THE DILIGENCE FROM DRESDEN TO TÖPLITZ. THE FIELD OF KULM. THE BATTLE,
AND THE MONUMENTS THAT RECORD IT.
There is a diligence, or eilwagen, which leaves Dresden for Prague
twice in every week. It passes along the Schandau road as far as Pirna;
whence, making a turn to the right, it traverses the lower slopes of
the Erzgebirge, and so conducts, by the mineral baths of
Berg-gieshubel, to Hollendorf, on the Saxon frontier. My young
companion and I, having made all necessary arrangements, took our
places in this vehicle on Wednesday, the 5th of July. We had previously
wandered over a good deal of the country through which it was to carry
us, our report of all that we had encountered and seen having excited a
natural desire in others to see it also. And in the interval between
the termination of one expedition and the commencement of another, the
carriage was accordingly put in requisition. Töplitz, and various other
points, replete with interest, were thus visited,--of which I have not
yet spoken, because it would have been labour lost to describe them
twice. Yet the fact of beholding it now for the second time, had no
influence in lessening the pleasure which we derived from the scenery
around us. Without partaking in any degree of the character of a
mountain district, this mid-space between Saxony and Bohemia is highly
picturesque; for it is one continued succession of valleys, with
well-wooded hills enclosing them; and the bold summits of Lilienstein
and Königstein are rarely out of sight.
A Saxon eilwagen is a machine nowise deserving of reprobation. It is a
long, omnibus-looking affair, with a _coupé_ in front for the conducteur,
and seated within so as to contain not fewer than sixteen persons; yet
are the chairs all so arranged that you have a comfortable rest for
your back, while by keeping the numerous windows open, you suffer less
from heat than might be expected. The rate of travelling, too, is much
improved from what it used to be. I really believe that on level ground
we compassed six miles an hour, and if we did creep as often as a
trifling acclivity came in view, it must not be forgotten, that there
were but four horses to drag the ponderous load. With respect, again,
to our fellow-passengers, they seemed to me to be made up of individuals
from many lands. There was an Austrian colonel, on his way to join his
regiment in Prague; there was a Prussian merchant,--a traveller, like
ourselves, for amusement's sake; there were a Saxon lawyer, a Moravian
banker, and last, though not least, as perfect a specimen of the tribe
John Bull, as the eye of the naturalist need desire to behold. Our
worthy countryman understood not one syllable of German, and his
French was lame to a degree. But he bore about him a portly person, a
good-humoured, rosy, and rather large countenance, and looked round
upon the company, amid which, after prodigious labour, he succeeded in
establishing himself, with an expression of indescribable condescension,
which said, "I know that you are all a set of very poor devils, yet I
will suffer you." He was, as those of his kidney generally are, for
ever on the alert lest the Germans should cheat him; and grumbled and
complained, and ate and drank, and proved to be, after all, a
kind-hearted and easy-tempered person.
Between Hollendorf, where the Saxon custom-house is planted, and
Peterswald, the frontier village of Bohemia, there is an interval of
perhaps an English mile in extent. Over that the Saxon diligence
carried us; and at the door of the Austrian custom-house, both we and
our baggage were deposited. Here passports were examined, trunks and
knapsacks opened, and the other formalities attendant on the admission
of strangers into a new country gone through, among which I observed
that the custom was not omitted, of feeing the revenue-officer into
good humour. Each passenger, as he presented his passport, to be viséed
and approved, slid into the official's hand a piece of money; and I, as
I consider it wise, in like cases, to do as is done by those about me,
followed the example. The officer took the coin, smiled graciously upon
me, affixed the stamp unhesitatingly to my credentials, and turned to
somebody else. I really could not quite explain to myself why this act
of extravagance had been committed, but I am not aware that I ever
missed the douceur; and I heartily wish the individual who received it,
much enjoyment in its possession.
