Part 13
_August 15th.--Jomini, the Swiss tactician, turns traitor and escapes to the Allies. He advises them of Napoleon's plans to seize Berlin and relieve Dantzic [see letter to Ney, No. 19,714, 20,006, and especially 20,360 (August 12th) in_ Correspondence]. _On August 16th Napoleon writes to Cambaceres: "Jomini, Ney's chief of staff, has deserted. It is he who published some volumes on the campaigns and who has been in the pay of Russia for a long time. He has yielded to corruption. He is a soldier of little value, yet he is a writer who has grasped some of the sound principles of war."_
_August 17th.--Renewal of hostilities in Germany. Napoleon's army, 280,000, of whom half recruits who had never seen a battle; the Allies 520,000, excluding militia. In his counter-manifesto to Austria, dated Bautzen, Napoleon declares "Austria, the enemy of France, and cloaking her ambition under the mask of a mediation, complicated everything.... But Austria, our avowed foe, is in a truer guise, and one perfectly obvious. Europe is therefore much nearer peace; there is one complication the less."_
_August 18th._--Suchet, having blown up fortifications of Tarragona, evacuates Valentia.
_August 21st._--Opening of the campaign in Italy. Eugene, with 50,000 men, commands the Franco-Italian army.
_August 23rd._--Combats of Gross-Beeren and Ahrensdorf, near Berlin. Bernadotte defeats Oudinot with loss of 1500 men and 20 guns. Berlin is preserved to the Allies. Oudinot replaced by Ney. Lauriston defeats Army of Silesia at Goldberg with heavy loss.
_August 26th-27th.--Battle of Dresden.--Napoleon marches a hundred miles in seventy hours to the rescue. With less than 100,000 men he defeats the Allied Army of 180,000 under Schwartzenberg, Wittgenstein, and Kleist. Austrians lose 20,000 prisoners and 60 guns. Moreau is mortally wounded (dies September 1st)._ Combat of the Katzbach, in Silesia. Blucher defeats Macdonald with heavy loss, who loses 10,000 to 12,000 men in his retreat.
_August 30th._--Combat of Kulm. Vandamme enveloped in Bohemia, and surrenders with 12,000 men.
_August 31st._--Combat of Irun. Soult attacks Wellington to save San Sebastian, but is repulsed. Graham storms San Sebastian.
_September 6th._--Combat of Dennewitz (near Berlin). Ney routed by Bulow and Bernadotte; loses his artillery, baggage, and 12,000 men.
_September 10th_--Americans capture the English flotilla on Lake Erie.
_September 12th._--Combat of Villafranca (near Barcelona). Suchet defeats English General Bentinck.
_October 7th._--Wellington crosses the Bidassoa into France. "It is on the frontier of France itself that ends the enterprise of Napoleon on Spain. The Spaniards have given the first conception of a people's war versus a war of professionals. For it would be a mistake to think that the battles of Salamanca (July 22nd, 1812) and Vittoria (June 21st, 1813) forced the French to abandon the Peninsula.... It was the daily losses, the destruction of man by man, the drops of French blood falling one by one, which in five years aggregated a death-roll of 150,000 men. As to the English, they appeared in this war only as they do in every world-crisis, to gather, in the midst of general desolation, the fruits of their policy, and to consolidate their plans of maritime despotism, of exclusive commerce" (Montgaillard).
_October 15th._--Bavarian army secedes and joins the Austrians.
_October 16th-19th.--Battles of Leipsic._ _Allied army_ 330,000 men (_Schwartzenberg_, _Bernadotte_, _Blucher_, _Beningsen_), _Napoleon_ 175,000. _Twenty-six battalions and ten squadrons of Saxon and Wurtemberg men leave Napoleon and turn their guns against the French. Napoleon is not defeated, but determines to retreat. The rearguard (20,000 men) and 200 cannon taken. Poniatowski drowned; Reynier and Lauriston captured._
_October 20th._--Blucher made Field-Marshal.
_October 23rd._--French army reach Erfurt.
_October 30th.--Combat of Hanau. Napoleon defeats Wrede with heavy loss._
_October 31st._--Combat and capture of Bassano by Eugene. English capture Pampeluna.
