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[Illustration: CAMP SCENE ON THE EVENING BEFORE THE BATTLE OF
AUSTERLITZ. Page 171.]
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Napoleon had passed the whole day on horseback, and had himself placed
every division in position, inspecting every position. All his marshals
dined with him, and received his careful and precise orders for the
operations of the next day. He then once more glanced at the position of
the Russian and Austrian armies, and a smile illumined his features as
he said to his marshals,
“Before to-morrow night that army will be in my power. Since the Czar
refuses to negotiate for a peace, we must drub him into it.”
He then entered a rude hut, which his soldiers had constructed for him,
and stretched himself upon some straw to repose. A hard couch for an
emperor! Yet there Napoleon fell into so deep a sleep that his
aid-de-camp, Savary, was obliged to shake him, in order to wake him up,
to listen to a report which he had ordered to be brought to him. Rousing
himself, he left the hut, accompanied by his aid, and proceeded to visit
the bivouacs of the army. The night was cold and dark; and the Emperor
had reason to believe that he could go among the soldiers without being
noticed. But he had only proceeded a few steps before he was discovered,
and in a few moments, the whole line was illuminated with torches of
straw, while the air was filled with acclamations of “Vive l’Empereur!”
It was a glorious sight, and the glare of the torches must have
astonished the enemy. That tremendous shout must have told Kutusoff, the
Prussian general, that he would be compelled to fight an enemy, full of
spirit and confidence.
As Napoleon passed along, one of the old grenadiers, a veteran of Italy,
stepped forward, and accosted him with an air of republican familiarity
and kindly patronage.
“Sire,” said this old soldier, “you will have no need to expose yourself
to danger; I promise you, in the name of the grenadiers of the army,
that you will only have to fight with your eyes, and that we will bring
you all the flags and cannon of the Russian army, to celebrate the
anniversary of your coronation.”
The Emperor was delighted at the spirit displayed by the troops, and, in
accordance with their general request, he promised to keep beyond the
reach of the enemy’s guns.
Sir Walter Scott finely remarks upon this: “Napoleon,” says he,
“promises that he will keep his person out of the reach of the fire:
thus showing the full confidence that the assurance of his personal
safety would be considered as great an encouragement to the troops as
the usual protestations of sovereigns and leaders, that they will be in
the front, and share the dangers of the day. This is, perhaps, the
strongest proof possible of the complete and confidential understanding
which subsisted between Napoleon and his soldiers. Yet there have not
been wanting those who have thrown the imputation of cowardice on the
victor of a hundred battles, and whose reputation was so well
established amongst those troops, who must have been the best judges,
that his attention to the safety of his person was requested by them,
and granted by him, as a favor to his army.”
The Emperor was on the field by one o’clock in the morning, to get an
army under arms in silence. A thick fog, through which the light of the
torches could not penetrate to the distance of ten paces, enveloped all
the bivouacs; but he knew the ground as well as the environs of Paris.
His army, amounting in all to about seventy thousand men, was arranged
as follows. The two divisions of Marshal Soult, placed on a vast
plateau, formed the right; the division of united grenadiers, drawn up
in line behind, constituting the reserve of the right. The two divisions
of Marshal Bernadotte, in line with the united grenadiers, formed the
centre of the army. The left wing was composed of the two divisions of
Marshal Lannes; the infantry of the guard forming the reserve of the
left. In advance of the centre, and between the right and left wings,
was posted the whole of the cavalry, under the command of Murat. The
divisions of hussars and chasseurs were entrusted to Kellermann; the
dragoons, to Valther and Beaumont. The cuirassiers and eighty pieces of
light artillery formed the reserve of the cavalry. The right of the army
rested on some long and narrow defiles formed by ponds; the left, on the
strongly fortified position of the Centon. The two divisions of Marshal
Davoust were posted on the extreme right, beyond the ponds, to face the
left wing of the Russians, which had been extended, as we have said, to
a dangerous distance from their centre, and intended, as the Emperor
perceived, to commence the battle with an attempt to turn his right. The
Emperor himself, with Berthier, Junot, and the whole of his staff,
occupied a commanding position, as the reserve of the army, with ten
battalions of the imperial guard, and ten battalions of grenadiers,
commanded by Oudinot and Duroc. This reserve was ranged in two lines, in
columns, by battalions, having in their intervals forty pieces of cannon
served by the artillery of the guard. With this reserve, equal to
turning the fate of almost any battle, he held himself ready to act
wherever occasion should require.
As the day dawned, the mist which had overhung all the dreadful show,
began slowly to ascend, like a vast curtain, from the broad plain below.
The sun rose in unclouded and majestic brilliancy; and dissipating all
remains of the vapors, disclosed to view the great Russian army,
commanded by Field-Marshal Kutusoff, to the number of eighty thousand
men, ranged in six divisions, on the opposite heights of Pratzen. The
magnificence of the sunrise of this eventful morning, enhanced at the
time by the previous dense mist, and by the national memories ever
since, has caused the “sun of Austerlitz” to become proverbial with the
people of France. The two emperors of Russia and Austria were witnesses
of the fierce contest; being stationed on horseback on the heights of
Austerlitz. As the first rays of the sun were flung from the horizon,
the Emperor Napoleon appeared in front of his army, surrounded by his
marshals, and formed every division, both of infantry and cavalry, into
columns. A brisk fire had just commenced on the extreme right, where
Davoust was already at his post; and the Russians began to put
themselves in motion to descend from the heights upon the plain. The
marshals who surrounded the Emperor importuned him to begin. “How long
will it take you,” said he to Soult, “to crown those opposite heights
which the Russians are now abandoning?” “One hour,” answered the
marshal. “In that case, we will wait yet a quarter of an hour,” replied
the Emperor. The cannonade increased, denoting that the attack had
become serious. The extreme of the Russian left had commenced its
movement to turn the right flank of the French army, but had encountered
the formidable resistance of Davoust’s two divisions, with whom they
were just engaged. Napoleon now dismissed all the marshals to their
posts, and ordered them to begin.
