without presence of mind or great courage on the field of battle, he could
direct the operations of a campaign, and choose the proper mode of leading
his country's enemies to their downfall. Nevertheless, he held a council
of war, being determined to make the other generals share the weight of a
terrible responsibility. Must they defend Moscow by a second battle in
open field, wait for the enemy behind the walls, and dispute with him,
foot by foot, the possession of the town? Must they abandon the capital,
and, as it was recommended by Barclay de Tolly, always bravely true to his
original purpose, retreat to Vladimir, and thus cover the road to St.
Petersburg? All these proposals were proposed, and keenly discussed.
Several spoke in favor of immediate and unflinching resistance, who would
have bitterly regretted the adoption of their advice. At last the old
general rose: he had listened to all their speeches without speaking, and
only shook his head, to signify, as it were, his strong conviction that
whether his head were good or bad, it had to make the final decision of
the question.
He gave his orders, which showed great skill and prudence. The army was to
pass through Moscow without halting, without assisting in any preparation
for resistance, or joining in any skirmish even when on the rearguard;
then falling back upon Riazan, it was, after several days, to occupy the
road to Kalouga, and thus intercept the way to the French, while
preserving communication with the provinces in the south of the empire,
which are the richest and most fertile. The troops at once began to
defile. Behind them long convoys hurried to escape the French. Five sixths
of the population had quitted the town when the columns of those wounded
in the battle of Borodino appeared at their doors, and they were obliged
to crowd their hospitals and churches with 15,000. By abandoning their
capital the Russians entrusted these wretches to the pity of their
enemies.
The governor of Moscow, Count Rostopchin, had not yet left the town. On
the previous evening he trusted to the assurances of Kutuzoff, that the
capital would be keenly defended. "There will be fighting in the streets,"
said he, in his proclamations. "The courts are already closed, but that
does not matter; there is no need of courts to do justice to ruffians. I
shall soon give you the signal; take care to provide yourselves with
hatchets, and especially three-pronged forks, for a Frenchman does not
weigh more than a sheaf of corn. I shall have mass said for the wounded,
and holy water to hasten their cure. I shall then join General Kutuzoff,
and we shall soon set about sending those guests to the devil, forcing
them to give up the ghost, and reducing them to powder."
Kutuzoff, nevertheless, withdrew, not less resolute, but more skilful than
Count Rostopchin. It was then that the latter conceived an idea, the
responsibility of which, as well as the honor, rests entirely upon him.
Nobody was consulted; and it is not known whether the Emperor Alexander,
with some anticipation of gloomy fate crossing his mind, may not have
beforehand granted the dread authority to the governor of his capital. For
several days inflammable substances had been collected in the garden of
his palace. At the moment of leaving the town, Rostopchin ordered the
prisons to be opened, and the hideous crowd of condemned prisoners jostled
and mixed with the half-frantic citizens who were fleeing before the
French. The governor retained two prisoners--one a Frenchman, lately come
to Moscow to earn a living; the other, a Russian, and both accused of
having acted as agents of the enemy. "Go," said Rostopchin to the
Frenchman, "you have been ungrateful but you have the right to prefer your
country; you are now again free, go back to your own people. As for you,"
he added, turning to the Russian, "let even your own father be your
judge." An old merchant came near, tottering under the weight of his
grief. "You may speak to him and bless him," said the governor. "Me bless
a traitor!" exclaimed the old man; and, raising his hands to heaven, he
cursed his son, who was immediately beheaded. The mob showed their keen
vindictiveness in their treatment of his body.
Count Rostopchin at last left Moscow, letting all precede him, like the
captain who hesitates to abandon the sinking ship. He had given all his
instructions. All the baggage all the wealth, he took with him, were the
fire engines of that great city, which was nearly entirely built of wood.
"Of what use are those in the country?" asked Colonel Wolzogen, with
astonishment. "I have my reasons," replied the governor; then, leaving the
last friends who still accompanied him, he turned round, and pointing with
his finger to Moscow, and then touching the sleeve of his coat, he said,
"I take away nothing except what is on my back." He went towards his
country house at Voronovo.
Meantime, however, the French advanced guard were approaching Moscow.
Several slight skirmishes had taken place during the march, and Kutuzoff
succeeded in protecting his retreat. When Murat appeared at the head of
the first columns, General Miloradovitch, who commanded the Russian
rearguard, made a verbal agreement with the King of Naples to suspend
hostilities for several hours, for the protection of the troops, and the
safety of the citizens. Murat agreed to it, limiting himself to the
pursuit of the Russians when they should have completed their evacuation
of Moscow.
The soldiers, as well as the generals and Napoleon himself, were delighted
at the distant sight of that town, illuminated by the rays of the setting
sun, which brought into full relief the Oriental brilliance of its palaces
and churches. "Moscow! Moscow!" they repeated from one end of the ranks to
the other. The emperor added to the enthusiastic expression of his troops
another thought: "Not a moment too soon!" he muttered.
The great conqueror was deceived, and divine justice punished more
completely than he anticipated his guilty ambition and insatiable pride.
The dense ranks of the French soldiers presented themselves before the
gates of the capital, without any one coming to open them. Several ragged
wretches, with gloomy looks appeared on the turrets of the Kremlin and
fired a few shots; but while passing along the streets of Moscow, among
palaces mixed with cottages--before golden-domed churches, adorned with
paintings of a thousand colors--our soldiers wondered, and felt uneasy at
the solitude which reigned around them. "What is become of them?" they
asked. It was not thus that the French army had entered Berlin or Vienna.
"Let the head men of the town be brought to me!" ordered the emperor. The
population of Moscow had no longer any head men. Those who hid themselves
in terror in the houses, or wept in the churches, felt themselves at the
mercy of the ruffians whom the governor, by quitting Moscow, had let loose
upon them. The door of the Kremlin had to be burst open with cannon-balls
before the old palace of the Czars could be rid of the wretches who had
shut themselves up in it. Napoleon took possession of it, without at first
fixing his abode there, curious to admire its barbarous magnificence, not
yet subjected to the influence of French elegance like the houses of the
rich merchants already occupied by his generals. The whole army gazed with
delight upon this strange and long-anticipated sight. On the 15th
September, 1812, the Emperor Napoleon and his soldiers passed through the
streets of Moscow, deserted, but still standing. They examined the
concentric quarters, like a series of ramparts round the Kremlin; the old
or Chinese town, the centre of Oriental commerce; the white town, with its
broad streets and gilt palaces, the quarter of the great nobles and rich
merchants; and all round the privileged districts: the "land town,"
composed of villages and gardens, interspersed with magnificent houses.
All the military posts were chosen, On the north-west, south-west, and
south-east, between the roads to Riazan and Vladimir, the forces of Prince
Eugène, Davout, Poniatowski, and Ney had taken their quarters. The guard
occupied the Kremlin. Soldiers and generals enjoyed the luxury which had
been preceded by the cruel privation of the months immediately preceding.
"We have provisions for six months," said the soldiers.
On the morning of the 16th fire broke out in a spirit-warehouse, and some
hours afterwards in a magnificent bazaar which was filled with valuable
goods. The officers blamed for it the stupidity of a drunken soldier. They
at once battled with the fire, but the wind was contrary, and the wealth
heaped up in the warehouses became a prey to the flames and pillage, which
it was impossible to prevent. The fire soon spread even to the
neighborhood of the Kremlin, and the sparks, carried by the equinoctial
breeze, fell from all parts on the gilded roofs. The courts of the palace
being crowded with artillery wagons, and the cellars heaped up with
ammunition which the Russians had neglected to take with them, a horrible
catastrophe seemed imminent. The generals had great difficulty in
persuading Napoleon to leave the Kremlin. The imperial guard, acting as
firemen, inundated incessantly the roofs and walls. The fire-engines of
the city were searched for in vain. Soon there was a rumor spread that
incendiaries had been arrested in several quarters.
