Memoirs of General Count Rapp, First aide-de-camp to Napoleon

We had long before taken the measure of his capacity; we always took it into our account; it was one of our resources; he might nevertheless change his mind, rush to arms, and destroy us. We all perceived it; but we had no news from Eugène. Davoust and Ney were in the rear; we could not leave them. The temperature moreover became every day more severe; the Russians also suffered; they had slumbered hitherto, they might slumber still. Napoleon resolved to take the chance of it; he waited. Every thing turned out as he had foreseen. Milloradowitz wished to intercept the fourth corps, but he could not reach it. Five thousand infantry, who had neither horses to clear away the assailants, nor cannon to defend themselves with, constantly repulsed the multitudes of soldiers which were rushing on them, made head against all this advanced-guard, and escaped. Davoust followed; the enemy flattered themselves that they could take their revenge on the Marshal, but the Emperor prevented it. He extended his line on the left of Krasnoi, brought some troops into action, and opened a pretty well sustained fire of artillery. Kutusow, alarmed at the sight of the 14 or 15,000 men who had been drawn together, recalled his detached corps: the Marshal passed over, and came to take part in the action. The end was attained, the firing ceased, and the retreat commenced. The enemy tried to prevent it; but the first regiment of the voltigeurs of the guard repulsed all their attacks; neither the cavalry, the infantry, nor grape shot could move it: it perished on the spot. This heroic resistance struck the Russians; they discontinued the pursuit. As soon as we were out of one embarrassment, we fell into another. We in number from 14 to 15,000 men, had ventured to place ourselves in line against Kutusow's 20,000; we had extricated ourselves, without a reverse, from a situation where we ought to have been all taken; but our provisions, our rear was lost. Minsk had been surprised; the army of Moldavia covered the Beresina; Ney was still behind: never had our situation been so terrible. Napoleon, who was astonished at this disastrous complication of affairs, despatched orders to resume the offensive, and to take Polosk. Success appeared to him easy. "If the Duke de Belluno shew energy, the enterprise cannot fail; the character of the troops that he commands ensures it. It is Ney that I am uneasy about; what is to become of him." This Marshal was in an unparalleled situation; all the valour, the sang froid, and perseverance of that intrepid warrior were necessary to extricate him; he had received on the night of the 16th or 17th news of Eugène's battle, and Davoust's departure. These two events could not move him. "All the Cossacks of Russia," said he, on learning it, "should not hinder me from executing my instructions; I will not depart from them a tittle." He concluded his arrangements, and proceeded to march: 6,000 infantry, three hundred horses, and twelve pieces of cannon composed all his force. He was annoyed by the light troops of the enemy which hovered round his flanks; he was marching in close order, ready to receive any attack. At three o'clock, his vanguard reached Katowa, and halted in sight of the corps of Milloradowitz. The weather was foggy; neither party could see what troops were before them. Ney crosses a ravine which separated him from the enemy's troops, breaks through the first line, routs the second, and would have defeated the whole army if the ravages of the artillery had not prevented him. He was obliged to sound a retreat; but his attack had been so impetuous that they dared not pursue him. He lighted night-fires, as if he intended to stop all night: the Russians imitated him. As soon as he had taken some rest, he removed his quarters, and resolved to interpose the Borysthenes as a line of separation between him and the enemy's troops, which were too numerous for him to be able to force: he rushed into the stream, on the ice, and reached the opposite bank; but new dangers were awaiting him there.