We dined at Peterswald, on very good fare, which the landlady of the
Post had provided for us; and had no reason to complain, as stage-coach
travellers in England sometimes do, that we were hurried in its
consumption. One full hour was spent in discussing the meal, and
another in smoking after it. At length, however, intelligence was
communicated, that the conducteur awaited us, and we descended to the
road, where a change had come over "the spirit of our dream." The
substantial Saxon eilwagen stood still in its repose, for it was not
destined to proceed further; and in its room were provided three lesser
carriages, into one of which, seated for four persons, I and my boy
stowed ourselves. The opposite places were soon taken by our countryman
and the Prussian, and away we went.
Our journey, in the early part of this day, had lain over the field of
the great battle of Dresden; we were now about to traverse the scene of
another conflict scarcely less desperate,--the affair, as by the French
writers it is designated, of Kulm. It would have been strange indeed,
had I failed to look round with more than common interest while
traversing these scenes of mighty strife. I endeavoured also to look at
them with a soldier's eye. I did my best to trace the positions of the
several columns of attack and defence; and I think that I succeeded. At
all events, I am certain that never till I saw the ground, was I able,
from the accounts given, whether by French or German writers, to form
any correct idea either of the battles themselves, or of their results.
Let me endeavour to supply to others the deficiency of which I have
myself experienced the pressure, by describing the localities, in
connexion with a brief narrative of the events which have immortalized
them.
The battle of Dresden, as well as the combats of Gross-Beeren,
Katzbach, and Kulm were, as I need scarcely observe, the immediate
consequences of the termination of the armistice in August, 1813.
Napoleon, weary of the war, had yielded to the demands of the
Prussians, and, evacuating Breslau, and abandoning the line of the
Oder, had fallen back upon Liegnitz. He himself declared, that he made
these sacrifices,--for such they unquestionably were,--in the hope
that, out of the armistice, a treaty of peace would spring, and there
is no great cause to doubt that he spoke sincerely. What could he hope
to gain by a continuance of the struggle? France was exhausted in every
pore; the best and ablest of her warriors were slain, such as survived
longed for rest, and were ready to sacrifice even their national vanity
in order to obtain it. On the other hand, the strength of the Allies
seemed to accumulate from day to day; and Austria assumed such an
attitude as to render her neutrality less than doubtful. I think, then,
that we may give Napoleon credit for having spoken the truth once in
his life, when he said, that he yielded much, by the evacuation of
Silesia, from an earnest desire for peace; but his desire was not to be
gratified. The Allies judged, and judged wisely, that a season of
repose would, by him, be employed only to gather means for creating
fresh troubles, and they determined,--the counsels of England
prevailing with them,--to wage war _à l'outrance_.
On the 11th of August, the armistice came to an end. Its rightful term
was the 17th; but the current of events swept over it. Napoleon was
then in Dresden, which he held as the key and pivot of his position,
and to cover it, he had constructed a large and formidable entrenched
camp along the bases of Lilienstein and Königstein. Of the situation of
these two enormous rocks I have spoken elsewhere. They stand about
twelve English miles from Dresden, like giant sentinels, that guard the
debouches of Bohemia and Silesia, while between them flows the Elbe,
now passable only by a ferry, but by Napoleon's care, then bridged
over. Here a position was marked out for not less than sixty thousand
men, whence, as from a centre, it was competent for the French to pass
either into Bohemia, where the Grand Army of the Allies seemed
preparing to assemble, or to Silesia and Lusatia. But it was not on
this side of the Saxon capital exclusively, that Napoleon fixed a
vigilant eye. His real line was the line of the Elbe, from Hamburg to
Dresden; his communications with France were kept open by Erfurth, and
through the Thuringian forest; and he took care that all the approaches
to Dresden should be so guarded, as that, while the city itself
continued secure from insult, the force in possession might have free
avenues through which to operate on any threatened point in this
enormous circle. "Dresde," said he, "est le pivot, sur lequel je veux
manoeuvrer pour faire face à toutes les attaques. Depuis Berlin
jusqu'à Prague, l'ennemi se develope sur en circonference dont j'occupé
le centre; les moindre communications s'allangent pour lui sur les
contours qu'elles devrient suivre; et pour moi quelques marches
suffisent pour me porter partout ou ma presence et mes reserves son
necessaires. Mais il faut que sur les points ou je ne serai pas, mes
lieutenants sechent m'attendre sans rien commettre au hazard." It was
mainly because they neglected to keep this latter injunction in view,
that the reverses which deranged all his magnificent plans occurred.
