Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 13

"I have only done my duty," observed the soldier, "my captain degraded me on account of some violation of discipline but he knows I have always proved a good soldier."

The Emperor expressed his satisfaction to the dragoons for the bravery they had displayed at the battle of Wertingen and ordered each regiment to present a dragoon, on whom he also bestowed the decoration of the Legion of Honor.

Napoleon looked upon the battle of Elchingen which followed the actions at Wertingen and Gunzburgh as one of the finest feats of arms that his army had ever accomplished. From this field of battle he sent the Senate forty standards taken by the French army in the various battles which had succeeded that of Wertingen. "Since my entry on this campaign," he wrote, "I have disposed of an army of 100,000 men. I have taken nearly half of them prisoners; the rest have either deserted, are killed, wounded, or reduced to the greatest consternation ... a.s.sisted by Divine Providence I hope in a short time to triumph over all my enemies."

By the 13th of October General Mack found himself completely surrounded at Ulm with a garrison of fully 20,000 good troops. On this day Napoleon made an exciting address to his soldiers on the bridge of the Lech, amid the most intense cold, the ground being covered with snow, and the troops sunk to the knees in mud. He warned them to expect a great battle, and explained the desperate condition of the enemy. He was answered with acclamations and repeated shouts of, "Vive l' Empereur!"

In listening to his exciting words, the soldiers forgot their fatigues and privations and were impatient to rush into the fight.

As Napoleon pa.s.sed through a crowd of prisoners, an Austrian colonel expressed his astonishment on beholding the Emperor of the French drenched with rain, covered with dirt, and as much, or even more fatigued than the meanest drummer in his army. An aide-de-camp present having explained to him what the Austrian officer said, the Emperor ordered this answer to be given: "Your master wished me to recollect that I was a soldier; I hope that he will allow that the throne and the imperial purple have not made me forget my original profession."

From the height of the Abbey of Elchingen Napoleon now beheld the city of Ulm at his feet, commanded on every side by his cannon; his victorious troops ready for the a.s.sault, and the great Austrian army cooped up within the walls. Four days later a flag of truce came from General Mack.

Napoleon had called upon the commander to surrender, and unlike the brave Wurmser, who held Mantua to extremity during the campaign of Alvinzi, he capitulated without hazarding a blow. On the previous day Mack had published a proclamation urging his troops to prepare for the "utmost pertinacity of defense" and forbidding, on the pain of death, the very word "surrender" to be breathed within the walls of Ulm. He announced the arrival of two powerful armies, one of Austrians, the other of Russians, whose appearance "would presently raise the blockade." He even declared his intention of eating horseflesh rather than listen to any terms of capitulation!

On the morning of October 15th Napoleon finally resolved to bring the affair to a close, and gave orders to Marshal Ney to storm the heights of Michaelsberg. All at once a battery unmasked by the Austrians, poured its grape-shot upon the imperial group. Lannes, who was to flank Ney, abruptly seized Napoleon's horse to lead him out of the galling fire.

The latter had taken up a position to watch Ney, who had set his columns in motion. Changing to a safe position, the Emperor saw this intrepid leader climb the intrenchments raised on Michaelsberg, and carry them with the bayonet. Lannes secured another point of attack a moment later.

Napoleon then suspended the combat until the next day, when he ordered a few sh.e.l.ls to be thrown into Ulm, and in the evening sent Segur to General Mack summoning him to surrender. The envoy had great difficulty in getting into the place. He was led blindfold before Mack, who, striving to conceal his anxiety, was nevertheless unable to dissemble his surprise and grief on learning the extent of his disaster and hopeless position.

On the 17th Mack signed articles by which hostilities were immediately ceased and he with all his men agreed to surrender(!) themselves as prisoners of war within ten days, unless some Austrian or Russian force should appear and attempt to raise the blockade. On the 19th, after a personal visit to Napoleon's camp, Mack submitted to a "revision" of the treaty, and on the 20th a formal evacuation of Ulm took place.

Thirty-six thousand soldiers filed off and laid down their arms before Napoleon and his staff. A large watchfire had been made, near which the Emperor posted himself to witness the ceremony. General Mack came forward and delivered his sword, exclaiming, with grief: "Here is the unfortunate Mack!" Napoleon received him and his officers with the greatest courtesy. Eighteen generals were dismissed on parole, an immense quant.i.ty of ammunition of all sorts fell into the hands of the victor, and a wagonful of Austrian standards was sent to Paris.

