Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 22

During the three days of the 25th, 26th and 27th of July the French were again victorious. Napoleon halted at Vitepsk for several days in order to allow his troops to recuperate. On the 8th of August the Emperor quitted Vitepsk and after a partial engagement at Krasnoi on the 14th, came in sight of Smolensk on the 16th. On the 10th of August Napoleon was observed to write eight letters to Davoust, and nearly as many to each of his commanders. "If the enemy defends Smolensk" he said in one of his letters to Davoust, "as I am tempted to believe he will, we shall have a decisive engagement there, and we cannot have too large a force.

Orcha will become the central point of the army. Everything induces me to believe that there will be a great battle at Smolensk."

The day on which the combat at Krasnoi was fought happened to be the Emperor's birthday. There was no intention of keeping it in these immense solitudes, and under the present circ.u.mstances of peril and anxiety. There could be no heartfelt festival without a complete victory. Murat and Ney, however, on giving in the report of their recent success, could not refrain from complimenting the Emperor on the anniversary of his nativity. A salute from a hundred pieces of artillery was now heard,--fired according to their orders.

Napoleon, with a look of displeasure, observed, that in Russia it was important to be economical of French powder; but he was informed in reply, that it was Russian powder, and had been taken the night before.

The idea of having his birthday celebrated at the expense of the Russians made Napoleon smile.

Prince Eugene also paid his compliments to the Emperor on this occasion, but was cut short by Napoleon saying, "Everything is preparing for a battle. I will gain that, and then we will see Moscow." Segur says that Eugene was heard to observe, on leaving the imperial tent, "Moscow will destroy us!"

The first and second armies of the Czar, under Bagration and Barclay, having at length effected a junction, retired with 120,000 men behind the river which flows at the back of this town.

As soon as Napoleon saw these ma.s.ses of men approaching from the distance he clapped his hands with joy, exclaiming, "At last I have them!" The moment that was to decide the fate of Russia or the French army, had apparently arrived.

Napoleon pa.s.sed along the line, and a.s.signed to each commander his station, leaving an extensive plain unoccupied in front between himself and the Dneiper. This he offered to the enemy as a field of battle, but instead of accepting the challenge Barclay and Bagration were seen next morning in full retreat.

During the night the Russian garrison had withdrawn and joined the army across the river. Before they departed they committed the city to flames, and, the buildings being chiefly of wood, the conflagration, according to the French bulletin, "resembling in its fury an eruption of Vesuvius." "Never," said Napoleon, "was war conducted with such inhumanity; the Russians treat their own country as if it were that of an enemy." It now, however, began to be difficult in the extreme to extinguish the flames created by the retreating Russians. The Emperor in person used every effort to stop the progress of the devouring element and render succor to the wounded. "Napoleon," says Gourgaud, "is of all generals, whether ancient or modern, the one who has paid the greatest attention to the wounded. The intoxication of victory never could make him forget them, and his first thought, after every battle, was always of them."

It was very evident that the Russian commander had no desire that Napoleon should establish himself in winter quarters at this point. From Smolensk the Russians retreated to Dorogoburg, and thence to Viasma; halting at each of these towns and deliberately burning them in face of the enemy. Having returned to Smolensk, Napoleon became a prey to the most hara.s.sing reflections on the opportunity which had so lately escaped him of destroying the whole of the Russian army, and attaining a speedy conclusion of peace. Uncertainty began to gain ground with him; vague presentiments made him desire to terminate as soon as possible this distant campaign. "We are too far engaged to fall back," said the Emperor on arriving at Ougea; "and if I only proposed to myself the glory of warlike exploits, I should have but to return to Smolensk, there plant my eagles, and content myself with extending my right and left arms which would crush Witgenstein and Tormasoff. These operations would be brilliant; they would finish the campaign very satisfactorily, but they would not terminate the war. Our troops may advance, but are incapable of remaining stationary, motion may keep them together: a halt or retreat would at once dissolve them. Ours is an army of attack, not of defense; of operation, not of position. We must advance upon Moscow, gain possession of that capital, and there dictate terms of peace to the Czar! Peace is before us; we are but eight days march from it; when the object is so nearly attained, it would be unwise to deliberate. Let us, therefore, march upon Moscow!"

