in this engagement, when M. Alfred de Noailles, with whom I was
friendly, arrived. He was returning from carrying an order from
Prince Berthier, whose aide-de-camp he was; but instead of going
back to the Marshal, he said as he left me, that he was going as
far as the first houses of Stakovo to see what the enemy was
doing. This curiosity proved fatal, for as he approached the
village, he was surrounded by a group of Cossacks who, having
knocked him off his horse, dragged him away by his collar while
raining blows on him. I immediately sent a squadron to his aid,
but this effort at rescue did not succeed, because a volley of
fire from the houses prevented the troopers from getting into the
village. Since that day nothing has been heard of M. de Noailles.
It is likely that his superb furs and his uniform covered in gold
braid having roused the cupidity of the Cossacks, he was murdered
by these barbarians. M. de Noailles' family, knowing that I was
the last person to speak to him, asked me for news about his
disappearance, but I could tell them no more than what I have
described. Alfred de Noailles was an excellent officer and a good
friend.
This digression has diverted me from Tchitchakoff, who, after his
defeat by Ney, did not dare to attack us again nor to leave the
village of Stakovo for the rest of the day.
Having described briefly the position of the armies on the two
banks of the Beresina, I shall tell you, in a few words what
happened at the river itself during the fighting. The mass of
unattached men who had had two nights and two days in which to
cross the bridges, and who had, apathetically, failed to do so
because they were not compelled, when Wittgenstein's cannon-balls
began to fall among them, rushed in a body to get across. This
huge multitude of men, horses, and carts piled up at the entrance
to the bridges, trying to force their way on to them.... Many of
those who missed the entrance were pushed by the crowd into the
Beresina where most of them were drowned.
To add to the disaster, one of the bridges broke under the weight
of the guns and the heavy ammunition wagons which followed them!
Everyone then headed for the second bridge, where the crowd was
so thick that strong men were unable to withstand the pressure
and a large number were stifled to death. When they saw that it
was impossible to cross the overcrowded bridges, many of the cart
drivers urged their horses into the river, but this method of
crossing, which would have been very successful if it had been
carried out in an orderly manner on the two preceding days,
failed in the great majority of instances, because driving their
carts in a tumultuous mob, they crashed into one another and
turned over! Some, however reached the opposite side, but as no
one had prepared an exit by smoothing the slope of the river
bank, which the general staff should have seen to, few vehicles
could climb out, and many more people perished there.
During the night of 28th 29th November, the Russian cannons added
to these scenes of horror by bombarding the wretched men who were
trying to cross the river, and finally at about nine in the
evening there was a crowning disaster, when Marshal Victor began
his withdrawal, and when his divisions, in battle order, arrived
at the bridge, which they could cross only by dispersing the
crowds which blocked their way! ...We should perhaps draw a veil
over these dreadful events.
At dawn on the 29th, all the vehicles remaining on the left bank
were set on fire, and when finally General Eble saw the Russians
nearing the bridge, he set that on fire also! Several thousand
unfortunates left at Studianka fell into the hands of
Wittgenstein.
So ended the most terrible episode of the Russian campaign, an
episode which would have been a great deal less terrible if we
had made proper use of the time which the Russians allowed us
after we had reached the Beresina. The army lost in this crossing
20 to 25,000 men.
Once this major obstacle had been crossed, the disorganised mass
of men who had escaped from the disaster was still huge. They
were directed to go along the road to Zembin. The Emperor and the
Guard followed. Then came the remains of several regiments, and
finally 2nd Corps, for whom Castex's brigade formed the last
rear-guard.
I have already explained that the Zembin road, the only way left
open for us, goes through an immense marsh by means of a great
number of bridges which Tchitchakoff neglected to burn when he
occupied this position a few days previously. We did not make the
same mistake, for after the army had passed, the 24th Chasseurs
and my regiment easily set them on fire by means of the stacks of
dry reeds heaped up in the neighbourhood.
