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

"I ordered the first corps of the reserve of cavalry and two battalions of light infantry to advance. They were followed by Delzons' division. We came up with the enemy's rear-guard about two leagues from Ostrowno. It was advantageously posted behind a deep ravine, with a great mass of artillery, and having its front and flanks covered by thick woods. A little firing took place on both sides; I sent the battalions to check the enemy's infantry who were repulsing our hussars. Delzons' division arrived and the cavalry had nothing farther to do. The Viceroy made his arrangements, and we marched upon the enemy and crossed the ravine. The foreign cavalry which lined the bank of the Dwina protected our left, and debouched in the plain. The rest of the light troops advanced along the high road in proportion as the enemy's infantry retrograded. The cuirassiers were left in reserve behind the ravine, and the batteries were mounted. My right was covered by immense woods, and I had numerous parties of pioneers. The enemy was driven to the second position in the rear of the ravine, where the reserve was stationed. He brought us back into the ravine, and he was again repulsed: he drove us back a second time, and was on the point of taking our guns, which had got entangled in a defile, through which they were passing in order to take a position on the heights. Our left was repulsed, and the enemy made a bold movement on our right: the foreign brigade was on the point of being dispersed. In this state of things nothing but a charge of cavalry could enable us to recover ourselves; I attempted it. We advanced to meet the enemy's infantry, which was marching boldly along the plain. The brave Poles rushed on the Russian battalions: not a man escaped, not a single prisoner was made; all were killed, not even the wood protected them from the sabres of our cavalry. At the same time the squares were broken by the charge. General Girardin, who was leading the battalions on the left, made a movement on the right, and advanced along the high road on the enemy's rear; the troops on the right performed the same manœuvre. General Piré supported them; he charged at the head of the eighth hussars. The enemy was routed, and owed his safety only to the ravines which retarded our advance. The whole division followed the movement: the infantry advanced along the high road and the cavalry debouched on the heights. I gave orders for firing on five or six cavalry regiments that were before us. In this situation your Majesty came up with me; you ordered me to pursue the enemy, and I drove him to a league and a half beyond Witepsk. Such, Sire, is the narrative of our late engagement with the Russians. The enemy has had about three thousand killed and a great number wounded; we have scarcely lost a man. This result was, in a great measure, the work of Count Belliard, who on this occasion gave new proofs of his devotedness and courage. To him we are indebted for the preservation of the artillery of Delzons' division."

Fatigue and even lassitude have, in the long run, the effect of inspiring courage. Barclay experienced this. He several times entertained the design of risking the fate of a battle; but a foreboding of defeat constantly possessed him at the sight of our troops. Whenever he found them within sight, he hurried his retreat; he beheld without concern his magazines, his guns, and his works fall into our hands. He had but one object in view, which was to keep constantly a few leagues in advance of us. Bagration imitated this example, but he occasionally evinced resolution. He had several engagements with our advance-guard. Marshal Davoust pursued him vigorously; but the King of Westphalia advanced but slowly. A dispute arose between this sovereign and Vandamme; and, in consequence, the orders were not executed. This circumstance saved the Russian Prince. He gained ground, reached Mohiloff, and was beaten: he certainly would have fared worse but for the dispute between Vandamme and the King of Westphalia, which Napoleon of course could not foresee. The Russians, who were dispersed along the banks of the Niemen, combined their forces on the shores of the Borysthenes. They were preparing for the defence, and we for the attack of Smolensko.

CHAPTER XXVI

I had left Dantzick, and I traversed Lithuania; the country was dreary, it was made up of woods and steeps—an unlimited picture of poverty and desolation. It was at that season of the year when Nature displays her riches, yet vegetation was weak and drooping, every thing in those fatal countries depicted wretchedness, every thing foretold the disasters which were to overwhelm us.

The rain still continued, the roads were broken up, and impassable, the men were losing themselves in the mud, and perishing from fatigue and hunger: ten thousand horses lay lifeless on the ground that we had gone over within these two days; never had such a frightful mortality before signalized the commencement of a campaign; our soldiers, continually sliding on the clayey ground, were exhausted in fruitless exertions: most of them were unable to keep up, they lagged behind; the allied troops especially had a prodigious number in arrear. It was easy to foresee that the issue of the war would be disastrous: we had in our favour force and courage, but Nature took part with them;—we were to fall. However, I arrived at Wilna; I found there the Duke de Bassano, whose prognostics were less gloomy, General Hogendorp, Napoleon's aide-de-camp, with whom I was yet unacquainted, and General Jomini, who afterwards deserted our colours. All augured better than myself of the struggle in which we were engaged. It presented itself, indeed, under specious auspices: all Poland was in motion; men, women, peasants, citizens, gentlemen, all were animated with the most noble enthusiasm; troops were organising, administrations were forming, resources were collecting, and the people were preparing themselves to drive oppression beyond the Borysthenes. The Diet of Warsaw had opened; the Polish nation, which had so long been beaten by the tempest, thought that it had at last reached a port; no sacrifice seemed too much for it. The speech of the President had excited general acclamations, every where it had been received with joy. I was curious to read it; M. de Bassano gave it me. "It might have been better," he observed, "but still it is tolerable." The Emperor would have wished it stronger in facts, and its expressions less tinged with the affectation of learning. It was the energy of the patriot, and not the measured movements of the orator, that was necessary in so serious a juncture; nevertheless it produced its effect.

"For a long time there had existed in the centre of Europe a celebrated nation, mistress of an extensive and fruitful country, brilliant with the double glory of war and arts, protecting for ages, with an unwearied arm, the barriers of Europe against the barbarians who raged around its frontiers. A numerous people prospered in this land. Nature repaid their labours with liberality. Often had her kings taken a place in history by the side of those who had most honoured the supreme rank.

