[Illustration:
BAD NEWS FROM PARIS
Napoleon passing the night in a Russian château near Mikalevka, after
receiving the news of General Malet’s conspiracy in Paris
From the painting by Verestchagin]
NAPOLEON’S RUSSIAN
CAMPAIGN OF 1812
BY
EDWARD FOORD
AUTHOR OF “THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE”
ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY-TWO PORTRAITS
AND HISTORICAL PAINTINGS
AND SEVERAL MAPS AND PLANS
LONDON: HUTCHINSON AND CO.
PATERNOSTER ROW
1914
PREFACE
During recent years the history of most of Napoleon’s great campaigns
has been given to the world, with the notable exception of that of
the catastrophic Russian expedition of 1812. Apart from compilations,
I have met only one original work on the subject, in the English
language, during the ten years the present work has been in preparation.
The publication of thousands of documents dealing with the struggle
from the French side by the Historical Section of the French War
Office, has rendered easily accessible an immense mass of material
for the earlier period of the campaign. A beginning in this respect
has also been made by the War Office at St. Petersburg, and some
interesting light is thereby thrown upon the preparations on the
Russian side, as well as upon the personalities of the Russian leaders.
There are also many documents from private sources which have been
collected and published.
My aim has been simply to relate the history of the terrible campaign
in straightforward fashion, without obscuring the narrative by too
much digression. I believe that, as matters stand, a better service
will thus have been rendered to the cause of history than by the
composition of a huge essentially technical work--for which, indeed,
there is no place in this country. At present, apart from the needs of
soldiers--which they are better qualified to supply than myself--it is
not so much scientific discussion of the campaign that is required as
knowledge of its episodes. This I have conscientiously endeavoured to
supply.
I have to express my obligations to Mr. F.J. Hudleston, of the Staff
Library at the War Office, for permission to make researches among the
works under his charge dealing with the campaign, as well as to his
assistant, Mr. Baldry, for his kind help during my work there. I am
indebted to Mr. Gordon Home for much invaluable assistance, which it is
easier to name than to classify, since it extends to every part of the
book.
E.F.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Preliminaries 1
II. Napoleon’s Army and its Generals 20
III. The Russian Army and its Generals 41
IV. The First Stage of the Campaign. Operations
from Kovno to Vitebsk 59
V. The Operations about Smolensk 108
VI. The Operations in Volhynia and on the Düna 159
VII. Smolensk to Borodino 183
VIII. The Occupation and Destruction of Moscow 220
IX. The French Sojourn in Moscow 241
X. The First Stages of the Retreat 263
XI. The Operations in Napoleon’s Rear during
September and October 286
XII. The French Retreat. Maloyaroslavetz to
Orsha 307
XIII. Orsha to the Berezina 344
XIV. Conclusion of the Campaign. Losses and
Results 374
Appendices A to E 392
Bibliography 405
Index 409
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Bad News from Paris _Frontispiece_
To face page
2. The Emperor Alexander I of Russia 4
3. Prince Eugène, Son of the ex-Empress Josephine 18
4. Details of the Uniforms of the Infantry of the
French Army in 1812 26
5. Marshal Davout 34
6. Prince Joseph Anthony Poniatowski, Nephew of Stanislaus
Augustus, the last King of Poland 36
7. Field-Marshal Prince Barclay de Tolly 50
8. Field-Marshal Prince Golénischev-Kutuzov 52
9. General Prince Bagration, Commander of the Second
Russian Army in 1812 84
10. Joachim Murat, King of Naples 126
11. The Old Fortifications of Smolensk 144
12. Marshal Oudinot, Duke of Reggio 172
13. The First Battle of Polotsk 180
14. General of Cavalry Count Platov 194
15. Marshal Ney 212
16. Moscow from the Sparrow Hills 224
17. Napoleon’s First View of Moscow 228
18. Napoleon Watching the Burning of Moscow 236
19. The Kremlin, Moscow 242
20. Marshal Victor, Duke of Belluno 252
21. The Church of Vasilii Blagorennyi at Moscow 264
22. The Council of War after the Battle of Maloyaroslavetz 280
23. Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr 286
24. Count Wittgenstein 298
25. Armed Russian Peasants in Ambush in the Woods waiting
to cut off French Stragglers 310
26. The Retreat of the French from Moscow 322
27. Russian Grenadiers Pursuing the French Army 332
28. Napoleon, Berthier, Murat, and Rapp (in the order
named) round camp fire 354
29. General Baron Eblé 360
30. Crossing the Berezina 370
31. Marshal Ney Supporting the Rear-guard during the
Retreat from Moscow 376
32. Napoleon’s Travelling Kitchen 384
MAPS AND PLANS
PAGE
Plan of Battle of Saltanovka 95
” ” Smolensk 133
” ” Lubino 151
” ” Gorodeczna 167
” ” Borodino _folding to face_ 218
” ” Vinkovo 257
” ” Maloyaroslavetz 277
” ” Polotsk (2nd) 301
” Order of French Retreat, October 31 313
” Battle of Viasma 317
