the Drissa, reported that the enemy were crossing the river. The
Marshal went there at once, and could see that eight Russian
battalions with a battery of fourteen guns were setting up their
bivouac on our side of the river, while the remainder of the army
stayed on the other side, preparing no doubt to cross over and
attack us on the morrow. This advance party was commanded by
General Koulnieff, an enterprising officer but one who, like most
of the Russian officers of the period, drank to excess. It would
seem that on this evening he had drunk more than usual, for it is
otherwise difficult to explain why he made the grave error of
coming, with no more than eight battalions to set up camp a short
distance from an army of forty thousand men, and that in a most
unfavourable position; for he had, some two hundred paces behind
him, the Drissa, which could not be crossed except by the ford;
not because of the depth of the water but because it ran between
very steep banks fifteen to twenty feet high. Koulnieff had
therefore no other line of retreat but the ford. Could it be that
he hoped that his eight battalions and fourteen canons would be
able, if defeated, to withdraw smartly across this one passage,
in the face of an attack which might be launched at any moment by
the French army from nearby Bieloe? The answer must be no, but
general Koulnieff was in no state to consider the matter when he
put his camp on the left bank of the river. It is perhaps
surprising that Wittgenstein should have entrusted the command of
his advance guard to Koulnieff, of whose intemperate habits he
must have been aware.
While the head of the Russian column approached, rashly, to
within such a short distance of us, a great confusion reigned,
not among the troops, but among their leaders. Marshal Oudinot,
although the bravest of men, lacked consistency, and passed
rapidly from a plan of attack to one of a withdrawal. The losses
which he had suffered towards the end of the day on the other
side of the great marsh had thrown him into a state of
perplexity, and he could not think how he was to carry out the
Emperor's orders, which were to push Wittgenstein back at least
as far as Sebej and Newel. He was therefore delighted to receive,
during the night, a despatch informing him of the imminent
arrival of a Bavarian corps, commanded by General Saint-Cyr,
which the Emperor was placing under his orders; but instead of
awaiting this powerful reinforcement in his present sound
position, Oudinot, advised by the general of artillery, Dulauloy,
wished to make contact with the Bavarians by withdrawing his army
as far as Polotsk. This inexplicable notion was warmly opposed by
the group of generals summoned by the Marshal. General Legrand
said that although our success of the morning had been
counter-balanced by the losses of the evening, the army was still
in good heart and ready to advance, and that to retreat to
Polotsk would damage their morale and present them to the
Bavarians as a defeated force coming to seek refuge amongst them;
an idea which would arouse indignation in all French bosoms. This
vigourous speech by Legrand was acclaimed by all the generals and
the Marshal then gave up the project of a retreat.
There remained the question of what to do the next day. General
Legrand, with the authority of his seniority, long service and
experience in warfare, proposed that they should take advantage
of the serious error made by Koulnieff by attacking the
advance-guard so imprudently placed without support on the bank
which we occupied, and drive them back into the Drissa which they
had behind them. This advice having been accepted by the Marshal
and all the group, the execution of it was confided to General
Legrand.
Oudinot's army was encamped in a forest of huge, widely spaced
pines, beyond which there was a very extensive clearing. The
boundaries of the wood took the form of a bow, the two ends of
which reached the Drissa, which formed as it were the bow-string.
The Russians had set up their bivouac very close to the river,
opposite the ford. Their frontage was protected by fourteen
artillery pieces.
General Legrand wanted to take the enemy by surprise, so he
ordered General Albert to send a regiment of infantry to each of
the ends of the wood from where they could attack the camp from
the flank as soon as they heard the approach of the cavalry, who,
emerging from the woods in the centre of the bow would go
bald-headed for the Russian battalions and drive them into the
ravine. The task given to the cavalry was plainly the most
dangerous, for not only had they to make a frontal attack on an
enemy armed with 6000 muskets but would also be exposed to the
fire of fourteen artillery pieces before they could reach their
objective. It was, however, hoped that by a surprise attack, the
Russians might be caught asleep, and put up little resistance.
