Book: History of the Expedition to Russia

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Wittgenstein, elated by this easy success, pushed it beyond all bounds.
In the first transport of what he regarded as a victory, he ordered
Koulnief, and 12,000 men, to pass the Drissa, in order to pursue
d'Albert and Legrand. The latter had made a halt; Albert hastened to
inform the marshal. They covered their detachment by a rising ground,
watched all the movements of the Russian general, and observing him
rashly venturing himself into a defile between them and the river, they
rushed suddenly upon him, overthrew and killed him; taking from him also
eight pieces of cannon, and 2000 men.

Koulnief, it was said, died like a hero; a cannon ball broke both his
legs, and threw him prostrate on his own cannon; where, observing the
French approaching, he tore off his decorations, and, in a transport of
anger at his own temerity, condemned himself to die on the very spot
where his error was committed, commanding his soldiers to leave him to
his fate. The whole Russian army regretted him; it imputed this
misfortune to one of those individuals whom the caprice of Paul had made
into generals, at the period when that emperor was quite new to power,
and conceived the idea of entering his peaceable inheritance in the
character of a triumphant conqueror.

Rashness passed over with the victory from the Russian to the French
camp; this unexpected success elated Casa-Bianca and his Corsican
battalions; they forgot the error to which they were indebted for it,
they neglected the recommendation of their general, and without
reflecting that they were imitating the imprudence by which they had
just profited, they precipitated themselves upon the flying footsteps of
the Russians. They proceeded, headlong, in this manner for two leagues,
and were only reminded of their temerity by finding themselves alone in
presence of the Russian army. Verdier, forced to engage in order to
support them, was already compromising the rest of his division, when
the Duke of Reggio hurried up, relieved his troops from this peril, led
them back behind the Drissa, and on the following day resumed his first
position under the walls of Polotsk. There he found Saint-Cyr and the
Bavarians, who increased the force of his corps to 35,000 men. As to
Wittgenstein, he tranquilly took up his first position at Osweia. The
result of these four days was very unsatisfactory to the emperor.

Nearly about the same time intelligence was brought to Witepsk that the
advanced guard of the viceroy had gained some advantages near Suraij;
but that, in the centre, near the Dnieper, at Inkowo, Sebastiani had
been surprised by superior numbers, and defeated.

Napoleon was then writing to the Duke of Bassano to announce daily fresh
victories to the Turks. True or false was of no consequence, provided
the communications produced the effect of suspending their treaty with
Russia. He was still engaged in this task, when deputies from Red Russia
arrived at Witepsk, and informed Duroc, that they had heard the report
of the Russian cannon announcing the peace of Bucharest. That treaty,
signed by Kutusof, had just been ratified.

At this intelligence, which Duroc transmitted to Napoleon, the latter
was deeply mortified. He was now no longer astonished at Alexander's
silence. At first, it was the tardiness of Maret's negotiations to which
he imputed this result; then, to the blind stupidity of the Turks, to
whom their treaties of peace were always more fatal than their wars;
lastly, the perfidious policy of his allies, all of whom, taking
advantage of the distance, and in the obscurity of the seraglio, had,
doubtless, dared to unite against their common dictator.

This event rendered a prompt victory still more necessary to him. All
hope of peace was now at an end. He had just read the proclamations of
Alexander. Being addressed to a rude people, they were necessarily
unrefined: the following are some passages of them: "The enemy, with
unexampled perfidy, has announced the destruction of our country. Our
brave soldiers burn to throw themselves on his battalions, and to
destroy them; but it is not our intention to allow them to be sacrificed
on the altars of this Moloch. A general insurrection is necessary
against the universal tyrant. He comes, with treachery in his heart, and
loyalty on his lips, to chain us with his legions of slaves. Let us
drive away this race of locusts. Let us carry the cross in our hearts,
and the sword in our hands. Let us pluck his fangs from this lion's
mouth, and overthrow the tyrant, whose object is to overthrow the
earth."

The emperor was incensed. These reproaches, these successes, and these
reverses, all contributed to stimulate his mind. The forward movement of
Barclay, in three columns, towards Rudnia, which the check at Inkowo had
disclosed, and the vigorous defensive operations of Wittgenstein,
promised the approach of a battle. He had to choose between that, and a
long and sanguinary defensive war, to which he was unaccustomed, which
was difficult to maintain at such a distance from his reinforcements,
and encouraging to his enemies.