” ” Krasnoï 339
” Passage of the Berezina 369
” Battle of Polotsk (1st) 391
Map of Theatre of War, showing positions of opposing forces
at opening of campaign and movements on both sides up to
occupation of Moscow (_folding, at end of volume_)
Map of Theatre of War, showing positions of opposing forces
at the evacuation of Moscow and movements on both sides
to the end of the campaign (_folding, at end of volume_)
NAPOLEON’S
RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN OF 1812
CHAPTER I
THE PRELIMINARIES
The Russian Campaign of 1812 was the last and greatest of Napoleon’s
efforts to impose his dominion upon Continental Europe; and it resulted
in perhaps the most tremendous overthrow that any world-conqueror has
ever sustained. A review of the immediate causes of the mighty struggle
is necessary and not without interest, but it is difficult, as one
studies Napoleon’s character, to resist the conclusion that it was
inevitable. The career of the Corsican adventurer whom genius and good
fortune had made Emperor of France, resembles the fateful development
of a Greek tragedy. By 1812 his pride had reached its height. Whatever
set itself in opposition to his will must be trodden under foot.
Russia, impelled partly by a natural sense of independence, partly by
economic causes, made up her mind to resist him, and the consequence
was an attack upon her by the tyrant of south-western Europe.
The effects of the Continental system varied in different parts of
Europe, but everywhere they were bad. France, wealthy in herself, and
with the material advantage of being able to maintain her overgrown
armies at free quarters in foreign countries, felt them least--a
fact which probably accounts for Napoleon’s long continuance in
power. Elsewhere the pressure was cruel, especially in Sweden, which
practically depended for economic existence upon her sea-borne
commerce. Russia, though self-supporting as regards food supplies,
also suffered materially from the cessation of her trade with Great
Britain; and the classes which felt the pressure most were those of the
nobles and merchants, which embodied and voiced such public opinion
as existed in the country. There was also in Russia a healthy sense
of independence, coupled with a feeling of possessing such strength
as made destruction, at the hands even of Napoleon, impossible. Such
opinions were certain to penetrate sooner or later to the Tzar and his
advisers; and, in spite of much irresolution and diversity of views,
they could not fail to exercise considerable influence. Besides, the
commencement of a new independent Poland, in the shape of the Grand
Duchy of Warsaw, established by Napoleon on the western frontier of
Russia, was an ever-present source of anger and uneasiness. The Grand
Duchy was, to all intents and purposes, a military camp, a sort of
French advanced guard against Russia. Within its bounds everything was
subordinated to military organisation, and its large army, organised
and trained on French principles, and with French aid, was a very real
menace.
Napoleon’s political marriage with Maria Louisa of Austria, at a moment
when he was ostensibly negotiating for the hand of Alexander’s sister,
added to the Tzar’s sense of his people’s sufferings and his empire’s
danger a feeling of personal injury. Next year this was aggravated by
Napoleon’s abrupt annexation of the coast-lands of north-west Germany,
including Oldenburg, whose ruler was Alexander’s brother-in-law. In the
beginning of 1811 the Tzar issued a commercial decree which virtually
prohibited various French imports into Russia, and also permitted the
import of Colonial goods under a neutral flag. The measure must, of
course, have been under consideration for some time, and Russia’s
financial straits amply account for it, but coming as it did on the
heels of Alexander’s protests against the seizure of Oldenburg, it
enraged Napoleon. In a letter to the King of Württemberg he described
it as a declaration of hostility, and, since any movement in the
direction of independence inevitably called down his furious wrath, he
was probably right.
At the same time these events were scarcely the cause of
hostilities--they merely hastened them. Whatever diplomacy might do,
neither Napoleon nor Alexander had any belief in the permanence of the
truce which had been called in 1807. Soon after his second marriage
Napoleon had observed to Metternich that war with Russia was in the
nature of things. The retention of strong garrisons in the Prussian
fortresses on the Oder, the steady increase in the forces of the Grand
Duchy of Warsaw, and the continued occupation of Danzig, almost on
the Russian frontier, were measures which can hardly be regarded as
directed otherwise than against Russia. Moreover, besides the troops
of Napoleon’s German vassals, an army of 100,000 Frenchmen occupied
Germany. It is absurd to suggest, in the face of all this, that war
was forced upon Napoleon by Russia--except, of course, in so far as
independent action of any kind always challenged his hostility.
