remnants of Murat's cavalry, which had remained behind the Motscha and
at Woronowo. Kutusoff, deceived by this feint, was still waiting for the
Grand Army on the old road, while, on the 23d of October, the whole of
it had been transferred to the new one, and had but one march to make in
order to pass quietly by him, and to get between him and Kaluga.
On the first day of this flanking march, a letter was sent from Berthier
to Kutusoff, as a last attempt at peace, or perhaps merely as a ruse. No
satisfactory answer was returned to it.
On the 23d the imperial quarters were at Borowsk. That night was an
agreeable one for the emperor: he was informed that, at six in the
evening, Delzons with his division, who was four leagues in advance of
him, had found the town of Malo-jaroslavetz and the woods which command
it unoccupied: this was a strong position within reach of Kutusoff, and
the only point where he could cut us off from the new road to Kaluga.
The emperor wished at first to secure that advantage by his presence:
the order to march was even given, but shortly after withdrawn, we know
not why. He passed the whole of that evening on horseback, not far from
Borowsk, on the left of the road, the side on which he supposed Kutusoff
to be. He reconnoitered the ground in the midst of a heavy rain, as if
he anticipated that it might become a field of battle. Next day, the
24th, he learned that the Russians had disputed the possession of the
town with Delzons. Either from confidence or uncertainty in his plans,
this intelligence appeared to give him very little concern.
He quitted Borowsk, therefore, late and leisurely, when the noise of a
very smart engagement reached where he was; he then became uneasy,
hastened to an eminence and listened. "Had the Russians anticipated him?
Was his manoeuvre thwarted? Had he not used sufficient expedition in
that march, the object of which was to pass the left flank of Kutusoff?"
The emperor was still listening: the noise increased. "Is it then a
battle?" he exclaimed. Every discharge agitated him, for the chief point
with him was no longer to conquer, but to preserve, and he urged on with
all possible speed, Davoust accompanying him; but he and that marshal
did not reach the field of battle till dark, when the firing was already
subsiding, and the whole was over.
The emperor saw the close of the battle, but without being able to
assist the viceroy.[161] A band of Cossacks from Twer had nearly
captured one of his officers, who was only a very short distance from
him.
At this time an officer, sent by Prince Eugene, came to him and
explained the whole affair. "The troops had," he said, "in the first
place, been obliged to cross the Louja at the foot of the town, at the
bottom of an elbow which the river makes in its course, and then to
climb a steep hill. It is on this precipitous declivity, broken by
pointed crags, that the town is built. Beyond is an elevated plain,
surrounded with woods, from which run three roads, one in front coming
from Kaluga, and two on the left, from Lectazowo, the seat of the
intrenched camp of Kutusoff."
After crossing the Louja by a narrow bridge, the high road from Kaluga
runs along the bottom of a ravine which ascends to the town, and then
enters it. The enemy in mass occupied this hollow way; Delzons and his
Frenchmen rushed upon them pell-mell; the Russians were broken and
overthrown; they gave way, and presently our bayonets glistened on the
heights.
Delzons, conceiving himself sure of the victory, announced it as won. He
had nothing but a pile of buildings to storm; but his soldiers
hesitated. He himself advanced, and was encouraging them by his words,
actions, and example, when a ball struck him in the forehead, and
extended him on the ground. His brother threw himself upon him, covered
him with his body, clasped him in his arms, and was striving to bear him
out of the fire and the fray, when a second ball hit him also, and both
expired together.
This loss left a great void, which required to be filled. Guilleminot
succeeded Delzons, and the first thing he did was to throw a hundred men
into a church and the yard around it, in the walls of which they made
loopholes. This church stood on the left of the high road, which it
commanded, and to its possession we owed the victory. Five times during
the day was this post passed by the Russian columns as they were
pursuing ours, and five times did its fire, seasonably poured upon their
flank and rear, harass them and retard their progress: afterward, when
we resumed the offensive, this position placed them between two fires,
and ensured the success of our attacks.