The Cossacks covered the plain; they charged us, and kept up a furious fire of grape shot. Ney, who could not make any return to this destructive cannonade, hastened his march, dispersing, overthrowing every thing that dared oppose him. He marched for a wood which was not far distant; he was on the point of reaching it, when a battery was unmasked on him and disorganized his column. The soldiers waver and throw down their arms, but the Marshal soon restores them to their courage; his words, his voice, his example, encourage the most timid: they rush on; the enemy's artillery fly; we are masters of the wood. But there were neither roads nor paths through this thicket; it was intersected by so many ravines, and there were so many obstacles, that it was with infinite difficulty that it was traversed: nearly all the matériel was left in it. The Cossacks became the more daring; for two days they never ceased renewing their attacks: but they had themselves been obliged to make a circuit, their cannon was in arrear, they had no artillery; a few voltigeurs did justice on them. Ney was close upon Orsza: the night was advanced; he marched in silence: he flattered himself that he had at last ridded himself of the enemy. On a sudden he perceives the fires of bivouacs, he discovers the camp of a numerous army. He did not know whether he should rejoice or tremble, whether they were Russians or French, when a fire opened upon him removes his uncertainty: the reconnoitring parties are received with discharges of musquetry; explosions, cries, drums, are mingled and confounded together; one would have thought that we were to give battle to all Russia. Furious at seeing danger return at the moment when he thought that he had escaped from it, the Marshal makes an effort to open a passage; he rushes towards the fires—but the camp is deserted: it is a trick, a stratagem. Platoff had, it appears, taken us for his own troops; he had thought to frighten us with shadows. The Duke disdained to follow a few Cossacks, who had been employed in this phantasmagoria; he continued his march, and three leagues further on reached the fourth corps.

CHAPTER XXXVI

While this was going on, we had left Krasnoi. Napoleon marched on foot at the head of his guard, and often talked of Ney; he called to mind his coup d'œil, so accurate and true, his courage proof against every thing, in short all the qualities which made him so brilliant on the field of battle.—"He is lost. Well! I have three hundred millions in the Tuileries, I would give them if he were restored to me."—He fixed his head-quarters at Dombrowna. He lodged with a Russian lady who had the courage not to abandon her house. I was on duty that day: the Emperor sent for me towards one o'clock in the morning; he was very much dejected; it was difficult for him not to be so; the scene was frightful. He observed to me, "My affairs are going on very badly; these poor soldiers rend my heart; I cannot, however, relieve them."—There was a cry of "To arms!"—Firing was heard; every thing was in an uproar. "Go, see what it is," Napoleon said to me with the greatest sang froid; "I am sure that they are some rogues of Cossacks who want to hinder us from sleeping." It was in reality a false alarm. He was not satisfied with some personages whom I abstain from naming.—"What a set of tragedy-kings, without energy, courage, or moral force! Have I been able to deceive myself to such a degree? To what men have I trusted myself? Poor Ney! with whom have I matched thee?"

We set off for Orsza, and fixed our quarters at a Jesuits' convent. Napoleon despaired of ever seeing the rear-guard. Neither did we see any more the Russian infantry; it was probable that they had taken some position: they ought to have let nothing escape. The next day we pushed on two leagues farther; we halted in a wretched hamlet. It was there that the Emperor learnt, towards the evening, of Ney's arrival, and his having joined the fourth corps. It may be easily conceived what joy he experienced, and in what manner he received the Marshal on the next day. We reached Borisow; Oudinot had beaten Lambert; the fugitives had joined Tchitschagoff, and covered the right bank of the Beresina. Napoleon was uneasy: we had neither a bridge-train nor subsistence. The main army was advancing, and the troops from Moldavia blockaded the passage: we were surrounded on every side: the situation was frightful, and unheard-of. Nothing less than the talents and the great decision of the Emperor was necessary to extricate us from so great a difficulty: no Frenchman, not even Napoleon, could expect to escape.

This prince stopped a short time at Borisow, gave orders for the false attack which saved us, and marched towards Oudinot's head-quarters a few leagues distant. We slept a little on this side of the place, at a country house which belonged to a Prince Radzivill. General Mouton and myself passed the night there on a handful of straw; we thought on the morrow, and our reflexions were not cheerful. We set off on our journey at four o'clock: we were in one of the Emperor's calèches. We perceived the fires of the Russians; they occupied the opposite bank; the woods, the marshes, were full of them; they reached beyond our range of sight. The river was deep, muddy, all covered with floating pieces; it was here that we were to cross or surrender. We augured badly of success. The General explained himself with frankness: he had often done it before Napoleon, who treated him as a malcontent, but nevertheless liked him much.

