FOOTNOTES:[8]Langeron.[9]Iachvil’s advance-guard was apparently distributed.
FOOTNOTES:
[8]Langeron.
[8]Langeron.
[9]Iachvil’s advance-guard was apparently distributed.
[9]Iachvil’s advance-guard was apparently distributed.
CHAPTER XIV
CONCLUSION OF THE CAMPAIGN. LOSSES AND RESULTS
Thepassage of the Berezina practically put an end to the existence as an organised body of the remains of theGrande Armée. Of the 45,000 or 47,000 combatants whom Napoleon had near Studianka on the 26th, there probably remained on the 29th little more than 25,000, a total which rapidly diminished through slaughter, fatigue, famine, despair and, above all, the steadily increasing cold. The 2nd and 9th Corps had sacrificed themselves heroically to cover the passage, but the double ordeal of battle and hasty retreat was too heavy for them to bear, and they began to disband like the rest of the army. They had already been reduced to a mere handful. In a report on the evening of the 30th Victor stated that he had only 60 mounted horsemen left. He believed that he still had 4000 infantry—the surviving half, as he explained, of the 2 divisions which had fought so gallantly on the 28th—but on calling the roll he found that they had already dwindled to 3300.
While the battles of the 28th were raging the corps of Davout and Eugène had defiled on Zembin. The effects of the neglect of Chaplitz to break down the long wooden bridges over the marshes were now apparent; the marshes were hardly as yet solid enough to bear vehicles, and had the bridges been destroyed nothing could have passed. Before daylight on the 29th Napoleon started with the Guard, followed by Victor and Ney, but the passage over the long narrow bridges was so slow that at10 p.m. Ney was only at Zembin, 7 or 8 miles from Studianka. With him were Eblé and the remnant of his pontonniers, and when the last troops had passed they fired and blew up sections of the bridges to check the pursuit of the Russians.
On November 26th Kutuzov, who was then at Staroselie, 12 miles west of Kopis, seems to have awakened to the probability that Napoleon would escape. At any rate, he suddenly acted with convulsive energy, and during the next 2 days theCorps de Bataillemarched 42 miles. The effort, of course, exhausted it, and on the 29th it could only cover 11. In any case it was too late. Napoleon himself was already safe, and, though only followed by a remnant of his once mighty host, was able and willing to give endless trouble to Europe.
Miloradovich reached Borisov on the 28th, too late to take part in the battles. Wittgenstein was retarded by the necessity of bridging the Berezina at Studianka, for which purpose he had to avail himself of Chichagov’s pontoons from Borisov. He directed Kutuzov II, who had just joined him, to pursue Wrede towards Vilna, and Orlov-Denisov, reinforced by some cavalry and mounted infantry, to follow Napoleon. Chichagov pushed forward Chaplitz, and prepared himself to follow with the bulk of his army.
For the relics of theGrande Arméethere was now, as De Chambray says, no resource but in hasty flight. Wrede, after reoccupying Glubokoië, had moved southward to Dokchitsi, and was directed to cover the right flank of the retreating army; but his force, at first about 10,000 strong, rapidly dwindled from the ravages of cold and hardships, and the steady harassing of Kutuzov II. To expect that he could check Wittgenstein, who crossed the Berezina on the 31st, and began to pursue by roads roughly parallel to the main highway, was hopeless.
The country between the Berezina and Vilna had not been completely wasted; the towns still existed; therewere small garrisons and magazines in some of them. But the increasing cold rapidly shattered every semblance of organisation. It rapidly became so fearful that all energy was absorbed in fighting it and endeavouring to preserve existence. The number of men actually with the colours dwindled fast. On December 1st Ney sent the eagles of the 3rd Corps with their guards and the regimental officers to take refuge with the head-quarters and the few thousand troops who still marched with it. When he had sent them off there remained to escort him only a company of 100 fighting men! The others, under General Ledru, tramped doggedly on for two days and three nights, only halting for necessary rest, and joined the head-quarters at Molodechno.