Whatever Alexander’s personal feelings might be--and there is no
doubt that he was to some extent fascinated by the French Emperor’s
personality--he was gradually forced into the conviction that peace
was impossible. In 1810 he appointed as War-Minister General Barclay
de Tolly, an officer who had greatly distinguished himself in the
French and Swedish wars; and the reorganisation of the Russian forces
was energetically proceeded with. Count Arakcheiev, Alexander’s harsh
and brutal, but undoubtedly industrious and energetic, minister,
had already done much, especially in the direction of improving the
arsenals and reserves of arms. Barclay’s measures were steadily
directed to preparing for a war on the western frontier. The country
was surveyed, roads examined and improved, magazines formed,
fortifications planned and begun, and, above all, troops steadily
concentrated. Progress was, however, slow. Apart from the backward
state of the country as a whole, divided counsels in the Imperial
Cabinet, the poverty of the exchequer, and the strain of the long
and by no means successful Turkish war, it was necessary to proceed
cautiously, for fear of provoking Napoleon too soon into offensive
action.
The preparations were, in fact, entirely defensive in character, and
appear very modest beside Napoleon’s vast armaments and fortifications
on territory which was not his own. The Russian ministers, indeed,
appear to have been generally rather over-confident of their country’s
ability to resist a French invasion. Some of them, at any rate, wished
to take up arms in 1811, counting on the support of Austria and
Prussia. They pointed out that Napoleon would calculate upon Russia’s
steady weakening owing to loss of trade, and that therefore speedy
action was desirable. The Grand Chancellor, Count Rumiantzev, was a
strong partisan of the French alliance. Alexander himself, though
determined to stand firm against aggression, was not anxious for war,
and apparently hoped that it might be avoided--as indeed it might have
been, but for the fact that peace with England, which was desired by,
and necessary to, Russia, implied from Napoleon’s standpoint war with
France. The impression which the Russian Government generally conveyed
in foreign countries was one of great irresolution.
This impression was indeed somewhat erroneous. The war-party in
Russia was by far the larger of the two into which public opinion was
naturally divided, since it included nearly everyone whose interests
were adversely affected by the Continental system--in other words,
the majority of the nobles and merchants. It was, however, divided,
comprising a narrowly patriotic section which looked merely to the
preservation of Russian territory, and another, naturally smaller,
consisting of men who saw more or less clearly that to ensure European
peace Napoleon must be not merely repelled, but crushed once and for
all. The peace-party though small was very influential, including
the Chancellor Rumiantzev, Alexander’s own mother, and his brother
Constantine.
Ultimately, of course, everything depended upon the character of the
Tzar, and this was such as to give the friends of France great hopes
of being able to influence him. Alexander was essentially a dreamer,
much under the influence of vaguely exalted aspirations which were
terribly contrasted with the mass of selfishness, luxury, and brutality
which environed and repelled him. He was impulsive rather than calmly
and steadily determined, and both at Tilsit and Erfurt Napoleon had
dominated him. Probably he hoped to do so again. He was bitterly
disappointed, and his vexation inspired the libellous remarks upon
Alexander’s character which occasionally pass for serious history.
Alexander I was neither a great statesman, a great general, nor a
hero. He was, as far as we can see him, a kindly and well-meaning man,
somewhat dreamy and irresolute in general, called by an inscrutable
providence to rule, from the midst of a luxurious Court and through
a corrupt bureaucracy, a very backward and undeveloped realm. He was
often shocked by the conditions about him, but lacked the moral courage
to suppress them. But, like many other dreamers, he could at times rise
to the occasion. He was intellectual enough to act both as general
and statesman, by no means with discredit in either case, and morally
elevated enough to play, in 1812, something at any rate of the part of
a hero.
Nevertheless, Alexander was naturally slow in finally forming his
resolution to fight to the death, and the causes here detailed made
preparations for war also tardy. As it was, however, they were quickly
detected by Napoleon, and used by him as the grounds for diplomatic
protests and for pushing forward his own armaments.
Barclay’s preparations, in brief, included the increase of the
number of the regiments of the Russian army, the completion to war
strength of two battalions per infantry, and four squadrons per
cavalry, regiment; the organisation of depôts to complete the third
battalions and fifth squadrons with all speed, and the concentration
on the western frontier of all available forces--ultimately including
9 army corps, 2 independent divisions, 5 reserve cavalry “corps,”
and 3 corps of irregular horse. Information concerning the state
of Napoleon’s forces, especially in Germany and the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw, was carefully collected, and the possible theatre of war
studied and surveyed. The fortifications carried out had a purely
defensive character, and cannot be for a moment compared with
Napoleon’s constant provocative preparations in Germany and Poland.