The whole of the right and left wings at once moved forward, in columns,
to the foot of the Russian position. They marched as if to exercise,
halting at times to rectify their distances and directions; while the
words of command of the individual officers were distinctly heard. The
two divisions of Marshal Soult came first within reach of the enemy’s
fire. The division commanded by General Vandamme overthrew the opposing
column, and was master of its position and artillery in an instant; the
other, commanded by General St Hilaire, had to sustain a tremendous
fire, which lasted for two hours, and brought every one of its
battalions into action. The Emperor now dispatched the united
grenadiers, and one of Marshal Bernadotte’s division, to support those
of Soult, while Lannes had engaged the right of the Russians, and
effectually prevented them from moving to the assistance of their left,
which was wholly engaged by the tremendous attack we have described, and
entirely cut off from their centre. The extreme left of the Russians,
which had begun the battle, perceiving the fatal mistake which had been
made, attempted to re-ascend the Pratzer, but were so desperately
pressed by Davoust, that they were compelled to fight where they stood,
without daring either to advance or retire.
Marshal Soult now ordered his division, under Vandamme, supported by one
of Bernadotte’s divisions, to make a change of direction by the right
flank, for the purpose of turning all the Russian troops which still
resisted St. Hilaire’s division. The movement was completely successful;
and Soult’s two divisions crowned the heights to which the Emperor had
pointed before the battle began.
The right wing of the Russian army was meanwhile sustaining the
tremendous onset of Lannes with both his divisions. The fight raged in
that quarter throughout the whole of the operations we have detailed;
but at this point, Bernadotte’s division being no longer required to
support those of Soult, the Emperor ordered the centre of the army to
support the left. The Russian right was now entirely broken; the French
cavalry by desperate and repeated charges completed the rout, and
pursued the fugitives, who took the road to Austerlitz, till nightfall.
Bernadotte, after pursuing the Russian infantry a full league, returned
to his former position; nobody knew why. Had he, on the contrary,
continued marching another half hour, he would have entirely intercepted
the retreat, and taken or destroyed the whole of the Russian right. As
it was, their flight was disastrous in the extreme: they were forced
into a hollow, where numbers attempted to escape across a frozen lake;
but the ice proving too weak for them, gave way, and the horrible scene
which ensued—the crashing of the broken fragments, the thundering of the
artillery, and the groans and shrieks of wounded and drowning
men—baffles the imagination.
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[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ. Page 177.]
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Marshal Soult, now changing his position again by the right flank,
descended the heights, having traversed a complete semi-circle, and took
the Russian extreme left in the rear. The Emperor of Russia, who
perceived the imminent danger of his whole army, dispatched his fine
regiment of Russian guards, supported by a strong force of artillery, to
attack Soult. Their desperate charge broke one of the French regiments.
It was at this crisis that Napoleon brought his reserve into action.
Bessieres, at the head of the imperial guard, rushed with irresistible
fury into the fight. The Russians were entirely broken; their army,
surprised in a flank movement, had been cut into as many separate masses
as there were columns brought up to attack it. They fled in disorder,
and the victory of Austerlitz was decided.
It was with the utmost difficulty that the two emperors of Russia and
Austria effected their personal escape. The Emperor Alexander lost all
his artillery, baggage, and standards; twenty thousand prisoners, and
upwards of twenty thousand killed and wounded. In the precipitate
flight, the wounded were abandoned to their fate. Kutusoff, however,
with laudable humanity, left placards in the French language, on the
doors of the churches and the barns towards which they had crept,
inscribed with these words:—“I recommend these unfortunate men to the
generosity of the Emperor Napoleon, and the humanity of his brave
soldiers.”
In attempting to escape across some frozen ponds, the Russians broke
through, and a large number of them were drowned. An eye-witness,
General Langeron, says, “I have previously seen some lost battles, but I
had no conception of such a defeat.”
Napoleon, who had participated in the pursuit, returned about
night-fall. He was received with shouts by his triumphant troops, and
they could scarcely be prevented from taking him in their arms. He soon
commanded silence, and set about relieving the wounded, who actually
covered the field. He administered brandy with his own hand to some
suffering Russians, who could only repay him with a blessing, and gave
orders that all the wounded should be attended to as speedily as
possible. The troops had already given a name to the battle, that of the
“Three Emperors.” But Napoleon himself gave this great conflict the name
of the village near which it was fought. He issued the following
proclamation, immediately after victory had been achieved.
“Soldiers—I am satisfied with you: in the battle of Austerlitz you have
justified all that I expected from your intrepidity. You have decorated
your eagles with immortal glory. An army of one hundred thousand men,
commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in less than
four hours either cut in pieces or dispersed. Those who escaped your
weapons are drowned in the lakes.
“Forty colors, the standards of the imperial guard of Russia, one
hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, more than thirty thousand
prisoners, are the result of this ever-celebrated battle. That infantry,
so highly vaunted and superior in number, could not withstand your
shocks, and thenceforward you have no rivals to fear. Thus, in two
months, this third coalition has been vanquished and dissolved. Peace
cannot now be far distant, but, as I promised my people, before I passed
the Rhine, I will make only such a peace as gives us guarantees and
insures rewards to our allies.
“Soldiers, when all that is necessary to secure the welfare and the
prosperity of our country is accomplished, I will lead you back to
France: there you will be the object of my tenderest concern. My people
will see you again with joy, and it will be sufficient to say, I was at
the battle of Austerlitz, for them to reply, there is a brave man.
“NAPOLEON.”
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