ney
MARSHAL NEY SUPPORTING THE REAR-GUARD DURING THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOWFrom the painting by Yvon
The flight to Vilna contains little of military interest. It was a mere rout of the most pitifully helpless condition, the mass of fugitives trailing mechanically along the road, followed, surrounded, and massacred by the Cossacks, while Chichagov’s army and Yermólov’s division marched steadily in the rear, ready to overwhelm any solid resistance that might be made. But, in truth, little could be offered. On November 29th Lanskoi’s cavalry detachment seized Plechenitzi on the French line of retreat, nearly capturing the wounded Marshal Oudinot, whose staff heroically defended the house in which he lay. Chaplitz crossed the Zembin marshes by strengthening the ice with planks and brushwood, followed up the French rear-guard, and captured 7 guns and hundreds of stragglers. On the next four days there were further rear-guard actions, all much alike and all resulting in loss of guns and prisoners to the unhappy French, whose misery and demoralisation prevented them from responding to the splendid example still set them by their heroic leader. The hopeless condition of affairs may be gauged by the fact that on December 2nd there remained hardly 13,000 men with the colours (De Chambray says only 8800). With the head-quarters there were still perhaps6000 or 7000; Ney had about 2500[10]; Victor perhaps as many; while the 1st, 4th, and 8th Army Corps and the cavalry could not muster 1000 armed men between them. There was still a considerable number of armed officers, but they fell sick or broke down daily. Disorganisation was complete. Disbanded men who had hitherto kept their weapons now threw them away. Forage could be procured; and food in quantity sufficient to support life was not lacking. But rest was now more necessary even than food, and it was impossible to obtain it. The bulk of the men were already broken by misery and fatigue, and were forced to continue their weary march amid a cold which grew ever more severe. On December 3rd it became intense; on the 5th the thermometer fell to 20° below zero (Réaumur); on the 6th to 24°; on the 7th to 26°; and it is said to have fallen still lower later on. Its severity struck even men like Löwenstern, accustomed to the winters of the Baltic provinces.
At Vilna Napoleon might expect his last powerful reinforcement—Loison’s division of the 11th Corps, which reached the Lithuanian capital in the last week of November with two cavalry regiments of D’Estrée’s Neapolitan division in Danzig. There were besides in Vilna 6000 or 7000 troops of all kinds—régiments de marcheand Polish and Lithuanian levies. Maret, with the best intentions but disastrous results, ordered Loison’s division forward to Ochmiana to take position and cover the retreat of the relics of the army into Vilna. It was composed of young French and German recruits, and three or four days of the cruel weather nearly destroyed it. How many men actually died and how many disbanded cannot be ascertained; it is only certain that on December 7th there remained in the ranks less than 3000 men!
At Molodechno on the 3rd, just as the cold was becomingdeadly, Napoleon, who already contemplated leaving the army, issued practically his last direct orders. The remains of the Polish divisions were sent off south-west towards Warsaw, which they eventually reached in safety with such guns as they had preserved. Here Napoleon received the first posts which had reached him for several days, the others having presumably been intercepted by the Cossacks. Here also he composed and sent off the 29th Bulletin. It is so well known that little reference to it is necessary. It is, however, to be observed that it is as grossly mendacious as any of the Napoleonic series; and the Emperor’s total lack of appreciation of the often heroic conduct of his troops throws a very disagreeable light upon his character. Certainly no one, reading its paragraphs, would conclude that the campaign had been an annihilating catastrophe. Every post brought shoals of letters to Maret, enquiring about the food supplies at Vilna, furiously attacking the Poles for not supporting him, and his own agents for not having urged them to do so! One most remarkable question is as to whether Vilna and Kovno are fortified. Surely Napoleon should have given orders on this point. The fact seems to be that at first he had been over-confident of success, and later had overlooked the necessity of protecting his bases—witness the case of Minsk. On the 29th of November he had ordered the minister to clear all the diplomatic body away from Vilna, lest they should be witnesses of the awful state of the army.
On December 3rd, Victor—much against his will—relieved Ney of rear-guard duty. He was weary of the war, and desired chiefly to save the relics of his corps. The result was a quarrel between the two marshals. The survivors of the 9th Corps succeeded in holding off Chaplitz in an engagement on the 4th, but next day Victor reported that it was completely used up, and could not receive the lightest attack. He hurried on to Smorgoni with the few hundred frost-bitten men who remained to him.
