Book: History of the Expedition to Russia

C >> Count Philip de Segur >> History of the Expedition to Russia




Under the vast pent-houses which are erected by the sides of the high
road in some parts of the way, scenes of still greater horror were
witnessed. Officers and soldiers all rushed precipitately into them, and
crowded together in heaps. There, like so many cattle, they squeezed
against each other round the fires, and as the living could not remove
the dead from the circle, they laid themselves down upon them, there to
expire in their turn, and serve as a bed of death to some fresh victims.
In a short time additional crowds of stragglers presented themselves,
and being unable to penetrate into these asylums of suffering, they
completely besieged them.

It frequently happened that they demolished their walls, which were
formed of dry wood, in order to feed their fires; at other times,
repulsed and disheartened, they were contented to use them as shelters
to their bivouacs, the flames of which very soon communicated to these
habitations, and the soldiers whom they contained, already half dead
with the cold, were completely killed by the fire. Such of us as these
places of shelter preserved, found next day our comrades lying frozen
and in heaps around their extinguished fires. To escape from these
catacombs, a horrible effort was required to enable them to climb over
the heaps of these poor wretches, many of whom were still breathing.

At Youpranoui, the same village where the Emperor only missed by an hour
being taken by the Russian partizan Seslawin, the soldiers burnt the
houses completely as they stood, merely to warm themselves for a few
minutes. The light of these fires attracted some of these miserable
wretches, whom the excessive severity of the cold and their sufferings
had rendered delirious; they ran to them like madmen, and gnashing their
teeth and laughing like demons, they threw themselves into these
furnaces, where they perished in the most horrible convulsions. Their
famished companions regarded them undismayed; there were even some who
drew out these bodies, disfigured and broiled by the flames, and it is
but too true, that they ventured to pollute their mouths with this
loathsome food!

This was the same army which had been formed from the most civilized
nation in Europe; that army, formerly so brilliant, which was victorious
over men to its last moment, and whose name still reigned in so many
conquered capitals. Its strongest and bravest warriors, who had recently
been proudly traversing so many scenes of their victories, had lost
their noble countenance; covered with rags, their feet naked and torn,
supporting themselves on branches of fir tree, they dragged themselves
along; all the strength and perseverance which they had hitherto put
forth in order to conquer, they now made use of to flee.

Then it was, that, like superstitious nations, we also had our
prognostications, and heard talk of prophecies. Some pretended that a
comet had enlightened our passage across the Berezina with its
ill-omened fire; it is true that they added, "that doubtless these stars
did not foretel the great events of this world, but that they might
certainly contribute to modify them; at least, if we admitted their
material influence upon our globe, and all the consequences which that
influence may exercise upon the human mind, so far as it is dependant on
the matter which it animates."

There were others who quoted ancient predictions, which, they said, "had
announced for that period, an invasion of the Tartars as far as the
banks of the Seine. And, behold! they were already at liberty to pass
over the overthrown French army, and in a fair way to accomplish that
prediction."

Some again there were, who were reminding each other of the awful and
destructive storm which had signalized our entrance on the Russian
territory. "Then it was heaven itself that spoke! Behold the calamity
which it predicted! Nature had made an effort to prevent this
catastrophe! Why had we been obstinately deaf to her voice?" So much did
this simultaneous fall of four hundred thousand men (an event which was
not in fact more extraordinary than the host of epidemical disorders and
of revolutions which are constantly ravaging the globe) appear to them
an extraordinary and unique event, which must have occupied all the
powers of heaven and earth; so much is our understanding led to bring
home every thing to itself; as if Providence, in compassion to our
weakness, and from the fear of its annihilating itself at the prospect
of eternity, had so ordered it, that every man, a mere point in space,
should act and feel as if he himself was the centre of immensity.




CHAP. III.


The army was in this last state of physical and moral distress, when its
first fugitives reached Wilna. Wilna! their magazine, their depot, the
first rich and inhabited city which they had met with since their
entrance into Russia. Its name alone, and its proximity, still supported
the courage of a few.