Riga was fortified, and fortifications were projected at Dünaburg,
where the St. Petersburg-Vilna road crossed the Düna. Other works were
planned at Borisov on the Berezina, where the river is crossed by the
Moscow-Warsaw high-road. Kiev, the famous old Russian city on the
Dnieper, was also fortified, as was Bobruisk on the Berezina. A glance
at the map will show how absolutely defensive these fortifications
were. Riga is 150 miles from the frontier, and all the other places
much farther back. As a fact some of them were not completed, hardly
even begun, when war broke out.
These preparations were due in their inception to Barclay, but there
were others which were inspired by the unpractical advisers immediately
about the Tzar. Wellington’s Torres Vedras campaign had made a great
sensation in Europe, and General Phull, Alexander’s Prussian instructor
and adviser, had projected a great entrenched camp at Drissa, a town
that was literally nowhere. It covered nothing; it was hardly even
tactically well placed. It is a striking indication of the confusion
in the Russian councils that, practically behind the back of the
War-Minister who was nominally responsible for military preparations,
a vast amount of time and labour was wasted on this pretentious and
unprofitable camp of refuge. In a sentence, Drissa was absolutely
useless. Yet the man who conceived this almost childish idea of drawing
Napoleon against his will upon an arbitrarily placed entrenchment, and
inducing him to waste time and lives before it, passed for a scientific
soldier! The amount of time and labour expended on Drissa rendered all
the other works slow in construction, and Dünaburg was hardly commenced
when the war broke out.
Napoleon’s preparations were naturally influenced by no chimerical
ideas--except in so far as he appeared inclined to renew in 1811 his
old plan of an invasion by sea of England! All through 1810 and 1811
the arming and strengthening of German and Polish fortresses was
continued, and the bulk of the disposable French troops were collected
in three so-called corps of observation in the northern provinces and
in Germany. They numbered some 200,000 men. From Italy he could draw
about 50,000 French and Italian troops. The contingents of his German
vassals numbered nearly 130,000. The Grand Duchy of Warsaw could
furnish some 50,000. Prussia was practically helpless, and Napoleon
imposed upon her a treaty of alliance which required her to furnish
20,000 men, and subjected her to wholesale plunder by the _Grande
Armée_ on its passage through her territories. Napoleon was to make
such requisitions as he pleased, and payment was to be arranged for
them later! The misery caused, however, unfortunately for him, did not
destroy Prussia, and only added to the heavy debt of vengeance soon
to be paid. For the moment, however, Prussia had reached the depths
of humiliation. Austria, though sorely humbled and distressed, was in
a far more independent position; and Metternich’s address succeeded
in concluding a treaty by which Austria was to be indemnified for
any territorial losses that she might sustain by a reconstitution of
Poland, and should furnish an auxiliary corps of about 30,000 men.
There was, of course, no guarantee that Napoleon would keep the first
condition, and in all probability he would never have done so had
the contemplated events come to pass; but that he consented to it,
even nominally, indicates that he was anxious to conciliate Austria.
Austria, on her side, furnished to the _Grande Armée_ some 40,000 men
in all.
Having completed these arrangements Austria and Prussia promptly
communicated them to Russia! Despite the grim seriousness of the
situation, and the terrible drama which was soon to be acted, it is
difficult not to see that Napoleon’s position was a somewhat ludicrous
one. Austria gave Alexander full assurances that no attack should be
made upon Russia by any but the auxiliary corps, and communicated to
him the secret orders given to the troops in Galicia and Transylvania!
Poland--or the fraction of it represented by the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw--was, naturally and necessarily, heart and soul with Napoleon.
France had always been the model to which the Poles looked up; and
since the Partition they regarded France as their natural helper.
They had fought in the French ranks in large numbers during the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and there was undoubtedly much
sympathy of a kind felt for them in France. Farther than this feeling
did not go. The chivalry with which the French national character
is credited by its admirers certainly does not appear in history.
French diplomatic annals are to the full as soiled as those of other
countries, and French soldiers have usually been ruthless interpreters
or breakers of the rules of war. And most certainly the natural
instincts of the French people are essentially material. In so far as
Poland was useful to France, France was very ready to sympathise with
her. Otherwise the general opinion of the Poles, later expressed by the
poet Gaszinski, is that they have obtained from France only tears!
