INVADING FRANCE
Orders of Alexander and Napoleon – Start of the Campaign – Orders to Prefects – Details about the Emperor – Condition of France – Battle at Brienne – The Chateau de Brienne – Various directions of armies – Napoleon’s Move to St. Dizier – His Letter to Empress Marie-Louisa – The Council of War – Decision to March on Paris
At the start of every campaign, leaders usually address their armies with orders of the day which briefly explain principles on which the upcoming campaign will be based. Such orders of the day are historical monuments which bear on them a deep impress of the respective characters of their authors. So it seems appropriate to place here, for comparison, the order of the day issued by Napoleon to inform his army about the war with Russia [in 1812], and the order of Emperor Alexander, issued several days prior to our entrance into France [in 1814].
"Soldiers," said Napoleon, "Russia is carried away by fate. Her destiny must be accomplished! Can it be that she looks on us as degenerated? Are we not the same warriors who fought at Austerlitz? Let us cross the Niemen and carry the war over the Russian frontier. This war will cover the French arms with glory, and the peace we shall conclude will be solid, and will put an end to the baneful influence of Russia in the affairs of Europe."
Let us now listen to the words of Alexander: "Warriors! Your valour and perseverance have brought you from the Oka River to the Rhine. They will carry you farther: we are about to cross the Rhine, and to enter that country, with which we have been waging a bloody and a cruel war. Already have we saved our native country, covered it with glory, and restored freedom and independence to Europe. It remains but to crown these mighty achievements with the long-wished for peace. May tranquility be restored to the whole world! May every country enjoy happiness under its own independent laws and government! May religion, language, arts, sciences, and commerce flourish in every land for the general welfare of nations! This, and not the continuance of war and destruction, is our object. Our enemies, by invading the heart of our realm, wrought us much evil, but dreadful was the retribution. The Divine wrath crushed them! Let us not take example from them: inhumanity and ferocity cannot be pleasing in the eyes of a merciful God. Let us forget what they have done against us. Instead of animosity and revenge, let us approach them with the words of kind feeling, and with the outstretched hand of reconciliation.”
The Allied armies were instructed to cross the Rhine River in various places on 1 [13] January. The main army, which was commanded by the Emperor [Alexander] himself, crossed the river near Basel and our troops shouted a thundering ‘Hurrah!’ on a bridge across the river. The campaign in France was needed to established a secure peace [in Europe]: besides the Emperor believed that the honor of Russia demanded that Russian banners be unfurled on top of Paris. We marched on to Vesoul, Langre, Chaumont and Bar-sur-Aube, facing no enemy resistance any weher and occupying several regions over the next three weeks. The enemy troops were retreating everywhere and the local populace, which the prefects urged to resistance in their ostentatious appeals, were instead opening city gates to us. The papers of prefects of various departments revealed to us an order of [Jean-Pierre Bachasson de] Montalivet, the Minister of Interior, dated 23 December 1813, which outlined what prefects were supposed to do during our invasion:
On the appearance of the enemy you are directed to leave them the soil only, without the inhabitants, as it has been done in many other countries. If it should be impossible to remove all the inhabitants, you are to leave no means untried to make at least the wealthier families quit their homes on the approach of the enemy; for those of our subjects, who shall consent to live under their authority, however temporary, must be regarded as traitors to the allegiance they have sworn. You will order the officers of every jurisdiction to remove the records. Every exertion must be made to conceal from the enemy, the documents by which they might be enabled to govern the country, and to gain knowledge of the resources available to the supply of their troops. As to your person, you are ordered not to quit your department so long as there shall remain in it a single hamlet unoccupied by the enemy. You are to be the last to quit the department entrusted to you by His Majesty; and if it should be completely conquered, with the exception of a fortress, it is His Majesty's pleasure, that you should shut yourself up in that fortress, and that the moment circumstances permit, you should leave it, to re-enter on the exercise of your functions in governing the Department."
Proclamations, which the prefects published based on this order, produced no effect however, because heavy taxes and constant military levies made Napoleon’s rule intolerable for the French people.
