1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Napoleonic Campaigns: Difference between revisions

of remaining there, for a fresh army was already gathering in Russia, the 1st corps of which had reached Nur about 50 m. distant from the French right.

 

 

Bernadotte, however, was missing, and this time through no fault of his own. His orders and the despatch conveying Napoleon's instructions fell into the hands of the Cossacks, and just in time Bennigsen's eyes were opened. Rapidly renouncing his previous intentions, he issued orders to concentrate on Allenstein; but this point was chosen too far in advance and he was anticipated by Murat and Soult at that place on the 2nd of February. He then determined to unite his forces at Joukendorf, but again he was too late. Soult and Murat attacked his rearguard on the 3rd, and learning from his Cossacks that the French corps were being directed so as to swing round and enclose him, he withdrew by a night march and ultimately succeeded in getting his whole army, with the exception of von Lestocq's Prussians, together in the strong position along the Alle, the centre of which is marked by Preussisch-Eylau. The opportunity for this concentration he owed to the time gained for him by his rearguard at Joukendorf, for this had stood just long enough to induce the French columns to swing in to surround him, and the next day was thus lost to the emperor as his corps had to extend again to their manceuvring intervals. The truth is that the days were too short and the roads too bad for Napoleon to carry out the full purpose his "general advanced guard" was intended to fulfil. It was designed to hold the enemy in position by the vigour of its attack, thus neutralizing his independent will power and compelling him to expend his reserves in the effort to rescue the troops engaged. But in forests and snowdrifts the French made such slow progress that no sufficient deployment could be made until darkness put a stop to the fighting. Thus, when late on the 7th of February 1807 Murat and Soult overtook the enemy near [[../Eylau|Eylau]] (''q.v.'') the fighting was severe but not prolonged. This time, however, Bennigsen, with over 60,000 men in position and 15,000 Prussians expected to arrive next morning, had no desire to avoid a battle, and deployed for action, his front protected by great batteries of guns, many of them of heavy calibre, numbering some 200 in all.

13th were taking up a strong position on the river Alle with Friedland as a centre.

 

 

{{section|The Austrian Army in 1809}}26. ''The Austrian Army in 1809.''—Ever since Austerlitz the Austrian officers had been labouring to reconstitute and reform their army. The archduke Charles was the foremost amongst many workers who had realized that numbers were absolutely needed to confront the new French methods. With these numbers it was impossible to attain the high degree of individual efficiency required for the old line tactics, hence they were compelled to adopt the French methods of skirmishers and columns, but as yet they had hardly realized the increased density necessary to be given to a line of battle to enable it to endure the prolonged nervous strain the new system of tactics entailed. Where formerly 15,000 men to the mile of front had been considered ample for the occupation of a position or the execution of an attack, double that number now often proved insufficient, and their front was broken before reinforcements could arrive. Much had been done to create an efficient staff, but though the idea of the army corps command was now no new thing, the senior generals entrusted with these commands were far from having acquired the independence and initiative of their French opponents. Hence the extraordinary slowness of their manœuvres, not because the Austrian infantry were bad marchers, but because the preparation and circulation. of orders was still far behind the French standard. The light cavalry had been much improved and the heavy cavalry on the whole proved a fair match for their opponents.

{{section|Napoleon takes command}}29. ''Napoleon takes command.''—Having despatched this severe reprimand he hastened on to Donauwdrth, where he arrived at 4 {{sc|a.m.}} on the 17th, hoping to find Berthier, but the latter was at Augsburg. Nevertheless, at 10 {{sc|a.m.}} he ordered Payout and Oudinot to withdraw at once to Ingolstadt; and Lefebvre and Wrede on the right to SunDort the movement. About noon