Scarcely had that general made this disposition when he was assailed by
a host of the enemy: he was driven back towards the bridge, where the
viceroy had stationed himself in order to judge how to act and to
prepare his reserves. At first the re-enforcements which he sent came up
but slowly one after another; and, as is almost always the case where
there is this tardy movement, being singly inadequate to any great
effort, each was successively destroyed without result.
At length the whole of the 14th division was engaged; and the combat was
carried for the third time to the heights. But when the French had
passed the houses, advanced beyond the central point from which they had
set out, and reached the plain where they were exposed, and where the
circle expanded, they could advance no farther; overwhelmed by the fire
of a whole Russian army, they were daunted and shaken; fresh columns
incessantly came up: our thinned ranks gave way and were broken; the
obstacles of the ground increased their confusion; and at length they
retired precipitately, and abandoned everything.
Meanwhile, the shells having set fire to the wooden town behind them, in
their retreat they were stopped by the conflagration: one fire drove
them back upon another; the Russian recruits, wrought up to a pitch of
fanatic fury, closely pursued them; our soldiers became enraged; they
fought man to man; some were seen seizing each other with one hand and
striking with the other, until both rolled down the precipices into the
flames without quitting their hold. There the wounded expired, either
suffocated by the smoke or consumed by the flames.
The 15th division was still left. The viceroy summoned it: as it
advanced, it threw a brigade into the suburb on the left, and another
into the town on the right. It consisted of Italians, recruits, who had
never before been in action. They ascended, shouting enthusiastically,
ignorant of the danger or despising it, from that singular disposition
which renders life less dear in its flower than in its decline, either
because while young we fear death less from the feeling of its distance,
or because at that age, rich in years and lavish of everything, we are
prodigal of life as the wealthy are of their fortune.
The shock was terrible: everything was reconquered for the fourth time,
and speedily lost again in like manner. More eager to begin than their
seniors, these young troops were sooner disheartened, and returned
flying to the old battalions, which supported them, and were obliged to
lead them back to danger.
The Russians, imboldened by their constantly increasing numbers and by
success, descended by their right to gain possession of the bridge and
to cut off our retreat. Prince Eugene had nothing left but his last
reserve: he and his guard, therefore, now took part in the combat. At
this sight, and in obedience to his call, the remains of the 13th,
14th, and 15th divisions resumed their courage: they made a last and
desperate effort, and for the fifth time the combat was transferred to
the heights.
At the same time, Colonel Peraldi and the Italian troops overthrew with
their bayonets the Russians who were already approaching the left of the
bridge: infuriated by the smoke and the fire through which they had
passed, and encouraged by their success and the havoc which they made,
they pushed forward without stopping on the elevated plain, and
endeavored to make themselves masters of the enemy's cannon; but one of
those deep clefts with which the soil of Russia is intersected stopped
them in the midst of a destructive fire, their ranks opened, the enemy's
cavalry attacked them, and they were driven back to the very gardens of
the suburb. There they paused and rallied: all, both French and
Italians, obstinately defended the upper avenues of the town, and the
Russians, being at length repulsed, drew back and concentrated
themselves on the road to Kaluga, between the woods and
Malo-jaroslavetz.
In this manner did 18,000 Italians and French, crowded together at the
bottom of a ravine, defeat 50,000 Russians, posted over their heads, and
seconded by all the obstacles that a town built on a steep declivity is
capable of presenting.
The army, however, surveyed with sorrow this field of battle, where
seven generals and 4000 French and Italians had been killed or wounded.
The sight of the enemy's loss afforded no consolation; it was not twice
the amount of ours, and their wounded would be saved. It was moreover
recollected, that in a similar situation, Peter I., in sacrificing ten
Russians for one Swede, thought that he was not sustaining merely an
equal loss, but that he was gaining even by so terrible a bargain. But
what caused the greatest pain was the reflection that this sanguinary
conflict might have been spared.[162]
Sec. 11. Napoleon holds a council of war and decides to retreat northward.