The emperor ordered these wretches to be brought before him. They were
proud of the terrible mission with which they had been entrusted, taking a
delight in the fatal disorder produced under their hands, pillaging and
murdering in the houses which they delivered up to the flames. They all
made a bold declaration of the orders they had received, and underwent
unflinchingly the extremest punishment. The poor population, who had
remained concealed in the lowest haunts of the capital, now fled in
terror, the women carrying with them their children, the men dragging
behind them the most valuable of their household goods, or the shameful
results of pillaging the shops. The flames extended from street to street,
house to house, church to church: thrice the wind seemed to fall, and
thrice it changed its direction, driving the fire into quarters previously
untouched. The Kremlin remained always surrounded by fire. The imperial
guard had not quitted the palace. The army carried their cantonments
outside the town. When scarcely fallen into the hands of the conquerors,
Moscow succumbed before a more powerful enemy, enrolled for the defence of
the country. Palaces and huts were both become uninhabitable, and the
hospitals, filled with wounded Russians, had perished in the flames. The
emperor quitted Moscow, and took up his quarters at Petrowskoi. For three
days the conflagration remained alone in possession of the capital.
The wind falling, was succeeded by rain. The fire everywhere brooded under
the dead ashes, ready to burst out afresh at the contact of air; but the
spectacle had lost its avenging beauty. The roofs left standing were
relieved against the columns of smoke. The Kremlin still rose majestic,
and almost untouched, as if protecting the city against its various
enemies. The soldiers soon began to steal from their cantonments into the
streets; and in the cellars of the houses, under heaps of rubbish,
protected by walls blackened with the flames, they found provisions
collected by households for the winter; valuable clothes; plate which had
been carefully concealed in hiding-places which no longer existed; objects
of art, of which the finders did not know the value; strong drink, which
they madly used to intoxicate themselves. After the fire, in spite of the
efforts of the officers, Moscow was delivered up to pillage.
So much disorder and mad prodigality shocked all the Emperor Napoleon's
instincts of order and government. Returning hastily to Moscow, he
repressed by his mere presence the outrages of the soldiers. Regular
search was everywhere organized for the collection of provisions buried
under the ruins, and bringing them into stores. The resources collected in
a few days were sufficient to supply the troops for a long time. Forage
alone was wanting, and companies were formed for the purpose of scouring
the country round Moscow. The prices offered to the peasantry for their
stock was expected to encourage them to supply the markets of the capital.
Napoleon even considered the interests of the wretches who wandered,
defenceless and houseless, in the streets of Moscow, or timidly glided
into the town at the opening of the gates to look for those they had been
compelled to abandon, and the remainder of their property concealed under
ruined walls. Huts were erected to shelter them.
The desire for peace daily took stronger possession of Napoleon's mind,
and he had already authorized several indirect overtures. On the 20th
September he thus wrote the Czar:
"My brother, having learned that the brother of your Imperial Majesty's
minister was at Moscow, I sent for him, and had some conversation with
him. I requested him to wait upon your Majesty, and acquaint you with my
sentiments. The handsome and superb city of Moscow no longer exists.
Rostopchin has had it burnt. Four hundred incendiaries were taken in the
act; and having all declared that they had lighted the fire by order of
that governor and the director of police, they were shot. The fire at last
seems to have ceased. Three fourths of the houses are burnt, and one
fourth remain. Such conduct is atrocious, and serves no purpose. Was the
intention to deprive us of some resources? But those resources were in the
cellars, which the fire could not reach. Besides, why destroy one of the
finest towns of the world, and the work of ages, to accomplish so paltry
an object? It is the procedure followed since Smolensk, and it has reduced
600,000 families to beggary. The fire-engines of Moscow were broken or
carried off, and some arms from the arsenal given to ruffians, who could
not be driven from the Kremlin without using cannon. Humanity, the
interests of your Majesty and this great city, demanded that it should
have been entrusted to my keeping, since it was deserted by the Russian
army. They ought to have left administrations, magistrates, and civil
guards. That is what was done at Vienna twice, at Berlin, and Madrid; and
what we have ourselves done at Milan, when Souwarof entered. Incendiarism
causes pillage, the soldier abandoning himself to it to rescue what is
left from the flames. If I thought such things were done by your Majesty's
orders, I should not write you this letter; but I consider it impossible
that, with your principles, heart, and sense of justice, you have
authorized such excesses, unworthy of a great sovereign and a great
nation. While carrying away the fire-engines from Moscow, they left 150
field cannon, 60,000 new muskets, 1,600,000 infantry cartridges, more than
200 tons of powder, 150 tons of saltpetre, and also of sulphur, etc.
"I made war upon your Majesty without animosity. A letter from you before
or after the last battle would have stopped my march, and I should have
been ready to forego the advantage of entering Moscow. If your Majesty
still retains aught of your former sentiments, you will take this letter
in good part. In any case, you must feel indebted to me for giving an
account of what is taking place in Moscow."
When thus writing to the Emperor Alexander, Napoleon well knew that the
material disasters of the burning of Moscow were exceeded by the moral
results, and that the ruins of the capital were a proclamation to the
French army, to Russia, and to the whole of Europe, of the implacable
resolution of the old Muscovites. Rostopchin himself had written on the
iron door of his splendid country-house at Voronovo: "For eight years I
have been improving this estate, and have lived here happy in the bosom of
my family. The inhabitants of this estate, to the number of 1720, leave it
at your approach, and I set fire to my house that it may not be polluted
by your presence. Frenchmen, I have left you my two houses in Moscow, with
contents worth half a million of roubles. Here you will find nothing but
ashes."
The hatred which he had excited against the invader was afterwards to fall
back upon himself. Count Rostopchin driven from Russia by the execration
of all those whom he had ruined, was compelled to take refuge in France,
where he died in peace, honored by his former enemies. He had nevertheless
rendered to Russia one of those terrible services excused by a state still
half barbarous, and that violent patriotism by which the soul is possessed
in presence of foreign invasion. He revived in the Russian people the
unconquerable ardor of resistance. Moscow on fire was an appeal to the
eyes and hearts of all.
Napoleon understood this well. Besides, other difficulties were becoming
extreme. Time was passing; no reply arrived from St. Petersburg, and the
emperor's overtures made to Kutuzoff by Lauriston remained without result.
The attempt to continue hostilities was unsuccessful, General Sebastiani
having been deceived as to the direction taken by Kutuzoff, and, after
following him in vain for two or three days, compelled to return to
Moscow. Murat being again put in command of the advanced guard, met the
enemy on the Pakra, after being joined by Marshal Bessières. In spite of
the cries of his army, who were furious at the burning of Moscow, and
wished to march to battle, Kutuzoff slowly retreated before the French
generals, and finally pitched his camp at Taroutino on the road to Kaluga.
Two cavalry engagements terminated successfully for our arms. Napoleon's
lieutenants waited for his orders. A sort of armistice reigned between the
two armies. Murat had several times seen Kutuzoff; and the Russian
officers overwhelmed him with attentions. He showed himself in favor of
peace, concluded by him and through his exertions. The Cossack chiefs
celebrated his exploits, one of them surnaming him the "hetmann." Kutuzoff
had sent Prince Wolkonsky to St. Petersburg, with instructions to
communicate to the Czar the pacific advances which had been made.
Alexander replied on the 21st October: "All the opinions which you have
received from me, all the determinations expressed in the orders addressed
to you by me--everything ought to convince you that my resolution is
immovable, and that at the present moment no proposal of the enemy can
make me think of terminating the war, and so failing in the sacred duty of
avenging our outraged country."
Before the Emperor Alexander thus expressed his resolution of listening to
no offers of peace, his enemy had already evacuated Moscow--beginning,
whatever pain it cost him and whatever care he took to conceal it, a
retrograde movement, which was soon to be the consummation of his ruin.
Napoleon long hesitated as to what route he should take. By advancing upon
Kaluga in pursuit of Kutuzoff he should plunge further into Russia,
towards regions where he should be without winter-quarters and
communication with the rear. By resuming the road to Poland, as all his
lieutenants wished, he should tacitly admit his defeat. He conceived the
idea of making the Duke of Belluna march upon St. Petersburg, reckoning
that, on his arrival and while threatening the capital and court, he could
effect an oblique movement northwards by Woskresensk, Wolokolamsk, and
Bieloi, and then concentrate all his forces at Smolensk. Winter being
past, Napoleon would then be in a position to attack St. Petersburg in
earnest. To satisfy his own mind, the emperor wrote out this plan before
speaking of it to the generals, who were waiting, full of serious thought,
to know his determination.
They all opposed Napoleon's new plans; all repeating that he did not take
into account the hardships of the army, that he over-reckoned the strength
of the corps, that the soldiers were incapable of any fresh effort. He
went over, with Count Lobau, the statistics of the different regiments and
the detachments in charge of generals at a distance. "There, six
thousand." "Four thousand, sire," said the general. "Ten thousand here."