Napoleon himself reached Smorgoni at 8 a.m. on the 5th. There he called to his presence Murat, Eugène, Berthier, Davout, Ney, Lefebvre, Mortier and Bessières, and announced to them his intention of proceeding forthwith to Paris. There can be no doubt that this was his wisest course of action. His presence at the capital was imperatively necessary to direct new levies, and to sustain public spirit. The army practically existed no longer, and could gain nothing by his remaining with it; finally, any longer delay might render it impossible for him to reach his own frontier across Germany.
Murat, by virtue of his rank, succeeded to a command which was merely nominal. It was no doubt wise to leave all the corps commanders with the army, since the circumstance might impose upon the Russians; but otherwise it was a measure of doubtful utility. Ney, the hardest fighter of them all, and apparently the only one who persistently held firm to his duty, was on bad terms with Davout and Victor, and Davout and Murat quarrelled whenever they met. As it was, there being hardly anything to command, their squabbles counted for less than they might otherwise have done.
Napoleon left in his carriage at 7 p.m., accompanied by Caulaincourt. Duroc and Lobau followed in a sledge; and on the box of the carriage were the Mameluke Rustan and Captain Wasowicz of the Polish Lancers of the Guard, who acted as interpreter. Believing the road to be clear, he was escorted only by a small detachment of Neapolitan cavalry—and thus the mighty conqueror stole away from the scene of his ruin, leaving the survivors of his gigantic host to the climate and the arms of Russia.
As a fact, he had a very narrow escape from capture, since Seslavin that day made a dash at Ochmiana. Loison’s division, however, or what remained of it, had reached the town just before; Seslavin was driven out,and bivouacked for the night a little way to the south, so that the Emperor arrived in safety. At Medniki, the next stage, he met Maret, who had come out to meet him. The minister informed him of the enormous magazines which had gradually collected in Vilna. Presumably, as De Chambray suggests, Maret’s returns under this heading had failed to reach the Emperor, for he expressed his great relief, and directed Maret to tell Murat to halt for eight days in the city, in order to restore the physique and morale of the army. He arrived at Vilna on the 6th, leaving again, after a brief halt, for Warsaw. There, on the 10th he had the interview with De Pradt which the latter has so graphically described. He started again in a few hoursviaDresden for Paris, which he reached on the 18th.
At Vilna, indeed, there were 4,000,000 rations of biscuit and flour and 3,600,000 of meat, besides an immense quantity of grain; 27,000 spare muskets, 30,000 pairs of boots, and great stores of clothing and equipment. But little of this was destined to be of use to the unhappy victims of Napoleon’s overweening ambition. The scenes on the road between Vilna and the Berezina would pass all belief were there not trustworthy witnesses, both French and Russian, to bear testimony to them. The road and its borders were strewn with dead men and horses and abandoned guns and vehicles, often broken and half-burned, the fugitives having endeavoured to utilise them as fuel. Along this way of sorrow trailed an endless stream of human beings of both sexes, falling at every step to mingle with the corpses upon which they trampled. Those who fell were quickly stripped of their wretched rags by the passers-by—themselves doomed to the same fate before long. To dwell upon the horrors which marked every mile of the flight is useless. They may be gathered from countless works composed by eyewitnesses. The sense of humanity had been in many cases extinguished, and there are well-attested incidents of cannibalism. Langeron vouches for having seen bodies from which the flesh had been hacked. The intense cold produced insanity; men took refuge in heated ovens and were roasted to death, or sprang into the fires. To be taken prisoner brought no alleviation of the lot of the hapless fugitives. The Cossacks usually stripped them; often, too, the Russians, exasperated at the destruction of Moscow and the ravages of the invaders, gave no quarter even to those who surrendered. Besides, they could do nothing to provide for them even had they the will. Prisoners died, as before, by the roadside, stripped, famished, frozen; at Vilna they were packed into buildings where pestilence raged amid cold, filth, and lack of proper food.
On towards Vilna, to which they looked forward as a haven of rest, the wretched horde streamed. The Cossacks hung about the route, dashed at will into the huddled mass, mixed with the crowd, and killed and plundered with deadly dexterity. Around the head-quarters still moved a considerable but steadily diminishing body of fighting men, but discipline had vanished, and even the Guard marched in confusion, and paid little heed to orders. Here and there among the piteous crowd that followed were to be found groups of armed officers and men, often sick and worn out, but retaining spirit to sell their lives dearly when attacked, but these were few. Even the rear-guard was not an organised body—merely a band of desperate warriors held together, usually, by the personal influence of the one Marshal of France who returned from Russia with added renown.