Do you recollect, comrades, that fatal field? Can you still figure to
yourselves the blood-stained ruins of that town, those deep ravines, and
the woods which surround that elevated plain, and mark it, as it were,
for a field of combat? On the one side were the French, quitting the
north, from which they sought to fly; on the other, at the entrance of
the wood, were the Russians, guarding the south, and striving to drive
us back upon their all-subduing winter. In the midst of this plain,
between the two armies, was Napoleon, his steps and his eyes wandering
from south to west, along the roads to Kaluga and Medyn, both which were
closed against him. On that to Kaluga were Kutusoff and one hundred and
twenty thousand men, ready to dispute with him sixty miles of defiles;
towards Medyn he beheld a numerous cavalry: it was Platoff and those
same hordes which had just penetrated the flank of the army, traversed
it through and through, and burst forth, laden with booty, to form again
on his right flank, where re-enforcements and artillery were waiting for
them. It was on that side that the eyes of the emperor were fixed the
longest; it was principally in regard to it that he listened to reports
of his officers, and consulted his maps: until, oppressed with regret
and gloomy forebodings, he slowly returned to his headquarters.
Murat, Prince Eugene, Berthier, Davoust and Bessieres followed him. This
miserable habitation of an obscure artisan contained within it an
emperor, two kings, and three generals. Here they were about to decide
the fate of Europe, and of the army which had conquered it. Smolensk was
the goal. Should they march thither by Kaluga, Medyn, or Mojaisk?
Napoleon was seated at a table, his head supported by his hands, which
concealed his features, as well as the anguish which they no doubt
expressed.
A silence fraught with such imminent perils was for some time respected,
until Murat, whose actions were always the result of impetuous feeling,
became weary of this hesitation.
"Give him but the remnant of his cavalry and that of the Guard," he
said, "and he would force his way into Russian forests and the Russian
battalions, overthrow all before him, and open anew to the army the road
to Kaluga."
Here Napoleon, raising his head, extinguished all his fire by saying
that "we had exhibited temerity enough already; that we had done but too
much for glory, and it was now high time to give up thinking of anything
but how to save the rest of the army."
Bessieres, either because his pride revolted at the idea of being put
under the command of the King of Naples, or from a desire to preserve
uninjured the cavalry of the Guard, which he had formed, for which he
was answerable to Napoleon, and which he exclusively commanded, finding
himself supported, then ventured to add, that "neither the army nor even
the Guard had sufficient spirit left for such efforts." The marshal
concluded by giving his opinion in favor of retreat, which the emperor
approved by his silence.
The Prince of Eckmuehl then immediately said that, "as a retreat seemed
decided upon, he proposed that it should be by Medyn and Smolensk." But
Murat here interrupted him; and, whether from enmity, or from that
discouragement which usually succeeds the rejection of a rash measure,
he declared himself astonished "that any one should dare propose so
imprudent a step to the emperor. Had Davoust sworn the destruction of
the army? Would he have so long and heavy a column trail along in utter
uncertainty, without guides, and on an unknown track, within reach of
Kutusoff, presenting its flank to all the attacks of the enemy? Would
he, Davoust, defend it? When in our rear Borowsk and Vereia would lead
us without danger to Mojaisk, why reject that safe route? There
provisions must have been already collected, there everything was known
to us, and we could not be misled by any traitor."
At these words, Davoust, burning with a rage which he could scarcely
repress, replied that "he proposed a retreat through a fertile country,
by an untouched, plentiful, and well supplied route, where the villages
were still standing, and by the shortest road, that the enemy might not
be able to cut us off, as on the route by Mojaisk to Smolensk,
recommended by Murat. And what a route! a desert of sand and ashes,
where convoys of wounded would increase our embarrassment, where we
should meet with nothing but ruins, traces of blood, skeletons, and
famine!
"Moreover, though he deemed it his duty to give his opinion when it was
asked, he was ready to obey orders contrary to it with the same zeal as
if they were consonant with his suggestions; but that the emperor alone
had a right to impose silence on him, and not Murat, who was not his
sovereign, and never should be!"
The quarrel growing warm, Bessieres and Berthier interposed. As for the
emperor, still absorbed and in the same attitude, he appeared insensible
to what was passing. At length he broke up the council with the words,
"Well, gentlemen, I will decide."