Rain, snow, frost, and thaw retarded, but did not arrest our troops. Though this rapidity of march was not very agreeable to some of the Allies, the Emperor, with his usual activity, continually kept pressing them to advance, often against their will. In later years, while attending him in travels and at palaces, I rarely noticed in him such a high spirit as the one he showed during the war. Having accustomed himself, from his earliest youth, to brave the inconstancy of the elements, he was commonly on horseback, and, as usual, was the best dressed of all around him. It seemed that he was not at war but at some kind of celebration. More burdensome than bad weather was disagreement on military operations that periodically emerged between the Allied armies. Only the presence of Alexander, who, as the head of the Coalition, tried to appease everyone, oftentimes at his own expense, to have them agreed on common course of action, made the success of a multi-national coalition possible as well as saved the armies, which, without Him, would have been certainly destroyed due to discord that existed among them. Too many times, after receiving important intelligence in the middle of night, the Emperor, sacrificing his sleep, got up and, accompanied by somebody with a lamp, walked in bad weather on mud-filled streets of villages to visit the Allied monarch or even Prince Schwartzenberg, wake them up, read the latest reports to them and discuss common measures that had to be taken. This short anecdote exemplifies what kind of difficulties the Emperor faced. In the morning of 9 [21] March, about two hours before the attack on enemy position at Arcis and when our army was already deployed in battle formation, the Emperor, as usual surrounded with his Suite, was pacing back and forth on a field. Field Marshal Barclay de Tolly was with him and, alluding to the tardiness of some of our Allies, the Emperor, among other things, said, "These gentlemen have given me many grey hairs." These words are particularly important because the Emperor rarely expressed what was happening deep inside his soul.
Our quarters in France were among the worst we had seen. The French houses are not built for winter time but rather for summers and so we, accustomed to warm houses, greatly suffered from freezing rooms, especially when we had to stay at peasant houses. Imagine a large room with its back wall taken over by a fireplace where three or four wet logs were burning, giving up some heat but hardly warming up the air. The town houses are maintained in disgusting filth. We found French residents to be much more less educated than the Germans. Many of our officers, who in the childhood were swayed by their foreign tutors and now hoped to find a promised land in France, were sorely disappointed upon seeing widespread poverty, ignorance and despair in villages and towns. The French walked around with downcast eyes and gloomy appearance. They did not whether they should be happy or distressed at our invasion of their country. Will we bring an end their despondency or inflict new disasters upon them? The Frenchmen, however, looked at our invasion as a temporary but unavoidable evil: even though our troops strictly maintained order and discipline, which was a subject of the Emperor’s constant concern, and every violent action against the local was punished by death, it was still impossible to prevent all kinds of difficulties that the locals experienced.
Upon reaching Bar-sur-Aube on 19 [31] January, we learned that Field Marshal Blucher and his Army of Silesia, after crossing the Rhine River at Mannheim, approached the Aube River and was involved in a serious action at Brienne. The Emperor decided to join the Main Army with the Army of Silesia and attack the enemy the following day.
This was first decisive battle in France and therefore success or failure in it would have had powerful psychological impression on both sides. Although we have advanced deep into France, the enemy, until now, avoided pitched battles and everyone waited in great anticipation to see first hand how strong would be the enemy’s resistance within the borders of his own state. The entire morning of 20 March was spent in preparations for the battle The Emperor reviewed the troops which were deployed in the following order: Austrians on the left flank, Russians next to them, followed by the Wurttembergers and, further to the right, Bavarians who were instructed to turn the enemy left flank. Our grenadiers and cuirassiers were kept in reserve on the road to Bar-sur-Aube while the Guard was deployed behind them. The overall command of the armies was entrusted to Field Marshal Blucher and, to avoid interfering with his command, the Emperor and King of Prussia retreated to the nearby heights at Trannes where they could observe all the movements; they remained there until evening.
Around noon, we were ordered to attack. The Allied troops, fighting in the presence of their monarchs, competed with each other in gallantry. The Russians faced the most challenging task of taking the village of La Rothier, which represented a key to the enemy position. Around 9 pm, when it was completely dark, the French, after a furious attack, managed to seize La Rothier but were soon driven back and set the village on fire. The massive fire brightly illuminated that gloomy January night. Thus ended the battle, in which the greatest honors belonged to General Sacken, who commanded the Russian troops. In his report on this battle, he remarked, “On this superb and memorable day, Napoleon has ceased to be the enemy of the human race; and Alexander may now say: " I give peace to the world."