"Five at the most." "You are perhaps right," the emperor admitted. But on
coming to sum up the total of his resources, he always went back to his
first inaccurate reckoning, the truthful and blunt obstinacy of Lobau
being unable to overcome his master's voluntary illusions. Nevertheless,
Napoleon understood that he could now no longer, by the mere superiority
of his genius, take his lieutenants along with him without discussion or
hesitation. He did not insist upon marching northwards. Count Daru's
proposal was to spend the winter in Moscow. From his administrative
experience, he concluded that their supplies were sufficient for the army,
while the troops should thus be spared all the hardships and difficulties
of travelling. In spring, all the army corps would be again brought
together, there would be a rising in Lithuania, and the emperor could
complete his conquest. Napoleon turned toward his faithful servant, and
looked upon his energetic features, his robust figure, and the resolution
which shone in his looks. "My dear Daru," said he, "that advice is lion-
like, but I should require lions to put it in execution. You are right,
Moscow is not a military position, it is a political position. Yet what
would be said in Paris? what would become of France during that long
absence, without possible communication? No, it is impossible. Austria and
Prussia would take advantage of it to betray me."
The emperor came back to the idea of marching upon Kaluga, and driving
Kutuzoff from the camp of Taroutino, summoning the Duke of Belluna to join
him in order to keep up communications with Smolensk, at the same time
leaving Marshal Mortier in the Kremlin with 10,000 men to occupy and
preserve Moscow. Preparations were being made for this purpose, when, on
the 18th of October, cannon were heard on the road which Napoleon was
making ready to follow, and speedily one of Murat's aides-de-camp
appeared. The King of Naples, who had long complained of the isolation in
which he was left, was careless in his guard, and had been attacked by
Kutuzoff at Winkowo. The Russian army taking advantage of all the delays
which gradually diminished our forces, had increased theirs; and their
general had 100,000 men at his disposal, when he yielded to the urgent
request of his lieutenants, and all at once made an attack with two corps
upon our positions. Murat's personal courage and skill in the field partly
compensated for the faults of his imprudence. He repulsed the enemy's
attack, and fell back upon Voronovo, continuing to cover the road to
Moscow. Kutuzoff, however, held our positions, and the King of Naples lost
the greater part of his cavalry. Napoleon immediately resolved to march to
the enemy. According to the plan already decided upon, Mortier fixed his
quarters at the Kremlin, over the mines laid ready to blow up the citadel
and palace of the Czars. All the rest of the army defiled through the open
gates of the city, recently so eagerly longed for, and now only occupied
for thirty-seven days, which had been full of agitation and terror. The
long trains of carriages, the soldiers' booty heaped upon the wagons or
their shoulders, the furs fastened to their haversacks or arms, were all
proof enough that the troops were no more deceived than the generals as to
the possibility of a return to Moscow. The Duke of Trevisa's friends and
comrades looked upon him as a man condemned beforehand to death, and
sorrowfully bade him adieu without shaking his courage. The French
families formerly settled in Moscow fled from the anger of the Russians,
and joined the march of their fellow-countrymen. The long train on its
march seemed more like a convoy defiling, than the progress of an army
advancing against the enemy. Napoleon, however, had not yet said anything
to imply that the evacuation was final; he was marching against Kutuzoff,
whom he wished to chastise, and, if possible, crush. Before leaving
Moscow, his last instructions were devoted to the defence of the Kremlin.
It was on the morning of the 20th October that the emperor left the city,
in fine autumnal weather which prevented any one from yet anticipating the
rigors of winter. On reaching the castle of Troitskoi, he was struck with
a new idea; Kutuzoff held the old Kaluga road, and a battle was necessary
to dislodge him; and the French, even if victorious, would lose men and be
encumbered with a crowd of wounded. The new road to Kaluga was protected
by Broussier's division, and had not been cut up by the passage of troops;
if it were possible to deceive Kutuzoff by a sudden detour to the right,
and to gain the new road, Kaluga would be reached without a battle, and
the positions for winter secured. The occupation of Moscow must now no
longer be insisted upon, and Mortier immediately instructed to leave
Moscow and join them. Having made up his mind, the emperor in the evening
sent his orders to the Duke of Trevisa: "My cousin," said Napoleon to the
Marshal Berthier, "give orders to the Duke of Trevisa to put on march, to-
morrow, at daybreak, all the tired and lame soldiers of the corps of
Prince Eckmühl and the viceroy, of the foot-cavalry, and the young guard,
and to direct the whole upon Mojaisk. On the 22nd or 23rd, at two o'clock
in the morning, he will set fire to the brandy storehouse, the barracks,
and the public buildings, except the Foundling Hospital. [Footnote: This
establishment, founded by the dowager empress, had been patronized by
Napoleon. The governor General Toutelmine, had been one of the agents of
his communications with St. Petersburg.] He will have the palace of the
Kremlin set on fire. He will take care that all the guns are broken into
pieces, that powder is placed under the towers of the Kremlin, that all
the gun-carriages are broken, as well as the wagon wheels.
"When these orders are attended to, and the Kremlin is on fire in several
places, the duke will leave the Kremlin, and advance on the Mojaisk road.
At four o'clock, the officer of artillery appointed to that duty will blow
up the Kremlin, according to instructions.
"On the march he will burn all carriages left behind, use every endeavor
to bury all the dead, and burn all the muskets he can find. On reaching
the Gallitzin palace, he will take the Spanish and Bavarians stationed
there, and put fire to the ammunition wagons, and everything which cannot
be removed. He will collect all the commanders of posts, and order the
garrisons to fall back.
"He will reach Mojaisk on the 25th or 26th, and there receive further
orders to put himself in communication with the army. He will naturally
leave a strong advanced guard of cavalry on the Mojaisk road.
"He will be particular in remaining in Moscow till he has himself seen the
Kremlin blown up; and also in setting fire to the governor's two houses
and that of Rasomowsky."
Thus Napoleon himself put hands to that burning of Moscow with which he
had recently blamed the Russians, and the originator of which he did not
forget to punish even then! The march upon Kaluga was already begun, and
one of Prince Eugène's divisions, being in advance, had already occupied
Malo-Jaroslawetz, on the Lougea. General Delzons, who was in command, was
engaged in repairing the bridges, when Kutuzoff was informed of the
direction which the French seemed to take. General Doctoroff at once
advanced with a large body, and Kutuzoff raised his cantonments to follow
him.
The small town of Malo-Jaroslawetz was built on a chain of heights, of
which the Russians at once took possession, cannonading the French, who in
their turn dislodged them. Six times was the town taken and retaken, the
fire of the burning houses combining with the cannon-balls to repulse the
combatants on both sides. Seven French generals fell on the field towards
evening; yet, in spite of the keen determination of the Russian recruits,
who had scarcely arms or clothes, the ruins of the town remained in our
hands. When the emperor arrived on the banks of the Lougea with the main
army, he beheld a sight as painful in proportion to its extent as had been
the plain of Borodino. Many of the corpses were scorched by the fire. Ten
thousand men fell on both sides. The emperor saw that all future movements
implied new and terrible battles. The generals appointed to reconnoitre,
considered the enemy's positions impregnable; and on Napoleon himself
going to take observations he narrowly escaped being taken by a body of
Cossacks, who surprised him when crossing the Lougea. General Rapp had
only time to get him out of the way of those troublesome enemies, bands of
whom incessantly harassed the army. A council was held in a ruined hut on
the banks of the small river.
The emperor was still inclined to attempt a march towards Kaluga, for the
sake of the battle, victory, and consequent rest in a rich district not
yet exhausted. The generals were as confident as their chief in the
success of our arms, but they thought that the loss of 20,000 men and a
charge of 10,000 wounded would themselves constitute a check in presence
of the Russian army, constantly recruited by new forces. A retreat to
Mojaisk, and thence to Smolensk, was decided upon. The attempt on Kaluga
had cost ten days, and exhausted the greater part of the provisions
brought from Moscow, and it was now necessary to submit to a retreat pure
and simple. Marshal Davout proposed to effect this by a new road, which
should still supply some resources for the troops; but his advice was not
listened to. A passionate desire for return, and terror of the frightful
evils which threatened the army, had seized all those men who were
recently so daring, and ready to try any danger. Napoleon still hesitated.