_November 2nd.--Napoleon arrives at Mayence (where typhus carries off 40,000 French), and is_
_November 9th.--At St. Cloud._
_November 10th._--Wellington defeats Soult at St. Jean de Luz.
_November 11th._--Surrender of Dresden by Gouvion St. Cyr; its French soldiers to return under parole to France. Austrians refuse to ratify the convention, and 1700 officers and 23,000 men remain prisoners of war.
_November 14th.--Napoleon addresses the Senate: "All Europe marched with us a year ago; all Europe marches against us to-day. That is because the world's opinion is directed either by France or England."_
_November 15th._--Eugene defeats Austrians at Caldiero. Senatus-Consultus puts 300,000 conscripts at disposal of government.
_November 24th._--Capture of Amsterdam by Prussian General Bulow.
_December 1st._--Allies declare at Frankfort that they are at war with the Emperor and not with France.
_December 2nd._--Bulow occupies Utrecht. Holland secedes from the French Empire.
_December 5th._--Capture of Lubeck by the Swedes, and surrender of Stettin (7000 prisoners), Zamosk (December 22nd), Modlin (December 25th), and Torgau (December 26th, with 10,000 men).
_December 8th-13th._--Soult defends the passage of the Nive--costly to both sides. Murat (now hostile to Napoleon) enters Ancona.
_December 9th-10th._--French evacuate Breda.
_December 11th.--Treaty of Valencay between Napoleon and his prisoner Ferdinand VII., who is to reign over Spain, but not to cede Minorca or Ceuta (now in their power} to the English._
_December 15th._--Denmark secedes from French alliance.
_December 21st._--Allies, 100,000 strong, cross the Rhine in ten divisions (Bale to Schaffhausen). Jomini is said to have contributed to this violation of Swiss territory.
_December 24th._--Final evacuation of Holland by the French.
_December 28th._--Austrians capture Ragusa.
_December 31st.--Napoleon, having trouble with his Commons, dissolves the Corps Legislatif._ Austrians capture Geneva. Blucher crosses the Rhine at Mannheim and Coblentz. Exclusive of Landwehr and levies en masse, there are now a million trained men in arms against Napoleon.
* * * * *
1814.
"The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of the Peace of Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of life itself, that he will not be ready to make for the sake of France."--(_Act of Abdication._)
* * * * *
_January 1st._--Capitulation of Danzic, which General Rapp had defended for nearly a year, having lost 20,000 (out of 30,000) men by fever. Russians, who had promised to send the French home, break faith, following the example of Schwartzenberg at Dresden.
_January 2nd._--Russians take Fort Louis (Lower Rhine); and
_January 3rd._--Austrians Montbeliard; and Bavarians Colmar.
_January 6th._--General York occupies Treves. Convention between Murat and England and (January 11th) with Austria. Murat is to join Allies with 30,000 men.
_January 7th._--Austrians occupy Vesoul.
_January 8th._--French Rentes 5 per cents. at 47.50. Wurtemberg troops occupy Epinal.
_January 10th._--General York reaches Forbach (on the Moselle).
_January 15th._--Cossacks occupy Cologne.
_January 16th._--Russians occupy Nancy.
_January 19th._--Austrians occupy Dijon; Bavarians, Neufchateau. Murat's troops occupy Rome.
_January 20th._--Capture of Toul by the Russians; and of Chambery by the Austrians.
_January 21st._--Austrians occupy Chalons-sur-Saone. General York crosses the Meuse.
_January 23rd._--Pope Pius VII. returns to Rome.
_January 25th._--General York and Army of Silesia established at St. Dizier and Joinville on the Marne. Austrians occupy Bar-sur-Aube. _Napoleon leaves Paris; and_
_January 26th.--Reaches Chalons-sur-Marne; and_
_January 27th.--Retakes St. Dizier in person._
_January 29th.--Combat of Brienne. Napoleon defeats Blucher._
_February 1st._--Battle of La Rothiere, six miles north of Brienne. French, 40,000; Allies, 110,000. Drawn battle, but French retreat on Troyes; French evacuate Brussels.