At this period Barclay was appointed to the war ministry at St.

Petersburg, and Kutusoff, who a.s.sumed the command in his stead, was beginning to doubt whether the system of retreat had not been far enough persisted in. Napoleon ordered a vigorous pursuit of the enemy, hoping to come up with and crush him, before he could reach his ancient capital. The honor of marching with the advance guard devolved upon Marshal Ney, who gloriously justified the confidence of Napoleon by the intelligence and bravery which he displayed at the battle of Valoutina.

This was a most sanguinary fight. Four times were the Russians driven from their positions, and on each occasion, brought up reinforcements, and retook them; at length they were finally overthrown by the valorous Gudin who charged at the head of his division, the vigor and impetuosity of which led the enemy to believe that they were exposed to the shock of the Imperial Guard. Thirty thousand men were brought into action on either side, and the slaughter was terrible. Much individual bravery was also displayed on this occasion. But for the failure of Junot,--who had begun to show signs of approaching insanity,--to faithfully execute his orders, the victory might have been decisive. The Emperor was much gratified, however, at the conduct of his troops at Valoutina. He repaired in person to the field of battle and pa.s.sed in review the divers regiments which had distinguished themselves there. "Arrived at the 7th light infantry" says Gourgaud, "he ordered the captains to advance, and said to them, 'Show me the best officer of the regiment.'

'Sire, they are all good--' 'that is no answer; come at least to the conclusion of Themistocles; 'I am the first; the second is my neighbor.""

At length Captain Moncey, who was absent on account of his wounds, was named. "What," said the Emperor, "Moncey who was my page! the son of the marshal! Seek another!" "Sire, he is the best." "Ah, well!" said Napoleon, "I shall give him the decoration."

Up till this time the 127th regiment had marched without an eagle, having had no opportunity of distinguishing itself. The Imperial ensign was now delivered to it by Napoleon's own hands.

The new Russian general at length resolved to comply with the clamorous entreaties of his troops and fixed on a strong position between Borodino and Moskowa on the highroad to Moscow, where he determined to await the attack of Napoleon who was pushing the war vigorously, sword in hand, in the hopes of closing hostilities by one pitched battle.

On the 5th of September Napoleon came in sight of the position of Kutusoff and succeeded in carrying a redoubt which had been erected to guard the high-road to Moscow. This was effected at the bayonet point, though not without great slaughter on either side.

The next day the two armies lay in presence of each other preparing for a great contest. On the eve of, and before daybreak on the 6th, the Emperor was on horseback, wrapped in his gray coat, and exhibited all the alacrity of his younger days. On his return to headquarters he found a courier had arrived with dispatches announcing Marmont's defeat and the deliverance of Salamanca into the hands of Wellington. M. de Beausset also arrived bringing from Paris a portrait of Napoleon's son which deeply moved the Emperor. He caused the picture to be placed outside his tent where it was viewed by his officers. He then said to his secretary, "Take it away, and guard it carefully; he sees a field of battle too early."

The Russians were posted on an elevated plain; having a wood on their right flank, their left on one of the villages, and a deep ravine, the bed of a small stream, in front. Extensive field-works covered every prominent point of this naturally very strong ground; and in the centre of the whole line, a gentle eminence was crowned by an enormous battery, serving as a species of citadel. The Russian army numbered about 120,000 men against which were opposed almost an equal number of French troops.

In artillery, also, the armies were equal. The Emperor fixed his headquarters in the redoubt whence he had issued the order for battle in the morning; the elevation of the ground permitted him to observe the greatest part of the Russian line, and the various movements of the enemy. The young guard and the cavalry were before him, and the old guard in his rear.

Before the engagement Napoleon addressed his troops: "Here is the battle you have looked for,"--he said, "for it brings us plenty; good winter-quarters, and a safe retreat to France. Behave yourselves so that posterity may say of each of you,--'He was in that great battle beneath the walls of Moscow.'"