You have seen that my regiment having come on duty on the morning
of the 31st July at Kliastitsoui, had continued to serve for the
whole of that day, and should, according to the regulations, have
been relieved by the 24th at 1 A.M. on the 1st August, and it was
this regiment whose duty it was to carry out the attack, while
mine remained in reserve; there being only enough space in the
clearing between the woods and the stream for one regiment of
cavalry. However, Colonel A... went to Oudinot and suggested to
him that there was a danger that while we were preparing to
attack the troops in front of us, General Wittgenstein might send
a strong column to our right which could cross the Drissa at
another ford which probably existed some three leagues upstream
from where we were, and gaining our rear could capture our
wounded and our equipment; and that it would be a good idea to
send a regiment of cavalry to keep an eye on this ford. The
Marshal fell in with this suggestion and Colonel A..., whose
regiment had just come on duty, quickly ordered his men into the
saddle and led them off on this expedition which he had thought
up, leaving to the 23rd the dangers of the battle which was about
to take place.
My regiment received with calm the news of the perilous mission
which had been thrust upon them and welcomed the appearance of
the Marshal and General Legrand when they came to supervise the
preparations for this important attack which we were about to
carry out.
At this time all the French regiments, with the exception of the
Cuirassiers, had a company of Grenadiers, known as the elite
company, whose customary position was on the right of the line, a
position which they held in the 23rd. General Legrand observed to
the Marshal that, as the enemy had placed their artillery in
front of their centre, it was there that most danger would lie,
and in order to avoid any hesitation which might compromise the
whole operation, it would be advisable to attack this point with
the elite company, which was composed of the most seasoned
soldiers mounted on the best horses. It was in vain that I
assured the Marshal that the regiment was in all respects as
solid in one part as in another, he ordered me to put the elite
company in the centre, which I then did. I next gathered the
officers together and explained to them in low tones what we were
to do, and warned them that, the better to surprise the enemy, I
would give no preparatory commands and would simply order the
charge when we were within close range of the enemy guns. Once
everything had been arranged, the regiment left its bivouac, in
complete silence, at the first faint light of dawn, and made its
way without difficulty through the wood, the great trees of which
were widely spaced, and arrived at the level clearing in which
was the Russian encampment. I alone in the regiment had no sabre
in my hand, for having only one hand which I could use, I needed
that to hold the reins of my horse. You will understand that this
was a very unpleasant situation for a cavalry officer about to
engage the enemy.
However, I had chosen to go with my regiment and so I placed
myself in front of the elite company, having beside me their
gallant captain, M. Courteau, one of the finest of officers and
one whom I valued most highly.
All was quiet in the Russian camp, towards which we advanced
slowly and in silence, and my hopes of achieving a total surprise
were increased by the fact that General Koulnieff not having
brought any cavalry across the ford, we saw no mounted outposts,
and could distinguish, by the feeble light of their fires, only a
few infantry sentries, posted so close to the camp that between
their warning and our sudden arrival the Russians would have
little chance to prepare themselves for defence. Suddenly,
however, two prowling and suspicious Cossack peasants appeared on
horseback, some thirty paces from our line, and after regarding
it for a moment they fled towards the camp, where it was obvious
that they intended to give warning of our presence. This
mischance was very unfortunate, because had it not been for that,
we would certainly have reached the Russians without losing a
man; however since we were now discovered and were in any case
nearing the spot where I had decided to increase the speed of our
advance, I urged my horse into a gallop; the regiment did the
same, and shortly I gave the order to sound the charge.
At this signal my gallant troopers and I launched ourselves at
the enemy, upon whom we fell like a thunderbolt. The two Cossacks
had, however, raised the alarm. The gunners, sleeping beside
their guns, grabbed their slow matches, and fourteen canons
belched grapeshot at the regiment. Thirty-seven men, of whom
nineteen belonged to the elite company, were killed outright. The
brave Captain Courteau was amongst them, as was Lieutenant
Lallouette. The Russian gunners were attempting to reload their
guns when they were cut down by our men. We had few wounded,
almost all the injuries having been fatal. We had some forty
horses killed, mine was maimed by a heavy bullet but was able to
carry me to the Russian camp where the soldiers, rudely awakened
from their sleep, were rushing to take up their arms, but were
being sabred by our troopers, whom I had ordered to get between
them and the rows of muskets, so that few were able to reach one
and fire at us. Then, alerted by the sound of gunfire, General
Albert's two regiments of infantry ran from the wood to attack
the two sides of the camp, bayoneting all who resisted. The
Russians, in disorder, were unable to withstand this triple
attack. Many of them, who having arrived at night had not been
able to see the height of the river banks, tried to escape by
this route and falling fifteen or twenty feet onto the rocks were
injured and in many cases killed.