Napoleon had formed, during the cessation of hostilities, a new
_corps-d'armée_, which he put under the command of General Vandamme,
and brought up from the mouth of the Elbe. It numbered, in all, about
five-and-twenty thousand men, and had instructions to support General
St. Cyr, who with fifteen thousand, was to occupy the fortified
positions near Dresden. Meanwhile, the Duke de Reggio, from his camp at
Dahme, was to march upon Berlin with five-and-thirty thousand men of
all arms; the Prince of Eckmuhl, from Bagedorf, was to co-operate with
him; while General Lemon, the governor of Magdeburg, was to keep open
the communication between them with a corps of six thousand men. These
movements were designed to accomplish a two-fold object. First, they
were to find for the Prussians work enough at home; and to put
Napoleon, if possible, in possession of the Prussian capital. Secondly,
advantage might be taken of the distraction thereby caused in the
counsels of the Allies, while Napoleon, in person, with the Guards,
and the mass of his army, threw himself upon the Austrians. For
Napoleon,--the armistice being virtually at an end,--became impatient
of inactivity, and hoped, while retaining Dresden, and looking to it
throughout as his pivot during the campaign, to find time, ere the
Allies should have perfected their arrangements, to strike a blow both
against Berlin and in Bohemia.
Napoleon had calculated less than he ought to have done on the activity
of Blucher and of the Russians. The former, instead of waiting to be
attacked, took the initiative in Silesia, and drove the French, with
great loss, behind the Bober.
Some time previously,--so early, indeed, as the 10th,--several large
masses of Russians and Prussians had entered Bohemia; and on the 13th,
the junction with the Austrians, which it was one of Napoleon's objects
to prevent, had been accomplished. Meanwhile, he himself, being
ignorant of this fact, set out on the 15th, for the bridge at
Königstein, whence he pursued his march by Bautzen and Richenbach to
Görlitz. He reached it on the 18th, and being met there by M. de
Vienne, his plenipotentiary from Prague, he had the fact communicated
to him of the formal adhesion of Austria to the Grand Alliance. Though
he heard, at the same time, of the reverses in Silesia, he instantly
chose his part. He faced round towards Bohemia, penetrated the defiles
of the mountains, spread himself over the valleys behind Gabel and
Rombourg, and learned at the former of these places, that he was too
late. The Grand Army of the Allies was already among the hills that
border upon Saxony; and to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand
men, threatened Dresden with an attack.
Napoleon seems always to have calculated much on the immoveability of
the enemies that opposed him. Though he knew that Schwartzenberg was
within two days' march of Dresden, he flattered himself that he might
still have time to strike at Blucher; and turning on his heel, he flew
back to Zittau, and from thence passed without a halt to Görlitz and
Luban. In a moment, the aspect of affairs was changed. Two days'
fighting served to convince the Prussians that a new spirit reigned
among the troops that opposed them; and on the 23rd, the French eagles
were again advanced as far as Katzbach. Here pressing instances from
Dresden reached him, of the imminent danger that threatened the city,
and of the total inadequacy of St. Cyr's corps to resist it; and seeing
that Blucher was in full retreat, he resolved to return on his steps.
Marshal Macdonald was left with seventy or eighty thousand men to keep
the Prussian general in check; while with the remainder Napoleon took
the road to Bautzen.
It was on the 24th, at an early hour, that he reached this latter town,
where letters from St. Cyr were again handed to him, each more urgent
for support than the other. The Allies, it seems, had carried the
passes of the Erzgebirge; their columns were descending into the plain
on all sides,--while the French, unable to maintain themselves in the
field, were sheltered behind the outer defences of the city. Even this
assurance could not, however, determine the emperor all at once to
abandon a project which he had in view. He wished to throw himself on
Schwartzenberg's rear; and provided he were assured that Dresden could
be held till the 28th, he counted on being able to effect the movement.