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Meanwhile the Austrians had approached so near that by a single days march it would have been possible to fall upon and crush by superior numbers either wing of the French army, but though the Austrian light cavalry successfully covered the operations of the following troops they had not yet risen to a conception of their reconnoitring mission, and the archduke, in ignorance of his opportunity and possessed, moreover, with the preconceived idea of uniting at Regensburg with the two corps coming from Bohemia, moved the bulk of his forces in that direction, leaving only a covering body against Davout altogether insufficient to retain him. Davout, however, had left a garrison of 1800 men in Regensburg, who delayed the junction of the Austrian wings until the 20th inst., and on the same day the emperor, having now reunited his whole right wing and centre, overwhelmed the covering detachments facing him in a long series of disconnected engagements lasting forty-eight hours, and the archduke now found himself in danger of being forced back into the-Danube. But with the Bohemian reinforcements he had stifi four corps in hand, and Napoleon, whose inteffigence service in the difficult and intersected country had lamentably failed him, had weakened his army by detaching a portion of his force in pursuit of the beaten right wing, and against the archdukes communications.

 

 

{{section|Austrian Retreat}}31. ''Austrian Retreat.''—On the following morning the French reached Regensburg and at once proceeded to assault its medieval walls, but the Austrian garrison bravely defended it tifi the last of the stragglers was safely across on the north bank. It was here that fbr the only time in his career Napoleon was slightly wounded. Then, leaving Payout to observe the archdukes retreat, the emperor himself rode after Massena, who with the major portion of the French army was following the Austrian weaker wing under Hiller. The latter was not so shaken as Napoleon believed, and turning to hay inflicted a severe check on its nursuers who at Ebelsberg lost 4000 men in three

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{{section|Aspern and Wagram}}32. ''Aspern and Wagram.''—The reconnaissance of the river was at once taken in hand by the French upon their arrival in Vienna, and a point opposite the island of Lobau selected for the crossing. Thanks to the Austrian precautions it took four days to collect the necessary material to span the main branch of the river, here some 2000 yds. across, and though Napoleon personally spurred on all to activity nearly four days more were required for its construction. It was not till the night of the 19th of May that orders for the passage were finally issued, and during the night the troops commenced to occupy the island of Lobau. Surprise, of course, was out of the question, but the Austrians did not attempt to dispute the passage, their object being to allow as many French as they felt they could deal with to pass over and then to fall on them. Thus on the 21st of May the [[../Aspern-Essling, Battle of|battle of Aspern]] (''q.v.'') or Essling began. It ended on the night of the 22nd with the complete defeat of Napoleon, the first ever inflicted upon him. The French retreated into the island of Lobau. By nightfall upwards of 100,000 men, encumbered with at least 20,000 wounded, were crowded together on the little island scarcely a mile square, short of provisions and entirely destitute of course of all hospital accessories. The question then arose whether the retreat was to be continued across the main stream or not, and for the second time in his career Napoleon assembled his generals to take their opinion. They counselled retreat, but having heard them all he replied, in substance: "If we leave here at all we may as well retire to Strassburg, for unless the enemy is held by the threat of further operations he will be free to strike at our communications and has a shorter distance to go. We must remain here and renew operations as soon as possible."

{{section|The Strategic Deployment}}34. ''The Strategic Deployment.''—By the middle of June 1812 the emperor had assembled his army along the line of the Niemen. On the extreme right stood the Austrian contingent under Schwarzenberg (34,000 men). Next, centring about Warsaw, a group of three corps (19,000 men) under the chief command of Napoleon's brother Jerome. Then the main army under Napoleon in person (220,000 men; with 80,000 more under the viceroy of Italy on his right rear); and on the extreme left at Tilsit a flanking corps, comprising the Prussian auxiliary corps and other Germans (in all 40,000 strong). The whole army was particularly strong in cavalry; out of the 450,000, 80,000 belonged to that arm, and Napoleon, mindful of the lessons of 1807, had issued the most minute and detailed orders for the supply service in all its branches, and the forwarding of reinforcements, no less than 100,000 men being destined for that purpose in due course of time.