He decided on retreat, and by that road which would carry him most
speedily to a distance from the enemy; but it required another desperate
effort before he could bring himself to give an order of march so new to
him. So painful, indeed, was this effort, that in the inward struggle
which it produced he lost the use of his senses.
It is a remarkable fact, that he issued orders for this retreat
northward at the very moment that Kutusoff and his Russians, dismayed at
their defeat at Malo-jaroslavetz, were retiring towards the south.
From that moment Napoleon had nothing in his view but Paris, just as on
leaving Paris he saw nothing but Moscow. It was on the 26th of October
that the fatal movement of our retreat commenced. Davoust, with
twenty-five thousand men, remained as a rear-guard. While by advancing a
few paces, without being aware of it, he was spreading consternation
among the Russians, the Grand Army, in astonishment, was turning its
back on them. It marched with downcast eyes, as if ashamed and humbled.
In the midst of it, its commander, gloomy and silent, seemed to be
anxiously measuring his line of communication with the fortresses on the
Vistula.
For the space of more than two hundred and fifty leagues it offered but
two points where he could halt and rest, the first Smolensk, the second
Minsk. He had made those towns his two great depots, where immense
magazines were established.
Napoleon, however, reckoned upon the Duke of Belluno and his thirty-six
thousand fresh troops. That corps had been at Smolensk ever since the
beginning of September. He relied also upon detachments being sent from
his depots, on the sick and wounded who had recovered, and on the
stragglers, who would be rallied and formed at Wilna into marching
battalions. All these would successively come into line, and fill up the
chasms made in his ranks by the sword, famine, and disease. He should
therefore have time to regain that position on the Dwina and the
Borysthenes, where he wished it to be believed that his presence, added
to that of Victor, Saint-Cyr, and Macdonald, would overawe
Wittgenstein,[163] check Kutusoff, and threaten the Czar Alexander even
in his second capital.
He accordingly announced that he was going to take post on the Dwina.
But it was not in truth, upon that river and the Borysthenes that his
thoughts rested: he was sensible that it was not with a harassed and
reduced army that he could guard the interval between those two rivers
and their courses, which the ice would speedily seal.
It was therefore a hundred leagues beyond Smolensk, in a more compact
position, behind the morasses of the Berezina--to Minsk, that it was
necessary to repair in search of winter quarters, from which he was then
forty marches distant.
Sec. 12. Napoleon's attempt to destroy the Kremlin: view of the
battle-field of Borodino.
Napoleon had arrived quite pensive at Vereia,[164] when Mortier
presented himself before him. But I here discover, that, hurried along
in the relation just as we then were in reality, by the rapid succession
of violent scenes and memorable events, my attention has been diverted
from occurrences worthy of notice. On the 23d of October, at half past
one in the morning, the air was shaken by a tremendous explosion, which
for a moment startled both armies, though amid such mighty anticipations
scarcely anything then much excited their astonishment.
Mortier had obeyed his orders: the Kremlin was no more.[165] Barrels of
powder had been placed in all the halls of the palaces of the Czars, and
one hundred and eighty-three thousand pounds under the vaults which
supported them. The marshal, with eight thousand men, had remained on
this volcano, which a single Russian shell might have exploded. Here he
covered the march of the army upon Kaluga, and the retreat of our
different convoys towards Mojaisk.
Among these eight thousand men there were scarcely two thousand on whom
Mortier could rely; the others were dismounted cavalry, men of different
countries and regiments, under new officers, with dissimilar habits,
with no common recollections, in short, without any bond of union,
forming a rabble rather than an organized body, and who could scarcely
fail in a short time to disperse.
This marshal, therefore, was looked upon as a doomed man. The other
chiefs, his old companions in glory, had left him with tears in their
eyes, as well as the emperor himself, who said to him "that he relied on
his good fortune; but still, in war, we must sometimes make part of a
sacrifice." Mortier resigned himself without hesitation to his fate. His
orders were to defend the Kremlin, and on retreating to blow it up, and
to burn what still remained of the city. It was on the 21st of October,
that Napoleon sent him his last commands. After executing them, the
marshal was to march upon Vereia, and to form the rear guard of the
army.