"What do you think about it, Mouton?" he asked Count Lobau, standing
beside him. "That as quickly as possible, and by the shortest road, we
must get out of a country where we have stayed too long," was the
immediate reply of the hero of so many battles. The emperor hung down his
head. In his inmost soul he felt himself beaten.
The whole army also felt itself beaten, and every heart was filled with
dejection. Already, during the march from Moscow to Malo-Jaroslawetz, many
carriages and badly harnessed wagons were left behind; but the train was
still enormous, accompanied by defenceless women and children. The wounded
of the last battle had been distributed amongst the different wagons and
carts. The dying were abandoned to their wretched fate on the battle-
field, under the cold rain which began to fall, or in the huts to which
they had been carried. The army left Malo-Jaroslawetz on the 27th October,
marching to Vereja, where Marshal Mortier rejoined them after
accomplishing his terrible mission. The ground was still quaking under his
feet when he left Moscow, bringing with him all the wounded. Such was the
emperor's express order, though the army convoys were already insufficient
for that necessary duty.
Mortier brought to Napoleon a prisoner, Count Wintzingerod, who had fallen
into his hands during the second burning of Moscow. That general was in
command of a body of partisans, and believed the French had evacuated the
capital. The emperor's anger burst forth against this German on finding
him in the Russian ranks. "You belong to no country!" he exclaimed
excitedly. "I have always found you among my enemies--with the Austrians
when I fought with Austria, with the Russians when Austria became my ally.
Yet by birth you belong to the Rhenish Confederation; you are a traitor--I
have the right to judge you. You will be tried by court-martial." Then
pointing to Count Narischkin, Wintzingerod's aide-de-camp, "This young man
does you too much honor by serving with you."
The general made no reply, even by the slightest movement or gesture. The
emperor's staff looked on in silence, and the French officers tried by
their attentions to make the prisoner forget the treatment. Every one knew
the cause of so much bitterness rising from Napoleon's heart to his lips.
For the first time in his life the conqueror was retreating.
He was retreating, and every day of their march made them feel more and
more the terrible difficulty, while proving its necessity. Napoleon
marched at the head of his army with his staff, without joining the main
body of the troops, or troubling himself about the fatigue and difficulty
experienced at every step by Marshal Davout, who had been appointed to
command the rear-guard and protect the retreat. General Grouchy's cavalry
were already exhausted, and could not assist him in this painful duty. The
marshal's old foot-soldiers alone remained--those who had so long fought
under his orders, having been formed under his strict and severe
discipline, and loving him while they feared him. At every stage Davout
found some carriage or cart had disappeared, left behind by the exhausted
horses and drivers, and he heard the cries of the wretched wounded men,
henceforward delivered up to the lances of the Cossacks or the severities
of the approaching winter. He saw unrolling and lengthening out before him
that train behind the army, despised by the soldiers remaining under arms,
and reinforced every day by laggards from all the corps. He was the last
to arrive at the hindmost posts after the troops defiling past had eaten
up all the resources of the villages and farms, burnt the shelters, and
sacked what they were unable to carry off. The complaints and demands of
the distinguished chief of his rear-guard made no impression on Napoleon.
"March quicker!" he kept repeating, without admitting the marshal to see
him, without ever going himself towards the rear of his army--apparently
indifferent to the sufferings he had produced, absorbed in gloomy silence,
surrounded by his lieutenants equally dejected. When passing Borodino,
where the battle-field was still covered with the corpses, of which savage
beasts were in undisputed possession, the rear-guard were still further
encumbered by the transport of the wounded, who had formerly been left at
Kolotskoi. Those whose wounds did not allow them to be removed were
entrusted by Dr. Larrey to the cares of the Russians, whom he had cured.
The army left Ghjat on the 1st November.
In spite of what was constantly being left behind from the baggage train,
the difficulty of the march daily increased on account of fatigue, the
want of horses, and the rigor of the climate. Marshal Davout often found
himself compelled to blow up artillery wagons which he could not take
further with him; and the cannon which were still dragged on became for
the most part useless. Immediately before him marched Prince Eugène's
forces. The viceroy, young and courageous, had not yet gained consummate
experience of war: the marshal urged him to make haste first in crossing
the Czarewo-Zaimitché and afterwards in the suburbs of Wiazma. Kutuzoff,
at first deceived as to our movements, had advanced southwards after the
battle of Malo-Jaroslawetz, but soon changed his direction and marched
upon Wiazma. A preliminary engagement near the bridge of Czarewo had
opened a passage for us. Then the march was again interrupted before
Wiazma. The Russian army occupied the ground on the left of the road.
Prince Eugène's forces, embarrassed by the convoy, had an engagement with
the enemy on the morning of the 2nd November, and the cannon were making
havoc in his ranks when Davout came to his assistance, and General Gerard
making a dash at the enemy's artillery, quickly cleared the road again. At
the noise of the cannon Marshal Ney halted in his march, and advanced
behind a small tributary of the Wiazma. The battle began so vigorously on
the part of our old soldiers that General Miloradowitch, who commanded the
Russians, did not dare longer to intercept their retreat. The regiments
defiled into Wiazma, but still continued firing. General Morand, who was
in command of the last battalions, was not rid of the pursuing enemy till
he reached the very camp, his soldiers presenting their bayonets. The
troops, who had thus gained another victory, encamped in the woods, with
no resource except the dying horses, which they slaughtered as they
required them, roasting the joints at the bivouac fires. The exhausted
soldiers slept.
Marshal Ney, in his turn, had charge of the rear-guard. The emperor felt
himself condemned by the stern and impassible judgment of Davout, whom he
had left alone to bear the heaviest burden; and he blamed the slowness of
his movements for the unfortunate battle of Wiazma, and the responsibility
of all the hardships undergone by the rear-guard. Like Massena in
Portugal, Davout found himself in disgrace because he was blamed with
faults which he had not committed, and which he was unable to rectify.
Meantime they had approached Smolensk. Alarming news awaited Napoleon at
Dorogobouje. He had long reckoned on the assistance of the 9th corps,
which Marshal Victor was bringing him from Germany. Scarcely had the new
troops arrived at Smolensk, according to the emperor's order, than they
found themselves obliged to go to the assistance of our left wing, which
was threatened by Count Wittgenstein. A large reinforcement had joined the
Russian army at this point. After a conference at Abo, in Finland (28th
August, 1812), between the Prince Royal of Sweden and the Emperor
Alexander, the Russian forces promised to Bernadotte for the conquest of
Norway had advanced from Finland into Livonia. Marshal Macdonald was
compelled to abandon the siege of Riga in order to support the Prussians
on the lower Dwina. Marshal St. Cyr, in his turn, found himself threatened
on the 18th October by forces superior to his own, and had fought a second
battle before Polotsk, and successfully defended the town; but when
attacked by Wittgenstein and the forces arrived from Finland, on both
banks of the Dwina, he was compelled to withdraw behind the Oula
(connected with the Berezina by the Lepel canal). Being severely wounded
in the last engagement, he had given up the command to Marshal Oudinot,
who was anxiously waiting for Marshal Victor's arrival. The approach of
Admiral Tchitchakoff was already announced; returned from Turkey with a
large army, the negotiator of the treaty of Bucharest had, with
Tormazoff's assistance, driven General Reynier and Prince Schwartzenberg
behind the marshes of Pinsk; and, after leaving General Sacken with 25,000
men to keep the allies in check, was now advancing towards the upper
Berezina, to support Count Wittgenstein. Thus, on reaching Smolensk,
Napoleon was about to find the place almost destitute of troops, while the
left wing was in very great danger, attacked at the same time by
Wittgenstein, the Finland troops, and Tchitchakoff. The supplies even were
smaller than was expected, on account of the difficulty of conveyance. The
soldiers were delighted as they came near Smolensk. The emperor knew that
the halt must be short; nevertheless, he ordered Victor to join Oudinot
immediately in order to make a joint attack upon Wittgenstein; and wrote
General Reynier and the Austrians to pursue Admiral Tchitchakoff. He also
asked for one of the divisions of Marshal Augereau to be sent from
Germany; and separating the troops which still remained, in order to
facilitate the food-supply during their journey, he continued his march
upon Smolensk, whilst Prince Eugène took the road for Doukhowtchina, with
instructions to protect Vitebsk if necessary.