_February 4th._--Eugene retires upon the Mincio.
_February 5th.--Cortes disavow Napoleon's treaty of Valencay with Ferdinand VII._ Opening of Congress of Chatillon. General York occupies Chalons-sur-Marne.
_February 7th._--Allies seize Troyes.
_February 8th._--Battle of the Mincio. Eugene with 30,000 conscripts defeats Austrians under Bellegarde with 50,000 veterans.
_February 10th.--Combat of Champaubert. Napoleon defeats Russians._
_February 11th.--Combat of Montmirail. Napoleon defeats Sacken. Russians occupy Nogent-sur-Seine; and_
_February 12th.--Laon._
_February 14th.--Napoleon routs Blucher at Vauchamp. His losses, 10,000 men; French loss, 600 men. In five days Napoleon has wiped out the five corps of the Army of Silesia, inflicting a loss of 25,000 men._
_February 17th.--Combat near Nangis. Napoleon defeats Austro-Russians with loss of 10,000 men and 12 cannon._
_February 18th._--Combat of Montereau. Prince Royal of Wurtemberg defeated with loss of 7000.
_February 21st._--Comte d'Artois arrives at Vesoul.
_February 22nd._--Combat of Mery-sur-Seine. Sacken defeated by Boyer's Division, who fight in masks--it being Shrove Tuesday.
_February 24th._--French re-enter Troyes.
_February 27th._--Bulow captures La Fere with large stores. Battle of Orthes (Pyrenees), Wellington with 70,000 defeats Soult entrenched with 38,000. Foy badly wounded.
_February 27th-28th._--Combats of Bar and Ferte-sur-Aube. Marshals Oudinot and Macdonald forced to retire on the Seine.
_March 1st._--Treaty of Chaumont--Allies against Napoleon.
_March 2nd._--Bulow takes Soissons.
_March 4th._--Macdonald evacuates Troyes.
_March 7th.--Battle of Craonne between Napoleon (30,000 men) and Sacken (100,000)._ Indecisive.
_March 9th._--English driven from Berg-op-Zoom.
_March 9th-10th.--Combat under Laon: depot of Allied army. Napoleon fails to capture it._
_March 12th._--Duc d'Angouleme arrives at Bordeaux. This town is the first to declare for the Bourbons, and to welcome him as Louis XVIII.
_March 13th._--Ferdinand VII. set at liberty.
_March 14th.--Napoleon retakes Rheims from the Russians._
_March 19th._--Rupture of Treaty of Chatillon.
_March 20th._--Battle of Tarbes. Wellington defeats French.
_March 20th-21st._--Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. Indecisive.
_March 21st._--Austrians enter Lyons. Augereau retires on Valence. Had Eugene joined him with his 40,000 men he might have saved France after Vauchamp.
_March 25th._--Combat of Fere-Champenoise. Marmont and Mortier defeated with loss of 9000 men.
_March 26th.--Combat of St. Dizier. Napoleon defeats Russians, and starts to save Paris._
_March 29th.--Allies outside Paris. Napoleon at Troyes (125 miles off)._
_March 30th.--Battle of Paris._ The Emperor's orders disobeyed. Heavy cannon from Cherbourg left outside Paris, also 20,000 men. Clarke deserts to the Allies. Joseph runs away, leaving Marmont permission to capitulate. After losing 5000 men (and Allies 8000) Marmont evacuates Paris and retires. _Napoleon reaches Fontainebleau in the evening, and hears the bad news._
_March 31st._--Emperor of Russia, King of Prussia, and 36,000 men enter Paris. Stocks and shares advance. Emperor Alexander states, "The Allied Sovereigns will treat no longer with Napoleon Bonaparte, nor any of his family."
_April 1st._--Senate, with Talleyrand as President, institute a Provisional Government.
_April 2nd._--Provisional Government address the army: "You are no longer the soldiers of Napoleon; the Senate and the whole of France absolve you from your oaths." They also declare Napoleon deposed from the throne, and his family from the succession.
