Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 24

On the 18th he reached the banks of the Saale where the troops he had been mustering and organizing in France had now been joined by Eugene and the garrison of Magdeburg.

The Czar and his Prussian ally were known to be at Dresden, and it soon appeared that, while they meditated a march westwards on Leipsic, the French intended to move eastward with a view of securing the possession of that great city. He had a host nearly 200,000 strong concentrating for action while reserves of almost equal numbers were gradually forming behind him on the Rhine. Napoleon arrived at Erfurt on the 23d of April, whilst Marshal Ney was taking possession of Weissenfels, after a contest which caused him to say "he had never at any one time, seen so much enthusiasm and _sang froid_ in the infantry." And yet the veterans of Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland and Wagram had nearly all disappeared from the ranks, and the honor of those eagles, so long victorious, had been committed to young conscripts, hardly conversant with their exercise, and by no means habituated to the fatigues of war.

The armies met on the first of May,--sooner than Napoleon had ventured to hope,--near the town of Lutzen, then celebrated as the scene of the battle in which King Gustavus Adolphus died. The evening before the battle Marshal Bessieres was forcing a defile near Poserna, and having, according to custom, advanced into the very midst of the skirmishers, a musket-ball struck him in the breast, and extended him lifeless on the ground. His death was concealed from the brave men he had so long commanded and by whom he was greatly beloved, until after the victory of the following day.

The allies crossed the Elster suddenly, under the cover of a thick morning fog, and attacked the left flank of the French, who had been advancing in column, and who thus commenced the action under heavy disadvantages. But the Emperor so skillfully altered the arrangement of his army, that, ere the day closed, the allies were more afraid of being enclosed to their ruin within his two wings, than hopeful of being able to cut through and destroy that part of his force which they had originally charged and weakened, and which had now become his centre.

Night interrupted the conflict and the next morning the enemy retreated, leaving Napoleon in possession of the field. His victory was less complete than was desirable although he lost but ten or twelve thousand men while the allies lost above twenty thousand.

A great moral effect was, however, produced by the battle. Napoleon, who had been regarded as already conquered, was again victorious. The Emperor immediately sent dispatches to every court in alliance with France, to announce the event. "In my young soldiers," he said, "I have found all the valor of my old companions-in-arms. During the twenty years that I have commanded the French troops I have never witnessed more bravery and devotion. If all the Allied Sovereigns, and the ministers who direct their cabinets, had been present on the field of battle, they would have renounced the vain hope of causing the Star of France to decline."

Beaten at Lutzen, Alexander and the King of Prussia fell back on Leipsic, thence on Dresden, and finally across the Elbe to Bautzen. A want of cavalry prevented their pursuit.

Napoleon entered Dresden on the 11th of May, and on the 12th was joined by the King of Saxony who still adhered to him. The Saxon troops once more decided to act in concert with the French. As Napoleon approached Dresden, he was waited upon by the magistrates who had been treacherous to him and to their king, and had welcomed the allies.

"Who are you?" Napoleon asked severely.

"Members of the munic.i.p.ality," replied the trembling burgomasters.

"Have you bread for my troops?" inquired Napoleon.

"Our resources," they answered, "have been entirely exhausted by the requisitions of the Russians and Prussians."

"Ah!" replied Napoleon, "it is impossible, is it? I know no such word.

Get ready bread, meat and wine. You richly deserve to be treated as a conquered people. But I forgive all from regard for your king. He is the saviour of your country. You have been already punished by the presence of the Russians and Prussians, and having been governed by Baron Stein."

On becoming master of Dresden, the Emperor, as usual, sent proposals of a pacific nature to the allies, suggesting that a general congress should a.s.semble at Prague to treat for peace. Neither Russia nor Prussia, however, would listen favorably to what they considered would be an admission of their incapacity to realize their boast of speedily dethroning "the scourge and tyrant of Europe and mankind."

Austria had been sounded, and expressed her willingness to join the coalition on the first favorable opportunity. She was at this time increasing her military establishment largely, and a great body of troops was already concentrated behind the mountainous frontier of Bohemia. Austria, therefore, was enabled to turn the scale on whichever side she might choose.

Napoleon now determined to crush the army which had retreated from Lutzen, ere the ceremonious cabinet of Vienna should have time to come to a distinct understanding with the headquarters of Alexander and Frederick William. That victory was the best method of securing Austria's help, Napoleon clearly saw.