On the heels of the French rear-guard marched Chaplitz’s division, attacking at every opportunity, picking up abandoned guns and vehicles mile by mile and disarming prisoners, who were then left to live or die as they might. After Chaplitz, always between a piteous double stream of “prisoners” whom it could neither care for nor guard, tramped the Army of the Danube,everyone from the Admiral downwards marching on foot to escape frost-bite, and carefully taking every precaution against it. Sometimes the road was so choked with dead that the dismounted cavalry in the advance had to clear it before the guns and trains could be got forward. Langeron says that, despite the weather, fatal cases of frost-bite were almost unknown among these veterans of the Turkish War.
It is distressing, amid the stories of the universal misery and destitution, to read of the waggon-loads of luxuries belonging to Napoleon, Murat and other generals which were taken by the Russians. There is a grim humour in learning that the uncouth captors often took perfumes for spirits and liqueurs, and ate pomade in mistake for butter!
Victor on reaching Ochmiana found, instead of Loison’s strong division, 3000 or 4000 half-frozen recruits who would waste away entirely in a couple of days. He continued his retreat in all haste, followed and harassed by Chaplitz and Platov, who picked up prisoners by thousands and cannon by scores. On the 9th, a little way short of Vilna, Wrede arrived. His force had dwindled from cold, dispersion, and losses in skirmishing to a remnant of less than 3000 men, but he still possessed several guns. Murat and the head-quarters had reached Vilna on the 8th; but as early as the 6th bands of ragged and destitute fugitives had begun to enter the city to the consternation of the inhabitants. Even in Murat’s column there was panic and disorder, which was only checked for a while by the Chasseurs of the Old Guard, who held together in the mob and prevented a mad rush. But when they had entered the crush became terrible, and order impossible. The gates were choked and, amongst others, Davout and his staff could only enter by a gap in a wall. The fugitives poured through the streets seeking for food and shelter—often vainly, for the horrified inhabitants barricaded themselves in their houses—and when they could notobtain it, dropped down to die. The Jewish tradesmen sold food to the helpless wretches literally for its weight in gold; but when the city was evacuated, unless all accounts lie, they murdered and robbed them wholesale.
To stay in Vilna, even for a few days, was impossible. Seslavin and his Cossacks actually entered the city on the 9th, but were, of course, obliged to retreat almost immediately. But the action showed the absolute recklessness of the Russians, and the French army was destitute of power to resist. So many of the men dispersed in the city that on the 10th only 6000 or 7000 at most were under arms. A large part of the fugitives never left Vilna again. Many were worn out by sickness and fatigue, and having once lain down to rest had not power to rise. Many died through drinking spirits, in the hope of resisting the cold. Many more were frost-bitten, and sudden warmth added to neglect produced gangrene. Nearly 20,000 helpless creatures were left, mostly to perish, in the city when the remainder pursued their way to the Niemen. No news as to the actual state of affairs had been allowed to reach Vilna, and the consequence was that no preparations had been made for the reception of the army. Murat simply lost his head; at the first sound of the cannon at the advance posts he left the palace in which he had established himself and hurried to the Kovno gate to be ready to escape. Berthier issued hasty orders to destroy the arms and ammunition in the arsenal. Eblé, whose noble life was almost spent, and who had set the crown upon his reputation by his unfailing heroism and self-sacrifice during the last stages of the retreat, was charged with this melancholy duty, Lariboissière being even nearer his end. Directions were given to issue food and clothes to everybody abundantly and without attention to forms. Orders were sent to Schwarzenberg to withdraw to Bielostok, while Macdonald was instructed to retreat to Tilsit. Thehopeless task of holding back the Russians was thrown upon the shoulders of Ney.
Wrede with his frozen and disorganised remnant was driven in upon Vilna by Platov on the 9th. The Cossacks were already all round the town skirmishing with the defenders. Apart from the destruction wrought by the cold the latter suffered considerable loss. The Lithuanian Tartar Squadrons, destined to form part of the Guard, were completely annihilated. In the night Murat evacuated Vilna, and next day Ney abandoned it, the Cossacks following him through the streets.
