Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 19

Before this engagement Napoleon saw defile before him on the plateau in front of Abensberg the Wurtemberg and Bavarian troops, allies of the French, who were going to put themselves in line and whom the pride of fighting under a general of his renown filled with enthusiasm. The Emperor caused them to be drawn up and proceeded to harangue them, one after the other, the officers translating his words to the troops. He said that he was making them fight, not for himself, but for themselves; against the ambition of the house of Austria, which was enraged at not having them, as of yore, under its yoke; that this time he would soon restore them peace, and forever, and with such an increase of power that for the future they should be able to defend themselves against the pretensions of their old dominators. His presence and words electrified his German allies, who were flattered to see him amongst them, he trusting entirely to their honor, for at that moment he had no other escort than some detachments of Bavarian cavalry.

When Napoleon arrived that evening at Rotterburg he was intoxicated with joy. The engagement, which was of short duration, had cost the Austrians 7,000 or 8,000 men, and he saw his adversary driven back on the Iser at the very beginning of the campaign, and the Austrian soldiers disheartened, like the Prussians after Jena.

The battle of Landshut completed the defeat of the preceding evening. On this day General Mouton, at the head of a column of grenadiers rushed through the flames that were consuming one of the bridges of the Iser; "Forward, but reserve your fire!" he shouted to the soldiers in a voice of thunder; and in a few moments he had penetrated into the town, which then became the seat of a sanguinary struggle, and which the Austrians were not long in abandoning.

Next day Napoleon executed a variety of manoeuvres, considered as amongst the most admirable of his science, by means of which he brought his whole force, by different routes, at one and the same moment upon the position of the Archduke Charles, who was strongly posted at Eckmuhl with 100,000 men. On both sides all was ready for a decisive action.

Until 8 o'clock a thick fog enveloped that rural scene which was soon to be drenched with the blood of thousands of men. As soon as it cleared away both sides prepared for action. Not a musket or a cannon shot was fired before noon, however.

There was no need of a signal for battle as the terrible contest began on both sides simultaneously about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon commanding and leading the charge, and accompanied by Lannes and Ma.s.sena. One of the most beautiful sights war could produce now presented itself; one hundred and ten thousand men were attacked on all points, turned to their left, and successively driven from all their positions, although not a half of the French troops were engaged. The battle was stern and lasted until twilight, ending with the utter defeat of the Archduke's army, and leaving Napoleon with 20,000 prisoners, fifteen imperial standards and a vast number of cannon in his hands, while the defeated and routed enemy fled back in confusion on the city of Ratisbon. The Austrian cavalry, strong and numerous, attempted to cover the retreat of the infantry, but was attacked by the French both on the right and left. The Archduke Charles was only indebted for his safety to the fleetness of his horse, when darkness at length compelled the victors to halt.

While the French were galloping along the road in pursuit of the Austrians, finding the plain to which they had retreated swampy, they endeavored to regain the road, and thus became mingled with the ma.s.s of victorious cavalry. A mult.i.tude of single combats then took place by the uncertain light of the moon, and nothing was heard but the clashing of sabres on their cuira.s.ses, the shouts of the commandants, and the heavy tramp of horses. The French cuira.s.siers, wearing double cuira.s.ses, which covered them all round, could more easily defend themselves than the Austrians, who, having only breastplates, fell in great numbers, mortally wounded by the thrusts dealt them from behind. Night put an end to a contest where there were scenes of carnage that had not been equalled in years.

At the battle of Abensberg the Emperor beat separately the two corps of the Archduke Louis and General Keller; at the battle of Landshut he took the centre of their communications and the general depot of their magazines and artillery; and, finally, at the battle of Eckmuhl, the corps of Hohenzollern, Rosenberg, and Lichtenstein, were defeated.

The Austrians, astonished by rapid movements beyond their calculation, were soon deprived of their sanguine hopes, and precipitated from a delirium of presumption to a despondency bordering on despair. Two days later the Archduke made an attempt to rally his troops, and not only to hold Ratisbon, but to meet Napoleon. He was obliged to give up the place at the storming of the walls by the French, who drove the Austrians through the streets. All who resisted were slain. The enemy's commander fled precipitately into Bohemia, abandoning once more the capital of the Austrian Empire to the mercy of the Conqueror.

Napoleon was wounded in the foot during the storming of Ratisbon. He had approached the town amidst a fire of sharpshooters kept up by the Austrians from the walls, and by the French from the edge of a ditch.