The main army resumed its march on the 6th November. On the 7th and 8th
the cold became so keen, and the ice on the roads so dangerous, that the
horses could not advance, and it was necessary to leave behind some
cannon. On the 9th the viceroy reached the banks of the Vop, a small
stream which in winter becomes a rapid torrent, its channel being already
choked with ice. Before the engineers had completed a bridge, the crowd of
the soldiers and runaways rushed headlong upon it and broke it down. The
cavalry forded the stream, the troops following them with the water up to
their shoulders. The field-pieces, the baggage, and ammunition-wagons, one
after another crushed down the banks and ploughed through the channel,
frequently plunging into the mire, and being left there. It became
impossible to cross; and the wretches who were following the army found
themselves left behind, and delivered up to the vengeance of the Russians
or the cruelties of the Cossacks, who ran up in eager hordes. In despair
and terror, they struggled to cross the river, leaving behind them the
wagons which still afforded them some supplies, and many perished. Even
the soldiers who had fallen behind the army pillaged the baggage which had
been abandoned on the bank. Blood flowed also in the midst of this
horrible confusion, for the Cossacks, eager for booty, joined with the
disbanded soldiers. Some brave men several times braved the dangers of
crossing the stream to save the lives of the defenceless women and
children.
On reaching Doukhowtchina, Prince Eugène learned that Vitebsk had fallen
into the hands of Wittgenstein. Thus the cruel day's march just made by
the army of Italy proved useless. The viceroy set fire to the small town
where he found temporary shelter and a few supplies, and then advanced
towards Smolensk, where Napoleon had arrived on the evening of the 9th.
There also there was nothing but discontent, dejection, and, for a short
time, disorder. The emperor had only allowed the guard to enter the town,
and both lodgings and provisions were reserved for this favorite corps,
the only remnant saved from shipwreck, who had only undergone the
hardships of the campaign without any share in the battles. The mob of
camp-followers, deaf to discipline, forced open the gates, and general
pillage had commenced when the emperor's order was modified. The troops
lay down in the streets and squares, overpowered by fatigue, and fell down
exhausted beside the fires which had been lighted. Then arrived Prince
Eugène's troops, more decimated than all the others by the frightful
disaster on the banks of the Vop. Marshal Ney had been fighting since they
left Dorogobouje, sustaining all his soldiers by his indomitable courage
and the steadiness of his physical and mental energy, playing in turns the
part of general, captain, and soldier, seizing the musket as it fell from
the hands of a dying grenadier to fire, himself, upon the enemy, and
purposely slackening the march of the rear-guard in order to give time to
all to reach Smolensk. The news brought there from all quarters, like
bulletins of some deadly agony, no longer allowed even the soldiers the
vain hope of several days of rest. General Hilliers, who had advanced
according to orders on the Jelnia road, was surprised by the Russians, and
having lost 2000 men, returned to Smolensk, to find himself degraded in
the eyes of all the army, and was sent back to France, to be tried there
by court-martial. Prince Schwartzenberg was doubtful, he said, about
leaving Warsaw unprotected; and Admiral Tchitchakoff advanced unchecked,
and was already threatening Minsk, where the great bulk of our supplies
was collected together. Victor and Oudinot had not dared to risk a
decisive engagement; and the two Russian armies were about to combine in
order to bar our passage over the Berezina, the only way of safety to
return to Poland. There was not a moment more to be lost in effecting that
fatal junction. The emperor resolved to march immediately towards Vilna,
still intending to make an attack upon Admiral Tchitchakoff, and
entrusting the leaders of his left wing with the duty of at last defeating
Wittgenstein. But by one of those blunders which seemed to indicate some
failure in his genius and foresight, he ordered the marshals to follow him
one after another; and taking no account of Kutuzoff's army, he left
Smolensk on the 14th November. Prince Eugène, Davout, and Ney were to
evacuate their cantonments on the 15th, 16th, and 17th respectively, and
the gallant leader of the rear-guard was to bury the cannon, destroy the
ammunition, and blow up the walls surrounding the town. The great army by
this time scarcely amounted to 36,000 fighting men; and the cavalry,
entirely under the orders of General Latour-Maubourg, only counted 1800
horse. Napoleon followed on the left bank the road from Smolensk to
Orscha, without taking the precaution to place between him and General
Kutuzoff the rapid current of the Dnieper. He was soon to pay dearly for
this fault. Scarcely had he reached Krasnoe than he found General
Sebastiani, who had preceded him, blockaded in a church by a body of the
enemy. Kutuzoff was approaching with 50,000 soldiers, and making ready,
with the assistance of several bands of Cossacks, to cut our long columns.
On his march Napoleon found at every step ambulance-wagons, and those of
runaways, half buried in the snow, and still containing frozen corpses.
The emperor halted to wait for those corps which were to rejoin him, and
were seriously exposed by their isolation. Prince Eugène had already
forced a passage before Krasnoe upon the Lossmina, being therefore
compelled to sacrifice Broussier's division, which remained in battle
order, threatening the Russian army with a renewal of the attack upon the
heights which had been vainly attempted on the evening before. All the
rest of the main army succeeded in escaping, with the assistance of the
darkness, and the snow, which deadened the noise of the footsteps. The
troops left in the rear could only be saved by the approach of Davout and
Ney.
On this occasion, once more, Napoleon recovered that unconquerable
resolution which had carried him to the summit of power. Determined not to
leave his army and lieutenants, he marched before them on the Smolensk
road with his guards, who were henceforward subjected to all the hazards
of battle. The village Koutkowo, occupied by the Russians, was retaken,
the emperor himself being on foot, because the icy ground made riding
impossible. The Russian batteries ploughed up the ground held by the
French, and the noise of the battle was heard. Davout was at hand, after
rallying the poor remainder of the Broussier division, and the artillery
with Generals Lariboisière and Eblé; and dashing in dense columns with his
four divisions upon General Miloradowitch, who defended the valley of the
Lossmina, he soon opened a bloody passage, and rejoined the guard grouped
round Napoleon. Krasnoe was thus surrounded by a semicircle of our troops,
disputing the enemy's positions step by step; but Admiral Tormazoff was
now on our rear, in order to hold the Orscha road. The emperor saw that he
should be speedily hemmed in, and resolved to resume his march, without
waiting for Ney's regiments. He thus devoted him to certain loss; but in
the stern necessity which compelled him, Napoleon had not the courage to
accept the responsibility of the act which he was about to accomplish.
Ordering Mortier to start with the guards, he imposed on Davout the double
duty of waiting for Ney and not separating himself from Mortier. In
presence of these contradictory instructions, and with an overwhelming
sense of their responsibility, Davout made an effort to hold his ground,
his divisions having replaced on the plateau of Krasnoe the regiments of
the young guard, which had now begun defiling towards Orscha. Napoleon
marched in front with the old guard, undergoing as they went a deadly fire
from the Russians. Tormazoff's columns seemed to wait for the final orders
to cut the passage of what were left of the great army. Kutuzoff resisted
the urgent advice of Tormazoff as well as the arguments and excitement of
General Wilson, who had been sent to him by the English Government. "You
think the old man is a fool," he said repeatedly, "that he is timid, and
without energy: you are young, and don't understand. If Napoleon turned
back, none of us dare meet him; he is still terrible. If I bring him back
to the Berezina, ruined and without an army, I shall have accomplished my
task." Thus protected by the terrible renown of his name, the emperor
advanced to Liady.
Davout resisted to the last moment; but Marshal Mortier, who was hurrying
to leave Krasnoe, urged him to start. The roads were about to be barred;
the bullets were falling in showers on the little town; the marshal's
three divisions only amounted to 5000 men, and all the rest of the army
were being withdrawn. As he left the plateau of Krasnoe, Mortier ordered
the guard to keep step. "You hear, soldiers?" cried General Laborde; "the
general orders the ordinary step. Slow time, soldiers. March!" It was in
the same way that Davout's troops defiled, constantly turning round to
fire at the squadrons of the enemy's cavalry, closely pursuing them. When
the exhausted corps were again brought together at Liady, the faces of all
were still more gloomy than on the previous evening. Besides their
physical sufferings, there was now added the burden of a bitter regret.
Their desertion of Marshal Ney weighed on the consciences of all.