Napoleon enforced the strictest silence on his troops while this ceremony, so painful to their enemies continued. In one instance he instantly ordered out of his presence one of his own generals from whom his quick ear caught some witticism pa.s.sed on the occasion.

All the Austrian officers were allowed to return home, on giving their word of honor not to serve against France until a general exchange of prisoners should take place.

This campaign is perhaps unexampled in the history of warfare for the greatness of its results in comparison with the smallness of the expense at which they were obtained. Of the French army, scarcely fifteen hundred men were killed and wounded; while the Austrian army of almost ninety thousand men was nearly annihilated; all, with the exception of 15,000 who escaped, being killed, wounded, or prisoners; and having lost also, 200 pieces of cannon and ninety flags. It was a common remark among the troops, "The Emperor has found a new method of carrying on war; he makes us use our legs instead of our bayonets." Five-sixths of the French army never fired a shot, at which the troops were much mortified!

Ma.s.sena was also successful in his advance from Lombardy, the Archduke Charles, who commanded an army of 80,000 men for Austria, being forced to abandon Italy, and Marshal Ney whom Napoleon had detached from his own main army with orders to advance in the Tyrol, was no less successful. The number of prisoners taken in this campaign was so great that Napoleon distributed them amongst the agriculturists that their work in the fields might make up for the absence of the conscripts, whom he had withdrawn from such labor.

Rumors of the approach of the Russians, headed by the Emperor Alexander in person, came fast and frequent. The divisions of Ma.s.sena and Ney were now at the disposal of Napoleon, who was concentrating his forces for the purpose of attacking Vienna, and, with the main body, now moved on the capital of the Austrian Emperor. The Emperor Francis, perceiving that Vienna was incapable of defense, quitted his palace on the 7th of November, and proceeded to the headquarters of Alexander at Brunn.

While Napoleon was riding on horseback on the Vienna road, he perceived an open carriage approaching, in which were seated a priest, and a lady bathed in tears. The Emperor was dressed, as usual, in the uniform of a colonel of the cha.s.seurs of the guard. The lady did not recognize him.

He inquired the cause of her distress and where she was going.

"Sir," said she, "I have been robbed, about two leagues hence, by a party of soldiers, who have killed my gardener. I am going to request that your emperor will grant me a guard; he once knew my family well, and lay under obligations to them."

"Your name?" inquired Napoleon.

"De Brunny" answered the lady. "I am the daughter of M. de Marbeuf, formerly governor of Corsica."

"I am delighted to meet with you madame" exclaimed Napoleon with the most charming frankness, "and to have an opportunity of serving you,--I am the Emperor."

The lady expressed much surprise and pa.s.sed on agreeing to wait for the commander at headquarters. Here she was furnished a piquet of cha.s.seurs.

On the 13th the French entered Vienna, and Napoleon took up his residence in the Imperial Palace of Schoenbrunn, the home of the Austrian Caesars. While at this point Napoleon learned of the success of the English at Trafalgar on October 19th,--the day after Mack surrendered at Ulm. It was a battle sternly contested and resulted in the final annihilation of the French fleet. Great as the triumph was for England, it was dearly purchased--for Nelson fell, mortally wounded, early in the action. He lived just long enough to hear the cheers of victory, and as he pa.s.sed away, said, "Thank G.o.d! I have done my duty!"

The tidings of Trafalgar served but as a new stimulus to Napoleon's energy. "Heaven has given the empire of the sea to England," he said, "but to us has fate decreed the dominion of the land." But though such signal success had crowned the commencement of the campaign, it was necessary to defeat the haughty Russians before the object of the war could be considered as attained. The broken and shattered remnant of the Austrian forces had rallied from different quarters around the yet untouched army of Alexander; Napoleon had therefore waited until the result of his skillful combinations had drawn around him the greatest force he could expect to collect, ere venturing upon a general battle.

He then quitted Vienna and put himself at the head of his columns which soon found themselves within reach of the Russian and Austrian forces, at length combined and ready for action, and under the eye of their emperors.

Now it was to be a battle of three emperors,--France, Russia and Austria. Napoleon fixed his headquarters at Brunn, where he arrived on the 20th of November, and riding over the plain between this point and Austerlitz, a village about two miles from Brunn, said to his generals: "Study this field well,--we shall, ere long, have to contest it."

Napoleon, on learning that the Emperor Alexander was personally in the hostile camp, sent Savary to present his compliments to that sovereign, and of course "incidentally to observe as much as he could of the numbers and condition of the enemy's troops." The messenger reported that the Russians labored under a belief that the reverses of the previous campaign were the result of unpardonable cowardice among the Austrians, and the first general battle would show the sort of warriors the Russians were. Savary said that from the conversations he had for three days with nearly thirty c.o.xcombs about the person of Alexander, that presumption, inconsiderateness, and imprudence, reigned in the decisions of the military as much as in the political cabinet, and that an army so conducted must of necessity commit great faults.