General Koulnieff, hardly awake, joined a group of two thousand
men of whom about one third had muskets, and following
mechanically this disorganised crowd, he arrived at the ford, but
I had given orders that this important spot should be occupied by
five or six hundred horsemen, amongst whom were the elite company
who, enraged at the loss of their captain, massacred most of the
Russians. General Koulnieff, who had already been drinking,
attacked Sergeant Legendre, who, thrusting his sabre into the
Russian's neck, laid him dead at his feet. M. de. Segur, in his
story of the campaign of 1812, has General Koulnieff making a
dying speech worthy of Homer. I was within a few feet of Sergeant
Legendre when he drove his sabre into Koulnieff's throat, and I
can certify that the General fell without uttering a word. The
victory achieved by General Albert's infantry and the 23rd was
complete. The enemy had at least 2000 men killed or wounded and
we took around 4000 prisoners. The remainder perished by falling
on the sharp rocks of the river. Some of the most agile Russians
managed to rejoin Wittgenstein, who, when he heard of the
sanguinary defeat of his advance-guard, began a retreat toward
Sebej.
Marshal Oudinot, encouraged by the resounding success which he
had just gained, decided to pursue the Russians, and took his
army, as on the previous day, back across the Drissa to the right
bank; but in order to give General Albert's infantry brigade and
the 23rd Chasseurs an opportunity to recover from the effects of
the fighting, he left them to keep watch on the field of battle
at Sivotschina. I took advantage of this period of rest to carry
out a ceremony rarely seen in war. This was to pay my last
respects to those of our brave comrades who had lost their lives.
They were laid, arranged by rank, in a large pit, with Captain
Courteau and his lieutenant at their head. Then the fourteen
canons, so gallantly captured by the 23rd, were placed before
this military tomb.
Having completed this act of piety, I wished to dress my wound of
the previous day, which was causing me a great deal of pain, and
to do this I went to sit apart under a huge pine tree. There I
saw a young battalion commander, who with his back against the
trunk and held up by two Grenadiers, was painfully closing a
little package on which a name was traced in his blood. This
officer, who belonged to Albert's brigade, had suffered, during
the attack on the Russian camp, an appalling bayonet wound which
had slit open his abdomen from which the intestines were
protruding, pierced in several places. Although some dressing
had been applied the blood still flowed and the wound was mortal.
The doomed man, who was well aware of this, had wished, before he
died, to take leave of a lady whom he loved but did not know to
whom he might entrust this precious message, when chance brought
me there. We knew each other only by sight, but nonetheless,
urged by the approach of death, he asked me, in a voice now
faint, to do him two favours, then motioning the Grenadiers to
one side he gave me the package, and saying, with tears in his
eyes, "It is a portrait," he made me promise to deliver it
secretly, with my own hands, if I was fortunate enough to return
one day to Paris. "In any case," he added "there is no hurry, for
it would be better if this was received long after I am gone." I
promised to carry out this sad task, which I was unable to do
until two years later in 1814. The second request which he made I
was able to carry out within some two hours. He was distressed to
think that his body would be devoured by the wolves which
abounded in the country and asked to be put beside the captain
and the troopers of the 23rd, whose burial he had seen. This I
promised, and when he died not long after our unhappy meeting, I
carried out this last wish.
Chap. 10.