_April 4th.--Napoleon signs a declaration of abdication in favour of his son, but after two days' deliberation, and Marmont's defection, Alexander insists on an absolute abdication._
_April 5th._--Convention of Chevilly. Marmont agrees to join the Provisional Government, and disband his army under promise that Allies will guarantee life and liberty to Napoleon Bonaparte. Funds on March 29th at 45, now at 63.75.
_April 6th._--New Constitution decreed by the Senate. The National Guard ordered to wear the White Cockade in lieu of the Tricolor.
_April 10th._--Battle of Toulouse. Hotly contested; almost a defeat for Wellington.
_April 11th.--Treaty of Paris between Napoleon and Allies (Austria, Russia, and Prussia). Isle of Elba reserved for Napoleon and his family, with a revenue of L200,000; the Duchies of Parma and Placentia for Marie Louise and her son. England accedes to this Treaty. Act of Abdication of the Emperor Napoleon._
_April 12th._--Count d'Artois enters Paris.
_April 16th._--Convention between Eugene and Austrian General Bellegarde. Emperor of Austria sees Marie Louise at the little Trianon, and decides upon his daughter's return to Vienna.
_April 18th._--Armistice of Soult and Wellington.
_April 20th.--Napoleon leaves Fontainebleau, and bids adieu to his Old Guard: "Do not mourn over my fate; if I have determined to survive, it is in order still to dedicate myself to your glory; I wish to write about the great things we have done together."_
_April 24th._--Louis XVIII. lands at Calais, and
_May 3rd._---Enters Paris.
_May 4th.---Napoleon reaches Elba._
_May 29th.--Death of Josephine, aged 51._
_May 30th.--Peace of Paris._
FOOTNOTES
[40] Averaged from early historians of the campaigns. Marbot gives the numbers 155,400 French and 175,000 Allies. Allowing for the secession of the Austrian and Prussian contingents and for 30,000 prisoners, he gives the actual French death-roll by February 1813 at 65,000. This is a minimum estimate.
NOTES
_THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS, 1796-97_
SERIES A
(_The numbers correspond to the numbers of the Letters._)
No. 1.
_Bonaparte made Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy._--Marmont's account of how this came to pass is probably substantially correct, as he has less interest in distorting the facts than any other writer as well fitted for the task. The winter had rolled by in the midst of pleasures--soirees at the Luxembourg, dinners of Madame Tallien, "nor," he adds, "were we hard to please." "The Directory often conversed with General Bonaparte about the army of Italy, whose general--Scherer--was always representing the position as difficult, and never ceasing to ask for help in men, victuals, and money. General Bonaparte showed, in many concise observations, that all that was superfluous. He strongly blamed the little advantage taken from the victory at Loano, and asserted that, even yet, all that could be put right. Thus a sort of controversy was maintained between Scherer and the Directory, counselled and inspired by Bonaparte." At last when Bonaparte drew up plans--afterwards followed--for the invasion of Piedmont, Scherer replied roughly that he who had drawn up the plan of campaign had better come and execute it. They took him at his word, and Bonaparte was named General-in-Chief of the army of Italy (vol. i. 93).
"_7 A.M._"--Probably written early in March. Leaving Paris on March 11th, Napoleon writes Letourneur, President of the Directory, of his marriage with the "citoyenne Tascher Beauharnais," and tells him that he has already asked Barras to inform them of the fact. "The confidence which the Directory has shown me under all circumstances makes it my duty to keep it advised of all my actions. It is a new link which binds me to the fatherland; it is one more proof of my fixed determination to find safety only in the Republic."[41]
No. 2.
"_Our good Ossian._"--The Italian translation of Ossian by Cesarotti was a masterpiece; better, in fact, than the original. He was a friend of Macpherson, and had learnt English in order to translate his work. Cesarotti lived till an advanced age, and was sought out in his retirement in order to receive honours and pensions from the Emperor Napoleon.
"Our good Ossian" speaks, like Homer, of the joy of grief.
No. 4.