At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 7th the French advanced under cover of a thick fog, and a.s.saulted at once the centre, the right, and the left of Kutusoff's position. Such was the impetuosity of the charge that they drove the Russians from their redoubts but this was for a short time only as they rallied under every line of the fire from the French, and instantly advanced. Russian peasants who, till that hour, had never seen war, and who still wore their usual rustic dress, distinguished only by a cross sewed on it in front, threw themselves into the thickest of the combat. As they fell, others rushed on and filled their places.

Some idea may be formed of the obstinacy of the contest from the fact that one division of the Russians which mustered 30,000 in the morning only 8,000 survived. These men had fought in close order, and unshaken, under the fire of eighty pieces of artillery. The Russians had the advantage of ground, of speaking but one language, of one uniform, of being a single nation, and fighting for the same cause. By 2 o'clock, however, according to the imperial bulletin, all hope had abandoned the enemy; the battle was at an end, although the cannonade was not yet discontinued. The Russians fought for their retreat and safety, but no longer for the victory.

The result of this terrible day, in which the French fired sixty-six thousand cannon b.a.l.l.s, was that while the Russians were defeated they were far from routed. "However great may have been the success of this day," says Segur, "it might have been still more so if Napoleon, instead of finishing the battle at 4 o'clock in the afternoon had profited by the remainder of the day to bring his Guard into the field, and thus changed the defeat of the enemy into a complete rout."

That the Emperor suffered intensely during the day is well-known. He had pa.s.sed a restless night and a violent and incessant cough cut short his breathing.

As to his desire of preserving a reserve uninjured, and forming it from a chosen and devoted body, such as his Guard, Napoleon explained it to his marshals by saying: "And if there should be a second battle tomorrow, what could I oppose to it?"

General Gourgaud has added: "If the Guard had been destroyed at the battle of Moskowa, the French army, of which their guard constantly formed the core, and whose courage it supported during the retreat, could scarcely have ever repa.s.sed the Niemen."

This refusal of Napoleon to engage his Guard is generally held to have been one of his greatest military lapses. At the time they were demanded by Ney and others the enemy was all but beaten and the appearance of the Emperor at their head would in all probability have closed the day with a great victory to his credit, and, according to the opinions of many military men of this day, have ended the Russian campaign by this one battle.

Night found either army on the ground they had occupied at daybreak. The number of guns and prisoners taken by the French and the Russians was about equal; and of either host there had fallen not less than 40,000 men. Some accounts give the total number of the slain as 100,000.

The Russian commander fought desperately but was at last compelled to retire. His army was the mainstay of the country and had it been destroyed, the Czar would have found it difficult to form another.

Having ascertained then the extent of his loss and buried his dead, among whom was the gallant Bagration, the Russian withdrew from his intrenchment and marched on Mojaisk. Marshal Ney was rewarded for the n.o.ble share he had in the success of this battle, by the t.i.tle of Prince of the Moskowa.

The small number of prisoners taken at Moskowa,--or Borodino as the battle is frequently called,--the circ.u.mstance of the Russians being able to carry away their wounded, and many other considerations amply prove that such another contest would have ruined Napoleon. The Russians ordered _Te Deums_ to be chanted at Moscow in honor of what they termed a victory for themselves and Napoleon sent similar instructions to his bishops in France.

Napoleon was so fortunate as to be joined exactly at this time by two fresh divisions from Smolensk which nearly restored his muster to what it had been when the battle began, and thus reinforced commanded that the pursuit be pushed. On the 9th the French vanguard came in sight of the Russian rear again and Napoleon prepared for battle but once more Kutusoff fled precipitately in the direction of the capital.

The Emperor reached the "Hill of Salvation,"--so called because from that eminence the Russian traveler obtains his first view of the ancient metropolis affectionately called "Mother Moscow," and hardly less sacred in his eyes than Jerusalem. The soldiery beheld with joy and exultation the magnificent extent of the place; its mixture of Gothic steeples and oriental domes; and high over all the rest the huge towers of the Kremlin, at once the palace and citadel of the old Czars. The cry of "Moscow! Moscow!" ran through the lines. Napoleon himself reined in his horse, and exclaimed, "Behold, at last, that celebrated city!"

