Book: History of the Expedition to Russia

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




On the 15th of November, Macdonald, seeing that the left of the Russian
line had extended itself too far from Riga, between him and the Duena,
made some feigned attacks on their whole front, and pushed a real one
against their centre, which he broke through rapidly as far as the
river, near Dahlenkirchen. The whole left of the Russians, Lewis, and
five thousand men, found themselves cut off from their retreat, and
thrown back on the Duena. Lewis vainly sought for an outlet; he found his
enemy every where, and lost at first two battalions and a squadron. He
would have infallibly been taken with his whole force, had he been
pressed closer, but he was allowed sufficient space and time to take
breath; as the cold increased, and the country offered no means of
escape, he ventured to trust himself to the weak ice which had begun to
cover the river. He made his troops lay a bed of straw and boards over
it, in that manner crossed the Duena at two points between Friedrichstadt
and Lindau, and re-entered Riga, at the very moment his comrades had
begun to despair of his preservation.

The day after this engagement, Macdonald was informed of the retreat of
Napoleon on Smolensk, but not of the disorganization of the army. A few
days after, some sinister reports brought him the news of the capture of
Minsk. He began to be alarmed, when, on the 4th of December, a letter
from Maret, magnifying the victory of the Berezina, announced to him the
capture of nine thousand Russians, nine standards, and twelve cannon.
The admiral, according to this letter, was reduced to thirteen thousand
men.

On the third of December the Russians were again repulsed in one of
their sallies from Riga, by the Prussians. Yorck, either from prudence
or conscience, restrained himself. Macdonald had become reconciled to
him. On the 19th of December, fourteen days after the departure of
Napoleon, eight days after the capture of Wilna by Kutusoff, in short
when Macdonald commenced his retreat, the Prussian army was still
faithful.




CHAP. VIII.


It was from Wilna, on the 9th of December, that orders were transmitted
to Macdonald, of which a Prussian officer was the bearer, directing him
to retreat slowly upon Tilsit. No care was taken to send these
instructions by different channels. They did not even think of employing
Lithuanians to carry a message of that importance. In this manner the
last army, the only one which remained unbroken, was exposed to the risk
of destruction. An order, which was written at the distance of only four
days' journey from Macdonald, lingered so long on the road, that it was
nine days in reaching him.

The marshal directed his retreat on Tilsit, by passing between Telzs and
Szawlia. Yorck, with the greatest part of the Prussians, forming his
rear-guard, marched at a day's distance from him, in contact with the
Russians, and left entirely to themselves. By some this was regarded as
a great error on the part of Macdonald; but the majority did not venture
to decide, alleging that in a situation so delicate, confidence and
suspicion were alike dangerous.

The latter also said that the French marshal did every thing which
prudence required of him, by retaining with him one of Yorck's
divisions; the other, which was commanded by Massenbach, was under the
direction of the French general Bachelu, and formed the vanguard. The
Prussian army was thus separated into two corps, Macdonald in the
middle, and the one seemed to be a guarantee to him for the other.

At first every thing went on well, although the danger was every where,
in the front, in the rear, and on the flanks; for the grand army of
Kutusoff had already pushed forward three vanguards, on the retreat of
the Duke of Tarentum. Macdonald encountered the first at Kelm, the
second at Piklupenen, and the third at Tilsit. The zeal of the black
hussars and the Prussian dragoons appeared to increase. The Russian
hussars of Ysum were sabred and overthrown at Kelm. On the 27th of
December, at the close of a ten hours' march, these Prussians came in
sight of Piklupenen, and the Russian brigade of Laskow; without stopping
to take breath, they charged, threw it into disorder, and cut off two of
its battalions; next day they retook Tilsit from the Russian commander
Tettenborn.

A letter from Berthier, dated at Antonowo, on the 14th of December, had
reached Macdonald several days before, in which he was informed that the
army no longer existed, and that it was necessary that he should arrive
speedily on the Pregel, in order to cover Koenigsberg, and to be able to
retreat upon Elbing and Marienburg. This news the marshal concealed from
the Prussians. Hitherto the cold and the forced marches had produced no
complaints from them; there was no symptom of discontent exhibited by
these allies; brandy and provisions were not deficient.