By ordering the burning of the bridges, the Emperor had hoped to
rid himself for a long time of pursuit by the Russians, but fate
was against us. The cold which at this time of year could have
frozen the waters of the Beresina to give us a pathway across,
had left the river running; but we had scarcely crossed over when
there was sharp frost which froze it to the point where it would
bear the weight of a cannon... and as it did the same to the
marsh of Zembin, the burning of the bridges was of no value to
us. The three Russian armies which we had left behind, could now
pursue us without meeting any obstacle; but fortunately the
pursuit was not very energetic, and Marshal Ney, who commanded
the rear-guard and who had gathered together all the troops still
capable of fighting, made frequent sallies against the enemy if
they dared to approach too near.
Since Marshal Oudinot and General Legrand had been wounded,
General Maison commanded 2nd Corps, which being, in spite of many
losses, now numerically the strongest in the army, was always
given the task of holding off the Russians. We kept them at a
distance during the 30th of November and the 1st of December; but
on the 2nd of December they pressed us so hard, in considerable
numbers, that a serious engagement took place in which I received
a wound, made even more dangerous because the temperature on that
day registered 25 degrees of frost. I should perhaps limit myself
to telling you that I was injured by a lance without going into
further details, for they are so unpleasant that I still do not
like to remember them. However, I said I would tell the story of
my life, and so this is what happened at Plechtchenitsoui.
It so happened that a Dutch banker named Van Berchem, with whom I
had been a close friend at the college of Soreze, had sent to me,
at the start of the campaign, his only son, who having become
French by the incorporation of his country into the Empire, had
enlisted in the 23rd, although he was barely sixteen years
old!... He was a fine and intelligent young man, and I made him
my secretary, so that he went everywhere fifteen paces behind me
with my orderlies. That is where he was on the day in question,
when 2nd Corps, for whom my regiment was acting as rear-guard
while crossing a vast open plain, saw coming towards them a mass
of Russian cavalry, who quickly surrounded them and attacked them
on all sides. General Maison deployed his troops with such skill
that our squares repelled all the charges made by the enemy
regular cavalry.
The Russians then sent in a swarm of Cossacks, who came
impudently to attack with their lances the French officers who
stood before their troops. Seeing this, Marshal Ney ordered
General Maison to chase them off, using what remained of the
division of Cuirassiers and also Corbineau's and Castex's
brigades. My regiment, which was still numerically strong, was
confronted by a tribe of Cossacks from the Black Sea, wearing
tall astrakhan hats, and much better clad and mounted than the
usual run of Cossacks. We engaged them, but as it is not their
custom to stand and fight in line, they turned round and made off
at the gallop; but not knowing the locality, they headed for an
obstacle which is very unusual in these enormous plains, and that
is a large, deep gully, which owing to the perfect flatness of
the surrounding country could not be distinguished from any
distance. This pulled them up short, and seeing that they could
not get across with their horses, they bunched together and
turned to present to us their lances.
The ground, covered by frost, was very slippery, and our
over-tired horses could not gallop without falling. There was,
therefore, no question of a charge, and my line advanced at a
trot towards the massed enemy, who remained motionless. Our
sabres could touch their lances, but as they are thirteen or
fourteen feet long, we could not reach our foes, who could not
retreat for fear of falling into the gulch, and could not advance
without encountering our swords. We were thus face to face,
regarding one another when, in less time than it takes to tell,
this is what happened.
Anxious to get to grips with the enemy, I shouted to my troops to
grab some of the lances with their left hands and pushing them to
one sided, get into the middle of this crowd of men, where our
short weapons would give us an enormous advantage over their long
spears. To encourage them to obey, I wanted to set an example,
so dodging several lances, I managed to reach the front rank of
the enemy!... My warrant officers and my orderlies followed me,
and soon the whole regiment. There then ensued a general mˆlee;
but at the moment when it started, an old white-bearded Cossack,
who was in the rear rank and separated from me by some of his
comrades, lent forward and thrusting his lance skillfully between
the horses he drove the sharp steel into my right knee, which it
pierced, passing through beneath the kneecap.