On the 9th of December, the greatest part of these poor soldiers at last
arrived within sight of that capital. Instantly, some dragging
themselves along, others rushing forward, they all precipitated
themselves headlong into its suburbs, pushing obstinately before them,
and crowding together so fast, that they formed but one mass of men,
horses, and chariots, motionless, and deprived of the power of movement.

The clearing away of this crowd by a narrow passage became almost
impossible. Those who came behind, guided by a stupid instinct, added to
the incumbrance, without the least idea of entering the city by its
other entrances, of which there were several. But there was such
complete disorganization, that during the whole of that fatal day, not a
single staff-officer made his appearance to direct these men to them.

For the space of ten hours, with the cold at 27 and even at 28 degrees,
thousands of soldiers who fancied themselves in safety, died either from
cold or suffocation, just as had happened at the gates of Smolensk, and
at the bridges across the Berezina. Sixty thousand men had crossed that
river, and twenty thousand recruits had since joined them; of these
eighty thousand, half had already perished, the greater part within the
last four days, between Malodeczno and Wilna.

The capital of Lithuania was still ignorant of our disasters, when, all
at once, forty thousand famished soldiers filled it with groans and
lamentations. At this unexpected sight, its inhabitants became alarmed,
and shut their doors. Deplorable then was it to see these troops of
wretched wanderers in the streets, some furious and others desperate,
threatening or entreating, endeavouring to break open the doors of the
houses and the magazines, or dragging themselves to the hospitals.
Everywhere they were repulsed; at the magazines, from most unseasonable
formalities, as, from the dissolution of the corps and the mixture of
the soldiers, all regular distribution had become impossible.

There had been collected there sufficient flour and bread to last for
forty days, and butcher's meat for thirty-six days, for one hundred
thousand men. Not a single commander ventured to step forward and give
orders for distributing these provisions to all that came for them. The
administrators who had them in charge were afraid of being made
responsible for them; and the others dreaded the excesses to which the
famished soldiers would give themselves up, when every thing was at
their discretion. These administrators besides were ignorant of our
desperate situation, and when there was scarcely time for pillage, had
they been so inclined, our unfortunate comrades were left for several
hours to die of hunger at the very doors of these immense magazines of
provisions, all of which fell into the enemy's hands the following day.

At the barracks and the hospitals they were equally repulsed, but not by
the living, for there death held sway supreme. The few who still
breathed complained that for a long time they had been without beds,
even without straw, and almost deserted. The courts, the passages, and
even the apartments were filled with heaps of dead bodies; they were so
many charnel houses of infection.

At last, the exertions of several of the commanders, such as Eugene and
Davoust, the compassion of the Lithuanians, and the avarice of the Jews,
opened some places of refuge. Nothing could be more remarkable than the
astonishment which these unfortunate men displayed at finding themselves
once more in inhabited houses. How delicious did a loaf of leavened
bread appear to them, and how inexpressible the pleasure of eating it
seated! and afterwards, with what admiration were they struck at seeing
a scanty battalion still under arms, in regular order, and uniformly
dressed! They seemed to have returned from the very extremities of the
earth; so much had the violence and continuity of their sufferings torn
and cast them from all their habits, so deep had been the abyss from
which they had escaped!

But scarcely had they begun to taste these sweets, when the cannon of
the Russians commenced thundering over their heads and upon the city.
These threatening sounds, the shouts of the officers, the drums beating
to arms, and the wailings and clamour of an additional multitude of
unfortunates, which had just arrived, filled Wilna with fresh confusion.
It was the vanguard of Kutusoff and Tchaplitz, commanded by O'Rourke,
Landskoy, and Seslawin, which had attacked Loison's division, which was
protecting the city, as well as the retreat of a column of dismounted
cavalry, on its way to Olita, by way of Novoi-Troky.

At first an attempt was made to resist. De Wrede and his Bavarians had
also just rejoined the army by Naroc-Zwiransky and Niamentchin. They
were pursued by Wittgenstein, who from Kamen and Vileika hung upon our
right flank, at the same time that Kutusoff and Tchitchakof pursued us.
De Wrede had not two thousand men left under his command. As to Loison's
division and the garrison of Wilna, which had come to meet us as far as
Smorgoni, and render us assistance, the cold had reduced them from
fifteen thousand men to three thousand in the space of three days.

