatred of a sedentary life and to kindle
once more his old ambition, and he again enlisted as a private, this
time in the gendarmerie. But now fortune was more kind, and after four
years' service he achieved his desire and was gazetted, in 1779, as
sub-lieutenant in the dragoons of Nassau Siegen. It was not, however,
till April, 1791, that he gained his captaincy, which had cost him
twenty-three years' hard service; but now promotion came rapidly, and in
three years' time he rose to the rank of general of division.
In 1793 Moncey's regiment of dragoons formed part of the Army of the
Western Pyrenees. In the first engagement with the enemy he had the good
fortune to distinguish himself. The Spanish commander-in-chief,
Bonaventura Casa, led a charge of horse against the ill-disciplined
recruits and volunteers who formed the mass of the French army covering
St. Jean Pied de Porte. The miserable French infantry broke, with cries
of "We are betrayed!" and it was Moncey who, rallying a few brave men,
stopped the charge of the enemy's horse. Energetic, clear-witted, and
self-confident, he soon became a man of mark. In February, 1794, he was
promoted general of brigade, and six months later general of division,
in which capacity, in August of that year, he was mainly instrumental in
forcing the lines of Fontarabia; on the proposition of Barrere he was, a
few days later, appointed by the Convention commander-in-chief of the
Army of the Western Pyrenees. In October he fully justified his
selection by forcing the famous pass of Roncesvalles, so intimately
connected with the names of Charlemagne and the Black Prince. This
action, which made good a footing in Spain, was extremely brilliant; the
position, strong by nature, had been made almost impregnable by months
of hard labour. Moreover, the French troops were badly handicapped by
the difficulty of getting food; but, by now, they were very different
from the ill-trained levies of 1793. The turning column, which had four
days' hard mountain climbing and fighting on three biscuits per man,
found nothing to eat, when the pass was forced, save a little flour, for
the Spanish had burnt their magazines. In spite of this there was no
grumbling, and the men, as their general reported, pressed on with cries
of "Vive la Republique!" Moncey, like Napoleon, knew how to use the
great driving force of hunger. He thoroughly deserved the thanks which
he received from the Convention, and he fully earned them again when,
early in 1795, he drove the Spanish army in flight across the Ebro, for
it was his magnificent forward movement which forced Spain to accede to
the treaty of Basle.
From Spain the general was transferred to the Army of the Cotes de
Brest. A year later he was posted to the command of the eleventh
military division at Bayonne, and he was still there when, in October,
1799, Bonaparte returned from Egypt and overthrew the Directory. No
politician, it mattered little to Moncey who governed France, as long as
the honour of the country was maintained and he saw active service.
Accordingly he gladly accepted from the new government the position of
lieutenant to Moreau, the commander-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine.
But he did not serve long under his new chief, being detached in May at
the head of sixteen thousand to cross the Alps by the St. Gothard Pass,
as part of the great stroke aimed at the Austrian lines of communication
in Italy. His corps formed a flank guard to the main Army of the
Reserve, which crossed the St. Bernard under Napoleon himself. In the
operations which succeeded the battle of Marengo the First Consul made
full use of Moncey's great experience in mountain warfare, and sent him
to the Valtelline to join hands with Macdonald, who was crossing the
Alps by the Spluegen Pass. Thereafter his division formed the left wing
of the French army under Brune. After a brilliant series of skirmishes
in the mountains, Moncey drove the flying enemy into Trent, but he was
robbed of complete victory by the Austrian general, Laudon, who sent a
message to say that Brune and Bellegarde had made an armistice.
Unfortunately for the French their general, the soul of honour,
suspected no deceit, and thus the Austrians were saved from annihilation
or absolute surrender.
