Pion des Loches, "My Campaigns" - Part 2: Invading Russia, 1812

"21 June 1812, Gumbinen.
So far we have not bivouacked so altogether we have not had much to suffer. The most annoying thing is that we arrive quite late in the evening and, being already exhausted, we prefer to go to bed rather than to wait four or five hours for the meat to be distributed to us so as to make the soup. Thus, they make it at night while we sleep, which means we take our chief meal every morning at four o'clock before departing. [For the rest of the day] we keep something in our pockets to each when we make the halt. The bread is good, the meat is not worth much, but we never find any whine. It is more than a month since I have drank any. Here and there we find some beer, but it is nearly always bad; strong liquors are abundant and it is that which sustains the soldiers during the long marches they make."

On 24 June, we arrived and bivouacked on the left bank of the Niemen River. Since the morning the army had crossed the river all without striking a blow; the whole of cavalry was already on the right bank of the river and the advance guard was, without a doubt, a good's march ahead. I asked myself why the Emperor ordered me to establish my battery on a very high hill to the left of the three bridges; would he make the troops which followed us believe that his cannon dominated the whole of Russia? I do not know whether the enthusiasm was general in the army but it was at its height in [the Imperial] Guard, so much so that Major Boulart said to me very seriously that we would celebrate the 15 August [Napoleon's birthday and the Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary] in St. Petersburg. I replied to his boast, "I would be glad to find myself returning by then and, finding myself again on this river bank, to be on my way back to France."

Our first four days of march in Russia put the artillery in a frightful state. The cold and rainy nights killed more than a third of our horses. General Sorbier, witnessing this [appalling] situation, said loudly that one must be a fool to attempt such enterprises. What could we hope for in autumn, when at the end of June we experienced icy rains, which killed the horses and rendered the roads impracticable?

On 1 July we entered Vilna, [where] the houses on the outskirts had been abandoned and pillaged. That day the march was only two leagues [~9km] dead horses encumbered the road and I counted more than a thousand along the road while the waysides were covered with them; I grew tired of counting them. During the ten days that we spent in Vilna I wished to convince myself that struck by the [dreadful] beginnings of this campaign, the Emperor would go no farther and would occupy himself with the restoration of Poland. Where were horses to be found? I do not know how [horses] of the line were replaced. In order to replace those of the Guard, they took what remained in the four horse artillery batteries, auxiliaries to the Guard. Even the cannoneers of these batteries had to dismount. Where we victuals to be found? There was no distribution of victuals. Fortunately I had some provisions of flour which prevented me from dying in the middle of Vilna. And where find fodder? The grass was all cut down in a radius of more than five leagues [over 20 km] But the Poles entertained the Emperor with their enthusiasm, talked about levying troops, and the vain promises of this sort that they had already made in 1807 were forgotten.

So we resumed our march on 10 July. There was such an encumbrance on the narrow bridge at the exit of the city [Vilna], where all the columns had to pass, that although we departed early in the morning, I could not bivouac farther than two and a half leagues [~10-11 km] from Vilna. A Bavarian battalion, placed beside us, carried off the few provisions that we had on our transports.

On 15 July, we soujourned at quarter of a league behind Swenziany [Švenčioneliai]. The cannoneers took advantage of this halt to seek provisions right and left. They ransacked a chateau and returned with some salted meat and about a hundred bottles of muscatel wine. They gave me six of them which I used very sparingly. This was the only wine I drank till we reached Moscow, that is to say, during two months.

On 29 July, we bivouacked near Ostrovno, on the battlefield of the 25th. That day there had been a serious engagement - so we judged by the number of the dead which we still found there. They were all Russians, for those who had preceded us had taken the precaution to bury the French. From Vilna to Vitebsk, each army corps, each regiment, each company had to provide for its own subsistence; each captain was the administrator of his own company. Hardly was the bivouac established when the army would disband in search of provisions. The soldiers brought back wheat and flour, never any bread. If they found any ovens, they baked bread during the night. At dawn one might see a crowd of transports loaded with flour, starting off in advance, they drivers hurrying in search of mills and ovens. For lack of better they made a flour gruel [la farine en bouillie]. More than four-fifths of the soldiers have had no other nourishment during the campaign. Thanks to the oxen, cows and cheep carried off from the Poles, and which trailed behind us, meat was very abundant; moreover in the narrows passes, at the entrances of bridges, where these animals got mixed up, they were repeatedly stolen from each other.

Vitebsk [was] a large city. All the houses were abandoned and a great number burned down. Have the Russians already began to burn their houses so as to deprive us of all resources? Or perhaps, as in Germany, was it the result of the disorder of the invasion? So far I had marched without any special destination. I was attached to the Young Guard and my battery, together with that of Captain Fradiel of the 8th Regiment, formed its reserve artillery. Was I under the command of General Nourry, who commanded the Guard artillery? I am not aware in the least, bit I have received his orders frequently enough during the campaign, especially concerning the supply of meat and flour.