Napoleon and General Mack at Ulm, 1805

Excerpt from the conversation Napoleon had with General Mack in the aftermath of Austrian surrender at Ulm on 19 October 1805:

Napoleon: How could you be so stubborn as to hold out in this miserable fortress of Ulm, which does not even deserve to be called a fortress? It is indefensible, and you wanted to resist my whole army. For my forces are vastly superior in numbers. Together with the Bavarian army, they amount to more than 200,000 men.

Mack: I beg Your Majesty's pardon. You have only 140,000 men, and that is almost twice the number I could pit against you.

Napoleon: Now let us add it up together: I have one hundred seventy battalions here, each of a thousand men, with a cavalry of more than 20,000 men. My [Imperial] Guard is eight thousand strong and there are also 20,000 Bavarians.

Mack: Your Majesty's battalions have only five or six hundred men each, and your forces cannot amount to more than 140,000 men at the most.

Napoleon: How do you know the strength of my battalions?

Mack: Precisely the same way Your Majesty knows the strength of ours: I had them counted when they passed the Rhine.

Napoleon: Well, I will admit they have only six hundred men, which is their peacetime strength. But the others will arrive here presently, and my Army of Brest, under Marshal Augereau, will join the Grande Armée.

Mack: It is said that Your Majesty has troops marching through Switzerland, whose neutrality we have respected.

Napoleon: I have not recognized its neutrality, therefore I have a right to enter its territory.

Mack: Ah! We are always the dupes of our good faith, of our own credulity! It is a very sad, a very unfortunate thing! And in the same way Your Majesty has violated the neutrality of Prussia, thus gaining eight days in effecting the junction of your forces with Bernadotte's troops and the Bavarian army. This premature junction gave you the opportunity to crush us - and yet, if I had wished to violate Prussian territory, I could easily have cut off the Bavarian retreat.

Napoleon (smiling): Why did not you do it then?

Mack: The King of Prussia had declared his neutrality, and he threatened to take up arms against anyone who dares to violate it.

Napoleon: Oh! That is why you did not do it... But tell me please - and be frank -  why do we wage this war?

Mack: Sire, you know it better than me. It is Your Majesty who started the hostilities.

Napoleon: What!? It is you who have invaded the state of my ally the Elector of Bavaria.

Mack: Sire, we did not know that he was your ally.

Napoleon: Come on! Count Cobenzl knows about it for two years.

Mack: For last few months I met Count Cobenzl almost every day. We discussed Bavaria and I was convinced that there might be a secret alliance [between Bavaria and France], but [Cobenzl] had not the slightest knowledge about it. Prince Schwarzenberg and I also had no information about this issue. If elector Bavaria, instead of lying, resorting to deception and betrating Prince Schwarzenberg, had revealed a formal treaty of alliance with Your Majesty, Prince Schwarzenberg would have undoubtedly thought over [Austria's next move]. I would have been warned. I would have stopped the advance of my troops and sent a letter to Vienna. And yet here is the result of the infamous conduct of the elector, or rather, of his abominable Minister Montgelas!

Napoleon: It is very unfortunate that England managed to win over the court of St. Petersburg which in turn convinced you with its insinuations and promises.

Mack: Sire, we have resisted all calls for war as long as we could. But Your Majesty had some 70,000 men threatening our Italian provinces. We were threatened on all sides and had to take necssary measures to defend ourselves.

[From Mack's unpublished notes in A. Chuquet, Inédits napoléoniens (Paris: Fontemoing, 1919), II, 14-16.

Thomas Bugeaud, On March to Austria, 1805

“My Dear Love,

I only rested one day at Strasbourg  we crossed the Rhine, and made forced marches that have wearied us very much. We depart very early every day, and do not stop till night. The entire army marches with the same vigor, and our little man [notre petit homme, i.e. Napoleon] leads the ship with astonishing speed. Good feet are need to keep up with the activity of his mind. You can judge of the speed of our march when you know that we have gone eighty leagues [~400 km] in a week, a great deal for loaded troops; for besides our packs we also carry on our backs all our campaigning kit - kettles, canteens, picks, spades, etc.

I am absolutely tired out, and cannot imagine bow the body can endure such constant fatigue. Again, if we had but a good bed when we get to our quarters; but not a bit of it, we only have a little straw, and even that after three or four hours delay. So we frequently  have to simply lie in the open round a fire. Hunger is another tyrant. You can imagine whether ten thousand men coming into a village can easily find anything to eat. What distresses me more is the annoyance of stealing from the peasantry; their poultry, their bacon, their firewood, taken from them freely or by force. I do not do these things, but when I am very hungry I surreptitiously tolerate them and eat my share of the stolen goods. All this plainly shows that hitherto I have only seen the rosy side [of the war].

But do not suppose that I am wanting in strength and courage to bear these evils, though I do seem to express disgust. On the contrary, I endure them with patience, and try to fill my place honorably. I assure you I will die or distinguish myself. I am most anxious to win the [Legion d’Honneur] – I only want an opportunity… Do not be surprised if I do not write you for a long time, perhaps two months.

Adieu, my dear Sister,

Your brother Thomas, 3rd Company, 4th Battalion, Imperial Guard, Grand Army.

[Thomas Bugeaud to Phillis De La Piconneree, Augsburg, 18 Vendemiaire, 1805, in Le maréchal Bugeaud, d'aprés sa correspondance intime et des documents inédite, ed. Henri Amédée Lelorgne Ideville (Paris, 1881), I, 70-72.]