Napoleon was, of course, fully alive to the advantages to be reaped
from Polish enthusiasm and aspirations. Besides the army of Warsaw he
brought up to the front all his own Polish regiments so as to give
his operations as far as possible the appearance of a war for the
restoration of Polish independence. Eventually in 1812 he sent De
Pradt to Warsaw to organise the movement against Russia. He gave him
detailed instructions as to how he was to carry out his orders, and it
is hardly possible to read them without feelings of indignation against
the man who ruthlessly traded upon the aspirations of a brave and
patriotic people, and of pity for the people themselves. The ambassador
himself was very conscious of the ignominious part which he was called
upon to play. To all appearance he did his work well; certainly the
poverty-stricken and requisition-wasted Grand Duchy raised a very
large force for the campaign. Napoleon, however, chose later to be
dissatisfied; and at St. Helena violently attacked De Pradt, as a chief
cause of his defeat--a statement which may fairly be included in the
mass of falsehoods which Napoleon emitted during his captivity.
On January 27th, 1812, Napoleon issued to his German vassals a
declaration of his complaints against Russia, and required them to have
their contingents ready by the 15th of February. The Army of Italy was
ordered to march into Germany, and the King of Bavaria to clear the
roads of snow and to supply it during its march through his territory.
The troops were to live at free quarters; if they were not supplied
with all that they required they were to take it! Anyone insulting
a French soldier was to be court-martialled, and the sentences of
prejudiced and often brutalised judges may be imagined. It is, of
course, needless to add that both these orders were suppressed by the
editors of Napoleon’s correspondence. In order to extract additional
supplies the Army of Italy was stated at 80,000 strong, its actual
numbers being about 45,000. When Napoleon’s allies were thus oppressed,
one may imagine the misery in Prussia, which was treated as a conquered
country.
All this time Napoleon and Alexander were negotiating, though with
small chance of a peaceful result. Alexander desired peace, but
would not surrender his independence: Napoleon required complete
submission. Alexander sent his aide-de-camp, Colonel Chernishev,
on a special mission to Paris, while at St. Petersburg the French
Ambassador, Caulaincourt, was replaced by General Lauriston. Early in
1812 Napoleon induced the King of Prussia to send a special envoy to
St. Petersburg, with the suggestion that Alexander might make fresh
proposals. Alexander made a dignified reply: he had, he said, shown
his strong desire for peace by keeping silent upon the subject of
Napoleon’s annexations: at the same time he was willing to hear what
explanations France might have to offer. None were made, and French
troops continued to flood across Germany. Napoleon believed that the
Russian preparations were more advanced than they actually were--this
is fairly apparent from his military correspondence--and was anxious to
gain time. In April Alexander sent to Prince Kurakin, his ambassador
at Paris, final instructions. He was to propose that Prussia be fully
evacuated by the French, thus leaving a neutral space between the
contending powers. Russia would then be ready to satisfy France--or
Napoleon--on commercial questions. It can hardly be doubted that,
come what might, Alexander did not intend entirely to return to the
Continental system, and so far Napoleon was probably right in deeming
the proposal a diplomatic move to gain time. He made no reply, but
despatched Count Narbonne on a shadowy mission to Alexander at Vilna,
and kept Kurakin, with studied insolence, waiting. The ambassador
pressed repeatedly for a reply, but received none until nearly three
weeks later. Then he was merely asked if he had full powers to treat!
He rightly regarded such treatment as a gratuitous insult, and demanded
his passports. Narbonne’s mission naturally led to nothing, except that
he obtained a better idea than Napoleon of the stern determination of
the erstwhile soft and yielding Tzar.
Alexander, on his side, was endeavouring to free his hands for the
approaching struggle. The result of the Treaty of Tilsit had been the
long and harassing war with Turkey; and Russia paid dearly for the
blunder into which Napoleon’s blandishments had led her. Negotiations
for peace were very slow, and steadily opposed and hampered by the
French ambassador at Constantinople. Peace was not signed at Bukharest
until May, 1812, and even then French influence was still so powerful
that there was fear that it would be broken by Turkey. It was not
until August that the bulk of the Army of the Danube at last started
from Bukharest under Admiral Chichagov, and by that time Napoleon was
already on the line of the Düna and the Dnieper. As it happened the
delay was fortunate for Russia, but it might easily have been fatal.
Yet more important to Russia than peace with the Osmanli Empire was
peace with Great Britain, but in order to keep the gate of conciliation
open for Napoleon until the last moment formal negotiations were not
commenced until April, 1812. In point of fact, though the two powers
were nominally at war, and the British fleet was blockading the
Russian ports, there was a very good feeling between them. Through
the Spanish envoy Zea Bermudez, Lord Wellesley had in 1811 assured
Alexander that Britain was not really hostile, and Alexander in turn
had promised Bermudez that he would keep his troops on the Polish
frontier, so as to ensure that the suspicious French Emperor would
not move more troops from Germany into Spain. Admiral de Saumarez,
the fine seaman and excellent diplomatist who commanded the British
Baltic fleet, handled the situation with unerring tact and skill,
and effectively ensured the doing of nothing which might destroy the
comparatively friendly relations which subsisted between the two
nominally hostile states. All this is doubly interesting, as proving
the hopelessly fragile basis upon which Napoleon’s European domination
rested.