We gained a complete victory. The enemy lost over 70 guns and some 3,000 prisoners. The victory could have led to the capture of Paris if the Main Army and the Army of Silesia marched together to the French capital. Instead, relying on their numerical superiority, the two armies separated after the battle and proceed to paris along two different routes: Field Marshal Blucher moved through Chalons while the Main Army proceeded to Trois. The enemy’s lack of troops clearly revealed itself at Brienne – France had abandoned Napoleon, who had brought her to the pinnacle of glory, at the moment when the fortune stopped smiling at him. He appealed to the nation and ordered peasants to sound tocsin upon the appearance of the Allied troops, who were portrayed as plunderers, and destroy bridges, and demanded a popular uprising. But no one responded to his call which disappeared as if in a desert.
The following day, at nine o’clock in the morning, the Emperor, King of Prussia and the Commander-in-Chief arrived at the castle of Brienne to discuss future plans of actions. The castle and its surrounding, memorable for the childhood that Napoleon spent there, presented a picture of complete destruction. The castle contained a fine library and a room of Natural History, where a crocodile hanged on ceiling. Someone came up with an idea of cutting ropes which held the crocodile and the fall of this massive African beast destroyed cabinets which exhibited various shells and fossils behind a glass. The laughter that accompanied this destruction of so many precious rarities was akin to the laughter of Cannibals. But such events are inseparable from war. Some rooms still showed fresh traces of their residents and there was a woman’s needlework on one of the tables. Here I also encountered Field Marshal Blucher, who could barely stand on his feet.
As soon the Main Army arrived at Trois and the Army of Silesia reached the banks of the Marne River, the genius of Napoleon, which was seemingly in slumber in the beginning of the campaign, had suddenly awoke once more. With a handful of troops he appeared rapidly everywhere where he could gain upper hand and halted movements of superior Allied forces by attacking their weakest elements. He first turned against Blucher, delivering major blows at Champaubert, Montmirail, Chateau-Thierry and Vauchamps, and throwing him back to Chalons. This was an appropriate punishment for carelessness with which the Prussian commander stretched out his forces over vast area and failed to cover them with separate flying detachments. Following these victories, where the fortune had smiled for the last time on its favorite son, Napoleon moved against the Main Army and, having forced it to retreat to Langres, he hurried to attack once more Blucher whoch had threatened Paris. Bu the Main Army moved in his wake and we soon returned to the banks of the Seine River, where we took up positions for several days awaiting news from Blucher. Thus passed the month of February, full of turns of fate. The meetings of the Châtillon congress, which opened on 23 January [4 February], brought no results because concessions that the French government was willing to make did not match the demands of the Allied Powers. But more importantly neither of warring sides possessed a sincere desire to negotiate peace, even on the conditions that were put forth by their plenipotentiaries.
We had no news from Field Marshal Blucher for over one week. Finally, on 2 [14] March, we received the news of his victory at Laonn and the Main Army decided to resume offensive operations, moving to Arcis. It was here that Napoleon and Alexander encountered each other on the battle field for the last time, and the former, having exhausted all his efforts, was forced to retreat. He became convinced of impossibility of resisting to the forces of Emperor Alexander and decided, as a last resort to save himself from destruction, to attempt one of his boldest movements, which however not only failed to produce any success but instead put an end to his reign that was full of astonishing deeds. This movement brought us to Paris and therefore deserves a detailed explanation, particularly since it has not been done in any of the works that have been published until now, while I have received details about it from one of the generals who attended the council of war at Sommepy
Based on observations made during the battle at Arcis-sur-Aube and intelligence provided by our light detachments, we realized that Napoleon retreated in the direction of Vitry. Having dispatched Marshal Ney to occupy this city, which was held by the Allied troops, he crossed the Marne River and proceeded to St. Dizier, with intention of falling upon the communications of the Allies and forcing them to retreat to Chamons and beyond. Based on this news, Prince Schwarzenberg made a decision to follow Napoleon with his entire army and join Blucher who was located at Chalons; Blucher was informed to immediately march in direction of Vitry. The Main Army marched towards the village of Sommepy around nine o’clock in the evening. By 1 am. we made a camp in the village of Dampierre, where we received enemy dispatched that were intercepted by our troops. On being opened in presence of Princes Schwarzenberg and Volkonsky and State Secretary Count Nesselrode, these desptached revealed, among other documents, the following letter written with Napoleon's own hand to his consort Marie Louisa: "My love, I have been all these days constantly on horseback. On the 20th I took Arcis on the Aube. The same' evening the enemy attacked me near that town, but I beat them: they had four thousand men killed. The next day the enemy marched in the direction of Brienne and Bar-sur-Aube, and I resolved, in order to draw them away from Paris, to lead my army to the Marne, and to approach the fortresses. This evening I shall be at St. Dizier. Farewell, my love, give a kiss to our son."