But on the 28th, when General Bachelu extended to the right, towards
Regnitz, in order to drive away the Russians, who had taken refuge there
after their expulsion from Tilsit, the Prussian officers began to
complain that their troops were fatigued; their vanguard marched
unwillingly and carelessly, allowed itself to be surprised, and was
thrown into disorder. Bachelu, however, restored the fortune of the day,
and entered Regnitz.

During this time, Macdonald, who had arrived at Tilsit, was waiting for
Yorck and the rest of the Prussian army, which did not make its
appearance. On the 29th, the officers, and the orders which he sent
them, were vainly multiplied; no news of Yorck transpired. On the 30th,
Macdonald's anxiety was redoubled; it was fully exhibited in one of his
letters of that day's date, in which, however, he did not yet venture to
appear suspicious of a defection. He wrote "that he could not understand
the reason of this delay; that he had sent a number of officers and
emissaries with orders to Yorck to rejoin him, but that he had received
no answer. In consequence, when the enemy was advancing against him, he
was compelled to suspend his retreat; for he could not make up his mind
to desert this corps, to retreat without Yorck; and yet this delay was
ruinous." This letter concluded thus:--"I am lost in conjectures. If I
retreat, what would the Emperor say? what would be said by France, by
the army, by Europe? Would it not be an indelible stain on the tenth
corps, voluntarily to abandon a part of its troops, and without being
compelled to it otherwise than by prudence? Oh, no; whatever may be the
result, I am resigned, and willingly devote myself as a victim, provided
I am the only one:" and he concluded by wishing the French general "that
sleep which his melancholy situation had long denied him."

On the same day, he recalled Bachelu and the Prussian cavalry, which was
still at Regnitz, to Tilsit. It was night when Bachelu received the
order; he wished to execute it, but the Prussian colonels refused; and
they covered their refusal under different pretexts. "The roads," they
said, "were not passable. They were not accustomed to make their men
march in such dreadful weather, and at so late an hour! They were
responsible to their king for their regiments." The French general was
astonished, commanded them to be silent, and ordered them to obey; his
firmness subdued them, they obeyed, but slowly. A Russian general had
glided into their ranks, and pressed them to deliver up this Frenchman,
who was alone in the midst of those who commanded them; but the
Prussians, although fully prepared to abandon Bachelu, could not resolve
to betray him: at last they began their march.

At Regnitz, at eight o'clock at night, they had refused to mount their
horses; at Tilsit, where they arrived at two in the morning, they
refused to alight from them. At five o'clock in the morning, however,
they had all gone to their quarters, and as order appeared to be
restored among them, the general went to take some rest. But the
obedience had been entirely feigned, for no sooner did the Prussians
find themselves unobserved, than they resumed their arms, went out with
Massenbach at their head, and escaped from Tilsit in silence, and by
favour of the night. The first dawn of the last day of the year 1812,
informed Macdonald that the Prussian army had deserted him.

It was Yorck, who, instead of rejoining him, deprived him of Massenbach,
whom he had just recalled. His own defection, which had commenced on the
26th of December, was just consummated. On the 30th of December, a
convention between Yorck and the Russian general Dibitch was concluded
at Taurogen. "The Prussian troops were to be cantoned on their own
frontiers, and remain neutral during two months, even in the event of
this armistice being disapproved of by their own government. At the end
of that time, the roads should be open to them to rejoin the French
troops, should their sovereign persist in ordering them to do so."

Yorck, but more particularly Massenbach, either from fear of the Polish
division to which they were united, or from respect for Macdonald,
showed some delicacy in their defection. They wrote to the marshal.
Yorck announced to him the convention he had just concluded, which he
coloured with specious pretexts. "He had been reduced to it by fatigue
and necessity; but," he added, "that whatever judgment the world might
form of his conduct, he was not at all uneasy about; that his duty to
his troops, and the most mature reflexion, had dictated it to him; that,
finally, whatever might be the appearances, he was actuated by the
purest motives."

Massenbach excused himself for his clandestine departure. "He had wished
to spare himself a sensation which his heart felt too painfully. He had
dreaded, lest the sentiments of respect and esteem which he should
preserve to the end of his life for Macdonald, should have prevented him
from doing his duty."

Macdonald saw all at once his force reduced from twenty-nine thousand to
nine thousand, but in the state of anxiety in which he had been living
for the last two days, any termination to it was a relief.