Russia’s first overtures were somewhat clumsy and exorbitant in their
demands. They suggested that since Russia was obviously about to render
vital services to the common cause Britain should take over a loan
of nearly £4,000,000 just raised by her. The refusal of the British
Government to accede to this demand, in itself not inexcusable, but
failing to recognise Britain’s own difficulties and the services which
she was rendering, rather dashed the Russian Government, and the formal
alliance was not concluded until July.
Finally, it may be noted that Napoleon, before entering upon
hostilities, went through the time-honoured farce of making overtures
of peace to Britain. It was purely a diplomatic move, and certainly
not seriously intended, nor did the British Government regard it as
being so. Britain was more confident than she had been for a long time.
The French offensive in the Peninsula had very definitely reached its
limit, and Wellington, by his capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz,
had taken the first steps in the great counter-attack which was
eventually to roll the French back over the Pyrenees. Calm observers
like Foy saw that the turn of the tide had come. It may be regarded as
certain that terms of peace less unfavourable than those which Napoleon
offered would hardly have been accepted.
Sweden, under the direction of Napoleon’s old enemy and restive
servant, Bernadotte, also allied herself with Russia in April--an act
immediately brought about by Napoleon’s arrogant seizure of Swedish
Pomerania, but perhaps in the end inevitable. Sweden, however, partly
owing to poverty, partly because of Britain’s unwillingness to abet
Bernadotte’s designs on Norway, took no active share in the Continental
war until 1813; but Russia was enabled to withdraw most of her troops
from Finland for service against Napoleon.
Meanwhile the French and Russian preparations for war were actively
pursued, though more rapidly and effectively by Napoleon than by his
antagonist, who had to contend with far greater difficulties. On
February 8th Napoleon ordered Prince Eugène with the Army of Italy and
the Bavarians to advance upon Glogau, where they would arrive about
April 1st. Davout’s six divisions were advanced stage by stage from
the Elbe to the Vistula, while the 2nd Corps (Oudinot) and the 3rd
(Ney) followed in support. The Poles (5th Corps) were concentrated on
the Vistula about Warsaw, Modlin and Plock; and the Saxons (7th Corps)
and Westphalians (8th Corps) directed also upon Warsaw. Two corps
of cavalry reserves--22,000 lances and sabres--and gunners of horse
artillery were in the north; a third, 10,000 strong, with Eugène; and
a fourth, not yet completely formed, was to accompany the 5th, 7th and
8th Corps. The Prussian contingent was assembling at Königsberg, the
Austrian at Lemberg. Finally the Imperial Guard, horse and foot, was
advancing from Paris to form the general reserve. Over and above all
these formations, which composed the actual army of invasion, various
reserve divisions, French, Polish and German, were being organised,
some of which were later combined into a 9th Army Corps under Marshal
Victor. The refractory conscripts, who were being trained in their
island prison-camps, were formed into fresh regiments of infantry.
The conscripts of the year, who were collecting at the depôts, were
organised as soon as sufficiently trained into _Regiments de Marche_
which were pushed forward into and through Germany to feed the
fighting line. Out of these an 11th Corps was formed, the composition
of which was constantly changing as the advanced troops were pushed
across the Russian frontier, to be replaced by others at the rearward
stages, while these were in their turn relieved by new conscripts from
France. A division of King Joachim’s Neapolitans was marching from
Italy to form part of this great reserve corps. The King of Denmark
also, at Napoleon’s request, concentrated a division of 10,000 troops
in Holstein. Napoleon did not believe that Britain could seriously
molest his rear owing to her preoccupation with the Peninsular War,
but he took no risks. In March, 1812, a Senatus-Consultum formed the
entire male population of the empire into three _bans_, and of the
first _ban_, comprising men from twenty to twenty-six years of age, a
hundred battalions or “cohorts” were immediately called out for home
defence. They actually produced a force of about 80,000 men, who by
June had received a fair amount of training. Apart from them there were
left for the defence of the empire 2 regiments of the Young Guard, 24
line battalions in 8 regiments of infantry, 8 foreign battalions, 8
squadrons of cavalry and 48 batteries of artillery. There were also 156
3rd, 4th and 5th battalions of regiments already on foreign service,
the seamen, marines, coast-guards and veterans, and finally the depôts
of the whole army.