We arrived at Oudinot's head-quarters: day was just beginning to dawn; the Emperor conversed a moment with the Marshal, took some refreshment, and gave orders. Ney took me apart; we went out together; he said to me, in German, "Our situation is unparalleled; if Napoleon extricates himself to-day, he must have the devil in him." We were very uneasy, and there was sufficient cause. The King of Naples came to us, and was not less solicitous. "I have proposed to Napoleon," he observed to us, "to save himself, and cross the river at a few leagues distance from hence. I have some Poles who would answer for his safety, and would conduct him to Wilna, but he rejects the proposal, and will not even hear it mentioned. As for me, I do not think we can escape." We were all three of the same opinion. Murat replied, "We will all get over; we can never think of surrendering." While conversing, we perceived the enemy were filing off; their masses had disappeared, the fires were extinguished, nothing more than the ends of the columns, which were lost in the wood, were seen, and from five to six hundred Cossacks that were scattered on the plain. We examined with the telescope; we were convinced that the camp was raised. I went to Napoleon, who was conversing with Marshal Oudinot.—"Sire, the enemy have left their position."—"That is impossible." The King of Naples and Marshal Ney arrived, and confirmed what I had just announced. The Emperor came out from his barrack, cast his eye on the other side of the river. "I have outwitted the Admiral (he could not pronounce the name Tchitschagoff); he believes me to be at the point where I ordered the false attack; he is running to Borisow." His eyes sparkled with joy and impatience; he urged the erection of the bridges, and mounted twenty pieces of cannon in battery. These were commanded by a brave officer with a wooden leg, called Brechtel; a ball carried it off during the action, and knocked him down. "Look," he said, to one of his gunners, "for another leg, in waggon No. 5." He fitted it on, and continued his firing. The Emperor made sixty men swim across, under the command of Colonel Jacqueminot. They ventured imprudently in pursuit of the Cossacks; one of them was taken and questioned, and informed the Russians where Napoleon was. Tchitschagoff retraced his steps, but it was too late; Napoleon, his guard, Ney, Oudinot, and all the troops which these Marshals retained, had passed. The Admiral, confused by having been duped, forgot the marshes of Lemblin. The bridge, which extended a league and a quarter over this swampy ground, was our only escape; if it had been destroyed, he would have had our fate still in his hands: but Witgenstein commenced the firing on the left bank; he occupied the right; his soldiers were wallowing in plenty; a handful of men, sinking under the burthen of a wretched life, might have been trampled under foot. He neglected the defile, Eugène hastened to get possession of it; we were sure of our rear, we waited for Tchitschagoff.

We were 8000, fainting from fatigue and hunger: he had the army of Moldavia. The issue of the combat did not appear doubtful to him; he advanced with the ardour of victory; the action commenced; the troops were intermixed; the ground was heaped with the dead. Ney directs, animates the charges; every where the Russians are surrounded. They rally; they bring up fresh forces: but Berkeim comes up; the cuirassiers rush on their columns—all are cut to pieces.

Napoleon was surrounded by his guard, which he had drawn up in order of battle at the entrance of the forest; it was still fine, and of an imposing appearance. Two thousand prisoners defiled before them; we were intoxicated with so noble a result: our joy was but of short duration, the account given by some Russians damped it. Partonneau had been taken; all his division had laid down their arms; an aide-de-camp of Marshal Victor came to confirm this sad news. Napoleon was deeply affected with so unexpected a misfortune—"Must this loss come to spoil all, after having escaped as by a miracle, and having completely beaten the Russians." The combat was still very warm on the left bank: from four to five thousand men opposed to the enemy's army an obstinate resistance. "Go and see what is the state of things; ascend the right bank, examine what is passing on the left, come and give me an account of it." I went and saw brilliant charges of infantry and cavalry; those which General Fournier conducted were particularly conspicuous by their simultaneousness and impetuosity. But the disproportion was immense; we were forced to give way; the horrors of the bridge began: it is useless to recall this scene of desolation.

We left the dreary banks of the Beresina, where we had acquired so much glory and experienced so many misfortunes: we marched on towards Wilna. We discoursed of nothing, we were occupied with nothing, but the arrival of the Austrians; the lowest soldier, dreamed of nothing but Schwartzenberg. Where is he? What is he doing? Why does he not appear? I will not permit myself any reflexion on the movement of this prince, then our ally.