CHAP. IX.


Thus commenced the defection of our allies. I shall not venture to set
myself up as a judge of the morality of this event; posterity will
decide upon it. As a contemporaneous historian, however, I conceive
myself bound not only to state the facts, but also the impression they
have left, and such as it still remains, in the minds of the principal
leaders of the two corps of the allied army, either as actors or
sufferers.

The Prussians only waited for an opportunity to break our alliance,
which was forced upon them; when the moment arrived, they embraced it.
Not only, however, did they refuse to betray Macdonald, but they did not
even wish to quit him, until they had, as it may be said, drawn him out
of Russia and placed him in safety. On his side, when Macdonald became
sensible that he was abandoned, but without having positive proofs of
it, he obstinately remained at Tilsit, at the mercy of the Prussians,
sooner than give them a motive of defection, by too speedy a retreat.

The Prussians did not abuse this noble conduct. There was defection on
their part, but no treachery; which, in this age, and after the evils
they had endured, may still appear meritorious; they did not join
themselves with the Russians. When they arrived on their own frontier,
they could not resign themselves to aid their conqueror in defending
their native soil against those who came in the character of their
deliverers, and who were so; they became neutral, and this was not, I
must repeat, until Macdonald, disengaged from Russia and the Russians,
had his retreat free.

This marshal continued it from Koenigsberg, by Labiau and Tente. His rear
was protected by Mortier, and Heudelet's division, whose troops, newly
arrived, still occupied Insterburg, and kept Tchitchakof in check. On
the 3d of January he effected his junction with Mortier and covered
Koenigsberg.

It was, however, a happy circumstance for Yorck's reputation, that
Macdonald, thus weakened, and whose retreat his defection had
interrupted, was enabled to rejoin the grand army. The inconceivable
slowness of Wittgenstein's march saved that marshal; the Russian
general, however, overtook him at Labiau and Tente; and there, but for
the efforts of Bachelu and his brigade, the valour of the Polish Colonel
Kameski, and Captain Ostrowski, and the Bavarian Major Mayer, the corps
of Macdonald, thus deserted, would have been broken or destroyed; in
that case Yorck would appear to have betrayed him, and history would,
with justice, have stigimatized him with the name of traitor. Six
hundred French, Bavarians, and Poles, remained dead on these two fields
of battle; their blood accuses the Prussians for not having provided, by
an additional article, for the safe retreat of the leader whom they had
deserted.

The King of Prussia disavowed Yorck's conduct. He dismissed him,
appointed Kleist to succeed him in the command, ordered the latter to
arrest his late commander, and send him, as well as Massenbach, to
Berlin, there to undergo their trial. But these generals preserved their
command in spite of him; the Prussian army did not consider their
monarch at liberty; this opinion was founded on the presence of Augereau
and some French troops at Berlin.

Frederick, however, was perfectly aware of the annihilation of our army.
At Smorgoni, Narbonne refused to accept the mission to that monarch,
until Napoleon gave him authority to make the most unreserved
communication. He, Augereau, and several others have declared that
Frederick was not merely restrained by his position in the midst of the
remains of the grand army, and by the dread of Napoleon's re-appearance
at the head of a fresh one, but also by his plighted faith; for every
thing is of a mixed character in the moral as well as the physical
world, and even in the most trifling of our actions there is a variety
of different motives. But, finally, his good faith yielded to necessity,
and his dread to a greater dread. He saw himself, it was said,
threatened with a species of forfeiture by his people and by our
enemies.

It should be remarked that the Prussian nation, which drew its sovereign
toward Yorck, only ventured to rise successively, as the Russians came
in sight, and by degrees, as our feeble remains quitted their territory.
A single fact, which took place during the retreat, will paint the
dispositions of the people, and show how much, notwithstanding the
hatred they bore us, they were curbed under the ascendancy of our
victories.

When Davoust was recalled to France, he passed, with only two
attendants, through the town of X * * *. The Russians were daily
expected there; its population were incensed at the sight of these last
Frenchmen. Murmurs, mutual excitations, and finally, outcries, rapidly
succeeded each other; the most violent speedily surrounded the carriage
of the marshal, and were already about to unharness the horses, when
Davoust made his appearance, rushed upon the most insolent of these
insurgents, dragged him behind his carriage, and made his servants
fasten him to it. Frightened at this action, the people stopped short,
seized with motionless consternation, and then quietly and silently
opened a passage for the marshal, who passed through the midst of them,
carrying off his prisoner.