Whilst he was looking through a telescope he received a ball in the instep, and said, with the coolness of an old soldier: "I am hit!" When the Emperor received his wound he was talking with Duroc. "This," said he to his marshal, "can only come from a Tyrolian; no other marksman could take an aim at such a distance; those fellows are very clever."

The wound might have been dangerous for had it been higher up the foot would have been shattered and amputation inevitable. The first surgeon of the Guard, Dr. Larrey, being near took off his boot and prepared to dress the wound, which was not serious.

At the news that the Emperor was wounded the troops crowded around him in great alarm. Officers and soldiers ran up from all sides; in a moment he was surrounded by thousands of men, in spite of the fire which the enemy's guns concentrated on the vast group. The Emperor, wishing to withdraw his troops from this useless danger, and to calm the anxiety of the more distant corps who were getting unsteady in their desire to come and see what was the matter, mounted his horse the instant his wound was dressed and rode down the front of the whole line amid loud cheers.

Those around remonstrated with him for continually exposing his person, to which he replied: "What can I do? I must see how things are going on."

"It was at this extempore review," says General Marbot, "held in presence of the enemy, that Napoleon first granted gratuities to private soldiers, appointing them Knights of the Empire and members, at the same time, of the Legion of Honor. The regimental commanders recommended, but the Emperor also allowed soldiers who thought they had claims, to come and represent them before him; he then decided upon them himself."

An old grenadier, who had made the campaigns of Italy and Egypt, not hearing his name called, came up, and in a calm tone of voice asked for the cross.

"But," said Napoleon, "what have you done to deserve it?"

"It was I, sir, who, in the desert of Joppa, when it was so terribly hot, gave you a watermelon!"

"I thank you for it again," said the Emperor, "but the gift of the fruit is hardly worth the cross of the Legion of Honor." Then the grenadier, who up till then had been as cool as ice, working himself up into a frenzy, shouted at the top of his voice, "Well, and don't you reckon seven wounds received at the bridge of Arcola, at Lodi, at Castiglione, at the Pyramids, at Acre, Austerlitz, Friedland; eleven campaigns in Italy, Egypt, Austria, Prussia, Poland--."

But the Emperor cut him short laughing, and mimicking his excited manner, cried;--"There, there, how you work yourself up when you come to the essential point! That is where you ought to have begun; it is worth much more than your melon. I make you a Knight of the Empire, with a pension of 1200 francs. Does that satisfy you?"

"But your Majesty, I prefer the cross."

"You have both one and the other since I make you a Knight."

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Drawing by L. Marin

ENTRY OF NAPOLEON INTO BERLIN]

"Well, I would rather have the cross," and the worthy grenadier could not be moved from that point. It took much explaining to make him understand that the t.i.tle of Knight of the Empire carried with it the Legion of Honor. He was not appeased on this point until the Emperor had fastened the decoration on his breast, and he seemed to think a great deal more of this than of his annuity of 1200 francs.

It was by familiarities of this kind that the Emperor made the soldiers adore him, but as Marbot again well says, it was a means that was only available to a commander whom frequent victories had made ill.u.s.trious; any other general would have impaired his reputation by it.

Napoleon now sent an aide-de-camp to Lannes urging him to expedite the taking of Ratisbon. This intrepid marshal had directed all his artillery against a projecting house which rose above the wall surrounding the town. The house was knocked down and the ruins fell into the ditch.

Still there were two fortified positions to take. Ladders were procured and placed at the critical points by the grenadiers, but every time one of them appeared he was instantly brought down by the well-aimed b.a.l.l.s of the Austrian sharpshooters. After some men had been thus struck, the rest appeared to hang back. Thereupon Lannes advanced, covered with decorations, seized one of the ladders and cried out: "You shall see that your marshal, for all he is a marshal, has not ceased to be a grenadier!" Two aides-de-camp sprang forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed the ladder out of his hands, and the grenadiers followed them, took the ladders, and, notwithstanding the continued fire of the sharpshooters, made the crossing in safety, followed by hundreds of others in an instant.

The walls being scaled, the town was soon in the hands of the French, who rushed along the blazing streets taking prisoners in all directions.

Suddenly they were stopped with a cry of terror uttered by the Austrians; "Take care, we shall all be blown up!" shouted an officer.

There were some barrels of powder left in the street which were in danger of being fired by the shots exchanged on either side. The belligerents stopped with one accord and joined hands in removing the barrels to a place of safety. The Austrians then withdrew and left the town to the French troops.