At the beginning of 1812, when Napoleon was preparing to concentrate
on the Oder, the Russian forces, exclusive of the isolated armies of
Turkey and Finland, lay dispersed in cantonments from Courland to
Podolia, over a line of some six hundred miles. During March and April,
as the French offensive on the Vistula became pronounced, Alexander
drew in his scattered forces and organised them in two armies, calling
up reinforcements from the Turkish frontier. The first army, under
the War-Minister Barclay de Tolly, had its head-quarters at Vilna.
The second, commanded by the fiery Georgian Prince Peter Bagration,
was cantoned about Lutsk. Napoleon interpreted this to mean that
Russia intended to invade the Grand Duchy of Warsaw with Bagration’s
army, while Barclay covered the road to St. Petersburg. It is indeed
probable, if not certain, that had their preparations been more forward
the Russians would have attempted something of the kind; Bagration
was eager to advance on Warsaw. The plans discussed at the Russian
head-quarters all appear to be based upon the the hypothesis of being
able to meet the French near the frontier on fairly equal terms.
Napoleon’s overwhelming strength was not yet appreciated.
On April 17th Napoleon wrote to Davout, laying down the plan of action
which he proposed in view of a Russian advance on Warsaw. The 60,000
men of the Saxon and Polish armies would, if possible, hold the line of
the Vistula about Warsaw, but if overmatched must retreat on Glogau,
where Davout would be able to come into line with them, while the
main body of the Grand Army came up to the relief in two columns. He
showed his confidence in his lieutenant by inviting him to examine and
criticise the proposed plan.
At this date the French forces were approximately stationed as follows,
left to right. The Prussians were about Königsberg, and Davout’s six
infantry divisions and a cavalry corps between Danzig and Thorn, all
these forming what General Bonnal calls the Strategic Advanced Guard,
under Davout. The 5th Corps was between Plock and Warsaw, the 7th Corps
near Kalisch, 140 miles west of Warsaw, the 8th Corps between Glogau
and Kalisch. The Bavarians (6th Corps) were marching from Glogau to
Posen; the Army of Italy (4th Corps) was spread out over 100 miles of
road in rear of Glogau; Ney was with the 3rd Corps about Frankfort on
the Oder, eighty miles north-west of Glogau, and Oudinot with the 2nd
about Berlin. As Bagration at Lutsk was some 250 miles from Warsaw,
a study of the map will show that an offensive movement on his part
could be opposed by at least equal numbers (the 5th, 7th and 8th Corps)
in any case, apart from the 4th and 6th, which could be diverted on
Warsaw, while a mass of over 200,000 men (Davout, Prussians, 2nd Corps,
3rd Corps and 2 cavalry corps) could oppose Barclay, besides the Guard.
Towards the end of April Napoleon obtained fairly accurate information
of the Russian emplacements. Six Army Corps and 3 divisions of reserve
cavalry were extended from near Shavli in Courland to Slonim in
Lithuania--a distance of nearly 250 miles. At Lutsk, over 200 miles
from Slonim, and separated from it by the huge barrier of the Pinsk
Marshes, were 2 Corps under Bagration, while slowly converging upon
Lutsk were 5 divisions of infantry and 2 of cavalry. He could therefore
calculate with sufficient certainty that his strategic deployment along
the Vistula would not be interrupted. By May 15th the bulk of his
forces were on the Vistula from Danzig to Warsaw. The Prussians were
at Königsberg, the Austrians at Lemberg, the 4th Corps in reserve at
Kalisch, the Imperial Guards marching in detachments across Germany.
The whole mass, exclusive of non-combatants, amounted to nearly 450,000
men, of whom 80,000 were cavalry. It had with it, including its reserve
parks, 1146 guns and howitzers, nearly 200,000 horses and draft
animals, and probably 25,000 vehicles.
The extent of the suffering entailed by the passage of this gigantic
host through Germany may be imagined. The mere supplying it with
food was enough to exhaust the country, but it was but a part of
what had to be endured. The peasants were robbed of horses, vehicles
and implements for the service of the troops, and forced themselves
to accompany the columns to drive their carts laden with baggage
or their own plundered crops. Honourable men in the French army
saw such proceedings with shame and regret. De Fezensac tells with
ill-suppressed indignation how he met German peasants fifty leagues
from their homes acting as baggage drivers, and adds that they were
fortunate if they reached their villages in a state of beggary.
Testimony such as this is invaluable and damning. Organised plunder was
rampant, and the French officers, brutalised and morally degraded by
years of war maintaining war, were reckless of the misery inflicted.