The Czar sent a young aide-de-camp to return the compliment carried by Savary, and he found the French soldiery engaged in fortifying their position--a position which Napoleon had some time before determined to occupy; but the negotiations were of no avail: Napoleon wanted either an overwhelming battle or peace. The aide-de-camp sent by Alexander was impressed with what appeared to him to be evidence of fear and apprehension on the part of the French. The placing of strong guards and fortifications, thrown up with such haste, appeared to him like the precautions of an army half beaten. The Russian prince discussed every point with an air of impertinence difficult to be conceived. He spoke to Napoleon as if he had been conversing with a Russian officer; but the Emperor repressed his indignation, and the young man returned under a full conviction that the French army was on the brink of ruin. Several old Austrian generals, who had made campaigns against Napoleon, are said to have warned the Russian council against too much confidence as they were to march against old soldiers and able officers. They said they had seen Napoleon, when reduced to a handful of men, repossess himself of victory, under the most difficult circ.u.mstances, by rapid and unforseen operations, in which manner he had destroyed numerous armies. The presumptuous young man declared that the presence of the Russian Emperor would inspire the troops to victory especially as they would be aided by the picked troops of the imperial guard of Russia.

On the 1st of December, on seeing the Russians begin to descend from a chain of heights on which they might have received an attack with great advantage to themselves, and have remained in safety until the Archduke Charles could come up with the 80,000 men in Bohemia and Hungary, Napoleon exclaimed rapturously, as he witnessed the rash manoeuvre: "In twenty-four hours that army will be mine!" In the meantime, withdrawing his outposts and concentrating his forces, he continued to imitate a conscious inferiority, which was far from existing. In the order of the day (December 1) before the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon inserted the following proclamation:

"Soldiers, the Russians are before you, to avenge the Austrian army at Ulm. They consist of the same battalions you beat at Hollenbrun and have constantly pursued. The positions we occupy are formidable; and, while they march to my right, they shall present me their flank.--Soldiers, I will direct myself all your battalions. I shall keep at a distance from the firing, if, with your accustomed bravery, you carry confusion and disorder into the enemy's ranks; but, should victory appear for a moment doubtful, you shall see your Emperor expose himself to the first blows; for victory cannot hesitate on this day, in which the honor of the French infantry, of so much importance to the whole army, is concerned.

Suffer not the ranks to be thinned, under pretense of carrying off the wounded; but let each man be well persuaded that we must conquer the hirelings of England, who are animated with so deep a hatred of our nation. This victory must terminate our campaign; when we shall resume our winter quarters, and be joined by the new armies forming in France.

The peace which I make will be worthy of my people, of you and myself.

(Signed)

NAPOLEON."

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Drawing by Raffet

FRENCH TROOPS CROSSING THE GREAT ST. BERNARD]

At one o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of December, Napoleon, having slept for an hour by a watchfire, got on horseback and proceeded to reconnoitre the front of his position. He wished to do so without being recognized, but the soldiers penetrated the secret, and, lighting great fires of straw along the line, 80,000 men received him from post to post with great enthusiasm. They reminded him that it was the anniversary of his coronation, and declared that they would celebrate the day in a manner worthy of his glory.

"Only promise us," cried one old grenadier, "that you will keep yourself out of the fire: I promise you in the name of the grenadiers of the army that you will have to fight only with your eyes, and we will bring you the flags and artillery of the Russian army to celebrate the anniversary of your coronation."

"I will do so," answered the Emperor, "but I shall be with the reserve _until you need us_." This promise Napoleon soon repeated in his proclamation. As he threw down his pen after signing this doc.u.ment, he exclaimed: "This is the n.o.blest evening of my life; but I shall lose too many of these brave fellows to-morrow. The anguish which I experience at this idea makes me feel they are really my children; and truly I am vexed with myself for these sensations, as I fear they will unman me on the field of battle."

In his preparations for this decisive contest which he made immediately, ten battalions of the Imperial Guard, with ten of Oudinot's division, were to be kept in reserve in the rear of the line, under the eyes of Napoleon himself, who destined them, with forty field-pieces, to act wherever the fate of battle should render their services most necessary.