De Wrede defended Wilna on the side of Rukoni; he was obliged to fall
back after a gallant resistance. Loison and his division, on his side,
which was nearer to Wilna, kept the enemy in check. They had succeeded
in making a Neapolitan division take arms, and even to go out of the
city, but the muskets actually slipped from the hands of these "children
of the sun" transplanted to a region of ice. In less than an hour they
all returned disarmed, and the best part of them maimed.

At the same time, the _generale_ was ineffectually beat in the streets;
the old guard itself, now reduced to a few platoons, remained dispersed.
Every one thought much more of disputing his life with famine and the
cold than with the enemy. But when the cry of "Here are the Cossacks"
was heard, (which for a long time had been the only signal which the
greater number obeyed,) it echoed immediately throughout the whole city,
and the rout again began.

De Wrede presented himself unexpectedly before the king of Naples. He
said, "the enemy were close at his heels! the Bavarians had been driven
back into Wilna, which they could no longer defend." At the same time,
the noise of the tumult reached the king's ears. Murat was astonished;
fancying himself no longer master of the army, he lost all command of
himself. He instantly quitted his palace on foot, and was seen forcing
his way through the crowd. He seemed to be afraid of a skirmish, in the
midst of a crowd similar to that of the day before. He halted, however,
at the last house in the suburbs, from whence he despatched his orders,
and where he waited for daylight and the army, leaving Ney in charge of
the rest.

Wilna might have been defended for twenty-four hours longer, and many
men might have been saved. This fatal city retained nearly twenty
thousand, including three hundred officers and seven generals. Most of
them had been wounded by the winter more than by the enemy, who had the
merit of the triumph. Several others were still in good health, to all
appearance at least, but their moral strength was completely exhausted.
After courageously battling with so many difficulties, they lost heart
when they were near the port, at the prospect of four more days' march.
They had at last found themselves once more in a civilized city, and
sooner than make up their minds to return to the desert, they placed
themselves at the mercy of Fortune; she treated them cruelly.

It is true that the Lithuanians, although we had compromised them so
much, and were now abandoning them, received into their houses and
succoured several; but the Jews, whom we had protected, repelled the
others. They did even more; the sight of so many sufferers excited their
cupidity. Had their detestable avarice been contented with speculating
upon our miseries, and selling us some feeble succours for their weight
in gold, history would scorn to sully her pages with the disgusting
detail; but they enticed our unhappy wounded men into their houses,
stripped them, and afterwards, on seeing the Russians, threw the naked
bodies of these dying victims from the doors and windows of their houses
into the streets, and there unmercifully left them to perish of cold;
these vile barbarians even made a merit in the eyes of the Russians of
torturing them there; such horrible crimes as these must be denounced to
the present and to future ages. Now that our hands are become impotent,
it is probable that our indignation against these monsters may be their
sole punishment in this world; but a day will come, when the assassins
will again meet their victims, and there certainly, divine justice will
avenge us!

On the 10th of December, Ney, who had again voluntarily taken upon
himself the command of the rear-guard, left that city, which was
immediately after inundated by the Cossacks of Platof, who massacred all
the poor wretches whom the Jews threw in their way. In the midst of this
butchery, there suddenly appeared a piquet of thirty French, coming from
the bridge of the Vilia, where they had been left and forgotten. At
sight of this fresh prey, thousands of Russian horsemen came hurrying
up, besetting them with loud cries, and assailing them on all sides.

But the officer commanding this piquet had already drawn up his soldiers
in a circle. Without hesitation, he ordered them to fire, and then,
making them present bayonets, proceeded at the _pas de charge_. In an
instant all fled before him; he remained in possession of the city; but
without feeling more surprise about the cowardice of the Cossacks, than
he had done at their attack, he took advantage of the moment, turned
sharply round, and succeeded in rejoining the rear-guard without any
loss.

The latter was engaged with Kutusoff's vanguard, which it was
endeavouring to drive back; for another catastrophe, which it vainly
attempted to cover, detained it at a short distance from Wilna.

There, as well as at Moscow, Napoleon had given no regular order for
retreat; he was anxious that our defeat should have no forerunner, but
that it should proclaim itself, and take our allies and their ministers
by surprise, and that, taking advantage of their first astonishment, it
might be able to pass through those nations before they were prepared to
join the Russians and overpower us.