After the taking of Ratisbon Napoleon issued an address to his soldiers complimenting them highly on their valor. "You have justified my expectations," he said. "You have made up for numbers by your courage; you have gloriously marked the difference which exists between the soldiers of Caesar and the armies of Xerxes. In a few days we have triumphed in the three battles of Tann, Abensberg and Eckmuhl, and the affairs of Peising, Landshut and Ratisbon. One hundred pieces of cannon, fifty thousand prisoners, three equipages, three thousand baggage wagons, all the funds of the regiments, are the results of the rapidity of your marches, and of your courage.... Before a month we shall be in Vienna!"

Thus in five days, in spite of inferiority of numbers and of the unfavorable manner in which his lieutenants had distributed an inferior force; by the sole energy of his genius, did Napoleon triumph over the main force of his opponent. The Emperor reviewed his army on the 24th, distributing rewards of all sorts with a lavish hand. Upon Davoust he bestowed the t.i.tle of Duke of Eckmuhl.

On May 3rd a body of 30,000 Austrians remaining from the army of Landshut, fell back upon Ebersberg, where Ma.s.sena engaged in a stubborn battle, General Claparede being obliged to defend himself for three hours with but 7,000 men against 30,000 Austrians. Reinforcements at last arrived and the enemy retired in disorder upon the Ens, where they burned the bridge so as to protect their flight in the direction of Vienna. The battle cost the Austrians 12,000 men, of whom 7,500 were prisoners. The field of carnage was hideous, and the town of Ebersberg was so wrapped in flames that the wounded could not be withdrawn. To prevent the fire from reaching the bridge it had been necessary to cut off the approach at either end, so that communication was interrupted for several hours between the troops who had crossed the river and those coming to their aid. Napoleon had galloped up on hearing the cannonade, and though inured to all the horrors of war, is said to have been greatly shocked at the sight he beheld.

Pa.s.sing before the ruins of the castle of Dirnstein, on an eminence beyond the Molck, and in the direction of Vienna, whither he was going, Napoleon said to Marshal Lannes, who was at his side: "Look! Behold the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion. Like us, he went to Syria and Palestine. Coeur de Lion, my brave Lannes, was not braver than thou. He was more fortunate than I at St. Jean d'Acre. The Duke of Austria sold him to an emperor of Germany who had him imprisoned there. That was in the barbarous ages. How different to our own civilization! You have seen how I treat the Emperor of Austria, whom I could have taken prisoner.

Ah! well! I shall treat him again in the same manner. It is not my wish, but that of the age!"

From Molck the headquarters of the Emperor were transferred to St.

Polten and two days later, at 9 o'clock in the morning, Napoleon was at Vienna, which he desired to take forthwith, but to take without destroying if possible.

Meeting with resistance in entering the city, the inhabitants having prepared for a vigorous defense, Napoleon began to play with his heavy batteries upon the city. The bombardment soon convinced them that it was hopeless to resist, and Vienna surrendered May 12th after suffering severely. In a few hours eighteen hundred sh.e.l.ls had fallen in the city.

The streets were narrow, the houses high, and the population crowded within the narrow fortifications, were terrified and infuriated at the sight of the damage caused by the sh.e.l.ls which started fires in every direction. Who would have said to the Viennese, who were then hurling all manner of imprecations at Napoleon, the author of all their woes, that ten months later they would be singing the praise of this detested Emperor, and would be voluntarily setting French flags in their windows as symbols of friendship?

All the royal family had fled except the young Archd.u.c.h.ess Marie Louise, who was detained in the palace, suffering from small-pox. When Napoleon heard she was sequestered there he ordered that no battery should be directed to that part of the town in which lay she who was destined to be his bride within less than a year! At this time Napoleon himself would no doubt have laughed heartily had he been told that in that palace was a woman who was to succeed Josephine in his struggle for a dynasty, to be Empress of the French, and later, to bear him the long wished for son and heir.

That Marie had no such thoughts or inclinations can readily be guessed from the fact of the present campaign in which her father, the Emperor, was battling for his Empire. The Emperor Francis had left his capital on April 8th, 1809, leaving there his wife and children, but all of whom departed, except Marie, on May 5th. From Vienna Marie wrote frequently to her father. A rumor had reached the capital that the battle of Eckmuhl had been a brilliant victory for the Austrians, and the young Archd.u.c.h.ess wrote to her father on April 25th: "We have heard with delight that Napoleon was present at the great battle which the French lost. May he lose his head as well! There are a great many prophecies about his speedy end, and people say that the Apocalypse applies to him.

They maintain that he is going to die this year at Cologne, in an inn called the 'Red Crawfish.' I do not attach much importance to these prophecies, but how glad should I be to see them come true!"