Ney had been warned neither of the danger which threatened him nor of the
isolation in which he was to be left, because a courier sent by Davout was
taken by the enemy. When he came face to face with Kutuzoff's army, before
Krasnoe, he still felt sure of passing there, where his comrades had gone
before him. A determined attack under a rain of shot having been
unsuccessful, the marshal saw the uselessness of the attempt, and without
for an instant losing his presence of mind or his courage, he resolved to
effect a movement during the night towards the Dnieper, cross the river,
and escape by the right bank, in order to regain the main army. "But if
the Dnieper is not frozen, what shall we do?" said some of the officers.
"It will be frozen!" retorted the general, curtly; "besides, frozen or
not, we shall do as we can--but we shall cross."
They did cross, to the profound astonishment of the Russians, who believed
the general and his soldiers were at last caught, and to the unspeakable
delight of the forces collected at Orscha. Prince Eugène and Marshal
Mortier took up their positions in front of their companions-in-arms,
saved by a determination and courage really marvellous. Only 1200 men
rejoined the army, out of 7000 forming the third corps when they left
Smolensk. On the plateau of Krasnoe, in the skirmishes against the
Cossacks of Platow, and by the sides of the ice-covered roads, Ney had
everywhere left dead bodies, wounded and dying men, besides men
overpowered by the hardships and incapable of any effort.
Even at Orscha the disorder was so great that it threatened to infect the
regiments of the old guard. The emperor harangued them energetically.
"Grenadiers," said he, "we are retiring without being conquered by the
enemy; let us not be so by ourselves; let us give the example to the army!
Several from amongst you have already deserted their eagles, and even
their arms. It is to you alone that I address myself to have this disorder
stopped. Act justly towards each other. It is to yourselves that I entrust
your discipline!" An appearance of order was restored; but the regular
distributions were impossible. Famishing wretches, soldiers, and those of
the camp-followers who still remained, all rushed upon the provision-
stores. Panics also continually increased the tumult. "The Cossacks! There
are the Cossacks!" was frequently shouted.
At Orscha, moreover, as well as at Smolensk and Dorogoubouge, ominous news
reached the emperor. Tchitchakoff, who had not been pursued by
Schwartzenberg, had carried Minsk, one of the most important rallying-
points on the Vilna road, and the centre of our principal supplies. The
Polish general Bronikowski being unable with 3000 men to defend the place,
had joined Dombrowski, who was covering the Dnieper, and both guarded the
bridge of Borisow on the Berezina with insufficient forces. Should the
bridge fall into the hands of Admiral Tchitchakoff, the army would be
blockaded behind the Berezina, or compelled to ascend to its source at the
risk of being attacked by Count Wittgenstein. Marshals Victor and Oudinot,
with their weak and decimated regiments, could not succeed in dislodging
the enemies from their position near Smoliantzy on the Oula. Thus marching
a second time over the roads which he had recently trod full of hope,
Napoleon found himself threatened on his left by Tchitchakoff holding
Minsk, on his right by Wittgenstein and Steinghel; behind him Kutuzoff was
advancing; before him it was now doubtful if the Berezina could be
crossed. The conception of a last and powerful combination arose in that
inexhaustibly fertile mind. He sent to Oudinot the order to march towards
the Berezina to support the Poles at Borisow. Victor was to check
Wittgenstein, so as to give the great army time to cross the river.
Napoleon could then rally the two marshals, whose forces still amounted to
25,000 men; he should attack and recover Minsk, send for Schwartzenberg,
and when thus master of all the scattered remnants of his army, make a
crushing attack upon the Russian troops, and gain a victory before
returning to Poland. With this hope, Orscha was evacuated on the 20th
November, under a cold rain, which penetrated the soldiers' clothes, and
then froze on their bodies. The emperor ordered the greater part of the
convoys to be sacrificed. The leaders of divisions alone kept carriages.
The wounded and several fugitive families still followed with great
difficulty on carts and wagons.
On the 22nd, at Tolocsin, the emperor learned that, after a keenly-fought
battle, the Russians had taken Borisow and the bridge over the Berezina.
He dismounted, and showing more uneasiness than he had yet done, called to
his side General Dode de la Brunerie, an officer of the engineers, whom he
had already distinguished. "They are there!" said he, without further
explanation. The general easily divined the emperor's meaning. They both
entered a hut, and Napoleon, spreading out his maps on a rickety table,
discussed with Dode the resources still at his command. The general's plan
was to ascend the course of the Berezina, declaring that he knew several
fords, and that they could then advance quickly upon Wilna by Gloubokoi.
They might indeed be met by Wittgenstein, but Tchitchakoff covered
Borisow, and would be certain to burn the bridge over the Berezina if he
saw it threatened.
The emperor listened as he kept looking at his maps. At last something
arrested his attention, the sight of a name of ill-omen: "Poltava!
Poltava!" he repeated. Then, as if more conscious than ever of the
superiority of his glory and destiny over the heroic adventures of King
Charles XII., he went up to General Jomini, who had just entered, and
said, "When one has never met with defeats, he ought to have them great in
proportion to his success." At the same time, while considering vaster
plans, now chimerical by reason of the exhaustion and dejection of his
troops, he resolved to push on to the Berezina, retake the bridge of
Borisow, and throw another over the river in spite of the Russians, and
thus, at any cost, recover Wilna by the shortest road. Scarcely was his
mind made up, when the means of effecting it were presented. General
Corbineau, formerly despatched by General St. Cyr to assist the Bavarians,
found himself at liberty on account of their inactivity; and conceiving
the idea of rejoining the great army, he crossed the Berezina by a ford
which he had long known, and brought Napoleon 700 horse, a valuable
reinforcement at such a moment of extreme distress. He learned at the same
time, that Marshal Oudinot had driven the Russians from Borisow without
being able to prevent them from burning the bridge. He could there check
Tchitchakoff, and leave Napoleon time to throw over the ford at Studianka
a simple bridge of tressels, which was the only apparatus General Eblé had
been able to preserve during their rout. The engineers were secretly and
expeditiously ordered to go to this place.
The attempt was one of difficulty and danger, but it was still possible,
and offered several chances of success. General Eblé, still indomitable in
spite of his age and the fatigues of the campaign, collected his workmen,
and made them understand that the fate of the army depended upon their
exertions. Exhausted by marching and want of food, the soldiers bravely
went into the icy water, and worked incessantly during the 25th and night
of the 26th, in the midst of frozen blocks perpetually dashing against
them, without time to eat, without rest, without even a dram of spirits.
The houses of Studianka having been demolished, their beams were utilized
as buttresses and tressels for the bridge; and on the 26th, at daybreak,
preparations were made for crossing. The Russians, deceived by a pretended
attempt near Borisow, had not moved far from that quarter; General
Corbineau had already crossed the ford with his cavalry, to protect the
right bank. The hopes and looks of all were concentrated upon the
exertions of the bridge-makers, who worked incessantly, and seemed to be
unconscious of fatigue. On the right, one of the bridges was at last
opened for infantry and cavalry, and they began to defile across; the
passage was to occupy two days. When the second bridge was completed, Eblé
said to the engineers, "Let half of you lie down on the heaps of straw;
the others will watch the passage, and sleep in their turn"--he himself
not having had a moment's rest by day or night. The imperfect construction
of the bridges caused serious danger; the tressels shaking under the
weight of the wagons and cannon; and during the night the bridge intended
for the artillery suddenly gave way. The soldiers again went into the
water, several times assisted by the general himself, who bravely exposed
himself to every hardship and danger. The cold had now become extreme, and
the bridge-engineers worked in the midst of large masses of ice; yet the
work went on, and the passage was again begun. The emperor was one of the
last to reach the right bank; a disorderly crowd of camp-followers and
fugitives were huddled together on the left bank, encamped on the frozen
marshes, and no authority was sufficient to hasten their movements. Every
day the number of soldiers faithful to their colors became smaller and
smaller, on account of the general discouragement and relaxation of
discipline. Davout himself had not more than 4000 men in his divisions. On
Marshal Victor rejoining the remains of the great army between Studianka
and Borisow, his troops, though themselves weak and fatigued, were amazed
at the pitiful state of their comrades, whom they had not seen for so many
months. "Your turn will come," said those who were coming back from
Moscow, marching in any order, officers and soldiers mixed together, all
equally dejected, even though suffering did not bring all minds to one
level. Human nature, often a miserable sight under disaster, then also
displays its greatness. Along with a selfishness sometimes brutal, the
more noble characteristics of courage and devotion raised their dejected
minds. Some of the women saved their children through a thousand
hardships; others remained close beside their husbands; soldiers continued
loyal to their chiefs; and one officer for a long time carried on his
shoulders his _half-frozen_ servant, who in his turn did him the same
friendly turn.