Enraged by the pain of this injury, I was pushing my way towards
the man to take my revenge, when I was confronted by two handsome
youths of about eighteen to twenty, wearing a brilliant costume,
covered with rich embroidery, who were the sons of the chieftain
of this clan. They were accompanied by an elderly man who was
some sort of tutor, but who was unarmed. The younger of his two
pupils did not draw his sword, but elder did and attacked me
furiously!... I found him so immature and lacking strength that I
did no more than disarm him, and taking his arm pushed him behind
me, telling Van Berchem to look after him. I had hardly done this
when a double explosion rang in my ears and the collar of my cape
was torn by a ball. I turned round quickly, to see the young
Cossack officer holding a pair of double-barrelled pistols with
which he had treacherously tried to shoot me in the back and had
blown out the brains of the unfortunate Van Berchem!
In a transport of rage I hurled myself at this rash stripling,
who was already aiming his second pistol at me. Seeing death in
my face, he seemed momentarily paralysed. He cried out some words
in French. But I killed him.
Blood calls for blood! The sight of young Van Berchem lying dead
at my feet, the act I had just carried out, the excitement of
battle and the pain of my wound, combined to induce a sort of
frenzy. I rushed at the younger of the Cossack officers and
grabbing him by the throat I had already raised my sabre when his
elderly mentor, to protect his charge, laid the length of his
body on my horses neck in a manner which prevented me from
striking a blow and called out, "Mercy! In the name of your
mother, have mercy! He has done nothing!"
On hearing this appeal, in spite of the scenes around me, I
seemed to see the white hand I knew so well, laid on the young
man's breast and to hear my mother's gentle voice saying,"Be
merciful!" I lowered my sabre and sent the youth and his guardian
to the rear.
I was so disturbed by what had happened that I would have been
unable to give any further orders to the regiment if the fighting
had continued for any length of time, but it was soon finished.
Many of the Cossacks had been killed and the remainder,
abandoning their horses, slid into the depths of the ravine,
where a number died in the huge snow-drift which the wind had
created.
In the evening following this affair, I questioned my prisoner
and his guardian. I learned that the two youngsters were the sons
of a powerful chieftain, who, having lost a leg at Austerlitz,
hated the French so much that being unable to fight them himself,
he had sent his two sons to do so. I thought it likely that, as a
prisoner, the cold and misery would be fatal to the one survivor.
I took pity on him and set both him and his venerable mentor at
liberty. On taking his leave of me the latter said, "When she
thinks of her eldest son, the mother of my two pupils will curse
you, but when she sees the return of her youngest she will bless
you, and the mother in whose name you spared him."
The vigour with which the Russian troops had been repulsed in
this last contact having cooled their ardour, we did not see them
again for two days, which allowed us to reach Molodechno; but if
the enemy allowed us a momentary truce the cold increased its
attack. The temperature fell to 27 degrees of frost. Men and
horses were falling at every stride, frequently not to rise
again. Notwithstanding, I remained with the debris of my
regiment, in the midst of which I made my nightly bivouac in the
snow. There was nowhere I could go to be better off. My gallant
officers and men regarded their commanding officer as a living
flag. They endeavoured to preserve me and offered me all the care
which our appalling situation permitted. The wound to my knee
prevented me from sitting astride my horse, and I had to rest my
leg on my horse's neck to keep it straight, which made me get
even colder. I was in great pain but there was nothing that could
be done.
The road was lined with the dead and dying, our march was slow
and silent. What remained of the guard formed a little square, in
which travelled the Emperor's carriage, in which was also King
Murat.
On the fifth of December, after dictating his twenty-ninth
bulletin, which created stupefaction throughout all of France,
the Emperor left the army at Smorgoni to return to Paris. He was
nearly captured at Ochmiana by some Cossacks. The Emperor's
departure greatly affected the morale of the troops. Some blamed
him and accused him of abandoning them. Others approved, saying
that it was the only way to preserve France from civil war, and
invasion by our so-called allies, the majority of whom were
waiting only for a favourable opportunity to turn against us, but
who would not dare to make a move if they heard that Napoleon had
returned to France, and was organising fresh military forces.