On May 13th the capitulation of the Austrian capital was signed, and Napoleon's army again entered Vienna, the Emperor taking up his old quarters at the imperial palace of Schoenbrunn. He said to his soldiers: "The people of Vienna, according to the expression of the deputation, wearied, deserted, widowed, shall be the object of your regards. I take the inhabitants under my special protection. As for the turbulent and ill-disposed, I will make a severe example of them. Let us be kind towards the poor peasants, towards these good people, who have so many claims upon our esteem. Let us not be vain of all our successes; but look upon them as a proof of that divine justice which punishes ingrat.i.tude and perjury."

XI

THE BATTLE OF WAGRAM

The Austrian army, in abandoning the capital of the Empire, had not renounced the war, although in thirty-three days Napoleon had, with one stroke of his sword, cut in two the ma.s.s of their armies, and with a second burst open the gates of Vienna. He was now firmly established in that capital, and master of the main resources of the monarchy; but his work was far from being done, either in Austria or in Germany. A great difficulty remained to be overcome,--that of crossing a vast river in the face of the enemy, and to give battle with the river behind him.

This difficulty Napoleon had been unable to prevent, and it resulted inevitably from the nature of things. On leaving Ratisbon he had been obliged to take the route which was shortest, thus keeping the two main divisions of the Austrian army separated from each other. He was consequently obliged to march along the right bank of the Danube, abandoning the left to the Austrians, but securing to himself exclusively the means of crossing from the one to the other.

The Archduke Charles was soon tempted to quit the fastness of Bohemia, and try once more the fortune of a battle. Having re-established the order, and recruited the numbers of his army to 100,000 men, he was soon posted on the banks of the Danube. Opposite were the French, and the river being greatly swollen, and all the bridges destroyed, the two armies seemed separated by an impa.s.sable barrier. Napoleon determined to pa.s.s it and after an unsuccessful attempt at Nussdorff, met with better fortune at Ebersdorff, where the river is broad and intersected by a number of low and woody islands, the largest of which bears the name of Lobau. Here Ma.s.sena had thrown several bridges over the arms of the Danube.

On these islands Napoleon established the greater part of his army on May 19th, and on the following day made good his pa.s.sage by means of a bridge of boats to the left bank of the Danube, where he took possession of the villages of Asperne and Essling, with so little show of opposition that it became evident that the Archduke wished the inevitable battle to take place with the river between his enemy and Vienna.

On the 21st, at daybreak, the Archduke appeared on a rising ground, separated from the French position by an extensive plain. His whole force was divided into five heavy columns and protected by not less than two hundred pieces of artillery. The battle began at 4 o'clock in the afternoon with a furious a.s.sault on the village of Asperne, which was taken and retaken several times, and remained at nightfall in the occupation partly of the French and partly of the a.s.sailants, who had established themselves in the church and churchyard. Essling sustained three attacks also, but there the French remained in complete possession. At one time Lannes, who defended this point, was so hard pressed, that he must have given way had not Napoleon relieved him, and obtained him a breathing spell by a well-timed and terrific charge of cavalry under Bessieres, which fell upon their centre.

Night finally interrupted the action, the Austrians exulting in their partial success; and Napoleon surprised that he should not have been wholly victorious. On either side the carnage had been terrible, and the pathways of the villages were literally choked with the dead.

Just as Napoleon was about to retire for a few hours' rest he was interrupted by a violent altercation between two of his chief lieutenants, Bessieres and Lannes, the former of whom complained of the language used by the latter, his inferior in rank, in giving a necessary order for a charge of cuira.s.siers and cha.s.seurs, then under the orders of Marshal Bessieres himself. Ma.s.sena, who was on the spot, was obliged to interfere between these gallant men, who after having braved for a whole day the cross-fire of 300 pieces of cannon, were ready to draw their swords for the sake of their offended pride. Napoleon allayed their quarrel, which was to be terminated next day by the enemy in the saddest way for themselves and for the army.

Next morning the battle recommenced at 4 o'clock with equal fury, the French recovering Asperne; but the Austrian right wing renewed its a.s.saults on that point, and in such numbers that Napoleon guessed that their centre and left had been weakened for the purpose of strengthening their right. Believing this he instantly moved such ma.s.ses upon the Austrian centre that the Archduke's line was shaken, and for a moment it seemed as if the victory of the French was secure. In fact it was extremely doubtful if the Austrian centre could withstand the ma.s.s of 20,000 infantry and 6,000 horse which Lannes had thrown upon it.