The battle which was preparing promised to be a terrible one as Napoleon
knew; yet he insisted on leaving at Borisow the Partouneaux division,
which belonged to Marshal Victor, hoping at this expense to continue the
mistake of Tchitchakoff. The enemy's circle was now closing round that
handful of brave men, condemned beforehand. Wittgenstein and Miloradowitch
had intercepted the Studianka road. On the evening of the 27th, the
Partouneaux division was attacked on both sides, and defended its
positions heroically, but without being able to break through. On the
morning of the 28th, after being twice summoned by the Russians, the
general, in despair, gave himself up a prisoner. Almost at the same moment
the second corps, under Oudinot, was attacked by part of Tchitchakoff's
army, which had collected at Pahlen, on the left bank of the Berezina.
Being soon wounded, as usual, the marshal was replaced in command by Ney,
who made a vigorous charge upon the enemy, and drove them back to half-way
between Brill and Borisow, and placed over a pass a battery of artillery,
which kept the Russians at a distance. Marshal Victor had since morning
kept up on the left bank a vigorous fight against Wittgenstein, to cover
the passage over the bridges; on the other bank the guards used their
cannon against the enemy, who were perpetually driven back by the charges
of our cavalry, and perpetually returning to the charge. At nightfall they
were still fighting. The Russians, however, withdrew, beaten, but carrying
off their wounded, and certain of returning next day, as numerous and
daring, against an expiring army, which was sustained only by despair and
the tradition of an heroic past.
The soldiers fought and died with courage. The confused mob crowding on
the bank of the river also died, but in all the agonies of terror and
helplessness. After having for a long time refused to take advantage of
the bridges, which lay open, the multitude, terrified by the noise of the
cannon and the approach of the enemy, rushed in a body towards the river,
heedless of discipline, or the necessity for reserving one road for those
on foot and the other for carriages. The throng was so dense that they
could not advance; cries were succeeded by cries, and exertions by
exertions. Occasionally the hissing of a bullet was heard, as it came to
open a horrible gap in the compact mass, who shrank in terror. The weak,
drawn into the confused crowd, succumbed, and were trodden under foot,
without those that crushed them even observing their fall Night and
darkness brought back a moment of calm. Many of the wretches perished in
the river when endeavoring to escape. The reaction of unreasonable panic
kept from the bridges those who, shortly before, entreated General Eblé
with tears to let them pass; nobody would venture in the darkness--the
engineers, assisted by their officers, urging those who stayed behind; but
they had again lighted their fires on the bank. During that long night of
winter the bridges remained deserted and useless, and General Eblé, who
had orders to blow them up at daybreak, delayed till eight o'clock,
grieved to his very soul by the despair of the crowd, which had again
begun to throng the entrances. When at last the fire appeared, with its
ominous gleam, both bridges were crowded with carriages, horses, men,
women, and children. The wretches plunged into the waters, and struggled
vainly against the current. Their cries were mingled with those of the
crowd who remained on the bank, now without defence. The Cossacks soon
arriving, galloped round this human herd, and pushed them forward with
their lances. When they withdrew, loaded with booty, the remains of the
army took the road for Smorgoni. At every step Ney and General Maison
protected the retreat, and again met the Russians at Molodeczno, after
burning the bridges of Zembin. From league to league the march of the army
was indicated by a long series of corpses--soldiers who had fallen in the
snow without rising again, runaways who had at last succumbed under the
weight of their hardships. The emperor was still surrounded by officers,
some without soldiers, and generals without officers. The forces who
recently rejoined him had in their turn undergone the terrible
disorganization by which the whole army was infected. Napoleon saw that
every chance was lost, and felt in danger of being hemmed in by the enemy,
and falling alive into their hands. He was now in haste to escape finally
from the overwhelming realities which urged him on every side. For several
days he secretly matured a plan to set out for France alone with several
faithfull companions, resolving to leave to his lieutenants the glory and
pain of bringing back to Germany, on a hostile though allied land, the
shapeless remnant of the great army. In spite of the objections of Daru
and the Duke of Bassano, to whom he had spoken and written about it, he
held a council at Smorgoni of his marshals--who arrived one after another,
wounded, ill, exhausted by fighting, sleepless nights, and constant
vigilance, followed only by a few thousands of men. He announced his
departure, saying that he handed over the command to the King of Naples,
and whom he trusted they would obey the same as himself. Then, shaking
hands with some, embracing others, and talking kindly to all, even those
whom he had often badly used, he stepped into a sledge during the night of
the 5th December, with Caulaincourt, Duroc, Mouton, and Lefebvre-
Desnouettes. His lieutenants still looked, as if to see the last trace of
him in the darkness: he had disappeared, taking with him the last remnants
of hope, and leaving in each of those brave hearts a deep and bitter sense
of being cruelly deserted.
The Emperor Napoleon had fled--selfishly fled. He had escaped from the
frightful sight of, and contact with, unlimited pain, incessantly renewed,
without respite or issue, the responsibility of which rested entirely upon
himself. Secondary faults had been committed by his generals, but he was
really, blamable for them all; for he had asked from men more than they
could accomplish, without any earnest intention or proper pretext. For the
first time in his life he took care, as he left Smorgoni, to address
Europe in explanation of his retreat and route. The twenty-ninth bulletin
of the great army no longer resounded with the report of brilliant
victory. One could read in it the secret humiliation of a pride which
admitted of no conqueror but winter, and did not yet confess its
lamentable errors. It appeared that the Russians had in no way assisted
towards this defeat, which had to be recognized, and that the French army
were everywhere victorious. "The army was in good condition on the 6th
November," wrote Napoleon, "and till then the weather had been perfect.
The cold began on the 7th, and from that time we lost every night several
hundred horses, which died during bivouac. Soon 30,000 had succumbed, and
our cavalry were all on foot. On the 14th we were almost without cavalry,
artillery, and transports. Without cavalry we could gain no information
beyond a quarter of a league. Without artillery we could not fight battle,
or keep positions steadily. It was necessary to march, to avoid a battle,
which the want of supplies made undesirable. It was necessary to occupy a
certain space, to avoid being taken in flank, and that without cavalry to
gain information and unite the columns. This difficulty, together with the
excessive and sudden cold, rendered our position difficult. Some men, whom
nature had tempered strongly enough to be above all vicissitudes of fate
and fortune, seemed staggered, lost their cheerfulness and good humor, and
thought of nothing but disaster and destruction; those whom she has
created superior to everything, preserved their cheerfulness and usual
disposition, and saw a new glory in the various difficulties to be
surmounted.
"The enemy, seeing on the roads traces of the frightful calamity which
struck the French army, tried to take advantage of it. Our columns were
all surrounded by Cossacks, who, like Arabs in the desert, carried off the
trains and carriages which had separated from the army. That despicable
cavalry, which comes silently, and could not repulse a company of light-
horse soldiers, became formidable under those circumstances. The enemy,
however, had reason to repent of every attempt of importance which he
made, and after the French army crossed the Borysthenes, at Orscha, the
Russian army, being fatigued, and having lost many men, ceased from their
attempts. Nevertheless, the enemy held all the passages over the Beresina,
a river eighty yards wide, and carrying much ice, with its banks covered
with marshes 600 yards long, all rendering it very difficult to cross. The
enemy's general placed his four divisions at different points, where he
concluded the French army would pass. On the 25th, at daybreak, the
emperor, after deceiving the enemy by several feint movements made on the
25th, advanced to the village of Studianka, and, in spite of the presence
of one of the enemy's divisions, had two bridges thrown over the river.
The Duke of Reggio crossing, attacked the enemy in a battle lasting for
two hours; the Russians withdrew to the head of the Borisow bridge. During
the whole of the 26th and 27th the army crossed. To say that the army has
need of being redisciplined and reformed, and of being re-equipped in
cavalry, artillery, and supplies, is to be inferred from the statement
just made. Rest is its principal want. Supplies and horses are arriving.
General Bourcier has already more than 20,000 new horses in the different
depots. The artillery has already repaired its losses. The generals,
officers, and soldiers have greatly suffered from fatigue and scarcity.