CHAP. X.


In this sudden manner did our left wing fall. On our right wing, on the
side of the Austrians, whom a well-cemented alliance retained, a
phlegmatic people, governed despotically by an united aristocracy, there
was no sudden explosion to be apprehended. This wing detached itself
from us insensibly, and with the formalities required by its political
position.

On the 10th of December, Schwartzenberg was at Slonim, presenting
successively vanguards towards Minsk, Nowogrodeck, and Bienitza. He was
still persuaded that the Russians were beaten and fleeing before
Napoleon, when he was informed at the same moment of the Emperor's
departure, and of the destruction of the grand army, but in so vague a
manner that he was for some time without any direction.

In his embarrassment he addressed himself to the French ambassador at
Warsaw. The answer of that minister authorized him "not to sacrifice
another man." In consequence, he retreated on the 14th of December from
Slonim towards Bialystok. The instructions which reached him from Murat
in the middle of this movement were conformable to it.

About the 21st of December, an order from Alexander suspended
hostilities on that point, and as the interest of the Russians agreed
with that of the Austrians, there was very soon a mutual understanding.
A moveable armistice, which was approved by Murat, was immediately
concluded. The Russian general and Schwartzenberg were to manoeuvre on
each other, the Russian on the offensive, and the Austrian on the
defensive, but without coming to blows.

Regnier's corps, now reduced to ten thousand men, was not included in
the arrangement; but Schwartzenberg, while he yielded to circumstances,
persevered in his loyalty. He regularly gave an account of every thing
to the commander of the army; he covered the whole front of the French
line with his Austrian troops, and preserved it. This prince was not at
all complaisant towards the enemy; he believed him not upon his bare
word; at every position he was about to yield, he would actually satisfy
himself with his own eyes, that he only yielded it to a superior force,
ready to combat him. In this manner he arrived upon the Bug and the
Narew, from Nur to Ostrolenka, where the war terminated.

He was in this manner covering Warsaw, when, on the 22d of January, he
received instructions from his government to abandon the Grand-duchy, to
separate his retreat from that of Regnier, and to re-enter Gallicia. To
these instructions he only yielded a tardy obedience; he resisted the
pressing solicitations and threatening manoeuvres of Miloradowitch
until the 25th of January; even then, he effected his retreat upon
Warsaw so slowly, that the hospitals and a great part of the magazines
were enabled to be evacuated. Finally, he obtained a more favourable
capitulation for the Warsavians than they could venture to expect. He
did more; although that city was to have been delivered up on the 5th,
he only yielded it on the 8th, and thus gave Regnier the start of three
days upon the Russians.

Regnier was afterwards, it is true, overtaken and surprised at Kalisch,
but that was in consequence of halting too long to protect the flight of
some Polish depots. In the first disorder occasioned by this unexpected
attack, a Saxon brigade was separated from the French corps, retreated
on Schwartzenberg, and was well received by him; Austria allowed it to
pass through her territory, and restored it to the grand army, when it
was assembled near Dresden.

On the 1st of January, 1813, however, at Koenigsberg, where Murat then
was, the desertion of the Prussians and the intrigues forming by Austria
were not known, when suddenly Macdonald's despatch, and an insurrection
of the people of Koenigsberg, gave information of the beginning of a
defection, of which it was impossible to foresee the consequences. The
consternation was excessive. The seditious movement was at first only
kept down by representations, which Ney very soon changed into threats.
Murat hastened his departure for Elbing. Koenigsberg was encumbered with
ten thousand sick and wounded, most of whom were abandoned to the
generosity of their enemies. Some of them had no reason to complain of
it; but prisoners who escaped declared that many of their unfortunate
companions were massacred and thrown out of the windows into the
streets; that an hospital which contained several hundred sick was set
fire to; and they accused the inhabitants of committing these horrid
deeds.