After the peace of Luneville General Moncey was appointed
Inspector-General of gendarmerie, and on Napoleon's elevation to the
throne was created, in 1804, Marshal, Grand Officer of the Legion of
Honour, and in 1808 Duke of Conegliano. Moncey invariably spoke his
mind, and for this reason was no favourite with the Emperor; further, in
comparison with his fellow Marshals, he was an old man, so from 1800 to
1808 he was not employed on active service. But on the invasion of
Spain, Napoleon determined to make use of the Duke of Conegliano's
knowledge of that country, and ordered him to proceed there with the
Army of Observation of the Ocean, which he was then commanding at
Boulogne. This army became the third corps of the newly formed Army of
Spain. It was composed almost entirely of recruits, and when Murat
marched into Madrid at the head of the third corps, the poor physique of
these "weak and weedy privates" had a very bad effect on the situation,
for the Spaniards thought they could easily defeat such troops. From
Madrid the Marshal was sent to capture Valencia, which had broken out
into revolt against the French. Though old, the Duke of Conegliano was
still active and vigorous. After a month's continuous fighting across
mountain passes and rivers he reached Valencia; but he found the town in
a state of defence. As Napoleon said on hearing of his check, "A city of
eighty thousand inhabitants, barricaded streets, and artillery
entrenched at the gates cannot be taken by the collar." Accordingly
there was nothing for it but to retreat, and this the Marshal did in
such a masterly manner that the failure of his expedition produced but
little bad effect on the French cause. When, after Baylen, Joseph held
his council of war at Madrid, Moncey alone stood out for the bold course
of cutting communication with France and concentrating around the
capital; but he was overruled, and the French fell back on the line of
the Ebro.
As soon as Napoleon arrived in Spain he vented his anger
indiscriminately on all those Marshals who had served under Joseph, but
his greatest displeasure fell on Moncey, for the Duke of Conegliano did
not believe that Spain could be gained by hanging all those who
resisted, and had actually received the thanks of the Junta of Oviedo,
who considered him "a just and honourable man," and published a
manifesto saying, "We know this illustrious general detests the conduct
of his companions." Accordingly, in the eyes of the Emperor he had been
guilty of bungling and slackness, if not of something worse, and he was
therefore subjected to the cruel affront of being placed under the
orders of Lannes, a junior Marshal. Though much annoyed, as a soldier he
could only obey, and the Emperor's decision was to some extent
justified, as Lannes won the battle of Tudela with the same troops which
Moncey had not dared to lead against the enemy. Three months later the
Marshal was once again superseded by Lannes, and this time recalled and
sent to France. The ostensible reason for this was, that in the
Emperor's opinion he had not pressed the siege of Saragossa. With a
desire to avoid bloodshed he had tried to induce the Spaniards to
capitulate by entering into negotiations, instead of pushing on his
siege batteries. But his real offence was that he had not concealed his
dislike of the seizure of Spain.
In 1812 his disgrace was deepened, for he expressed with equal frankness
his hatred of the Russian campaign. Though never again employed at the
front, the Emperor made use of him in 1809 in Holland, and in 1812 and
1813 he led the Army of Reserve; while in 1814 he was appointed
major-general of the National Guard of Paris and made responsible for
the defence of the capital. In the last dark days before the city
capitulated Moncey, with six thousand citizen soldiers, fought bravely
outside the Clichy gate.
On the Restoration the Marshal became a Minister of State and a member
of the new Chamber of Peers, and was confirmed in his old appointment of
inspector of gendarmerie. But on the return of Napoleon he forgot the
wrongs the Emperor had done him; he thought only of the glory Napoleon
had once won for France; so he swore allegiance to the imperial
government and was created a peer. But, on account of his age, the
Emperor gave him no military command. To punish him for his desertion,
Louis XVIII., on the second Restoration, appointed him president of the
council of war for the trial of Ney. But the Duke of Conegliano wrote to
the King boldly refusing to have anything to do with the trial of the
hero of Moskowa. So angry was the King at his courageous act that he
stripped the veteran of his marshalate and the title of duke, and sent
him to prison for three months in the castle of Ham, the same prison
which was later to receive the future Napoleon III. But time brought
forgiveness. In 1819 the Marshal was restored to his honours, and in
1823 was actually once again employed on active service. It must have
brought strange memories of the past to the veteran, who had been
thought too old to fight at Waterloo, again to see service in Spain,
where he had won his laurels in 1794 and had found naught but disgrace
in 1808. So, in his seventieth year, he made his last campaign, not in
command of a republican or imperial army, but as a corps commander in
the royal army under the Duc d'Angouleme. This time, however, there was
but little call on his courage and ability, for the campaign brought no
fighting and was merely a military promenade. On the fall of the Bourbon
dynasty the Marshal took no active part in affairs, but as Governor of
the Invalides in December, 1833, he had the honour to receive the
remains of Napoleon when they were translated to France; and on his
death nine years later, in 1842, at his special request, he was buried
in the "aisle of the brave," close to the tomb of the great Emperor.
XIV
JEAN BAPTISTE JOURDAN, MARSHAL