For a long time we had no news from France; we were ignorant of what was going on in the Grand Duchy; we were informed of it at Malotechno. Napoleon received nineteen despatches at once. It was there, I believe, that he determined on the plan of quitting the army, but he did not execute it till at Smorgoni, eighteen leagues from Wilna. We reached that place. The Emperor sent for me towards two o'clock; he carefully closed the doors of the apartment that he occupied, and said to me: "Well, Rapp, I set out this night for Paris; my presence is necessary there for the good of France, and even for the welfare of this unfortunate army. I shall give the command of it to the King of Naples."—I was not prepared for this mark of confidence, for I frankly avow that I was not in the secret of the journey.—"Sire," I answered, "your departure will cause a melancholy sensation among the troops; they do not expect it."—"My return is indispensable; it is necessary to watch over Austria, and keep Prussia within bounds."—"I am ignorant of what the Austrians will do; their sovereign is your father-in-law: but for the Prussians, you will not keep them: our disasters are too great; they will profit by them."—Napoleon walked up and down with his hands behind his back; he kept silence for a moment, and replied: "When they know that I am at Paris, and see me at the head of the nation, and of 1,200,000 men which I shall organize, they will look twice before they make war. Duroc, Caulincourt, and Mouton, will set off with me, Lauriston will go to Warsaw, and you will return to Dantzic; you will see Ney at Wilna, with whom you will stop at least four days: Murat shall join you; you shall try to rally the army as well as you are able. The magazines are full, you will find every thing in abundance. You will stop the Russians; you shall strike a blow with Ney, if it is necessary. He will have already the Loyson division, composed of 18,000 fresh troops; Wrede also is bringing up to him 10,000 Bavarians; other reinforcements are on the march. You will go into cantonments." Napoleon departed. I received orders from the Major-general, who informed me in a letter what Napoleon had already told me himself; he sent me at the same time a private letter from the Emperor, in which he repeated, "Do all you can to rally the army at Wilna, remain there four days at least; then you will go to Dantzic." The next day I set off. The cold was so intense, that when I arrived at Wilna, I had my nose, one of my ears, and two fingers frozen. I stopped at General Hogendorp's, and went straight to Marshal Ney's quarters; I informed him of Napoleon's orders, and of the conversation which I had with him at the moment of his departure. The Marshal was greatly astonished at Napoleon's estimate of the number of his troops. "Just now," he said to me, "I beat the call to arms, and I was not able to raise five hundred: every one is frozen, fatigued, and discouraged; no one will make any further effort. You have the appearance of being in pain; go and rest yourself; to-morrow we shall see."—The next day I went to him: the King of Naples had just arrived with the guard. We conversed much about our situation. Ney wished for a retreat, he thought it indispensable. "It is forced on us: there are no means of stopping a day longer." He had not ended before the report of cannon was heard. The Russians arrived in force; they were fighting at the distance of half a league from us. All at once we saw the Bavarians returning in confusion: they were pêle-mêle with those of our troops that had been dragging behind: confusion was at its height; as Ney had foretold, it was impossible to do any thing with our troops. The King of Naples came to us: he still hoped to make some resistance; but the reports which he received from the heights of Wilna undeceived him. He immediately ordered a retrograde movement, and went towards the Niemen. "I advise you," said the Prince, "to set off without delay for Dantzic, where your presence will soon be wanted. The least delay may cause you to fall into the hands of the Cossacks: that would be an untoward accident, which would be profitable neither to the army nor to the Emperor."

I followed this advice: I hired two Jews who conducted me to the Niemen. My equipages, which had hitherto fortunately escaped all disaster, were already on the road.

