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

Art. VI. The Polish troops and others belonging to the garrison shall be at full liberty to follow the lot of the French army, and in that case shall be treated in the same manner, excepting those troops whose sovereigns may be in alliance with the coalition against his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon, who shall be forwarded to the states or armies of their sovereigns, according to the orders which they shall receive from them, and which orders they shall send officers or messengers to request, immediately after the signature of the present capitulation. The Polish and other officers shall give each his word of honour in writing not to serve against the allied powers till his perfect exchange, conformably to the explanation given by Art. V.

Art. VII. All prisoners, of whatever nation they may be, who belong to the powers at war with France, and who are at present in Dantzic, shall be set at liberty without exchange, and sent to the Russian advanced posts by the gate Peters-Hagen, on the morning of the 12th of December, 1813.

Art VIII. The sick and wounded belonging to the garrison shall be treated in the same manner, and with the same care as those of the allied powers; they shall be sent back to France after their perfect recovery, under the same conditions as the rest of the troops forming the garrison of Dantzic. A commissary of war, and medical officers shall be left with these invalids to attend to them and to claim their removal.

Art. IX. As soon as a certain number of individuals belonging to the troops of the allied powers shall have been exchanged for an equal number of individuals belonging to the garrison of Dantzic, then the latter may consider themselves free from their preceding engagement, contracted formally in Art. IV. of the present capitulation.

Art. X. The troops of the garrison of Dantzic, with the exception of those who, according to the terms of Art. VI. are to receive orders from their sovereigns, shall proceed by ordinary marches in four columns, at two days march distance one from the other, and according to the route annexed, and shall be escorted to the advanced posts of the French army. The garrison of Dantzic shall be supplied on its march according to the statement annexed. The 1st column shall begin its march the 2d Jan. 1814; the 2d on the 4th Jan. and so on.

Art. XI. All Frenchmen being non-combatants, and not in the service of the army, may follow, if they think fit, the troops of the garrison; but they cannot claim the rations fixed for the soldiery: they are, moreover, at liberty to dispose of the property which may be recognized as belonging to them.

Art. XII. On the 12th December, 1813, shall be delivered up to the commissioner appointed by the besieging army, all the cannon, mortars, &c. &c., arms, military stores, plans, drawings, sketches, the military chests, all the magazines of every description, the pontoons, all effects belonging to the engineer corps, to the marine, to the artillery, to the train, to the waggon department, &c. &c. without any exception; and a duplicate inventory shall be made of them, which shall be forwarded to the chief of the staff of the combined army.

Art. XIII. The generals, officers of the staff, and other officers, shall retain their baggage, and the horses they are entitled to under the regulations of the French army, and shall receive the necessary forage during their march.

Art. XIV. All details respecting the means of conveyance to be furnished, whether for the sick and wounded, or for the corps and officers, shall be regulated by the heads of the staff of the two armies.

Art. XV. There shall be reserved to the senate of Dantzic, the right of urging on the Emperor Napoleon all its rights to the liquidation of such debts as may exist on any part, and his Excellency the governor engages to give those to whom the debts have been contracted, acknowledgments certifying the justice of their claims, but under no pretext shall hostages be retained on account of these debts.

Art. XVI. Hostilities of all kinds shall cease on both sides from the signature of the present treaty.

Art. XVII. Every article on which a doubt may arise shall always be interpreted in favour of the garrison.

Art. XVIII. Four exact copies of the present capitulation shall be made, two in the Russian, and two in the French language, to be transmitted in duplicate to the two Generals-in-chief.

Art. XIX. After the signature of these official documents the governor, General Count Rapp, shall be at liberty to send a courier to his government; he shall be accompanied to the advanced posts of the French army by a Russian officer.

Done and agreed to at Langfuhr, this 29th of November, 1813.

(Signed,)

The General of Division Count Heudelet, General d'Hericourt, Colonel Richemont, Lieutenant-General Chevalier Borozdin, Major-General Welljaminoff, in quality of Head of the Staff, the Colonel of Engineers Manfredi, Colonel of Engineers Pullet.