It was soon observed that no smoke came from the chimneys, and again, that no military appeared on the battlements of the old walls and towers. Murat, who commanded the van, now came riding up and informed the Emperor that he had held a parley with Milarodowitch, general of the Russian rear-guard, and that he had declared that unless two hours were granted for the safe withdrawing of his troops, he would at once set fire to Moscow. Napoleon immediately granted the armistice. When the Emperor halted at the barrier he had the exterior of the city reconnoitred; Eugene was ordered to surround it on the north, and Poniatowski to embrace the south, whilst Davoust remained near the centre; the Guard was then ordered to march, and, under the command of Lefebvre, Napoleon entered Moscow, and prepared to establish himself in the city. He found the capital deserted by all but the very lowest and most wretched of its vast population. The French soldiers soon spread themselves over its innumerable streets filling the magnificent palaces, the bazaars of the merchants, the churches, convents and public buildings of every description. The meanest soldier clothed himself in silk and furs and drank at his pleasure the costliest wines. Napoleon, perplexed at the abandonment of so great a city, had great difficulty in keeping together 30,000 men under Murat, who followed Milarodowitch, and watched the walls on that side.

At midnight the Emperor, who had retired to rest in a suburban palace, was awakened by the cry of "Fire!" The chief market-place was in flames and it was some hours before it could be extinguished. While the fire still burned Napoleon established his quarters in the Kremlin, and wrote by that fatal light, a letter to the Czar, containing proposals for peace. In his letter he a.s.sured the Czar, "that whatever might be the vicissitudes of war, nothing could diminish the esteem entertained for him by his friend of Tilsit and Erfurt."

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Painting by Horace Vernet

NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF FREIDLAND]

The letter was committed to a prisoner of rank but no answer was ever received to it. On the next day the flames broke out again and in a short time various detached parts of the city were in flames, combustibles and matches were found in many places, and the water-pipes cut so that attempts to control the spreading flames were almost useless. The wind changed three times in the course of the night and the flames always broke out again with new vigor in the quarter from which the prevailing breeze blew right on the Kremlin. It was now found that the governor, in abandoning the city, had set all the malefactors in the numerous jails at liberty.

For four days the fire continued with more or less fury and four-fifths of the city was wholly consumed. "Palaces and temples," says Karamsin the Russian author, "monuments of arts and miracles of luxury, the remains of ages long since past, and the creation of yesterday, the tombs of ancestors, and the cradles of children were indiscriminately destroyed. Nothing was left of Moscow save the memory of her people, and their deep resolution to avenge her fall."

On the third night the equinoctial gale arose, the Kremlin itself, from which point Napoleon had witnessed the spread of this fearful devastation, took fire and it became doubtful whether it would be possible for the Emperor to withdraw in safety.

About 4 o'clock in the morning, one of Napoleon's officers awoke him, to inform him of the conflagration. He had thrown himself on the bed only a few minutes before, after having dictated orders to the various corps of his army, and labored with his secretaries. He watched from the windows the course of the fire which devoured his fair conquest, and the exclamation burst from him: "This is then how they make war! The civilization of St. Petersburg has deceived us; they are indeed Scythians!"

During several hours he remained immovable at the Kremlin. The palace was now surrounded by the flames and he consented to be conducted out of the city. He rode out through streets in many parts arched over with flames, and buried, where this was not the case, in one dense mantle of smoke. "It was then" says Segur, "that we met the Prince of Eckmuhl (Davoust). This marshal, who had been wounded at the Moskowa, had desired to be carried back among the flames to rescue Napoleon, or to perish with him. He threw himself into his arms with transport; the Emperor received him kindly, but with that composure which in danger he never lost for a moment."

"Not even the fictions of the burning of Troy" said the Emperor, "though heightened by all the powers of poetry, could have equalled the destruction of Moscow."

It was in the afternoon of the 16th that Napoleon left Moscow and before nightfall had reached Petrowsky, a country palace of the Czar, about a league distant, and where he fixed his headquarters.