Chap. 20.
On his departure, the Emperor handed the command of the remains
of the army to Murat, who in the circumstances proved unequal to
the task, which it must be admitted was extremely difficult. The
cold paralysed the mental and physical activity of everyone; all
organisation had broken down. Marshal Victor refused to relieve
2nd Corps, who had formed the rear-guard since the Beresina, and
Marshal Ney had, unwillingly, to keep it there. Each morning a
multitude of dead were left in the bivouac where we had spent the
night. I congratulated myself on having, in September, made my
men equip themselves with sheepskin coats, a precaution which
saved the lives of many of them. The same applied to the supplies
of food which we had taken from Borisoff, for without these it
would have been necessary to dispute with the starving hordes
over the dead bodies of horses.
I may mention here that M. de Segur claims that there were
instances of cannibalism. I have to say that there were so many
dead horses lying along the route that there was no need for
anyone to resort to this. What is more, it would be a great
mistake to think that the countryside was completely bare: there
was shortage in localities close to the road, which had been
stripped by the army on its march to Moscow, but the army had
passed in a torrent, without spreading out to the sides. Since
then the harvest had been gathered and the country had recovered
somewhat, so that it was only necessary to go for one or two
leagues from the road to find plenty. It is true, however, that
only a well-organised detachment could do this without being
picked off by the parties of Cossacks which prowled around us.
I arranged, with some other colonels, the formation of foraging
parties, who came back not only with bread and a few cattle, but
with sledges loaded with salted meat, flour and oatmeal taken
from villages which had not been abandoned by the peasantry. This
proves that if the Duc de Bassano and General Hogendorp, to whom
the Emperor had confided, in June, the administration of
Lithuania, had done their job properly, during the long period
which they spent at Wilna, they could have created large storage
depots, but they were interested only in supplying the town,
without bothering about the troops.
On the 6th of December, the cold increased and the temperature
fell to nearly minus thirty; so that this day was even more
deadly than its predecessors, particularly for troops who had not
been conditioned gradually to the climate. Amongst this number
was the Gratien division, consisting of 12,000 conscripts, who
left Wilna on the 4th to come in front of us. The sudden
transition from warm barracks to a bivouac in twenty-nine and a
half degrees of frost, within forty-eight hours was fatal to
nearly all of them. The rigour of the season had an even more
terrible effect on the 200 Neapolitan cavalrymen who formed King
Murat's bodyguard. They also came to join us after a long stay in
Wilna, but they all died on the first night which they spent on
the snow.
The remnants of the Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Croats and
other foreigners whom we had led into Russia, saved their lives
by means which the French found repugnant: they deserted, went to
villages adjoining the road and awaited, in the warmth of their
houses, the arrival of the enemy. This often took some time for,
surprisingly, the Russian soldiers, used to spending the winter
in draught-free houses, warmed by continuously burning stoves,
are more susceptible to the cold than the inhabitants of other
parts of Europe, and their army suffered heavy losses; which
explains the slowness of the pursuit.
We did not understand why Koutousoff and his generals did no more
than follow us with a weak advance-guard, instead of attacking
our flanks and going to the head of our column to cut off all
means of retreat. But they were unable to carry out this
manoeuvre which would have finished us because their soldiers
suffered as much from the cold as we did, many of them dying as a
result. The cold was so intense that one could see a sort of
steam coming from one's eyes and ears, which froze on contact
with the air and fell like grains of millet onto one's chest, and
one had to stop frequently to rid the horses of huge icicles
which were formed by their breath freezing on the bits of their
bridles.