Many have lost their baggage on account of their horses being lost, and
several by the Cossacks in ambush. The Cossacks took a number of isolated
men--engineers who were surveying, and wounded officers who marched
imprudently, preferring to run risks rather than march regularly in the
convoys.
"Throughout all those operations, the emperor has always marched in the
midst of his guard; the cavalry under the Duke of Istria, and the infantry
under the Duke of Dantzig. Our cavalry was deprived of horses to such an
extent that the officers who were still mounted had to be collected, to
form four companies of 150 men each. Their generals acted as captains; the
colonels as under-officers. This sacred squadron, commanded by General
Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples, did not lose sight of
the emperor in all his movements. The health of his Majesty has never been
better."
It was always a part of Napoleon's cunning to mix truth with falsehood,
and conceal his lies with an appearance of honor. The "twenty-ninth
bulletin of the great army" contained facts which were partly true. He
admitted the hardships, and palliated the faults; but he neither gave, nor
wished to give, a true idea of the disasters, or a candid statement of the
frightful miseries which had ravaged the French battalions, and reduced
our army as snow is melted under the sun of summer. There were still too
many who had seen those catastrophes, and undertaken to establish the
truth of the facts. In Napoleon's mind the evils he had seen, and that he
himself had caused, were to leave less permanent impressions. He regretted
the destruction of his armies, without wishing to state all their losses.
"We left 300,000 men in Russia," said Marshal St. Cyr, in Germany. "No,
no!" replied Napoleon; "not so many as that." Then, after a moment's
reflection, "Ah! 30,000 at the Moskwa; 7000 here, 10,000 there; and all
those who strayed on the marches and have not returned. Possibly you are
not far wrong. But then there were so many Germans!" The Germans did not
forget it!
The solitary consolation left to the army was that which the emperor had
himself presented to Europe--the presence of Napoleon; his physical and
mental energy and vigor. His flight from Smorgoni deprived the soldiers of
this last resource of their confidence; from that day, as soon as the
report spread, despair seized upon the strongest hearts. Nothing is more
enduring than the instinctive courage which resists pain and death,
because it becomes a man to strive to the last. All the ties of
discipline, military fraternity, and ordinary humanity were broken
together. I borrow from the recollections of the Duke Fezensac, then
colonel of the 4th of the line, the following picture of the horrors which
he saw, and of which he has given the story with a touching and manly
simplicity:--"It is useless at the present day to tell the details of
every day's march; it would merely be a repetition of the same
misfortunes. The cold, which seemed to have become milder only to make the
passage of the Dnieper and the Berezina more difficult, again set in more
keenly than ever. The thermometer sank, first, to from 15 to 18 degrees,
then from 20 to 25 degrees (Réaumur), and the severity of the season
completed the exhaustion of men who were already half dead with hunger and
fatigue. I shall not undertake to depict the spectacle which we looked
upon. You must imagine plains as far as the horizon covered with snow,
long forests of pines, villages half-burnt and deserted; and through those
pitiful districts an endless column of wretches, nearly all without arms,
marching in disorder, and falling at every step on the ice, near the
carcasses of horses and the bodies of their companions. Their faces bore
the impress of utter exhaustion or despair, their eyes were lifeless,
their features convulsed, and quite black with dirt and smoke. Sheepskins
and pieces of cloth served them for shoes; their heads were wrapped with
rags; their shoulders covered with horse-cloths, women's petticoats, and
half-burnt skins. Also, when one fell from fatigue, his comrades stripped
him before he was dead, in order to clothe themselves with his rags. Each
bivouac seemed next day like a battle-field, and men found dead at their
side those beside whom they had gone to sleep the night before. An officer
of the Russian advance-guard, who was a witness of those scenes of horror
--which the rapidity of our flight prevented us from carefully observing--
has given a description of them to which nothing need be added: 'The road
which we followed,' says he, 'was covered with prisoners who required no
watching, and who underwent hardships till then unheard of. Several still
dragged themselves mechanically along the road, with their feet naked and
half frozen; some had lost the power of speech, others had fallen into a
kind of savage stupidity, and wished, in spite of us, to roast dead bodies
in order to eat them. Those who were too weak to go to fetch wood stopped
near the first fire which they found, and sitting upon one another they
crowded closely round the fire, the feeble heat of which still sustained
them, the little life left in them going out at the same time as it did.
The houses and farms which the wretches had set on fire were surrounded
with dead bodies, for those who went near had not the power to escape the
flames which reached them; and soon others were seen, with a convulsive
laugh rushing voluntarily into the midst of the burning, so that they were
consumed also.'"
I hasten to avoid the spectacle of so many sufferings. Yet it is right and
proper that children should know what was endured by their fathers. In
proportion as the last survivors of the generations who saw and suffered
so many evils disappear; we who have in our turn undergone other disasters
owe it to them to recount both their glory and their misery. The time will
soon come when our descendants in their turn will include in the annals of
history the great epochs through which we have lived, struggled, and
suffered.
Napoleon crossed Germany like an unknown fugitive, and his generals also
made haste to escape. They had at last reached Wilna, alarming Lithuania
by their rout, and themselves terror-struck during the halt on
ascertaining the actual numbers of their losses, and the state of the
disorderly battalions which were being again formed in the streets of the
hospitable town. For a long time the crowd of disbanded soldiers,
deserters, and those who had fallen behind, were collected together at the
gates of Wilna in so dense a throng that they could not enter. Scarcely
had the hungry wretches begun to take some food and taste a moment's rest,
when the Russian cannon was heard, and Platow's Cossacks appeared at the
gates. The King of Naples, heroic on the battle-field, but incapable of
efficient command in a rout, took refuge in a suburb, in order to set out
from it at break of day. Marshal Ney, the old Marshal Lefebvre, and
General Loyson, with the remains of the division which he recently brought
back from Poland, kept back the Cossacks for some time, and left the army
time to resume its deplorable flight. A large number of exhausted men fell
into the hands of the enemy; the fragments of our ruined regiments
disappeared piecemeal. At Ponare, where the road between Wilna and Kowno
rises, the baggage which they had with great difficulty dragged so far,
the flags taken from the enemy, the army-chest, the trophies carried off
from Moscow, all remained scattered at the foot of the icy hill, neither
horses nor men being able to take them further. The pillagers quarrelled
over the gold and silver in the broken coffers, on the snow, in the
ditches. Then the Cossacks coming upon them, some of the French fired in
defence of treasures which they were no longer able to carry.
When the ruins of the main army at last reached Kowno, where they found
supplies of food and ammunition, they were no longer able to make use of
it, or to resist the pursuit of the Russians, still keenly determined to
drive us from their territory. The generals held a council. In their
weariness and despair some gave vent to complaints against Napoleon, and
Murat's words were susceptible of a more sinister meaning. Marshal Davout,
honorable and unconquerable though still strongly prejudiced against the
King of Naples, boldly expressed his indignation against the falling off
of the lieutenants whom the emperor had made kings. All with one accord
handed over to Ney the command of the rear-guard, and that defence of
Kowno which was for a few minutes longer to protect the retreat. General
Gerard alone remained faithful to this last despairing effort. When at
last he crossed the Niemen with General Ney, on the 114th December, 1812,
they were abandoned by all: their soldiers had fled, either scattering
before the enemy or stealing away during the night from a useless
resistance. When, in Koenigsberg, he overtook the remnant of the staff,
Marshal Ney, with haggard looks and clad in rags, entered alone into their
room. "Here comes the rear-guard of the great army!" said he bitterly.
The Prussian General York had abandoned Marshal Macdonald, making a
capitulation with his forces in presence of the Russians, whose friendly
intentions he had been long conscious of. Being disarmed by this
neutrality of York's, Macdonald in his turn fell back upon Koenigsberg,
pursued by the Russians. The hospitals were ravaged by disease: men who
had resisted all fatigues and hardships, such as Generals Lariboisière and
Eblé, at last succumbing. Murat withdrew to Elbing, to start soon after
for Naples, leaving Prince Eugène in command of the remains of the army.
From Paris, where he was already preparing for other battles, the Emperor
Napoleon sought for his army in vain. The old guard itself only amounted
at Koenigsberg to 1500 men, of whom not more than 500 could carry a
musket. When the scattered fragments of the regiments left this last place
of refuge, 10,000 sick men were still left in the hospitals.