Deeply moved by this unhappy event,I was meditating with much
sadness, when I was awakened from my reveries by the distant
sound of a sustained cannonade. The two armies were once more in
action. Marshal Oudinot, after passing the inn at Kliastitsoui,
where I had been wounded the day before, had contacted the
Russian rear-guard at the beginning of the marsh, the exit from
which had been so disastrous for us on the previous day. He was
determined to drive the enemy back, but they were not prepared to
pass through this dangerous defile, and mounted a
counter-offensive against the French troops who, after suffering
considerable losses, retreated, followed by the Russians. One
might have thought that Oudinot and Wittgenstein were playing a
game of prisoner's base, advancing and retreating by turn. The
news of this fresh retreat by Oudinot was given to us on the
battlefield of Sivotschina by an aide-de-camp, who brought to
General Albert the order to take his brigade, together with the
23rd Chasseurs, two leagues to the rear, in the direction of
Polotsk.
When it came to leaving, I was unwilling to part with the
fourteen artillery pieces captured that morning by my regiment,
and as the horses which pulled them had also fallen into our
hands, they were harnessed up and we took the guns to our next
bivouac, and on the night following to Polotsk, where it was not
long before they played an effective part in the defence of that
town.
Oudinot withdrew that same day to the ford at Sivotschina, which
he had crossed in the morning in pursuit of Wittgenstein who,
bearing in mind the disaster which had overwhelmed his
advance-guard at this place on the occasion, did not risk sending
any isolated unit across to the bank which we occupied. So the
two armies, separated by the Drissa, settled themselves for the
night.
On the following day, the 2nd August, Oudinot having joined his
units at Polotsk, hostilities ceased for a few days, as both
sides were in need of a rest. We were rejoined by the good
General Castex and also by the 24th Chasseurs, who were very
angry with their Colonel for leading them away when it was their
turn to attack the Russian camp. On their trip up the Drissa they
had seen no sign of the enemy nor had they found any trace of the
supposed ford.
After several days rest Wittgenstein led part of his troops
towards the lower Dvina, from where Macdonald was threatening his
right. When Marshal Oudinot followed the Russian army in that
direction it turned to face him, and for a week or ten days there
was a series of marches and countermarches, and several minor
engagements which it would be too long and wearisome to describe,
and which resulted only in the useless killing of men and the
demonstration of the indecision of both commanders.
The most serious engagement during this short period took place
on the 13th August near the magnificent monastery of Valensoui,
built on the bank of the Svolna. This little river, which has
very muddy banks, separated the French and the Russians, and it
was obvious that whichever general attempted to force a crossing
on such unfavourable terrain would come to grief. Neither Oudinot
nor Wittgenstein had any intention of crossing the Svolna at this
point; but instead of going to look for some other place where
they could meet in combat, they took up positions on either side
of this watercourse, as it were in mutual despite. Soon there was
from both banks a lively cannonade which was totally useless as
the troops on neither side could attack their adversaries and was
no credit to either party.
However Wittgenstein, to protect the lives of his men, had
restricted himself to posting some battalions of unmounted
Chasseurs among the willows and reeds which bordered the stream,
and had kept the bulk of his force out of the range of the French
guns, whose brisk fire hit only some of his sharpshooters, while
Oudinot, who had insisted, in spite of the sensible advice of
several generals, on bringing his first line up to the Svolna
suffered losses which he could have and should have avoided. The
Russian artillery is nowhere as good as ours, but they used
pieces called licornes, which had a range exceeding that of the
French guns of the period, and it was these licornes which did
the most damage among our troops.
Marshal Oudinot, in his belief that the enemy were going to cross
the river, not only kept a division of infantry in position to
repel them, but supported them with General Castex's cavalry, an
unnecessary precaution, since a crossing of even a small river
takes more time than is needed for the defenders to hurry into a
position to oppose it. Nonetheless my regiment was exposed for
twenty-four hours to the Russian fire, which killed or wounded
several of my men.