Accordingly, Vandamme with his corps was ordered to push from Stolpen
for the bridge at Lilienstein; to pass the Elbe there, to seize the
heights of Peterswald, and keep them till Napoleon should arrive,--an
event which, unless evil tidings came from Dresden, would surely befall
within eight-and-forty hours. But evil tidings did come. At Stolpen,
whither he had marched on the 25th, General Gourgaud overtook him to
entreat, if he desired Dresden to be saved, that he would return; and
General Haxo, the engineer, whom he sent back to examine the state of
the defences, was the bearer of a similar communication. Napoleon was
sorely vexed; but Dresden it was essential that he should retain.
General Haxo was sent instantly to Vandamme with his final
instructions. They amounted to this, that he should keep the passes
into Bohemia at all hazards, and win for himself a marshal's baton.
This done, Napoleon marched upon Dresden, and on the 26th, entered it
at the head of his cavalry. The infantry followed fast; and the capital
of Saxony, which had already sustained insult from the shot and shells
of the Allies, and was threatened with an immediate assault, became
safe. Napoleon made his dispositions with equal promptitude and
secresy. He stationed his several divisions in the streets, so as to
conceal their numbers, while at the same time, each fronted a gate, or
gave support to a point that was threatened; and then calmly awaited
the attack of the enemy, which was not slow in developing itself.
Schwartzenberg had conducted his advance with an excess of caution. His
prodigious army was collected on the 13th, yet it was the 23rd ere he
forced the passes of the hills, and now only on the 26th he made his
final dispositions for the attack of Dresden. Of the local situation of
that city I have said enough to give my readers some notion of the
arena on which this great battle was fought. Standing astride upon the
Elbe, the capital of Saxony occupies the centre of an enormous plain,
the hills that surround which approach, in no instance, within three
English miles of the glacis, and in addition to its ancient
fortifications, it was, at the period at which I now speak, girdled in
on all hands by redoubts and field-works. Of that outer line the
remains are yet to be seen by every traveller who follows the direct
road to Pirna. They run from the Grosse Garten, which they include, all
the way to the Elbe. On the other flanks of the city, from the Grosse
Garten to the Elbe again, they are almost entirely effaced. But on the
26th of August 1813, they were at least respectable; and in the partial
combats which had taken place over-night, though some had fallen, the
rest were stoutly maintained. It was to be determined, that day, how
far they were or were not impregnable.
The field of battle ranged from the Elbe, on the right of the Allied
columns, to Plouen on the left. The points of attack were the gates of
Pilnitz, Pirna, Dohna, Dippoldiswald, Blender, or Plouen, and Freiberg.
It was about four in the afternoon when the discharge of their cannon
from the heights of Recknitz, where the head-quarters of the Allies had
fixed themselves, gave notice that the various columns were in motion.
Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men, moving forward at the
recognised signal, presented to the eyes of the inhabitants a most
imposing spectacle, while at the same time, a continued line of
batteries, all the way from Recknitz to Plouen, opened their fire.
Shells and cannon-balls fell like hail in the suburbs, and the carnage
was as indiscriminating as it was terrible.
There had not yet been time for more than the half of Napoleon's army
to come up. He had scarce seventy thousand men disposable; but his
position was a very favourable one, and he ably took advantage of it.
The guns from the advanced redoubts replied to the enemies' cannonade
with little effect, and the Allies swept onwards without a check. They
had raised their cry, "To Paris! To Paris!" and were already within a
few yards of the Plouen gate, when the word was passed to the division
of the Young Guard, which lay behind it, and they sprang to their feet.
The sortie is described by those who witnessed it, to have been
terrifically fine. Out dashed these warriors, inured to victory, and
bearing down all opposition, rolled back the head of the advancing
columns, as a river is rolled back by the tide when it meets it. There
was a fearful slaughter on both sides. The cannon from the city walls
plunged into the rear of the wavering column. The infantry mowed down
its front; the detached redoubts which it had passed, as if despising
them, took its whole extent in reverse. There was neither time nor
space to deploy, and the attack was repulsed.