On the 20th, the flames being at length subdued, or exhausted, Napoleon returned to the Kremlin still hoping that the Czar would relent on learning of the destruction of his ancient and sacred metropolis. Day after day pa.s.sed and still there came no answer from Alexander. The Emperor's position was becoming hourly more critical. On every side there was danger; the whole forces of Russia appeared to be gathering around him. Then, too, the season was far advanced; the stern winter of the North was at hand and the determined hostility of the peasants prevented the smallest supplies of provisions from being introduced into the capital.

Daru advised the Emperor to draw in all his detachments, convert Moscow into an intrenched camp, kill and salt every horse, and trust to foraging parties for the rest--in a word to lay aside all thoughts of keeping up communication with France, or Germany, or even Poland; and issue forth from Moscow, with his army entire and refreshed, in the commencement of the Spring. But Napoleon feared, and not without reason, that were he and his army cut off from all communication, during six months, the Prussians and the Austrians might throw off the yoke; while, on the other hand, the Russians could hardly fail, in the course of so many months, to acc.u.mulate, in their own country, a force before which his isolated army, on re-issuing from their winter quarters would appear but a mere speck.

Another letter was now sent by Napoleon to the headquarters of Kutusoff for Alexander. Count Lauriston was received by the commander in the midst of his generals and answered with such civility that the envoy doubted not of success. In the end, however, he was informed that no negotiations could be entertained and he declared his inability to even sanction the journey of any French messenger to St. Petersburg, without the authorization of his master. Kutusoff offered, finally, to send Napoleon's letter by one of his own aides-de-camp, and to this Lauriston was obliged to agree. The interview occurred on the 6th of October; no answer could be expected before the 20th. There had already been one fall of snow, and the dangers attendant on a longer sojourn in the ruined capital were increasing every hour.

It was under such circ.u.mstances that Napoleon lingered on in the Kremlin until the 19th of October when he decided to depart from Moscow. That evening several divisions were put in motion and the metropolis was wholly evacuated on the morning of the 22nd. This sudden departure was due in part to Murat's engagement with Bennigsen at Vincovo on the 18th, the day on which the suspension of arms expired, causing him to lose 3,000 prisoners and forty pieces of artillery. General Milarodowitch, during a conversation with Murat a few days before, talked very frankly of the situation. Murat looked upon peace as indispensable to Russia, and was enlarging upon "the continued success of the French" and having opened for them the gates of Moscow. "Yes General," replied Milarodowitch, briskly, "the campaign is over with the French, and it is now time it should commence with the Russians."

On the 19th of October the Emperor with 6,000 chosen horse began his journey towards Smolensk, the care of bringing up the main body being given to Eugene Beauharnais, while Ney commanded the rear.

As Napoleon left Moscow he said to Mortier: "Pay every attention to the sick and wounded. Sacrifice your baggage,--everything to them. Let the wagons be devoted to their use, and, if necessary your own saddles. This was the course I pursued at St. Jean d' Acre. The officers will first relinquish their horses, then the sub-officers, and finally the men.

a.s.semble the generals and officers under your command, and make them sensible how necessary, in their circ.u.mstances, is humanity. The Romans bestowed civic crowns on those who preserved their citizens; I shall not be less grateful."

From the commencement of this march hardly a day elapsed in which some new calamity did not befall those hitherto invincible legions. The Cossacks of Platoff came upon one division at Kolotsk, near Borodino, on the 1st of November, and gave them a total defeat. A second division was attacked the day after and with nearly equal success, by the irregular troops of Count Orloff Denizoff. The French now became separated by attacks made by Milarodowitch and the soldiers began to suffer from extreme hunger. On the 6th of November their miseries were heightened by the setting in of the Russian winter. Thenceforth, between the heavy columns of regular troops which on every side watched and threatened them, the continued a.s.saults of the Cossacks who hung around them in clouds by day and by night, rushing on every detached party like the Mamelukes of Egypt, disturbing every bivouac, breaking up bridges before, and destroying every straggler behind them, to the terrible severity of the climate, the frost, the snow, the wind--the sufferings of this once magnificent army were such as have hardly been equalled in the world's history.