During this confrontation in which the troops remained stationary
for a long period, there arrived the aide-de-camp whom Oudinet
had sent to Witepsk to report to the Emperor the result of the
battles at Kliastitsoui and at Sivotschina. Napoleon, who wanted
to make it clear to the troops that he did not blame them for the
lack of success in our operations, loaded 2nd Corps with rewards
in the way of decorations and promotions, and then, turning to
the cavalry, he awarded four Crosses of the Legion of Honour to
each of the cavalry regiments. In the despatch announcing this
news, Major-general the Prince Berthier added that in order to
show his satisfaction with the conduct of the 23rd Chasseurs at
Wilkomir, at the bridge of Dvinaburg, in the night battle at
Drouia, at Kliastitsoui, and above all in the attack on the
Russian camp at Sivotschina, the Emperor was awarding them, in
addition to the four decorations given to the other regiments,
fourteen decorations, one for each of the guns captured by them
from Koulnieff's advance-guard, so that I had now eighteen
crosses to distribute among my brave soldiers. The aide-de-camp
had not brought the awards themselves, but the Major-general had
added to his letter the request that the regimental commanders
should draw up a list of recipients and forward it to him.
I assembled all the captains, and after taking their advice, I
drew up my list, and presented it to Marshal Oudinot, asking at
the same time if I might be allowed to announce the awards
immediately to my regiment: "What, here, under fire?" "Yes,
marshal, under fire. That enhances their value."
General Lorencez, who as chief of staff had written the report of
the various actions, in which he had highly praised the 23rd,
agreed with my suggestion and so the Marshal consented. The
decorations would not arrive until later, but I had my servant
look in my baggage for a piece of ribbon which I had in my
portmanteau, and when it was found, and after it had been cut
into eighteen pieces, I announced to the regiment the awards
which the Emperor had presented, and calling out of the ranks
each of the recipients in turn, I gave them a piece of the red
ribbon, then so keenly wished for and so proudly worn, and which
has since then been so diminished in value, almost prostituted,
by handing it out indiscriminately to all and sundry.
This ceremony, conducted in the field and under fire, had a great
effect, and the enthusiasm of the regiment was at its height when
I announced the name of Sergeant Prud'homme, reputed justly to be
the most intrepid and unassuming of the warriors of the 23rd.
This brave survivor of many a fierce encounter, accepted with
modesty his piece of ribbon, to the sound of loud acclamation
from all the squadrons. A moment of well earned triumph. I shall
never forget this moving scene which took place, as you know,
within range of the enemy guns.
Sadly, there is no rose without its thorn. Two of the men who
were included in my list had just been severely wounded. Sergeant
Legendre, who had killed General Koulnieff, had an arm carried
away, and Corporal Griffon had a leg smashed. The injured limbs
were being amputated when I went to the dressing station to give
them their decorations. At the sight of the ribbons they forgot
for a moment their pain, but unhappily, Sergeant Legendre did not
long survive his injury, though Griffon recovered and was sent
back to France, where I saw him some years later in Les
Invalides.
The 24th Chasseurs, who received only four decorations as opposed
to the eighteen awarded to the 23rd, conceded that this was fair,
but nevertheless they regretted that they had been deprived of
the honour of taking the fourteen Russian guns at Sivotschina,
even at the cost of suffering such casualties as ours, "We are
soldiers" they said, "and must take our chances for better or
worse." They blamed their colonel for providing them with what
they called this let-down. Here was an army whose men actually
clamoured for action.
You will doubtless wonder what I got out of all this, and the
answer is nothing. The Emperor, before he removed Colonel de La
Nougarede from the command of the regiment and either made him a
general or head of a legion of gendarmes, wanted to know if his
health would permit him to carry out the duties of either of
these two ranks. As a consequence Marshal Oudinot was ordered to
bring Colonel de La Nougarede before a medical board, whose
conclusion was that he would never be able to mount a horse. In
view of this, the Marshal authorised the Colonel's return to
France, where he was given the command of a minor fortress. The
unfortunate Colonel, before leaving Polotsk, where his
infirmities had forced him to remain, wrote me a very touching
letter in which he took his leave of the 23rd, and although he
had never led the regiment into action, an event which increases
the men's regard for their commander, his departure was
justifiably regretted.
The regiment now being without a colonel, the Marshal expected to
receive at any moment the order for my promotion to that rank,
and quite frankly so did I. The Emperor had however moved away,
and had left Witepsk to take Smolensk and from there to march on
Moscow, and the work of his cabinet had been slowed by their
preoccupation with military operations to such an extent that I
was not gazetted Colonel until three months later.