A few miles from Vilna the road to Kovno leads over a steep hill. The remains of the army trains and those from Vilna, which were following the army, found themselves blocked at the foot of the icebound slope, up which the horses were utterly unable to drag them. The last remaining guns and most of the waggons had to be abandoned. The army pay-chests, containing 10,000,000 francs, were abandoned and partly pillaged by the soldiers. Only Napoleon’s private treasure and carriages, and a very small proportion of the trains, were by desperate exertions preserved, 20 horses being necessary to drag a single vehicle up the hill. In the midst of the disorder and pillage the Cossacks arrived. Platov opened on the crowd with his light guns, but his wild horsemen for the most part fell upon the spoil and apparently disdained to take prisoners. The disaster was due to sheer lack of management, since the Novi Troki road, which was level and little longer, turned the hill to the south, and might easily have been used for the retreat.
kitchen
NAPOLEON’S TRAVELLING KITCHENIt was taken to Moscow and afterwards captured on the field of WaterlooPhotographed for this work at the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich
It was as hopeless to attempt to hold firm at Kovno as at Vilna. There were 42 guns in the town, partly those of Loison’s division, which had been left there, great magazines of food and clothing, and about 2,500,000 francs in cash. There was a feebletête du pont, but the Niemen was frozen and could be crossed anywhere on the ice. On the 12th the main body poured into the town—about 20,000 men, mostly in the last stage of misery and despair and nearly all disarmed. The Guard mustered 1600 bayonets and sabres. Ney, who had been fighting with Platov all the way from Vilna, reached the town in the evening; with the garrison troops added to the relics of the rear-guard he had not 2000 men. Efforts were made to distribute the stores and re-arm the disbanded troops, but the men threw away the muskets. The magazines were pillaged, the miserable wretches naturally fastening upon the spirit stores. Men drunken and dying lay in heaps in the snow-covered streets. Most of the benumbed fugitives lacked even the sense to avail themselves of the ice on the river; they crowded mechanically over the bridge, fighting for precedence, stifling and trampling each other down, as at the Berezina and Vilna. Murat placed some guns in battery on the left bank of the Niemen, and left for Königsberg on the 13th, while Ney and the rear-guard occupied the town, which they held until dark. Platov sent across a detachment on the ice, which captured the guns on the left bank and barred Ney’s retreat. His men were largely huddling in the houses; he had only a few hundred armed soldiers. He turned down the left bank of the river and then diverged to the left across the Pelwiski forest, eventually making his way by Gumbinnen to Königsberg. He abandoned in the forest Loison’s 16 guns, almost the last artillery that the army retained.
The Russians did not immediately cross the political frontier, and bitterly as the Prussian peasantry hated the French they did not actively ill-treat them. Many isolated fugitives were disarmed, but their misery was such as to melt even hearts steeled by hatred and the memory of recent oppression. De Fezensac says that the happiness of being fed and lodged prevented them from noticing the hostility of the people. The bulk of the mob of fugitives reached Königsberg by the 20th, and thence cantonments were spread along the Vistula. On that daythe infantry of the Guard counted about 2500 officers and men, of whom 1000 were sick. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Corps mustered between them on January 10th, 1813, some 13,000 men sound and sick, of whom 2500 were officers. As to the condition of the army, nearly all the troops were disarmed and had to be furnished with new muskets from the vast magazines at Danzig. On December 23rd Eblé, now in chief command of the artillery, reported that of all the vast train which had entered Russia with the Central Army there remained but 9 guns and howitzers, and 5 caissons!
Two days before Lariboissière had died, and on December 30th Eblé also passed away. Colonel Pion des Loches, a man who rarely has a good word to say for his superiors, expresses himself thus concerning them: “Both were victims of their zeal and devotion. Our army lost in them its pillars and supports ... and what are all our other generals worth beside them?” As his comrades in arms laid Eblé to rest in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Königsberg, Napoleon was signing the decree which created him First Inspector-General of Artillery. Eblé’s grave has vanished, for the cemetery has been destroyed, but his glory far outshines that of thousands of better known men.