The Prussian official Schön tells how Davout, on entering Gumbinnen
and finding supplies in his opinion not adequate, owing to the abject
poverty to which Prussia had been reduced, coolly ordered his troops
to pillage the town! The 1st Corps was the best administered in the
army; and Davout is commonly held up to admiration by French writers
as the pattern of honour and loyalty. But his execution of orders was
commonly ruthless, and there were in Napoleon’s army but too many
officers who lacked even Davout’s very limited sense of honour. Davout
would sack a town remorselessly, as readily as Suchet massacred women
and children at Lerida; but Suchet would hang a man who committed
murder, and Davout, while subjecting people to every kind of officially
ordered oppression, would sternly check private plunder or outrage. But
other generals were less strict, and the bad characters who are found
in every army had opportunities of committing all kinds of outrages.
Napoleon himself at last complained of the misconduct of Ney’s 3rd
Corps. Ney was a worse disciplinarian than Davout, though a humane and
kindly tempered man, but neither Ney nor Davout can really be blamed.
The troops, by Napoleon’s order, were to be supplied at the expense
of the country, and the usual discipline of the French army was so
shattered by years of organised brigandage that the rest naturally
followed. The terrible misery inflicted upon Germany and other
countries by Napoleonic warfare may be studied at length in reports and
despatches, and furnishes a very grim commentary upon the moral value
of military discipline.
Napoleon left Paris on the 9th of May, accompanied by the Empress, and
reached Dresden on the 16th, where all his unwilling or willing allies
and vassals were gathered to meet him. The details of his stay--how
kings waited in his antechamber, how he made presents to them, how
queens waited upon Maria Louisa--need not be repeated. The episode was
a memorable example of pride preceding a fall.
Napoleon was not impatient. He had already told Davout that he should
not commence operations until the grass had grown in order that he
might therewith supplement his stores of forage; and he did not
leave Dresden until the 30th of May. On that day the whole army was
concentrated between Königsberg and Warsaw; the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th
Corps were all in line, and the Guard was collecting at Posen. Napoleon
in his orders for the advance on the Niemen, on May 26th, contemplates
the army as three masses: the right, consisting of the 5th, 7th and 8th
Corps, under Jerome; the centre, of the 4th and 6th, under Eugène; and
the left, of the Guard, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and the new 10th Corps
(Davout’s foreign division and the Prussians) which he would conduct in
person. Two Reserve Cavalry Corps were allotted to the left, one to the
centre, and one to the right.
Meanwhile, on the Russian side, the Emperor Alexander had arrived at
Vilna on April 26th. As Emperor he nominally had the chief command, but
unfortunately his motley following of German princes and relatives,
military adventurers and theorists, had much more to suggest than the
harassed sovereign, who must at times have been almost in despair
at being called upon to decide between them. There were lengthy
discussions and much drafting of strategic schemes, few of them at
all applicable to the situation and resulting in little but waste of
time. Barclay was practically superseded by the Emperor’s following,
and being naturally a man of diffident and retiring nature, and unused
to supreme command, he did not sufficiently assert himself. Among the
officers who appeared in Alexander’s suite was old General Bennigsen,
who had commanded not without credit against Napoleon in 1807, and
probably hoped to induce the Tzar to give him an important command.
[Illustration:
PRINCE EUGÈNE
Son of the ex-Empress Josephine, Viceroy of Italy, and Commander of the
4th French Army Corps
From the picture by Scheffer at Versailles]
By the beginning of June it was becoming clear that Napoleon’s attack
would be delivered across the Niemen. Bagration was thereupon ordered
to leave a corps, under General Tormazov, to defend Volhynia against
the Austrians about Lemberg, and to march with the 7th and 8th Corps
through the Pinsk Marshes to Pruzhani. This movement appears to have
escaped Napoleon until the last. As the French continued to advance,
inclining more and more to the left, and pushing forward in dense
masses into the north-east corner of Prussia, Bagration moved on to
Volkovisk, about 100 miles south-southwest of Vilna, Napoleon believing
him to be still at Lutsk and Brest-Litovsk.
Thus in the early days of June all was prepared for the opening of the
grand drama. The hostile armies faced each other on a front of about
170 miles, with a distance of from 100 to 200 miles separating their
main masses. Considerably to the southward, the Austrians, under Prince
Schwarzenberg, and the army of General Tormazov confronted each other
on the Galician frontier, and would evidently fight an independent
contest. On May 30th Napoleon left Dresden for the front, and with his
arrival at Gumbinnen on June 17th, after a detour by Thorn, Danzig and
Königsberg in order to inspect the depôts at those places, the campaign
may be said to have definitely commenced.