We soon arrived at the fatal heights where we were obliged to abandon all the remainder of our matériel. It was impossible to ascend it.—Our horses were worn out in unsuccessful attempts; we assisted them, we urged them, but the ground was so slippery, so steep, that we were obliged to give up the undertaking. I consulted with my aide-de-camp on the steps which it was best to take. My Israelites proposed that we should follow a cross road, which had, besides other things, the advantage of being shorter: they begged me to trust to them; they would answer for me. I believed them: we sat off; on the next evening we were across the Niemen. I suffered horribly; my fingers, my nose, my ear, were beginning to give me great uneasiness, when a Polish barber pointed out a remedy, rather disagreeable, but which succeeded. I arrived at last at Dantzic; the King of Naples followed at some days march distance; Macdonald, whom the Prussians had so unworthily betrayed, was coming after us. "It is only by a miracle," he informed me, "that myself, my staff, and the seventh division, have not been destroyed: we were delivered up; our legs saved us." He sent me his troops, which were incorporated with those that I had under my orders. The Russians appeared almost immediately. General Bachelet had a very smart engagement with them. They spread themselves around the place, and the blockade began.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Dantzic appears made by nature for a fortress: washed on the north by the Vistula, protected on the south-west by a chain of precipitous heights, it is defended on all other sides by an inundation, which is spread by means of two rivers which traverse it, the Radaune, and the Mottlaw. Struck with the advantages of so fine a situation, Napoleon had resolved to render it impregnable; he had caused some immense works to be began. Têtes-de-pont, forts, intrenched camps, were to protect it from insult and overlook the course of the river; but time had been wanting, and most of the works were either imperfect or scarcely traced out. No magazine was bomb-proof, no shelter sufficiently solid to keep the garrison in security; the casemates were uninhabitable, the quarters were in ruins, and the parapets tumbling down. The cold, still very severe, had frozen the waters; and Dantzic, the situation of which is naturally so happy and so strong, was nothing more than a place open at every point.

The garrison was not in a better state; it was composed of a confused mass of soldiers of all kinds and of all nations: there were French, Germans, Poles, Africans, Spaniards, Dutch, and Italians. The greater number, worn out or diseased, had been thrown into Dantzic because they were unable to continue their march: they had hoped to find some relief there; but destitute of all medicines, of animal food and vegetables, without spirits or forage, I was obliged to send away those who were not absolutely incapable of leaving the place. Nevertheless I had 35,000 left, out of which there were not above 8 or 10,000 fighting men; even these were nearly all recruits who had neither experience nor discipline. This circumstance, indeed, did not much alarm me; I was acquainted with our soldiers; I knew that for them to fight well they only wanted an example. I was resolved not to spare myself.

Such was the deplorable state in which the place and the troops charged with defending it were found. It was necessary first to provide for the most important point—to shelter ourselves from attack. The thing was not easy; the snow covered the fortifications; it obstructed all the covert ways, all the avenues: the cold was extreme; the thermometer was more than twenty degrees below zero2, and the ice was already several inches thick. Nevertheless there was no time for hesitation; it was necessary to resolve to be carried by assault, or to submit to fresh fatigues almost as excessive as those we had experienced. I concerted with two men whose devotedness was equal to their intelligence; these were Colonel Richemont and General Campredon, both were attached to the engineer corps of which the latter had the command.

I gave orders to raise new works, and to clear the waters of the Vistula. This undertaking appeared impracticable, on account of the severity of the season; nevertheless the troops undertook it with their accustomed zeal. Notwithstanding the cold which overwhelmed them, they never suffered a murmur or a complaint to escape them. They executed the tasks which were prescribed to them with a devotion and constancy beyond all praise. At last, after unparalleled difficulties, they surmounted every obstacle; the ice, broken by hatchets and moved with levers towards the sea, assisted by the force of the stream, opened in the middle of the river a channel from sixteen to seventeen metres broad, and two leagues and a half in length. But we were destined to see difficulties return as soon as they were overcome: scarcely had an unexpected success crowned our efforts, when the cold set in with redoubled severity; in one night the Vistula, the ditches, were covered with a sheet of ice almost as thick as the one we had broken. In vain were boats moved up and down incessantly, to keep up by agitation the fluidity of the water; neither these precautions nor the rapidity of the river could preserve it. It was necessary to resume those labours, which had cost us so much, and which a moment had destroyed. Day and night were employed in breaking the ice; we could not nevertheless prevent its forming again a third time: but more obstinate even than the elements which combined against us, our soldiers opposed their courage to these obstacles, and at last succeeded in triumphing over them.