Marshal Kutuzov reached Vilna on December 12th to control the hitherto independent movements of Chichagov and Wittgenstein. His own troops were following under Tormazov, but they were so shattered by the long march from Moscow that their offensive power was for the time at an end, and they were cantoned about Vilna. Chichagov was to follow to the Niemen to support Platov and the advance-guards which hung on the heels of the retreating French. Wittgenstein was ordered to intercept Macdonald on his expected retreat to the Niemen, while Paulucci was to press him in rear. Sacken’s army, supported by the Mozyr force, now under Tuchkov II, and a detachment from Bobruisk, was to deal withSchwarzenberg. The Emperor Alexander reached Vilna on December 22nd, and at once devoted himself to the task of endeavouring to save the lives of his captured enemies. The hospitals were choked with the Russian sick, and the French prisoners, almost all ill and helpless, were perishing wholesale. Biscuit and bread they received, but there was no other help for them. Gangrened wounds, frost-bite, and typhus produced by filth, hunger, and putrefaction, swept them away. In three weeks 15,000 are said to have died. Alexander and Constantine made magnificent efforts to cope with the awful mass of human misery. Reckless of personal danger, they personally superintended the relief operations; the Grand Duke nearly died of the fever which he caught in the midst of his labour of humanity. St. Priest was transferred from the work of collecting the Russian stragglers to that of superintending the hospitals of the prisoners, for which his French origin especially fitted him.
Macdonald, before Riga, received his orders to retreat on December 18th, and started next day in two main columns, he himself leading the way with Grandjean’s division, a Prussian infantry brigade, and Massenbach’s cavalry; while Yorck followed a day’s march behind the rest of the Prussians. Wittgenstein himself could hardly intercept him; but the flying detachments of Kutuzov II and Diebich, thrown far forward, might hope to impede Macdonald’s march. The Marshal on reaching Koltiniani divided his own column, taking advantage of two roads thence to Tilsit, and intending to reunite his whole corps at Tauroggen. Kutuzov II was too weak to intercept him; but Diebich, with his 1500 cavalry and a few sledge-guns, got between Macdonald and Yorck on the 25th, and boldly proposed to the latter a conference in order to prevent useless bloodshed. After some hesitation Yorck at last made up his mind, and on the 30th concluded the famous convention of Tauroggen, by whichthe Prussians were declared neutral. The results were incalculably important, but belong rather to the history of the German War of Liberation. The immediate consequence was that the wreck of theGrande Arméewas weakened by 16,000 or 17,000 excellent soldiers and 60 guns.
Macdonald, meanwhile, was pursuing his retreat, and on the 27th repulsed Vlastov’s divisions, which had come up to support Kutuzov II, capturing some prisoners and a gun. But at Tilsit, on the 31st, he was deserted by Massenbach and was forced to fall back on Königsberg. He marched rapidly and steadily, and reached the Prussian capital in safety. On January 3rd, 1813, his rear-guard, under Bachelu, was driven through Labiau, after a hard fight, by Wittgenstein’s advance-guard under Chepelev. At Königsberg Macdonald was joined by Heudelet’s division, but Yorck’s defection ended all hope of being able to make a stand on the Pregel, and the retreat was continued to Danzig. When the blockade of Riga was raised, Paulucci sent Lewis with 8000 men to pursue Macdonald, and himself with 3000 made a dash for Memel, which he reached on December 15th, after an amazing march of 200 miles in 8 days. The place immediately surrendered.
While Schwarzenberg had been contending with Sacken, General Kosinski with his Poles had once more invaded Volhynia, but was repulsed after a little skirmishing by Musin-Pushkin.
Schwarzenberg, turning from his pursuit of Sacken, reached Slonim again on December 7th; but on learning of the catastrophe of theGrande Arméehe retreated on the 14th to Bielostok, arriving there on the 18th. Reynier drew back behind the Bug. On the advance of Sacken and Tuchkov, to assist whom Kutuzov also directed a column under Miloradovich, Schwarzenberg steadily withdrew, there being nothing but the most insignificant fighting. The Austrians eventually fell back into theirown territory, while Reynier retreated towards Saxony. The Polish troops remained in the Vistula fortresses, and were mostly captured in the following year. The little field army which Poniatowski was able to collect was allowed to join Napoleon in Saxony, since its blockade employed too many troops.