The allies, on their retreat, had blown up the magnificent bridge over the Elbe at Dresden, and this being replaced in part by some arches of wood, Napoleon now moved towards Bautzen and came in sight of the enemy on the morning of the 21st of May. The position of the allies was almost perfect: in their front was the river Spree; wooded hills supported their right, and eminences well fortified their left.

The action began with an attempt to turn their right, but Barclay de Tolly antic.i.p.ated this movement and repelled it with such vigor that a whole column of 7,000 dispersed and fled into the hills of Bohemia for safety.

Napoleon now determined to pa.s.s the Spree in front of the enemy, and they permitted him to do so, rather than come down from their position.

He took up his quarters in the town of Bautzen, and his whole army bivouacked in presence of the allies.

The battle was resumed at daybreak on the 22d; when Ney on the right, and Oudinot on the left, attempted simultaneously to turn the flanks of the position; while Soult and Napoleon himself directed charge after charge on the centre. During four hours the struggle was maintained with unflinching obstinacy. The wooded heights, where Blucher commanded, had been taken and retaken several times, ere the allies perceived the necessity of retiring or losing the engagement. They finally withdrew, panic-stricken, continuing their retreat with such celerity as to gain time to rally on the roads leading to Bohemia, all others being closed against them. The want of cavalry, however, again prevented Napoleon from turning his success to account.

During the whole of the ensuing day Napoleon, at the head of the cavalry of the Guard, urged pursuit and exposed at all times his own person in the very hottest of the fire. By his side was Duroc, grand master of the palace--his dearest friend. "Duroc," said the Emperor, on the morning of the battle, "fortune has a spite at us to-day."

About 7 o'clock in the evening, Duroc was conversing on a slight eminence, and at a considerable distance from the firing, with Marshal Mortier and General Kirgener,--all three on foot,--when a cannon-ball, aimed at the group, ploughed up the ground near Mortier, ripped open Duroc's abdomen and struck General Kirgener dead on the spot.

Napoleon hastened to Duroc as soon as he heard of the event and was deeply moved on beholding him. The latter, who was still conscious, said to the Emperor: "All my life has been devoted to your service, and I only regret its loss for the use which it might still have been to you."

"Duroc," replied the Emperor, "there is another life! it is there that you will await me and there we shall one day meet."--"Yes, Sire, but that will be in thirty years, when you shall have triumphed over your enemies, and realized the hopes of your country; I have lived an honest man and have nothing to reproach myself with. I leave a daughter, your Majesty will be a father to her."

At Duroc's own solicitation the Emperor retired to spare him further grief. Napoleon had ordered his troops to halt, and he remained all the afternoon in front of his tent, surrounded by the Guard, who did not witness his affliction without tears. He stood by Duroc while he died and drew up with his own hand an epitaph, to be placed over his remains by the pastor of the place, and who received two hundred napoleons to defray the expense of a fitting monument. Thus closed the 22d.

That night Napoleon, after dictating the bulletin of the battle, wrote the following decree, "which," says Alison, "all lovers of the arts, as well as admirers of patriotic virtue, must regret was prevented by his fall from being carried into execution:"--"A monument shall be erected on Mount Cenis; on the most conspicuous s.p.a.ce the following inscription shall be written: 'The Emperor Napoleon, from the field of Wurschen, has ordered the erection of this monument in testimony of his grat.i.tude to the people of France and of Italy. This monument will transmit, from age to age, the remembrance of that great epoch, when, in the s.p.a.ce of three months, twelve hundred thousand men flew to arms, to protect the integrity of the French Empire.'"

The allies, although strongly posted during the most of the day, had lost 10,000 men. They continued to retreat into Upper Silesia, and Napoleon advanced to Breslau and released the garrison of Glogau.

General Regnier obtained fresh advantage over the Russians in the affair of Gorlitz on the following day, and on the 24th Marshal Ney forced the pa.s.sage of the Neiss and in the morning of the 25th was beyond the Quiess where he met the Emperor.

Meanwhile, the Austrians, having watched these indecisive though b.l.o.o.d.y fields, and daily defeats of the allies, sought to bring about an armistice, but only with a view of gaining them time to recuperate. The sovereigns of Russia and Prussia expressed a willingness to accept it, and Napoleon also was desirous of bringing his disputes to a peaceful termination until the 10th of August. He agreed to an armistice, and in arranging its conditions, agreed to fall back out of Silesia, thus enabling the allies to reopen communications with Berlin. On the first of June the lines of truce to be occupied by the armies was signed, the French Emperor returned to Dresden, and a general congress of diplomatists prepared to meet at Prague, England alone refusing to send a representative alleging that Napoleon had as yet signified no intention to recede from his position with regard to Spain.