This letter, which presented the events of Arcis in prejudiced manner, clearly revealed Napoleon’s plan of action and his desire to gather garrisons of various fortresses and move the theater of war closer to France’s frontiers. After this letter was read Prince Volkonsky proposed that after uniting with Blucher, only a strong corps should be sent after Napoleon, while out the united armies should take the nearest road to Paris, where they would be in five days, and have it in their hands before Napoleon could know anything about it. Prince Schwarzenberg thought this idea too bold, and raised concerns about our line of communications. Prince Volkonsky responded that we should be concerned about it since the army had reserve parks, pontoons and supplies for ten days and, in case of failure, line of communications could be established through Flanders. The field marshal answered that he would not venture on such an enterprise without the consent of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia.
At two o'clock in the morning of 12 [24] March, we left Dampierre for Sommepy, where we made a second halt. The intercepted letters were here laid before his Majesty by Prince Schwarzenberg, who on retiring told [Prince Volkonsky] that the Emperor retained his former opinion, which was to unite with Blucher at Vitry, and following Napoleon with the combined armies, attack him wherever they should find him. He then mounted his horse and rode off while the Emperor desired to call a meeting with his generals: Count Barclay de Tolly, Prince Volkonsky and Generals Diebitch and Toll. Informing them about the content of Napoleon’s letter to Marie Louisa, he inquired, “What is your idea, gentlemen?" Count Barclay de Tolly thought it would be best to follow Napoleon and attack him. General Diebitch proposed that while the united armies were engaged in following Napoleon, Prussian General Bulow, who was lying at Soissons, should make a dash at Paris. To this Prince Volkonsky replied as follows: "It is well known that there are in Paris forty thousand national guards and fragments of various regiments, and that in addition to these, at a short distance from the capital are the two corps of Marmont and Mortier. All these troops together form a total of ninety thousand men, consequently we cannot expect that Bulow with his thirty thousand men could undertake anything of importance: on the contrary, he would expose himself to danger by attacking an enemy so greatly superior to him in numbers. I may add, that if we follow Napoleon, we must leave a powerful rearguard to repulse the attack of these two marshals. Taking these circumstances into consideration, I am inclined to think that it would be the best plan first to unite with the Silesian army, and then to detach against Napoleon a numerous body of cavalry and some regiments of infantry, with instructions everywhere to prepare accommodation for the Emperor, that it may be believed we are following with the whole army. We ought then to march straight to Paris through Fere-Champenoise, and Blucher through Etoges, keeping up an uninterrupted communication between the two armies. Following this route, we must attack Marshals Marmont and Mortier wherever we meet them. We shall beat them, because we are stronger than they, and each day will place two marches between us and Napoleon."
This opinion being approved, the Emperor, wishing to communicate his plans to Prince Schwarzenberg, called for his horse and rode off towards Vitry, where he found him together with the King of Prussia. He invited them to dismount, and then explained to them Prince Volkonsky's opinion, which the King and the Prince at once approved. There, in the field, they signed orders to Blucher to march to Etoges; the troops were told to halt wherever the new orders reached them while General Winzegorode was sent with 10,000 cavalry, one jager regiment and two light detachments towards St. Dizier. To further deceive the enemy, the Emperor suggested setting up a camp at Vitry. The plan of marching on Paris had to be kept in complete secrecy for some time and I will never forget as General Toll, after leaving the council of war at Sommepy, whispered in my ear, “We are marching on Paris but, for God’s sake, do not tell this to anybody!” This same general was first to inform me about the decision to abandon Moscow at the village of Fili [in 1812.]
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