Napoleon accordingly decided; but his decision, without being rash, was
grand and bold, like the enterprise itself. Having determined to detach
himself from Oudinot, he first caused him to be reinforced by
Saint-Cyr's corps, and ordered him to connect himself with the Duke of
Tarentum; having resolved also to march against the enemy, he did it by
changing in front of him, and within his reach, but without his
knowledge, the line of his operations at Witepsk for that of Minsk. His
manoeuvre was so well combined; he had accustomed his lieutenants to
so much punctuality, secrecy, and precision, that in four days, while
the surprised hostile army could find no traces of the French army
before it, the latter would by this plan find itself in a mass of
185,000 men on the left flank and rear of that enemy, which but just
before had presumed to think of surprising him.

Meantime, the extent and the multiplicity of the operations, which on
all sides claimed Napoleon's presence, still detained him at Witepsk. It
was only by his letters, that he could make his presence universally
felt. His head alone laboured for the whole, and he indulged himself in
the thought that his urgent and repeated orders would suffice to make
nature herself obedient to him.

The army only subsisted by its exertions, and from day to day; it had
not provisions for twenty-four hours: Napoleon ordered that it should
provide itself for fifteen days. He was incessantly dictating letters.
On the 10th of August he addressed eight to the prince of Eckmuehl, and
almost as many to each of his other lieutenants. In the first, he
concentrates every thing round himself, in conformity with his leading
principle, "that war is nothing else than the art of assembling on a
given point, a larger number of men than your enemy." It was in this
spirit that he wrote to Davoust: "Send for Latour-Maubourg. If the enemy
remain at Smolensk, as I have reason to suppose, it will be a decisive
affair, and we cannot have too much numerical strength. Orcha will
become the pivot of the army. Every thing leads me to believe that there
will be a great battle at Smolensk; hospitals will, therefore, be
requisite; they will be necessary at Orcha, Dombrowna, Mohilef,
Kochanowo, Bobr, Borizof, and Minsk."

It was then particularly that he manifested extreme anxiety about the
provisioning of Orcha. It was on the 10th of August, at the very moment
when he was dictating this letter, that he gave his order of march. In
four days, all his army would be assembled on the left bank of the
Boristhenes, and in the direction of Liady. He departed from Witepsk on
the 13th, after having remained there a fortnight.




BOOK VI.




CHAPTER I.


It was the check at Inkowo which decided Napoleon; ten thousand Russian
horse, in an affair with the advanced guard, had overthrown Sebastiani
and his cavalry. The intrepidity and reputation of the defeated general,
his report, the boldness of the attack, the hope, nay the urgent
necessity, of a decisive engagement, all led the emperor to believe,
that their numbers alone had carried the day, that the Russian army was
between the Duena and the Dnieper, and that it was marching against the
centre of his cantonments: this was actually the fact.

The grand army being dispersed, it was necessary to collect it together.
Napoleon had resolved to defile with his guard, the army of Italy, and
three of Davoust's divisions, before the front of attack of the
Russians; to abandon his Witepsk line of operation, and take that of
Orcha, and, lastly, to throw himself with 185,000 men on the left of the
Dnieper and of the enemy's army. Covered by the river, his plan was to
get beyond it, for the purpose of reaching Smolensk before it; if
successful, he should have separated the Russian army not only from
Moscow, but from the whole centre and south of the empire; it would be
confined to the north; and he would have accomplished at Smolensk
against Bagration and Barclay united, what he had in vain attempted at
Witepsk against the army of Barclay alone.

Thus the line of operation of so large an army was about to be suddenly
changed; 200,000 men, spread over a tract of more than fifty leagues,
were to be all at once brought together, without the knowledge of the
enemy, within reach of him, and on his left flank. This was,
undoubtedly, one of those grand determinations which, executed with the
unity and rapidity of their conception, change instantaneously the face
of war, decide the fate of empires, and display the genius of
conquerors.