The armistice was arranged purely to gain time. Napoleon's successes, while unproductive, were dazzling in their execution, and the allies found it of the utmost importance to stop hostilities until the advance of Bernadotte, and secure further time for the arrival of new reinforcements from Russia; for the completion of the Prussian organization and, above all, for determining the policy of Vienna.

While inferior diplomatists wasted much time in endless discussions at Prague one interview between Prince Metternich and Napoleon, at Dresden, brought the whole question to a definite issue. The Emperor, during the course of their conversation, is said to have asked "What is your price?

Will Illyria satisfy you? I only wish you to be neutral--I can deal with these Russians and Prussians single-handed."

Metternich answered that the time in which Austria could be neutral was past; that the situation of Europe at large must be considered. He declared that the Rhenish Confederacy must be broken up, that France must be contented with the boundary of the Rhine and pretend no longer to maintain her unnatural influence in Germany. Napoleon replied, "Come Metternich, tell me honestly how much the English have given you to take their part against me?"

At length the Austrian Court sent a formal doc.u.ment containing its ultimatum, the tenor of which Metternich had indicated in his conversation. Napoleon was urged by his ministers, Talleyrand and Fouche, two arch-intriguers, to accede to the proffered terms. Their arguments were backed by intelligence of the most disastrous character from Spain. Wellington, on perceiving that Napoleon had greatly weakened his armies in that country, while preparing for his campaign against Prussia and Russia, had once more advanced and was now in possession of the supreme authority over the Spanish armies as well as the Portugese and English, and had appeared in greater force than ever. The French had suffered defeat at several points and on the 21st of June, Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jourdan had sustained a total defeat, and the former was now retreating towards the Pyrenees.

Berthier concurred in pressing upon the Emperor the desirability of making peace on the terms proposed, or to draw in his garrisons on the Oder and Elbe, whereby he would strengthen his army with 50,000 veterans and retire to the Rhine. There, it was urged, with such a force a.s.sembled on such a river, and with all the resources of France behind him, he might bid defiance to the united armies of Europe, and, at worst, obtain a peace that would leave him in secure tenure of a n.o.bler dominion than any of the kings, his predecessors, had even hoped to possess. "Ten lost battles," he replied, "would not sink me lower than you would have me place myself by my own voluntary act; but one battle gained enables me to seize Berlin and Breslau and make peace on terms compatible with my glory."

Finally, Metternich suddenly broke off all negotiations, and on the 12th of August, Austria declared war against France. It was an act of bold and shameless perfidy; but Metternich was richly rewarded for his treachery by the crowned heads of Europe. It was then that Napoleon discovered the depth of the abyss on which he had set his foot. He had lived in the hopes that his alliance with the House of Austria, by marriage with Marie Louise, would prevent the Archd.u.c.h.ess' father from taking the field against him, but in this he was sadly disappointed.

Austria now signed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Russia and Prussia. Thus was consolidated at last the great coalition. The sovereigns of the nations of Europe had leagued together and sworn to crush the Emperor of France.

On the night between the 10th and 11th rockets answering rockets, from height to height along the frontiers of Bohemia and Silesia, had announced to all the armies of the allies this accession of strength and the immediate recommencement of hostilities. Napoleon had now been several weeks with his army at Dresden and it had been fondly hoped by the populace that on the birthday of the French Emperor, a peace with Europe would be signed. They had prepared a magnificent festival in his honor and to celebrate the restoration of peace. Their hopes were considerably lessened, however, by an order for the fete to take place on the 10th in conjunction with a grand review of the army. On the great plain of Ostra-Gehege, near Dresden, the imperial troops were drawn up, and in the presence of the King of Saxony, the Emperor's brothers, marshals, and the chief dignitaries of the Empire, Napoleon held his last review. Twenty thousand of the Old Guard, five thousand of whom were mounted on fine horses richly caparisoned, with the whole of his vast army, defiled before their Imperial Commander. At night a banquet was spread for his gallant veterans.

Military preparations had been progressing on both sides during the cessation of hostilities. Napoleon now had a force of 250,000 men distributed as follows: Macdonald lay with 100,000 at Buntzlaw, on the border of Silesia; another corps of 50,000 had their headquarters at Zittau, in Lusatia; St. Cyr, with 20,000 was at Pirna on the great pa.s.s from Bohemia; Oudinot at Leipsic, with 60,000; while with the Emperor himself at Dresden remained 25,000 of the Imperial Guard, the flower of France.