"_Chauvet is dead._"--Chauvet is first mentioned in Napoleon's correspondence in a letter to his brother Joseph, August 9, 1795. Mdme. Junot, _Memoirs_, i. 138, tells us that Bonaparte was very fond of him, and that he was a man of gentle manners and very ordinary conversation. She declares that Bonaparte had been a suitor for the hand of her mother shortly before his marriage with Josephine, and that because the former rejected him, the general had refused a favour to her son; this had caused a quarrel which Chauvet had in vain tried to settle. On March 27th Bonaparte had written Chauvet from Nice that every day that he delayed joining him, "takes away from my operations one chance of probability for their success."
No. 5.
St. Amand notes that Bonaparte begins to suspect his wife in this letter, while the previous ones, especially that of April 3rd, show perfect confidence. Napoleon is on the eve of a serious battle, and has only just put his forces into fighting trim. On the previous day (April 6th) he wrote to the Directory that the movement against Genoa, of which he does not approve, has brought the enemy out of their winter quarters almost before he has had time to make ready. "The army is in a state of alarming destitution; I have still great difficulties to surmount, but they are surmountable: misery has excused want of discipline, and without discipline never a victory. I hope to have all in good trim shortly--there are signs already; in a few days we shall be fighting. The Sardinian army consists of 50,000 foot, and 5000 horse; I have only 45,000 men at my disposal, all told. Chauvet, the commissary-general, died at Genoa: it is a heavy loss to the army, he was active and enterprising."
Two days later Napoleon, still at Albenga, reports that he has found Royalist traitors in the army, and complains that the Treasury had not sent the promised pay for the men, "but in spite of all, we shall advance." Massena, eleven years older than his new commander-in-chief, had received him coldly, but soon became his right-hand man, always genial, and full of good ideas. Massena's men are ill with too much salt meat, they have hardly any shoes, but, as in 1800,[42] he has never a doubt that Bonaparte will make a good campaign, and determines to loyally support him. Poor Laharpe, so soon to die, is a man of a different stamp--one of those, doubtless, of whom Bonaparte thinks when he writes to Josephine, "Men worry me." The Swiss, in fact, was a chronic grumbler, but a first-rate fighting man, even when his men were using their last cartridges.
"_The lovers of nineteen._"--The allusion is lost. Aubenas, who reproduces two or three of these letters, makes a comment to this sentence, "Nous n'avons pu trouver un nom a mettre sous cette fantasque imagination" (vol. i. 317).
"_My brother_," viz. Joseph.--He and Junot reached Paris in five days, and had a great ovation. Carnot, at a dinner-party, showed Napoleon's portrait next to his heart, because "I foresee he will be the saviour of France, and I wish him to know that he has at the Directory only admirers and friends."
No. 6.
_Unalterably good._--"C'est Joseph peint d'un seul trait."--Aubenas (vol. i. 320).
"_If you want a place for any one, you can send him here. I will give him one._"--Bonaparte was beginning to feel firm in the saddle, while at Paris Josephine was treated like a princess. Under date April 25th, Letourneur, as one of the Directory, writes him, "A vast career opens itself before you; the Directory has measured the whole extent of it." They little knew! The letter concludes by expressing confidence that their general will never be reproached with the shameful repose of Capua. In a further letter, bearing the same date, Letourneur insists on a full and accurate account of the battles being sent, as they will be necessary "for the history of the triumphs of the Republic." In a private letter to the Directory (No. 220, vol. i. of the _Correspondence_, 1858), dated Carru, April 24th, Bonaparte tells them that when he returns to camp, worn-out, he has to work all night to put matters straight, and repress pillage. "Soldiery without bread work themselves into an excess of frenzy which makes one blush to be a man."[43]... "I intend to make terrible examples. I shall restore order, or cease to command these brigands. The campaign is not yet decided. The enemy is desperate, numerous, and fights well. He knows I am in want of everything, and trusts entirely to time; but I trust entirely to the good genius of the Republic, to the bravery of the soldiers, to the harmony of the officers, and even to the confidence they repose in me."
No. 7.
Aubenas goes into ecstasies over this letter, "the longest, most eloquent, and most impassioned of the whole series" (vol. i. 322).
Facsimile of Letter dated April 24, 1796.