The same, or nearly the same results, had attended the attempts of the
Allies on the other gates. They were everywhere defeated, their defeat
being occasioned not less, perhaps, by surprise at finding Napoleon
himself in their front, than by the impetuosity of the French attacks.
They retreated in great confusion, the Russians to Blazewitz, the
Prussians over the plain, the Hungarian grenadiers under Colloredo to
Recknitz, and the Austrians to the defiles of Plouen. There they could
not be followed up, because night was already closing, and of the
French army a large portion were yet at a distance. One success more,
however, attended Napoleon's arms ere he slept; the Austrians, rallying
a corps in the dark, made a dash, with great gallantry, at the gate of
Plouen; but they were repulsed. And then, one party in the open fields,
the other among the lanes and streets of the city, the jaded and
harassed armies lay down to sleep.
It was a night of terrible storm. The rain came down in such torrents
as to reduce the whole plain to the consistency of a morass, and the
rivers rose to a degree such as had hardly occurred before within so
limited a space of time. Yet was Napoleon busy till long past midnight,
in giving directions for the morrow. He saw by their line of fires that
the Allies had resumed the wide semicircle which they occupied previous
to the attack, and he fixed his plans accordingly. The whole of the
cavalry, with the exception of that of the Guard, which had previously
acted on the level from the Pilnitz gate, was drawn through the city,
and placed in position under Murat, in the suburb of Frederick-stadt.
It was to push, at early dawn, along the Freiberg road, and cut off the
retreat of the Allies in that direction. Meanwhile Victor, with his
infantry corps, was to debouch from the Freiberg barriers, and attack
in front the Austrian line, which Murat was directed to turn. In the
centre, between the gates of Dippoldiswald and Dohna, Marmont was to
occupy the attention of the force which had fallen back upon the
heights of Recknitz. St. Cyr, in prolongation of the line, was to
operate from the Grosse Garten; while Ney and the Duke of Treviso, with
four divisions of the Young Guard, were from the Pirna road to engage
the enemy's right, and to give time to General Nansouty, with his
cavalry corps, to effect the same manoeuvre on this flank which Murat
had received instructions to accomplish on the other. Thus was it
calculated that the Allies driven in, column upon column, and shut out
from two of their four lines of retreat, would suffer terrible loss,
and an opportunity be afforded to Vandamme of completing their
destruction.
The morning of the 27th came in with a continuance of rain, almost as
heavy as that which had fallen during the night; yet the battle was not
deferred. Murat, on the one side, and Nansouty on the other, began
their respective marches at peep of dawn; and being well masked, and
supported by the attacks of the infantry, they made rapid progress.
This is the more to be wondered at, on the part of the former officer,
that a _corps d'armée_ under General Klenau, which had failed to reach
its ground in time, was now in full advance, and its leading divisions
showed themselves at Gorbitz as early as seven in the morning. Had the
Allies held their own ground, leaving it to him to close up or fall
back, as occasion might require, they would have probably fared better
than they did. As it was, they extended their front, from above Plouen,
across the valley of Tharandt, and, endeavouring to stretch out their
hand to Klenau, gave Murat the opportunity to pierce them.
The battle of Dresden was, along the centre of the line, little else
than a furious cannonade. The French had nothing to gain by rendering
it more close, and the Allies seemed indisposed to assume the
offensive. It was a ball from one of the batteries, which replied at a
disadvantage to those of the Allies above Recknitz, which mortally
wounded Moreau. His fate has been recorded by so many pens, that I need
not employ mine to swell the list, and himself either lauded or
censured, according as the prejudices of the writers leaned to the side
of Napoleon or the Allies. Let his merits have been what they might, in
a moral point of view, nobody can refuse to him the renown of an able
officer; and to the esteem in which the Emperor of Russia held him, the
stone which marks the spot where he fell, bears witness. It is a simple
block of freestone, and bears this inscription, "Moreau, the warrior,
fell here, beside his friend Alexander." But on both flanks more
important operations went forward. The French carried every thing
before them. From Cotta, which he had won, Murat turned upon the
advanced guard of Klenau's corps, and destroyed it. He then pressed
forward, bearing down all opposition, and making prisoners of whole
battalions, whose muskets had become so saturated, that they could not
be discharged. In like manner, St. Cyr pushed back the Prussians on
Gruna, while Marmont and Nansouty drove the Russians from position to
position, and cleared the plain. Both flanks, in short, were turned;
and the troops composing them driven in upon the centre, and cut off
from their proper lines of retreat. But the French were too much
enfeebled to pursue the advantages which they had gained with their
accustomed spirit. About three in the afternoon the cannonade grew
slack; the Allies showed only a strong rear-guard, and Napoleon
returned to the city, saying to those around him, "I am greatly
deceived if we shall not hear news of Vandamme. It is his movement
which has constrained the enemy to retreat thus abruptly."