Behind the Erzgebirge, or Metallic Mountains, and having their headquarters at Prague, lay the grand army of the allies, consisting of 120,000 Austrians and 80,000 Russians and Prussians; commanded in chief by the Austrian general Schwartzenberg. The French corps at Zittau and Pirna were prepared to encounter these, should the attempt to force their way into Saxony, either on the right or the left of the Elbe. The second army of the allies, consisting of 80,000 Russians and Prussians,--called the army of Silesia,--and commanded by Blucher, lay in advance of Breslau. Lastly, the Crown Prince of Sweden, Bernadotte, who had been influenced by a belief that he was to succeed to the throne of France, was at Berlin, with 30,000 of his own troops, and 60,000 Russians and Prussians. Oudinot and Macdonald were so stationed that he could not approach the upper valley of the Elbe without encountering one of them, and they also had the means of mutual communication and support.

Napoleon had evidently arranged his troops with the view of making isolated a.s.saults, and beating them in detail. He was opposed, however, by generals who were well acquainted with his tactics but none of whom, except Blucher, was above mediocre in generalship. The three allied commanders had prepared counter schemes to frustrate his arrangements, having agreed that whosoever of them should be first a.s.sailed or pressed by the French, they should on no account accept battle, but retreat; thus tempting Napoleon in person to follow, leaving Dresden open to the a.s.sault of some other great branch of their confederacy, and to enable them at once to seize all his magazines, to break the communications between the remaining divisions of his army, and interpose a hostile force in the rear of them all--between the Elbe and the Rhine.

This plan of campaign is believed to have been drawn up by two of Napoleon's old marshals--Bernadotte and Moreau--both traitors. The latter had just returned from America on the invitation of the Emperor Alexander, whither he had gone after being exiled, and had joined the Allies in their warfare on the French Emperor.

The first movement was made by Blucher, and no sooner did Napoleon become aware that he was threatening the position of Macdonald than he quitted Dresden. He left with his Guard and a powerful force of cavalry on the 15th of August, and proceeded to the support of his marshal. The Prussian commander adhered faithfully to the general plan and retired across the Katsbach, in the face of his enemies. While in pursuit of him Napoleon was informed that Schwartzenberg had rushed down from the Bohemian hills and abandoning Blucher to the care of Macdonald, sent his Guard back to Dresden leaving for the same point himself on the 23d.

Schwartzenberg made his appearance on the heights to the south of the Saxon capital on the 25th, having driven St. Cyr and his 20,000 men before him.

The army of St. Cyr had thrown itself into the city of Dresden and on the 26th were a.s.sailed in six columns, each more numerous than its garrison. The French marshal had about begun to despair when the Imperial Guard made its appearance, crossing the bridge from the eastern side of the Elbe, and in their midst was the Emperor himself. His arrival was most timely and the two sallies executed by those troops, hot and tired from their long and tiresome march, caused the allies to be driven back some distance. Night then set in and the two armies remained very near together until the next morning when the battle was renewed amidst a storm of wind and rain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Drawing by F. Grenier

INSURRECTION IN MADRID]

The Emperor, by movements most phenomenal, now had 200,000 men gathered round him, and he poured them out with such skill on either flank of the enemy's line, that ere the close of the day they were forced to withdraw. At 3 o'clock the battle of Dresden was definitely gained for Napoleon. The allied monarchs, in danger of losing their communication with Bohemia, were obliged to provide for their safety and beat a retreat leaving in the power of the Conqueror from twenty-five to thirty thousand prisoners, forty flags, and sixty pieces of cannon.

Napoleon remained on the field until his victory was decided, and then returned to Dresden on horseback; his gray-coat, and weather-worn hat streaming with water, and his whole appearance forming a singular contrast to that of Murat, who rode by his side with all the splendor of his usual battle-dress. The latter had, however, especially distinguished himself during the action.

On either side 8,000 men had been slain or wounded and one of the ablest of all the enemy's generals--Moreau, had fallen. Early in the day Napoleon had observed a group of reconnoitring officers and ordered that ten cannon be prepared at once. He believed that he recognized in the group "the traitor Moreau." He at once ordered that the heavy guns, charged with all their power, be pointed in that direction. He superintended the operation and decided himself the angle of elevation, the aim and the moment to fire. Ten pieces went off at once, carrying a storm of cannon-shot over the heads of the contending armies. This was followed by a movement which was thought to indicate that some person of importance had been wounded.