This was the reason why the Lithuanians, foreigners, and every one at
Wilna, even to the minister himself, had been deceived. They did not
believe our disaster until they saw it; and in that, the almost
superstitious belief of Europe in the infallibility of the genius of
Napoleon was of use to him against his allies. But the same confidence
had buried his own officers in a profound security; at Wilna, as well as
at Moscow, not one of them was prepared for a movement of any
description.

This city contained a large proportion of the baggage of the army, and
of its treasures, its provisions, a crowd of enormous waggons, loaded
with the Emperor's equipage, a large quantity of artillery, and a great
number of wounded men. Our retreat had come upon them like an unexpected
storm, almost like a thunderbolt. Some were terrified and thrown into
confusion, while consternation kept others motionless. Orders, men,
horses, and carriages, were running about in all directions, crossing
and overturning each other.

In the midst of this tumult, several of the commanders pushed forward
out of the city, towards Kowno, with every thing they could contrive to
carry with them; but at the distance of a league from the latter place
this heavy and frightened column had encountered the height and the
defile of Ponari.

During our conquering march, this woody hillock had only appeared to our
hussars a fortunate accident of the ground, from which they could
discover the whole plain of Wilna, and take a survey of their enemies.
Besides, its rough but short declination had scarcely been remarked.
During a regular retreat it would have presented an excellent position
for turning round and stopping the enemy: but in a disorderly flight,
where every thing that might be of service became injurious, where in
our precipitation and disorder, every thing was turned against
ourselves, this hill and its defile became an insurmountable obstacle, a
wall of ice, against which all our efforts were powerless. It detained
every thing, baggage, treasure, and wounded. The evil was sufficiently
great in this long series of disasters to form an epoch.

Here, in fact, it was, that money, honour, and every remains of
discipline and strength were completely lost. After fifteen hours of
fruitless efforts, when the drivers and the soldiers of the escort saw
the King of Naples and the whole column of fugitives passing them by the
sides of the hill, when turning their eyes at the noise of the cannon
and musquetry which was coming nearer them every instant they saw Ney
himself retreating with three thousand men (the remains of De Wrede's
corps and Loison's division); when at last turning their eyes back to
themselves, they saw the hill completely covered with cannon and
carriages, broken or overturned, men and horses fallen to the ground,
and expiring one upon the other,--then it was, that they gave up all
idea of saving any thing, and determined only to anticipate the enemy by
plundering themselves.

One of the covered waggons of treasure, which burst open of itself,
served as a signal; every one rushed to the others; they were
immediately broken, and the most valuable effects taken from them. The
soldiers of the rear-guard, who were passing at the time of this
disorder, threw away their arms to join in the plunder; they were so
eagerly engaged in it as neither to hear nor to pay attention to the
whistling of the balls and the howling of the Cossacks in pursuit of
them.

It is even said that the Cossacks got mixed among them without being
observed. For some minutes, French and Tartars, friends and foes, were
confounded in the same greediness. French and Russians, forgetting they
were at war, were seen pillaging together the same treasure-waggons. Ten
millions of gold and silver then disappeared.

But amidst all these horrors, there were noble acts of devotion. Some
there were, who abandoned every thing to save some unfortunate wounded
by carrying them on their shoulders; several others, being unable to
extricate their half-frozen comrades from this medley, lost their lives
in defending them from the attacks of their countrymen, and the blows of
their enemies.

On the most exposed part of the hill, an officer of the Emperor, Colonel
the Count de Turenne, repulsed the Cossacks, and in defiance of their
cries of rage and their fire, he distributed before their eyes the
private treasure of Napoleon to the guards whom he found within his
reach. These brave men, fighting with one hand and collecting the spoils
of their leader with the other, succeeded in saving them. Long
afterwards, when they were out of all danger, each man faithfully
restored the depot which had been entrusted to him. Not a single piece
of money was lost.




CHAP. IV.