The 28th was a day of continued and broken retreat on the part of the
Allies; of movements more tardy than, perhaps, they ought to have been,
on the part of the French. A great deal of baggage, almost all the
wounded, and many prisoners, were abandoned by the fugitives; yet, in
most cases, they won the defiles in tolerable order, and were safe.
Colloredo, covered by a strong rear-guard, threaded the pass of
Dippoldiswald, and had Töplitz, the point of reunion, in view. The rest
made their escape likewise, though with more of confusion; and, in one
striking instance, they would not have succeeded at all, had not
Vandamme been enticed into the grievous error of leaving the heights of
Peterswald unguarded. It was this blunder of his, which caused the
disaster at Kulm; and in order to make clear the brief account which I
am going to give of that battle, it will be necessary to revert to my
own movements, so that the ground may be described as by an
eye-witness.
The village of Peterswald lies at the northern base of a range of
heights, which, circling round, place Töplitz in the centre of a huge
amphitheatre. On this side the ascent is gradual, and the face of the
hill open and cultivated. In a military point of view, therefore, the
position is admirable; it forms a perfect glacis. As you wind your way
upwards, moreover, the view becomes, at every step, more and more
interesting, till having gained the ridge,--where a windmill is
built,--it is glorious in the extreme. You look down upon a valley, of
which it is scarcely too much to say, that the eye of man has never
beheld anything more perfect. Deep, deep, it lies, enclosed on every
side by mountains, which, sloping away one from another, resemble so
many prodigious cones, and open out to you the gorges of countless
glens; each, as it would appear, more exquisitely beautiful than
another. The vale of Töplitz itself may measure, perhaps, where it is
widest, some six or eight English miles across; where it is least wide,
the interval between the mountains is scarcely one mile. But it is in
all directions fertile and luxuriant in the extreme. Waving woods, rich
cornfields, vineyards, meadows, and groves, are there; with towns, and
villages, and castles, and hamlets, scattered through them, even as the
hand of the painter would desire to arrange them. Nor is the running
stream, that most indispensable of all features in a landscape of
perfect beauty, wanting. The Pala rolls his waters through the valley;
and if he be inconsiderable in point of size, yet is he limpid and
clear; with width enough to catch the sun's rays, from time to time, as
they fall, and throw them back almost brighter in the reflection than
in the reality. Altogether it is as striking a panorama as any which,
even in Bohemia, one will easily find.
Vandamme had received orders to pass the Elbe between Lilienstein and
Königstein; and pushing back whatever corps the Allies might have left
at Pirna, to establish himself on the summit of this ridge. He obeyed
these instructions so well, that, in spite of the gallant resistance of
Prince Eugene of Wurtemberg, he carried his point. The heights of
Peterswald were in his possession on the 28th; it would have been well
for his master had he attempted nothing further. Vandamme, however, was
ambitious of earning the marshal's baton by something more than mere
obedience to an order received. He saw that Töplitz was uncovered, and
knowing that the possession of that place would render him master of
all the passes that diverge from it, he resolved, on the 29th, to make
the essay. He descended from his mountain throne, and penetrated as
far as Kulm.