On another side, at Wilna, more than sixteen thousand of our prisoners
had already perished. The convent of St. Basil contained the greatest
number; from the 10th to the 23d of December they had only received some
biscuits; but not a piece of wood nor a drop of water had been given
them. The snow collected in the courts, which were covered with dead
bodies, quenched the burning thirst of the survivors. They threw out of
the windows such of the dead bodies as could not be kept in the
passages, on the staircases, or among the heaps of corses which were
collected in all the apartments. The additional prisoners that were
every moment discovering were thrown into this horrible place.

The arrival of the Emperor Alexander and his brother was the only thing
that put a stop to these abominations. They had lasted for thirteen
days, and if a few escaped out of the twenty thousand of our unfortunate
comrades who were made prisoners, it was to these two princes they owed
their preservation. But a most violent epidemic had already arisen from
the poisonous exhalations of so many corses; it passed from the
vanquished to the victors, and fully avenged us. The Russians, however,
were living in plenty; our magazines at Smorgoni and Wilna had not been
destroyed, and they must have found besides immense quantities of
provisions in the pursuit of our routed army.

But Wittgenstein, who had been detached to attack Macdonald, descended
the Niemen; Tchitchakof and Platof had pursued Murat towards Kowno,
Wilkowiski, and Insterburg; shortly after, the admiral was sent towards
Thorn. Finally, on the 9th of January, Alexander and Kutusoff arrived on
the Niemen at Merecz. There, as he was about to cross his own frontier,
the Russian emperor addressed a proclamation to his troops, completely
filled with images, comparisons, and eulogiums, which the winter had
much better deserved than his army.




CHAP. XI.


It was not until the 22d of January, and the following days, that the
Russians reached the Vistula. During this tardy march, from the 3d to
the 11th of January, Murat had remained at Elbing. In this situation of
extremity, that monarch was wavering from one plan to another, at the
mercy of the elements which were fermenting around him; sometimes they
raised his hopes to the highest pitch, at others they sunk him into an
abyss of disquietude.

He had taken flight from Koenigsberg in a complete state of
discouragement, when the suspension in the march of the Russians, and
the junction of Macdonald with Heudelet and Cavaignac, which doubled his
forces, suddenly inflamed him with vain hopes. He, who had the day
before believed that all was lost, wished to resume the offensive, and
began immediately; for he was one of those dispositions who are making
fresh resolutions every instant. On that day he determined to push
forward, and the next to flee as far as Posen.

This last determination, however, was not taken without reason. The
rallying of the army on the Vistula had been completely illusory; the
old guard had not altogether more than five hundred effective men; the
young guard scarcely any; the first corps, eighteen hundred; the second,
one thousand; the third, sixteen hundred; the fourth, seventeen hundred;
added to which, most of these soldiers, the remains of six hundred
thousand men, could scarcely handle their arms.

In this state of impotence, with the two wings of the army already
detached from us, Austria and Prussia failing us together, Poland became
a snare which might close around us. On the other hand, Napoleon, who
never consented to any cession, was anxious that Dantzic should be
defended; it became necessary, therefore, to throw into it all that
could keep the field.

Besides, if the truth must be told, when Murat, when at Elbing, talked
of reconstituting the army, and was even dreaming of victories, he found
that most of the commanders were themselves worn out and disgusted.
Misfortune, which leads to fear every thing, and to believe readily all
that one fears, had penetrated into their hearts. Several of them were
already uneasy about their rank and their grades, about the estates
which they had acquired in the conquered countries, and the greater part
only sighed to recross the Rhine.

As to the recruits who arrived, they were a mixture of men from several
of the German nations. In order to join us they had passed through the
Prussian states, from whence arose the exhalation of so much hatred. As
they approached, they encountered our discouragement and our long train
of disorder; when they entered into line, far from being put into
companies with, and supported by old soldiers, they found themselves
left alone, to fight with every kind of scourge, to support a cause
which was abandoned by those who were most interested in its success;
the consequence was, that at the very first bivouac, most of these
Germans disbanded themselves. At sight of the disasters of the army
returning from Moscow, the tried soldiers of Macdonald were themselves
shaken. Notwithstanding this corps d'armee, and the completely fresh
division of Heudelet preserved their unity. All these remains were
speedily collected into Dantzic; thirty-five thousand soldiers from
seventeen different nations, were shut up in it. The remainder, in small
numbers, did not begin rallying until they got to Posen and upon the
Oder.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.