This catastrophe at Ponari was the more disgraceful, as it was easy to
foresee, and equally easy to prevent it; for the hill could have been
turned by its sides. The fragments which we abandoned, however, were at
least of some use in arresting the pursuit of the Cossacks. While these
were busy in collecting their prey, Ney, at the head of a few hundred
French and Bavarians, supported the retreat as far as Eve. As this was
his last effort, we must not omit the description of his method of
retreat which he had followed ever since he left Wiazma, on the 3d of
November, during thirty-seven days and thirty-seven nights.

Every day, at 5 o'clock in the evening, he took his position, stopped
the Russians, allowed his soldiers to eat and take some rest, and
resumed his march at 10 o'clock. During the whole of the night, he
pushed the mass of the stragglers before him, by dint of cries, of
entreaties, and of blows. At daybreak, which was about 7 o'clock, he
halted, again took position, and rested under arms and on guard until 10
o'clock; the enemy then made his appearance, and he was compelled to
fight until the evening, gaining as much or as little ground in the rear
as possible. That depended at first on the general order of march, and
at a later period upon circumstances.

For a long time this rear-guard did not consist of more than two
thousand, then of one thousand, afterwards about five hundred, and
finally of sixty men; and yet Berthier, either designedly or from mere
routine, made no change in his instructions. These were always addressed
to the commander of a corps of thirty-five thousand men; in them he
coolly detailed all the different positions, which were to be taken up
and guarded until the next day, by divisions and regiments which no
longer existed. And every night, when, in consequence of Ney's urgent
warnings, he was obliged to go and awake the King of Naples, and compel
him to resume his march, he testified the same astonishment.

In this manner did Ney support the retreat from Wiazma to Eve, and a few
wersts beyond it. There, according to his usual custom, he had stopped
the Russians, and was giving the first hours of the night to rest, when,
about ten o'clock, he and De Wrede perceived that they had been left
alone. Their soldiers had deserted them, as well as their arms, which
they saw shining and piled together close to their abandoned fires.

Fortunately the intensity of the cold, which had just completed the
discouragement of our people, had also benumbed their enemies. Ney
overtook his column with some difficulty; it was now only a band of
fugitives; a few Cossacks chased it before them; without attempting
either to take or to kill them; either from compassion, for one gets
tired of every thing in time, or that the enormity of our misery had
terrified even the Russians themselves, and they believed themselves
sufficiently revenged, and many of them behaved generously; or, finally,
that they were satiated and overloaded with booty. It might be also,
that in the darkness, they did not perceive that they had only to do
with unarmed men.

Winter, that terrible ally of the Muscovites, had sold them his
assistance dearly. Their disorder pursued our disorder. We often saw
prisoners who had escaped several times from their frozen hands and
looks. They had at first marched in the middle of their straggling
column without being noticed by it. There were some of them, who, taking
advantage of a favourable moment, ventured to attack the Russian
soldiers when isolated, and strip them of their provisions, their
uniforms, and even their arms, with which they covered themselves. Under
this disguise, they mingled with their conquerors; and such was the
disorganization, the stupid carelessness; and the numbness into which
their army had fallen, that these prisoners marched for a whole month in
the midst of them without being recognised. The hundred and twenty
thousand men of Kutusoff's army were then reduced to thirty-five
thousand. Of Wittgenstein's fifty thousand, scarcely fifteen thousand
remained. Wilson asserts, that of a reinforcement of ten thousand men,
sent from the interior of Russia with all the precautions which they
know how to take against the winter, not more than seventeen hundred
arrived at Wilna. But a head of a column was quite sufficient against
our disarmed soldiers. They attempted in vain to tally a few of them,
and he who had hitherto been almost the only one whose commands had been
obeyed in the rout, was now compelled to follow it.

He arrived along with it at Kowno, which was the last town of the
Russian empire. Finally, on the 13th of December, after marching
forty-six days under a terrible yoke, they once more came in sight of a
friendly country. Instantly, without halting or looking behind them, the
greater part plunged into, and dispersed themselves, in the forests of
Prussian Poland. Some there were, however, who, on their arrival on the
allied bank of the Niemen, turned round. There, when they, cast a last
look on that land of suffering from which they were escaping, when they
found themselves on the same spot, whence five months previously their
countless eagles had taken their victorious flight, it is said that
tears flowed from their eyes, and that they uttered exclamations of
grief.

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