The hill, which, with a portion only of his force, Vandamme had
abandoned, is, on that side which looks down into the vale of Töplitz,
steep, well nigh to perpendicular. Huge forests clothe its rugged face;
out of which bold rocks protrude; indeed, such is the nature of the
country, that the road is carried backwards and forwards almost in a
zig-zag, in order to render it accessible. This mountain, in a military
point of view, all but impassable, Vandamme placed behind him; leaving,
however, a strong division to guard it, and nothing doubting of his own
success. But he had miscalculated the time which was at his disposal.
Six and twenty hours would have sufficed,--six were quite inadequate,
and he found them so. He pushed on, however, to Kulm. It is a neat
village, with a modern schloss beside it; and a church, which crowns a
low green hill, in its centre. There are some extensive plantations
near; the Pala flows among them; and between it and the mountains on
the right, there is a space of less than two miles. He gained it almost
without firing a shot, for the force in Töplitz was quite
inconsiderable, and his arrival occasioned such panic in that, the
head-quarters of the confederation, that kings, and emperors, and
princesses, dispersed in all directions. One half league, indeed, was
all that divided his patrols from their prize, when a serious
resistance began. General Ostermann, with six thousand of the Russian
Imperial Guard, received orders to stop the French at all hazards. He
threw himself across the road, drove back their advanced guard, and
held his ground so tenaciously, that nothing could move him. Ostermann
himself lost an arm; the élite of the Russian guard died where they
fought; but Töplitz was saved, and the certain ruin which its capture
would have brought upon the Allied cause was averted.
When a fierce battle once begins, there is no calculating in what
results it may terminate. Vandamme became irritated by the resistance
which was made to him; and, still hoping to bear it down, sent
continually for reinforcements. The heights of Peterswald were, in
consequence, gradually denuded of guards, and at last not so much as a
picquet remained to observe what might approach them. The fresh columns
were numerous and brave, but they arrived too late at the scene of
action. Already were the leading battalions of Barclay de Tolly's corps
in the field, and brigade after brigade followed them. Then, indeed,
Vandamme began to perceive that he would have acted more judiciously
had he adhered strictly to Napoleon's orders. But not being aware of
all the difficulties of his position, he did not like to abandon it;
and merely changed his ground so as to embrace Kulm in his line, and
there awaited on the morrow a renewal of the contest.
Vandamme committed a very grievous error in this. The night was at his
own disposal, and he ought to have availed himself of it to recover the
heights of Peterswald. His pride took the alarm; and, trusting that the
Allies, defeated before Dresden, would be utterly disorganised, and
that their pursuers would arrive close upon their heels, let them
appear in what quarter they might, he made up his mind to give battle
again on the 30th. The dawn of that day showed him that his enemies had
been more prudent than he. Not his front only, but both flanks were
threatened; that is to say, the Allies, gathering additional strength
from hour to hour, had completely overlapped his right; while his left,
closed in by the mountains, was at once supported, and rendered, for
any movement in retreat, completely useless. The Allies came on with
great courage, somewhere about eighty thousand men being in their line;
and till two o'clock the battle raged with indescribable fury. But the
odds were irresistable. Vandamme began, in the presence of the victor,
a retrogressive movement, which ought to have been accomplished under
shadow of the darkness. It was made to no purpose. To the horror and
amazement of the French, to the surprise and joy of the Allies,
Kleist's corps of Prussians showed themselves on the heights; and,
descending by the only road which Vandamme had counted upon as open,
placed him entirely in a _cul de sac_. The French were utterly
confounded. They lost all order, all confidence, both in themselves and
their leaders; and, rushing furiously up the ascent, endeavoured to
break through. Moreover, so completely unlooked-for, on the side of the
Prussians, was the situation in which they found themselves, that at
first they did not well know how to act. Five hundred French cavalry
broke in upon a division of the landwehr; sabred many of the infantry,
and, for a moment, gained possession of the guns. But it was only for a
moment. The Prussians recovered from their surprise; and never was
defeat more absolute than that which Vandamme's luckless corps
sustained. Many prisoners were taken, including the general-in-chief.
All the artillery, ammunition cars, and standards, fell into the hands
of the Allies, and the remnant of the men that did escape made their
way, one by one, and destitute even of their arms, through the forest,
where tract there was none.