Thus in the last days of December the Russian territory had been freed from the vast host which had threatened to overwhelm it. The immediate result of the campaign was the all but complete destruction of an army nearly 700,000 men strong and its immense material. In all it would appear that, exclusive of Polish stationary troops and local levies other than those already mentioned, some 674,000 combatants crossed the Vistula against Russia, of whom about 640,000 actually took part in military operations. Of these 640,000 there remained as organised troops at the end of the campaign only the forces of Schwarzenberg and Macdonald, perhaps 68,000 combatants in all. All the other corps and divisions were represented by about 25,000 disorganised and generally disarmed men—largely officers—without cavalry and with scarcely any artillery. The number of guns which actually entered Russia is somewhat doubtful, but appears to have been over 1300, exclusive of the Riga siege train. Of these some 250 can be accounted for as having returned. The Russians claimed 929 as captured; the rest were no doubt abandoned and never recovered. More than 200,000 trained horses were lost; and it was the want of them which, even more than the deficiency of trained men, ruined Napoleon’s chances in 1813. The total chasm in the Napoleonic ranks was over 550,000 fighting men. As prisoners the Russians claimed 48 generals, 3000 officers, and 190,000 men, but it is to be feared that half of them were captured only to die. Even without making allowance for this, more than 350,000 soldiers must have perished, besides the tens of thousands of camp-followers, refugees, and other non-combatants.
The Russian losses are extremely difficult to compute. It is impossible to work upon the number of men successfully put into the field, and those remaining active at the close of the campaign, since the deficiency does not, as in the case of the Napoleonic army, represent absolute loss. There are reasons for believing that the actual loss of fighting men was nearly 150,000. The number of non-combatants—largely peaceful inhabitants of the country—who perished must have been enormous.
The ultimate results of the Russian victory were the general uprising of northern Germany against Napoleon, the adhesion of Austria—after considerable hesitation—to the anti-Napoleonic coalition, and the complete overthrow within little more than a year of the empire of force which he had built in Europe. Britain had long since destroyed Napoleon’s efforts at gaining power on the sea, and had struck heavy blows at his prestige on land. As the Russian army lay at Tarutino it was gladdened by the news of Wellington’s victories. And the prestige of Napoleon, shaken in Spain, was now shattered in Russia, and his material military power so broken that he was never really able again to face his antagonists on equal terms. It is perhaps true to say that the enthusiastic uprising of Germany was the chief factor in Napoleon’s downfall in 1813, but it was Russia who gave the impulse and cleared the way; and her military aid was of vital importance.
first
FIRST BATTLE OF POLOTSK (August 17th and 18th, 1812)
APPENDIX A
FORCES SUCCESSIVELY EMPLOYED BY NAPOLEON AGAINST RUSSIA IN 1812
It is extremely difficult to compute the numbers of reinforcements, etc., since a proportion of them consisted of convalescents and rejoining stragglers.
No allowance is made for the large number of transport drivers and other non-combatants.
APPENDIX B
COMPOSITION OF THE NAPOLEONIC GRAND ARMY BY NATIONALITIES
Imp. Guard, Head-quarters, Army Corps 1-10, Austrians, 4 Cavalry Corps, 32nd and 34th Divisions.
APPENDIX C
FORCES SUCCESSIVELY EMPLOYED BY RUSSIA AGAINST NAPOLEON IN 1812
FIRST ARMY OF WEST. APPROXIMATE STRENGTH
THIRD ARMY OF WEST
APPENDIX D
STAFF OF NAPOLEON’S GRAND ARMY OF RUSSIA, 1812
CHIEF MINISTERS, COURT OFFICIALS, ETC., ACCOMPANYING THE EMPEROR
THE GENERAL STAFF
There were in Napoleon’s train a large number of General Officers “disposable.” Most of these were appointed to commands later, and mostly appear in the list of Commandants of districts.
GENERAL OFFICERS COMMANDING IN THE DISTRICTS OF THE ARMY (11TH AUGUST)
APPENDIX E
STAFF OF RUSSIAN ARMIES OPPOSED TO NAPOLEON, JULY, 1812
FIRST ARMY OF THE WEST