In this letter Napoleon particularly recommended to him "to put the men
still remaining in the hospitals into the carriages belonging to the
young rear guard, those of the dismounted cavalry, and any others that
he might find. The Romans," he added, "awarded a civic crown to him who
had saved a citizen: so many soldiers as he should save, so many crowns
would the Duke of Treviso deserve."
At length, after four days' resistance, the French bade a final adieu to
that fatal city. They carried with them four hundred wounded, and, on
retiring, deposited in a safe and secret place a firework, skilfully
prepared, which was already slowly consuming: the rate of its burning
had been minutely calculated, so that it was known precisely at what
hour the fire would reach the immense collection of powder buried among
the foundations of these devoted palaces.
Mortier hastened his flight; but as he was retiring, some greedy
Cossacks and miserable-looking Muscovites, allured probably by the
prospect of pillage, approached: they listened, and, imboldened by the
apparent quiet which pervaded the fortress, they ventured to penetrate
into it: they ascended; and their greedy hands were already stretched
forth to lay hold on their plunder, when in an instant they were all
hurled into the air with the buildings they had come to pillage, and
with thirty thousand stand of arms that had been left in them; and soon
their mangled limbs, mingled with fragments of walls and shattered
weapons, thrown to a great distance, descended in a horrible shower.
The earth shook under the feet of Mortier: at Fominskoe, thirty miles
off, the emperor heard the explosion; and in that indignant tone in
which he sometimes addressed Europe, he published the following day a
bulletin, at Borowsk, announcing that "the Kremlin, the arsenal, the
magazines, were all destroyed; that that ancient citadel, which dated
from the origin of the monarchy, and was the first palace of the Czars,
no longer existed; that Moscow was now but a heap of ruins, without
importance either political or military. He had abandoned it to Russian
beggars and plunderers, in order to march against Kutusoff, to throw
himself on the left wing of that general, to drive him back, and then to
proceed quietly to the banks of the Dwina, where he should take up his
winter quarters." Then, apprehensive lest he should appear to be
retreating, he added that "there he should be within eighty leagues of
Wilna and of St. Petersburg, a double advantage; that is to say, twenty
marches nearer to his resources and his object." By this remark he hoped
to give to his retreat the air of an offensive movement.
It was on this occasion he declared that "he had refused to give orders
for the entire destruction of the country which he was quitting: he felt
a repugnance to aggravate the miseries of its inhabitants. To punish
the Russian incendiary, and a few wretches who made war like Tartars, he
would not ruin nine thousand proprietors, and leave two hundred thousand
serfs, innocent of all these barbarities, absolutely destitute of
resources."
On the 28th of October we again beheld Mojaisk.[166] That town was still
full of wounded: some were carried away, and the rest collected together
and abandoned, as at Moscow, to the generosity of the Russians. Napoleon
had proceeded but a short distance from that place when the winter
began. Thus, after an obstinate combat, and ten days' marching and
countermarching, the army, which had brought from Moscow only fifteen
rations of flour per man, had advanced but three days' march on its
retreat. It was in want of provisions, and now overtaken by the winter.
Some leagues from Mojaisk we had to cross the Kologa. It was but a large
rivulet: two trees, the same number of props, and a few planks were
sufficient to ensure the passage; but such was the confusion and
inattention that the emperor was detained there. Several pieces of
cannon, which it was attempted to get across by fording, were lost. It
seemed as if each corps was marching separately, as if there were no
staff, no general order, no common tie, nothing, in short, that bound
them together. In fact, the elevation of the chiefs rendered them too
independent of each other. The emperor himself had become so exceedingly
great, that he was at an immeasurable distance from the details of his
army; while Berthier, holding an intermediate place between him and
officers, all of whom were kings, princes, or marshals, was obliged to
act with a great deal of caution. He was, besides, incompetent to his
situation.