Such is a true detail of the leading events in the battle of Kulm; a
victory of which the Austrians, with great justice, make much; which
they, the Russians, and Prussians, have equally commemorated by
monuments erected on the spot, but for which the imprudence of the
French commander is at least as much to be thanked as the sagacity of
Colloredo, or the daring of Kleist. It was, with one exception,--the
noble resistance of the Russian Guard under Ostermann,--a gross blunder
on both sides; it might in its results have been fatal to either,
though it ended in the discomfiture of the French. For the Allies, who
had been on the very eve of falling out among themselves, were, in
consequence of the success at Kulm, reunited; and the tide of victory,
which had flowed so fiercely against them a few days previously, turned
once more in their favour. Of its course, however, I have, in this
place, no business to speak. Let me, therefore, return to myself and my
own proceedings.
I had stood before this upon the ridge of the hill, and looked forth
over the battle field below. I had quitted my own carriage, and walked
down; as I quitted now the diligence for the same purpose, and held
converse with a stone-breaker by the wayside, whose cross, marked with
the titles of many battles, told that, among others, he had borne his
part in the fight of Kulm. He described to me the confusion, both of
the French and Prussian corps, as something of which I could form no
conception. Both sides lost even the semblance of order, and through
the deep forest, and over the slope of the defile, there was one
ceaseless combat of man to man. The quantity of dead, likewise, that
covered the hill-side, was prodigious; indeed, it took the country
people, who were pressed for the occasion, two whole days to bury them.
How changed was the scene now! The outward forms of nature, doubtless,
retained their identity; but wood, and ravine, and defile, and sweeping
level, all lay under me, as quiet and as peaceful as if the sounds of
war had never been heard among them. I was enchanted with my walk down
the steep.
The village of Kulm suffered, of course, terribly during the melée. The
church had been burned to the ground, as well as the schloss; and of
the cottages and vineyards almost all had been beaten to pieces. There
were now church, schloss, cottages, and vineyards all blooming and
fresh, as if no such calamity had ever overtaken them. The inhabitants,
too, unmindful as men ever are of evils that have befallen to others,
and even to themselves, long ago, delight in nothing so much as in
replying to the questions which curious travellers, like myself, may
chance to put to them. But the cicerone _ex officio_, to whom
references are invariably made, is a fine old Austrian invalid, to
whose care the charge of the monuments is intrusted. The old fellow is
not, I must confess, very intelligent; but he displays his orders with
manifest and most commendable pride, and assures you that General
Colloredo, who that day received his mortal wound, was the best soldier
in the emperor's service. Of the monuments themselves I need say no
more than that they occupy a space where the roads from Tetschen and
Dresden meet; in which, as it appears, the fighting was very desperate,
and where Colloredo fell. That erected by the Austrians is much more
massive than its rival; and professes to commemorate rather the merits
of the commander than the valour of the troops. The Prussian is a
small, but singularly neat obelisk, and bears this inscription, "A
grateful king and country honour the heroes who fell." There is a third
in progress, of which the Emperor of Russia is the founder; but it is
not yet completed. It ought to be the most magnificent of the whole;
for assuredly the success of the day was owing more to the stubborn
hardihood of the Russian Guards, than to any efforts either of
Austrians or Prussians.
From Kulm to Töplitz you pass through a lovely valley, with mountains,
as I have already described them, on either side of you. Along the
bases of those to the right, lie several picturesque villages, with a
modern schloss here and there, and here and there a ruin. Among others,
the remains of the castle of Dux, one of Wallenstein's numerous
mansions, is especially remarkable. By-and-by, as you approach the
town, you see on your left the dilapidated towers of Dobrawska Hora, an
extensive pile, built, as we were told, early in the thirteenth
century, and owned and inhabited, in 1616, by Count Kinsky,
Wallenstein's brother-in-law. And last of all, you enter the town
itself; of which I shall speak as I found it on a previous visit; when,
instead of hurrying on as we did now, after a single night's rest, we
spent some pleasant days at one of the best and cheapest of German
inns, the Hotel de Londres.