"The battle was planned by Napoleon in every detail," says Segur, "just as he had planned the strategic movements of the army. In the early morning he sent for all his aides-de-camp to come to the small house where he had spent the night. We had a slight repast, which, like himself, we ate standing; after which, putting on his sword, he said, 'Now gentlemen, let us go and begin a great day.' We all ran to our horses. A moment afterwards we saw, on the top of the hill which the soldiers called 'the Emperor's hill,' arriving from the various points of our line, followed each by their aides-de-camp, all the chiefs of our army corps, Murat, Lannes, Bernadotte, Soult, Davoust,--all coming to receive final orders. If I were to live as long as the world shall last, I would never forget that scene."

After a hazy, misty daybreak, the sun at last arose with uncommon brilliancy, so bright in fact that "the sun of Austerlitz" afterwards fell into a proverb with the French soldiery, who hailed similar dawns with exultation and as a sure omen of victory. The Emperor said, as he pa.s.sed in front of several regiments: "Soldiers, we must finish this campaign by a thunderbolt which shall confound the pride of our enemies." Immediately they raised their hats on the bayonets' points and cries of, "Live the Emperor!" formed the actual signal for battle. A moment afterwards the horizon cleared up and as the sun darted forth its glistening rays the cannonading was heard at the extremity of the right line. The great battle of Austerlitz had begun.

At the opening of the engagement, Kutusoff, the Russian general-in-chief, fell into a snare laid for him by Napoleon, and sent a large division of his army to turn the right of the French. His troops, detached for this purpose, met with unexpected resistance from Davoust, and were held in check. Napoleon at once seized the opportunity given him by the enemy in leaving a deep gap in their line, and upon that s.p.a.ce Soult forthwith poured a force which entirely cut off all communication between the Russian centre and left.

The Czar quickly perceived the fatal consequences of the movement, and ordered his guards to rush to the eminence called the hill of Pratzen, where the encounter was taking place, and beat back Soult. The Russians succeeded in driving the French before them, when Napoleon ordered Bessieres to their rescue with the Imperial Guards. The Russians had become somewhat disordered from the impatience of their temporary victory, and although they resisted Bessieres sternly, they were finally broken and fled. The regiment of the Grand Duke Constantine, who gallantly led the Russians, was now annihilated and the duke only escaped by the fleetness of his horse.

The French centre now advanced, and the charges of Murat's cavalry were most decisive, while the left wing, under the command of Lannes, marched forward, _en echelons_, by regiments, in the same manner as if they had been exercising by divisions. A tremendous cannonade then took place along the whole line; two hundred and three pieces of cannon, and nearly two hundred thousand men, being engaged, so that it was indeed a giant combat. Success could not be doubtful: in a moment the Russians were all but routed, their colonel, artillery, standards and everything being already captured. At 1 o'clock the victory was decided; it had never been doubtful for a moment; and not a man of the reserves was required.

From the heights of Austerlitz the Emperors of Russia and Austria beheld the total ruin of their centre as they had already of their left. The right wing only remained unbroken, it having contested well the impetuous charge of Lannes; but Napoleon could now gather round them on all sides, and, his artillery plunging incessant fire on them from the heights, they at length found it impossible to hold their ground and were driven from position to position. They were at last forced down into a hollow where some frozen lakes offered them the only means of escape from the closing cannonade. As they did so the French broke the ice about them by a storm of shot from 200 heavy cannon, and nearly 2,000 men died on the spot, some swept away by artillery, but the greater part being drowned beneath the broken ice.

The cries of the dying Russians, as they sank beneath the waters, were drowned, however, by the victorious shouts of the French, who were pursuing the scattering remnants of the enemy in every direction. In the bulletin of the engagement Napoleon compared the scene to that at Aboukir, "when the sea was covered with turbans."

The Emperor had addressed his soldiers on the evening preceding the battle to heighten their courage, and presage to them the victory; he did not forget to address himself to them again after the fight, and felicitate them upon having so n.o.bly contributed to verify his prediction. "Soldiers," he said to them, "You have on this day of Austerlitz justified all that which I expected from your intrepidity.

You have decorated your eagles with immortal glory. When all that is necessary to a.s.sure the happiness and prosperity of our country is accomplished, I will lead you back to France. There you will be the objects of my tenderest solicitude. My people will joyously greet you again, and it will suffice for you to say: 'I was at the battle of Austerlitz,' and for them to reply, 'Behold a brave man!'"

In later years Napoleon said of this engagement: "I have fought thirty battles like that, but I have never seen so decisive a victory, or one where the chances were so unevenly balanced." At another time while at St. Helena he said, "If I had not conquered at Austerlitz I should have had all Prussia on me."