As we marched from Orcha to Liady, the French army formed a long column
on the left bank of the Dnieper. In this mass, the first corps, that of
Davoust, was distinguished by the order and harmony which prevailed in
its divisions. The fine appearance of the troops, the care with which
they were supplied, and the attention that was paid to make them careful
of their provisions, which the improvident soldier is apt to waste;
lastly, the strength of these divisions, the happy result of this severe
discipline, all caused them to be acknowledged as the model of the whole
army.

Gudin's division was the only one wanting; owing to an ill-written
order, it had been wandering for twenty-four hours in marshy woods; it
arrived, however, but diminished by three hundred combatants; for such
errors are not to be repaired but by forced marches, under which the
weakest are sure to sink.

The emperor traversed in a day the hilly and woody tract which separates
the Duena from the Boristhenes; it was in front of Rassasna that he
crossed the latter river. Its distance from our home, the very antiquity
of its name, every thing connected with it, excited our curiosity. For
the first time, the waters of this Muscovite river were about to bear a
French army, and to reflect our victorious arms. The Romans had known it
only by their defeats: it was down this same stream that the savages of
the North, the children of Odin and Rurik, descended to plunder
Constantinople. Long before we could perceive it, our eyes sought it
with ambitious impatience; we came to a narrow river, straitened between
woody and uncultivated banks; it was the Boristhenes which presented
itself to our view in this humble form. At this sight all our proud
thoughts were lowered, and they were soon totally banished by the
necessity of providing for our most urgent wants.

The emperor slept in his tent in advance of Rassasna; next day the army
marched together, ready to draw up in order of battle, with the emperor
on horseback in the midst of it. The advanced guard drove before it two
pulks of cossacks, who resisted only till they had gained time to
destroy some bridges and some trusses of forage. The villages deserted
by the enemy were plundered as soon as we entered them: we passed them
in all possible haste and in disorder.

The streams were crossed by fords which were soon spoiled; the regiments
which came afterwards passed over in other places, wherever they could.
No one gave himself much concern about such details, which were
neglected by the general staff: no person was left to point out the
danger, where there was any, or the road, if there were several. Each
_corps d'armee_ seemed to be there for itself alone, each division, each
individual to be unconnected with the rest; as if the fate of one had
not depended on that of the other.

The army every where left stragglers behind it, and men who had lost
their way, whom the officers passed without noticing; there would have
been too many to find fault with; and besides, each was too much
occupied with himself to attend to others. Many of these men were
marauders, who feigned illness or a wound, to separate from the rest,
which there was not time to prevent, and which will always be the case
in large armies, that are urged forward with such precipitation, as
individual order cannot exist in the midst of general disorder.

As far as Liady the villages appeared to us to be more Jewish than
Polish; the Lithuanians sometimes fled at our approach; the Jews always
remained; nothing could have induced them to forsake their wretched
habitations; they might be known by their thick pronunciation, their
voluble and hasty way of speaking, the vivacity of their motions, and
their complexion, animated by the base passion of lucre. We noticed in
particular their eager and piercing looks, their faces and features
lengthened out into acute points, which a malicious and perfidious smile
cannot widen; their tall, slim, and supple form; the earnestness of
their demeanour, and lastly, their beards, usually red, and their long
black robes, tightened round their loins by a leather girdle; for every
thing but their filthiness distinguishes them from the Lithuanian
peasants; every thing about them bespeaks a degraded people.

They seem to have conquered Poland, where they swarm, and the whole
substance of which they extract. Formerly their religion, at present the
sense of a reprobation too long universal, have made them the enemies of
mankind; of old they attacked with arms, at present by cunning. This
race is abhorred by the Russians, perhaps on account of its enmity to
image-worship, while the Muscovites carry their adoration of images to
idolatry. Finally, whether from superstition or rivalry of interests,
they have forbidden them their country: the Jews were obliged to put up
with their contempt, which their impotence repaid with hatred; but they
detested our pillage still more. Enemies of all, spies to both armies,
they sold one to the other from resentment or fear, according to
occasion, and because there is nothing that they would not sell.

At Liady the Jews ended, and Russia proper commenced; our eyes were
therefore relieved from their disgusting presence, but other wants made
us regret them; we missed their active and officious services, which
money could command, and their German jargon, the only language which we
understood in these deserts, and which they all speak, because they
require it in their traffic.