 

 

{{section|Opening of the Campaign}}35. ''Opening of the Campaign.''—On the 24th of June the passage of the Niemen began in torrid heat which lasted for a few days. The main army, with the emperor in person, covered by Murat, and the cavalry, moved on Vilna, whilst Jerome on his right rear at once threatened Bagration and covered the emperors outer flank. From the very first, however, the inherent weakness of the vast army, and the vicious choice of time for the beginning of the advance, began to make itself felt. The crops being still green, and nothing else available as forage for the horses, an epidemic of colic broke out amongst them, and in ten days the mounted arms had lost upwards of one-third of their strength; men died of sunstroke in numbers, and serious straggling began. Still everything pointed to the concentration of the Russians at Vilna, and Jerome, who on the 5th of July had reached Grodno, was ordered to push on. But Jerome proved quite inadequate to his position, listening to the complaints of his subordinates as to want of supplies and even of pay; he spent four whole days in absolute inertia, notwithstanding the emperors reprimands. Meanwhile the Russians made good their retreat—Barclay towards the entrenched camp of Drissa on the Dvina, Bagration towards Mohilev.

{{section|Napoleon's Preparations}}43. ''Napoleon's Preparations.''—Meanwhile the emperor in Paris had been organizing a fresh army for the reconquest of Prussia. Thanks to his having compelled his allies to fight his battles for him, he had not as yet drawn very heavily on the fighting resources of France, the actual percentage of men taken by the conscriptions during the years since 1806 being actually lower than that in force in continental armies of to-day. He had also created in 1811–1812 a new National Guard, organized in "cohorts" to distinguish it from the regular army, and for borne defence ''only'', and these by a skilful appeal to their patriotism and judicious pressure applied through the prefects, became a useful reservoir of half-trained men for new battalions of the active army. Levies were also made with rigorous severity in the states of the Rhine Confederation, and even Italy was called on for fresh sacrifices. In this manner by the end of March upwards of 200,000 men were moving towards the Elbe,<ref>Napoleon always gave them 300,000, but this number was never attained.</ref> and in the first fortnight of April they were duly concentrated in the angle formed by the Elbe and Saale, threatening on the one hand Berlin, on the other Dresden and the east.

 

 

On the 25th of April Napoleon reached Erfurt and assumed the chief command. On this day his troops stood in the following positions. Eugene, with Lauriston's, Macdonald's and Regnier's corps, on the lower Saale, Ney in front of Weimar, holding the defile of Kösen; the Guard at Erfurt, Marmont at Gotha, Bertrand at Saalfeld, and Oudinot at Coburg, and during the next few days the whole were set in motion towards Merseburg and Leipzig, in the now stereotyped Napoleonic order, a strong advanced guard of all arms leading, the remainderabout twothirds of the wholefollowing as "masse de mancnuvre," this time, owing to the cover afforded by the Elbe on the left, to the right rear of the advanced guard.

the French advanced guard, which he took to be their whole force, on its right flank, and during the morning had drawn together the bulk of his forces on his right in the vicinity of GrossGorschen and Kaya.

 

 

Perhaps no battle better exemplifies the inherent strength of the emperors strategy, and in none was his grasp of the battlefield more brilliantly displayed, for, as he fully recognized, These Prussians have at last learnt somethingthey are no longer the wooden toys of Frederick the Great, and, on the other hand, the relative inferiority of his own men as compared with his veterans of Austerlitz called for far more individual effort than on any previous day. He was everywhere, encouraging and compelling his menit is a legend in the French army that the persuasion even of the imperial boot was used upon some of his reluctant conscripts, and in the result his system was fully justified, as it triumphed even against a great tactical surprise.

{{section|Bautzen}}46. ''Bautzen.''—As soon as possible the army pressed on in pursuit, Ney being sent across the Elbe to turn the position of the allies at Dresden. This threat forced the latter to evacuate the town and retire over the Elbe, after blowing up the stone bridge across the river. Napoleon entered the town hard on their heels, but the broken bridge caused a delay of four days, there being no pontoon trains with the army. Ultimately on the 18th of May the march was renewed, but the allies had continued their retreat in leisurely fashion, picking up reinforcements by the way. Arrived at the line of the Spree, they took up and fortified a very formidable position about [[../Bautzen|Bautzen]] (''q.v.''). Here, on the 20th, they were attacked, and after a two days battle dislodged by Napoleon; but the weakness of the French cavalry conditioned both the form of the attack, which was less effective than usual, and the results of the victory, which were extremely meagre.