There were, however, thousands of Cossacks, attracted by the hope
of plunder, who braved the seasonal bad weather and hung around
our columns, even attacking places where they saw baggage, though
a few shots would drive them off. Eventually, in order to harass
us without running any danger, for we had been forced to abandon
our artillery, they mounted light cannons on sledges, and used
them to fire on our men, until they saw an armed detachment
advancing towards them, when they took to their heels. These
sneak attacks did little real damage, but they became very
unpleasant because of their constant repetition. Many of the sick
and wounded were taken and despoiled by these raiders, some of
whom had acquired an immense amount of booty, and the greed for
enrichment attracted new enemies, who came from the ranks of our
allies: these were the Poles. Marshal de Saxe, the son of one of
their kings, said rightly that the Poles were the biggest thieves
in the world, and would rob even their own parents, so, not
surprisingly, those in our ranks showed little respect for the
property of their allies. On the march or in bivouac, they stole
anything they saw; but as no one trusted them, petty thieving
became more difficult, so they decided to operate on a grand
scale. They organised themselves into bands, and at night they
would don peasant headgear and slip out of the bivouac to meet at
an agreed spot, then they would return to the camp shouting the
Cossack war-cry of "Hourra! Hourra!" which so frightened men
whose morale had been broken, that many of them fled abandoning
their possessions and food. The false Cossacks, after stealing
all they could would return to the camp before daylight and
become once more Poles, ready to become Cossacks again on the
next night.
When this form of brigandage was disclosed, several generals and
colonels decided to put a stop to it. General Maison kept such a
close watch in the lines of 2nd Corps, that one fine night our
guards surprised a group of about fifty Poles at the moment when
they were about to play their role of Cossacks. Seeing that they
were surrounded these bandits had the impudence to claim that
they were just having a joke, but as this was not the time nor
place for laughter, General Maison had them all shot out of hand.
It was some time before we saw robbers of this kind again, but
they reappeared later.
On the 9th of December, we arrived at Wilna, where there were
some stores; but as the Duc de Bassano and General Hogendorp had
left for the Nieman, there was no one to give orders, so that
there, as at Smolensk, the officials demanded proper receipts for
the issue of food and clothing, which was virtually impossible
because of the disorganization of almost all the regiments. We
lost some precious time in this way. General Maison broke into
several stores and his men took some supplies, but the remainder
was taken the next day by the Russians. Soldiers from other corps
wandered round the town in the hope of being taken in by the
inhabitants, but the people who six months previously had
welcomed the French with open arms, closed their doors to us when
they saw us in distress. Only the Jews would accommodate those
who could pay for temporary shelter.
Admitted neither to the stores nor to private houses, the
majority of famished men headed for the hospitals where, although
there was not enough food for all of them, they were at least
sheltered from the piercing cold. This respite was enough to
decide 20,000 sick and wounded, among whom were two hundred
officers and eight generals, to go no further. They had reached
the end of their physical and mental resources.
Lieutenant Hernoux, one of the most vigourous and brave officers
in my regiment, was so overcome by what he had been through that
he lay down on the snow, refusing to move, until he died. Several
soldiers, of all ranks, blew their brains out, to escape from
their suffering.
During the night 9th-10th December, in thirty degrees of frost,
some Cossacks came and began shooting at the gates of Wilna. Many
people thought this was the entire army of Koutousoff, and in a
panic they fled from the town. I regret to say that King Murat
was among them. He left without giving any orders, but Marshal
Ney stayed and organised the retreat as best he could. We quitted
Wilna on the morning of the 10th, leaving behind not only a great
number of men, but also an artillery park and a part of the
army's funds.
We had scarcely left the town when the infamous Jews turned on
the men whom they had taken into their houses, stripped them of
their clothes and threw them out, naked into the snow. Some
officers of the Russian advance-guard, which was entering the
town, were so indignant at this behaviour that they killed a
number of them.
In the midst of this chaos, Marshal Ney had urged onto the road
to Kowno all those whom he could stir into movement, but he had
gone no more than a league when he came to the hill of Ponari.
This small slope which in other circumstances the army would have
hardly noticed, now became a most serious obstacle because the
ice with which it was covered made it so slippery that the
draught-horses were unable to drag up it the carts and wagons, so
that what remained of the army's money would have fallen into the
hands of the Cossacks had not Marshal Ney ordered that the wagons
should be opened and the soldiers allowed to empty the
strong-boxes. This sensible measure gave rise later to assertions
that the men had robbed the Imperial treasury.