Seen and approved,Count Rapp.Letter from the Duke of Wurtemberg to General RappFrom my head-quarters at Pelouken, December 23, 1813.11 o'clock at night.

General,

I am bound to inform you that I have just received a despatch from his Imperial Majesty, which acquaints me, that the capitulation concluded between your Excellency and myself has been approved by the Emperor; excepting the part which concerns the return of the garrison to France. Although it does not belong to me to examine whether an apprehension lest the garrison of Dantzic might be forced, like that of Thorn, to resume active service before it should be perfectly exchanged, and after it should have passed the Rhine, may have had its weight, I am nevertheless obliged to acquaint your Excellency with the precise will of his Majesty, being at the same time persuaded that none of the Generals or Officers, forming part of the brave garrison of Dantzic, would permit themselves in any case to be wanting to their engagements, of which I myself would be willingly the guarantee. His Majesty has also formally authorized me to declare to you, General, that the garrison shall not be sent into the distant provinces of Russia, if your Excellency gives up the fortress without further injury, according to the terms of the capitulation. You may choose for your particular abode and for that of the Generals and Officers, any one of the towns of Revel, Pleskow, Zaliega and Orel, to remain there till the garrison is exchanged. Besides, it is understood of itself, that the Generals and Officers will preserve all the advantages which have been secured to them under the capitulation. As to what concerns the Polish troops who are at present in Dantzic, the pleasure of his Majesty is, that they be sent quietly to their homes on quitting the fortress, and in like manner the German troops.

I must believe, General, that your Excellency certainly will not hesitate to consent to these arrangements, since it is to be believed that the war will not last a year, and then every one will immediately return to his own country; and I am so much the more persuaded that your Excellency will take this determination, because in the opposite case I should not be able to spare you, or your garrison, any of the inevitable rigours which a perfectly useless resistance would carry in its train, the infallible consequence of which would be transportation of the garrison to the most distant provinces of the Russian empire, without the possibility of their enjoying the least of those advantages which are now perfectly secured to them; together with all the conveniences necessary for the route stipulated for in the capitulation.

If, however, your Excellency, contrary to all expectation, should take a determination as unexpected as prejudicial to the interests of the garrison, I will then restore to you, the day after to-morrow, Saturday, at noon, all the works which have been surrendered to the besieging army, except the fort of Neufahrwasser, since the supreme will of his Majesty is that your Excellency should previously send out of the fortress all the German troops at present in Dantzic with their arms and baggage, as the Confederation of the Rhine exists no longer, and all the states which composed it have become our allies; and in this case Neufahrwasser also shall be given up to you immediately and without the smallest difficulty. I will send also to Dantzic by the gate of Oliwa, all the stragglers as soon as they shall have returned; and in the event in question, hostilities shall recommence the day after they are given up, at nine o'clock in the morning.

(Signed)      The Duke of Wurtemberg.

P. S. I beg your Excellency to be so good as to let me have your answer to-morrow morning. If General Heudelet or any other of the Generals were sent to my head-quarters, it would infinitely facilitate the conclusion of an affair which may terminate to your satisfaction.

I have written on this subject to his Majesty by a Courier.

ANSWER

My Lord,

I made a capitulation with your Royal Highness:—to-day you announce to me that, without having any respect for it, the Emperor Alexander orders that the garrison of Dantzic shall be sent into Russia as prisoners of war, instead of returning to France.

The 10th Corps d'Armée leaves it to Europe, to history, to posterity, to decide on so extraordinary an infraction of the faith of treaties, against which I solemnly protest.

In consequence of these sacred principles, I have the honour to inform your Royal Highness that, holding strictly to the text of a capitulation, which I must not consider as annihilated because it is violated, I will execute it punctually; and that I am ready this very day to give up to the troops of your Highness, the forts of Weichselmunde, Napoleon, and the Holm, as well as all the magazines, and to leave the fortress with my garrison on the 1st of January next.

At that period, force, and the abuse of power, may drag us to Russia, to Siberia, or wherever they please. We shall submit to suffer, to die even if it be necessary, victims of our confidence in a solemn treaty. The Emperor Napoleon and France are powerful enough, sooner or later, to avenge us.