CHAP. II.


On the 15th of August, at three o'clock, we came in sight of Krasnoe, a
town constructed of wood, which a Russian regiment made a show of
defending; but it detained Marshal Ney no longer than the time necessary
to come up with and overthrow it. The town being taken, there were seen
beyond it 6000 Russian infantry in two columns, while several squadrons
covered the retreat. This was the corps of Newerowskoi.

The ground was unequal, but bare, and suitable for cavalry. Murat took
possession of it; but the bridges of Krasnoe were broken down, and the
French cavalry was obliged to move off to the left, and to defile to a
great distance in bad fords, in order to come up with the enemy. When
our troops were in presence of the latter, the difficulty of the passage
which they had just left behind them, and the bold countenance of the
Russians, made them hesitate; they lost time in waiting for one another
and deploying, but still the first effort dispersed the enemy's cavalry.

Newerowskoi finding himself uncovered, drew together his columns, and
formed them into a full square so thick, that Murat's cavalry penetrated
several times into it, without being able to break through or to
disperse it.

It is even true that our first charges stopped short at the distance of
20 paces from the front of the Russians: whenever the latter found
themselves too hard pressed, they faced about, steadily waited for us,
and drove us back with their small arms; after which, profiting by our
disorder, they immediately continued their retreat.

The cossacks were seen striking with the shafts of their pikes such of
their foot-soldiers as lengthened the line of march, or stepped out of
their ranks; for our squadrons harassed them incessantly, watched all
their movements, threw themselves into the smallest intervals, and
instantly carried off all that separated from the main body; they even
penetrated into it twice, but a little way, the horses remaining, as it
were, stuck fast in that thick and obstinate mass.

Newerowskoi had one very critical moment: his column was marching on the
left of the high-road through rye not yet cut, when all at once it was
stopped by a long fence, formed of a stout palisade; his soldiers,
pressed by our movements, had not time to make a gap in it, and Murat
sent the Wurtembergers against them to make them lay down their arms;
but while the head of the Russian column was surmounting the obstacle,
their rearmost ranks faced about and stood firm. They fired ill, it is
true, most of them into the air, like persons who are frightened; but so
near, that the smoke, the flash of the reports of so many shot,
frightened the Wurtemberg horses, and threw them into confusion.

The Russians embraced that moment to place between them and us that
barrier which was expected to prove fatal to them. Their column profited
by it to rally and gain ground. At length some French cannon came up,
and they alone were capable of making a breach in this living fortress.

Newerowskoi hastened to reach a defile, where Grouchy was ordered to
anticipate him; but Murat, deceived by a false report, had diverted the
greatest part of that general's cavalry in the direction of Elnia;
Grouchy had only 600 horse remaining. He made the 8th chasseurs dash
forward to the defile, but it found itself too weak to stand against so
strong a column. The vigorous and repeated charges made by that
regiment, by the 6th hussars, and the 6th lancers, on the left flank of
that dense mass, which was protected by the double row of birch-trees
that lined the road on each side, were wholly insufficient, and
Grouchy's applications for assistance were not attended to; either
because the general who followed him was kept back by the difficulties
of the ground, or that he was not sufficiently sensible of the
importance of the combat. It was nevertheless great, since there was
between Smolensk and Murat but this one Russian corps, and had that been
defeated, Smolensk might have been surprised without defenders, taken
without a battle, and the enemy's army cut off from his capital. But
this Russian division at length gained a woody ground where its flanks
were covered.

Newerowskoi retreated like a lion; still he left on the field of battle
1200 killed, 1000 prisoners, and eight pieces of cannon. The French
cavalry had the honour of that day. The attack was as furious as the
defence was obstinate; it had the more merit, having only the sword to
employ against both sword and fire: the enlightened courage of the
French soldier being besides of a more exalted nature than that of the
Russian troops, mere docile slaves, who expose a less happy life, and
bodies in which cold has extinguished sensibility.