 

 

Still the allies continued their retreat and the French were unable to bring them to action. In view of the doubtful attitude of Austria, Napoleon became alarmed at the gradual lengthening of his lines of communication and opened negotiations. The enemy, having everything to gain and nothing to lose thereby, agreed finally to a six weeks suspension of arms. This was perhaps the gravest military error of Napoleon's whole career,

Danzig. The moral effect, he promised himself, would be prodigious, and thete was neither room nor food for these 100,000 elsewhere.

 

 

{{section|Dresden}}48. ''Dresden''.—The advance towards Berlin began punctually with the expiration of the armistice, but with the main army he himself waited to see more clearly his, adversaries plans. At length becoming impatient he advanced a portion of his army towards Blücher, who fell back to draw him into a trap. Then the news reached him that Schwarzenberg was pressing down the valley of the Elbe, and, leaving Macdonald to observe Blücher, he hurried back to Bautzen to dispose his troops to cross the Bohemian mountains in the general direction of Kdnigstein, a blow which must have had decisive results. But the news from Dresden was so alarming that at the last moment he changed his mind, and sending Vandamme alone over the mountains, he hurried with his whole army to the threatened point. This march remains one of the most extraordinary in history, for the bulk of his forces moved, mainly in mass and across country, 90 m. in 72 hours, entering Dresden on the morning of the 27th, only a few hours before the attack of the allies commenced. For the events which followed see [[../Dresden#Battle of Dresden|{{SC|Dresden}}]] (''battle'').

There he was joined by the Austrian advance guard and together they decided to accept battle—indeed they had no alternative, as the roads in rear were so choked with traffic that retreat was out of the question. About noon the 2nd of February Napoleon attacked them; but the weather was terrible, and the ground so heavy that his favorite artillery, the mainstay of his whole system of warfare, was useless and in the drifts of snow which at intervals swept across the field, the columns lost their direction and many were severely handled by the Cossacks. At nightfall the fighting ceased and the emperor retired to Lesmont, and thence to Troyes, Marmont being left to observe the enemy.

 

 

Believing himself secure behind this screen, he advanced from Vitry along the roads leading down the valley of the Marne, with his columns widely separated for convenience of subsistence and shelterthe latter being almost essential in the terrible weather prevailing. Blücher himself on the night of the 7th was at Szanne, on the exposed flank so as to be nearer to his sources of intelligence, and the rest of his army were distributed in four small corps at or near Épernay, Montmirail and Étoges; reinforcements also were on their way to join him and were then about Vitry.

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{{section|Laon}}56. ''Laon.''—In the meantime Blücher had rallied his scattered forces and was driving Marmont and Mortier before him. Napoleon, as soon as he had disembarrassed himself of Schwarzenberg, counter-marched his main body and moving again by Sézanne, fell upon Blücher's left and drove him back upon Soissons. This piace had been held by a French garrison, but had capitulated only twenty-four hours beforehand, a fact of which Napoleon was naturally unaware. The Silesian army was thus able to escape, and marching northwards combined with Bernadotte at Laon—this reinforcement bringing the forces at Blücher's disposal up to over 100,000 men.

{{section|The Allies March on Paris}}57. ''The Allies March on Paris.''—Thus after six weeks fighting the allies were hardly more advanced than at the beginning. Now, however, they began to realize the weakness of their opponent, and perhaps actuated by the fear that Wellington from Toulouse might, after all, reach Paris first, they determined

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This was the end of the First Empire. The story of the [[../Waterloo Campaign|Waterloo Campaign]] is told under its own heading.