In this state of things, my Lord, there remains no arrangement for me to make with your Royal Highness; referring myself entirely to the capitulation of the 29th of November, which, I repeat, may be infringed, but cannot be annihilated.

(Signed,)      Count Rapp.

Dantzic, December 23, 1813.

Letter from Count Rapp to the Duke of Wurtemberg

My Lord,

My aide-de-camp delivered to me yesterday the letter which your Royal Highness has done me the honour to address to me.

By your return of the letter which you received from me, I imagine your Royal Highness imputes to me exasperated feelings. Your Highness does not render me justice: I have been a soldier twenty-two years; I am habituated to good and to evil fortune.

Your Highness does me the honour to say, that it was quite to be expected that the Emperor Alexander should have the power of ratifying, or not ratifying, the capitulation. Either your Highness was furnished with full powers or you were not; under the last supposition my conduct would have been very different from what it has been.

Marshal Kalkreuth, after a very short defence, obtained a very honourable capitulation. I even recollect that the Emperor Napoleon, who was not twenty leagues from the fortress, was dissatisfied with it, but he would not put his commander-in-chief in an unpleasant position by annulling the capitulation. It was impossible to perform it with more fidelity and delicacy than it was executed with, by Marshal Lefebvre and myself. Marshal Kalkreuth is still living, and has preserved the remembrance of our proceedings. There are Prussian officers at your head-quarters who can also bear witness to them.

Your Highness does me the honour to say that his Majesty orders that all things shall be put upon their previous footing, if I wish to recommence hostilities. Your Highness knows perfectly well that the advantages were at the time of entering on the capitulation on our side, for you had constantly made us offers which you pretended to be favourable; you know that now it is quite the contrary: this assertion stands in no need of proofs.

Besides, my Lord, it is you who have always proposed to me to enter into an arrangement to stop the effusion of blood; offering, as the fundamental condition, our return to France. The correspondence of your Highness attests this fact.

Your Highness knows well in what situation we are placed, and that it is altogether impossible, in all respects, to prolong our defence. The choice which you leave me becomes perfectly illusory.

I pray your Highness to cause to be occupied to-day Weichselmunde, the Holm, and the intermediate works. I have only left in them small detachments to prevent waste. I desire also that your Highness will send commissaries to receive inventories of our magazines of all kinds. I attach importance to this, that there may be no complaints, and that we may not be reproached with having deteriorated any thing; not in the fear of going to Russia with fewer conveniences, which your Highness insists on in your letter, but through the desire of religiously fulfilling all my engagements.

I have the honour again to declare to your Highness, that the garrison of Dantzic will leave the fortress on the 1st of January, in the morning, in execution of Art. I. of the capitulation of November 29; to which I entirely adhere, and to which it is quite useless to add any other arrangement. Circumstances will, after the evacuation, place us entirely at the disposal of your Highness.

I have the honour, &c.Count Rapp.TO THE SAMEDecember 26, 1813.

My Lord,

General Manfredi has delivered to me your Royal Highness's letter of yesterday, the 25th instant. Having had already the honour to treat with you on the first articles of this letter, the last is the only one that seems to require an answer. Your Royal Highness declares to me that you cannot allow me to leave Dantzic without a previous arrangement. On my part, thinking it impossible to open again the capitulation of November 29, approved of by your Royal Highness and by me, I have the honour to declare that, having no means of prolonging my defence, I put myself from the 31st of December at your disposal, together with the troops under my orders. This arrangement, my Lord, is very simple: it is for your Royal Highness to regulate the fate of the garrison.

I content myself with recommending to your generosity, the soldiers, especially those who, by their infirmities and wounds, more particularly claim my solicitude.

I recommend to you also the non-combatants, the women, the children, and the Frenchmen, resident in Dantzic.

(Signed,)      Count Rapp.THE END

1

A celebrated opera singer.

2

Of Reaumur. Translator.

3

Summary of the Operations of the Armies of the Rhine and Jura, 1815.