As chance would have it, the day of this success was the emperor's
birth-day. The army had no idea of celebrating it. In the disposition of
the men and of the place, there was nothing that harmonized with such a
celebration; empty acclamations would have been lost amid those vast
deserts. In our situation, there was no other festival than the day of a
complete victory.

Murat and Ney, however, in reporting their success to the emperor, paid
homage to that anniversary. They caused a salute of 100 guns to be
fired. The emperor remarked, with displeasure, that in Russia it was
necessary to be more sparing of French powder; the answer was, that it
was Russian powder which had been taken the preceding day. The idea of
having his birth-day celebrated at the expense of the enemy drew a smile
from Napoleon. It was admitted that this very rare species of flattery
became such men.

Prince Eugene also considered it his duty to carry him his good wishes.
The emperor said to him, "Every thing is preparing for a battle; I shall
gain it, and we shall see Moscow." The prince kept silence, but as he
retired, he returned for answer to the questions of Marshal Mortier,
"Moscow will be our ruin!" Thus did disapprobation begin to be
expressed. Duroc, the most reserved of all, the friend and confidant of
the emperor, loudly declared, that he could not foresee the period of
our return. Still it was only among themselves that the great officers
indulged in such remarks, for they were aware that the decision being
once taken, all would have to concur in its execution; that the more
dangerous their situation became, the more need there was of courage;
and that a word, calculated to abate zeal, would be treasonable; hence
we saw those who by silence, nay even by words, opposed the emperor in
his tent, appear out of it full of confidence and hope. This attitude
was dictated by honour; the multitude has imputed it to flattery.

Newerowskoi, almost crushed, hastened to shut himself up in Smolensk. He
left behind him some cossacks to burn the forage; the houses were
spared.




CHAP. III.


While the grand army was thus ascending the Dnieper, along its left
bank, Barclay and Bagration, placed between that river and the lake of
Kasplia, towards Inkowo, believed themselves to be still in presence of
the French army. They hesitated; twice hurried on by the counsel of
quarter-master-general Toll, they resolved to force the line of our
cantonments, and twice dismayed at so bold a determination, they stopped
short in the midst of the movement they had commenced for that purpose.
At length, too timid to take any other counsel than their own, they
appeared to have left their decision to circumstances, and to await our
attack, in order to regulate their defence by it.

It might also be perceived, from the unsteadiness of their movements,
that there was not a good understanding between these two chiefs. In
fact, their situation, their disposition, their very origin, every thing
about them was at variance. On the one hand the cool valour, the
scientific, methodical, and tenacious genius of Barclay, whose mind,
German like his birth, was for calculating every thing, even the chances
of the hazard, bent on owing all to his tactics, and nothing to fortune;
on the other the martial, bold, and vehement instinct of Bagration, an
old Russian of the school of Suwarrow, dissatisfied at being under a
general who was his junior in the service--terrible in battle, but
acquainted with no other book than nature, no other instructor than
memory, no other counsels than his own inspirations.

This old Russian, on the frontiers of Russia proper, trembled with shame
at the idea of retreating without fighting. In the army all shared his
ardour; it was supported on the one hand by the patriotic pride of the
nobles, by the success at Inkowo, by the inactivity of Napoleon at
Witepsk, and by the severe remarks of those who were not responsible; on
the other hand, by a nation of peasants, merchants, and soldiers, who
saw us on the point of treading their sacred soil, with all the horror
that such profanation could excite. All, in short, demanded a battle.

Barclay alone was against fighting. His plan, erroneously attributed
to England, had been formed in his mind so far back as the year 1807;
but he had to combat his own army as well as ours; and though
commander-in-chief and minister, he was neither Russian enough, nor
victorious enough, to win the confidence of the Russians. He possessed
that of Alexander alone.

Bagration and his officers hesitated to obey him. The point was to
defend their native land, to devote themselves for the salvation of all:
it was the affair of each, and all imagined that they had a right to
examine. Thus their ill fortune distrusted the prudence of their
general; whilst, with the exception of a few chiefs, our good fortune
trusted implicitly to the boldness, hitherto always prosperous of ours;
for in success to command is easy; no one inquires whether it is
prudence or fortune that guides. Such is the situation of military
chiefs; when successful, they are blindly obeyed by all; when
unfortunate, they are criticized by all.

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