"This country is Poland; you are that people: but what are you become? How has the dilaceration of our country been effected? How has this family, which even when it was divided did not separate, which had remained united through ages of divisions, how has this powerful family seen itself dismembered? What have been its crimes, who its judges? By what right has it been attacked, invaded, effaced from the list of states and nations? Whence have the oppressors come, whence the chains? The indignant universe would answer us—every state, every people would tell us that it thought that it saw its tomb open by the side of that of Poland; and that in the audacious profanation of the laws on which all societies alike repose, in the insulting contempt which was manifested for them to accomplish our ruin, the world might think itself put in subjection to the temporary purposes of monarchs, and that now it would have no other law. Europe, alarmed and threatened, would point out to our just resentment the empire which, while it caressed us, was particularly preparing to press upon her with an increased force. It is Russia that is the author of all our evils. Within a century she advances with gigantic stride towards a people who before were ignorant of her name.

"Poland perceived immediately the first effects of this increase of the Russian power. Placed in her immediate vicinity, she received her first, as her last blows. Who could enumerate them from the time when, in 1717, Russia tried her influence by the disbanding of the Polish army? Since that epoch, what moment has been exempt from her influence or her outrages? If this crafty power joined herself to Poland, it is to impose on her, as in 1764, that fatal guarantee which made the integrity of our frontiers dependent on the perpetuation of anarchy; to make that anarchy the means of accomplishing her ambitious designs. The world knows what they have been since that unlucky epoch. It is since then that, by partition after partition, Poland has been seen completely to disappear, without crime and without vengeance; it is since that time that the Poles have heard with indignation the insulting language of the Repnins, of the Sivers; it is since then that the Russian soldier bathed himself in the blood of their fellow-citizens, as a prelude to that for ever execrable day, must we recall it, in which, in the midst of the shouts of a savage conqueror, Warsaw heard the cries of the population of Prague, which was destroyed by fire and murder. Pole, for it is time to make that name which we should never lose resound in your ears, these are the hateful means by which Russia has succeeded in appropriating to herself our fine provinces; these are the claim, the only claim, she possesses on us. Force alone could enchain us, force may also break the fetters which she alone has forged. These fetters shall be broken. Poland, then, shall exist,—what do we say? She exists already, or rather she has never ceased to exist. How can the perfidy, the plots, the violence, under which she has fallen—how can they have affected her right? Yes, we are still Poland; we are so by the title that we hold from nature, from society, from our ancestors, from those sacred titles which the universe recognizes, and which form the safeguard of mankind."

I was carried away by enthusiasm. I had so often seen the brave Polish legions in Italy, in Egypt, and elsewhere! They were right indeed, they were still Poland. "In point of courage," I said to the Duke, "nothing will surprise me on the part of this brave people; but I own I did not suspect it of this sort of talent." "You are right," replied M. de Bassano, "they have plenty of other things to do than to make harangues!" "Who, then, is the writer?" "The Abbé." "What Abbé? Do you think the Emperor has a predilection for churchmen?" "No; but in fine, at the present time, it is not without powerful considerations that an embassy is confided to a priest." "Is it the Archbishop?" "The very man; we have sent him to Warsaw to intoxicate the Poles by his eloquence. I do not think him very skilful in business, but he is entirely devoted to the Emperor;—that is the main affair. His enemies accuse him of being ambitious and restless, without steadiness in his affections, or in his ideas of praising white and black; of being the mere creature of circumstance. I believe this picture a caricature. I myself am persuaded that, if events compromise the glory of our arms, he will not be seen among the ranks of our detractors." "I firmly believe it; he has abused the Cossacks too much ever to become their patriarch."

The deputation of the Diet was still at Wilna. I was acquainted with a few of the members. I saw them; they talked to me of their hopes, of their means, of their rights. These ideas struck me, I gave an account of them to the Duke.—"You are admirable!" said he in reply. "What! do you not recognize the Archbishop? Do you not see with what art he betrays himself? and these biblical reminiscences, to whom would you have them occur but to a priest. Besides I will give you the document."

"Sire, the Diet of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, assembled at the approach of the powerful armies of your Majesty, recognized at the outset that it had rights to reclaim and duties to fulfil; with an unanimous voice, it has constituted itself a general confederation of Poland; it has declared the kingdom of Poland re-established in its rights; and, at the same time, that the acts of usurpation and arbitrary power, by which its existence had been destroyed, were null and of no effect.

"Sire, your Majesty labours for posterity and for history. If Europe cannot mistake our rights, she can still much less mistake our duties. A free and independent nation, since the remotest times, we have not lost our territory and our independence, either by treaties or by conquest, but by perfidy and treachery. Treachery has never constituted rights. We have seen our last king dragged away to St. Petersburgh, where he perished; and our nation torn to shreds by princes with whom we were not at war, and by whom we have not been conquered.

"Our rights appear thus evident to the eyes of God and men. We, Poles, we have the right to re-establish the throne of the Jagellons and Sobieskis, to re-assert our national independence, to re-assemble our divided members, to arm ourselves in defence of our native country, and to prove, by fighting in its defence, that we are the worthy descendants of our ancestors.

"Can your Majesty disown us or blame us, for having done that which our duty, as Poles, demanded of us; and for having resumed our rights? Yes, Sire. Poland is proclaimed from this day; she exists by the laws of equity, but she ought to exist in fact; right and justice proclaim our resolution to be legitimate; but it ought to be supported on our part. Has not God punished Poland enough for its divisions? will he perpetuate our misfortunes? and must the Poles, after having cherished the love of their country, go down to the tomb wretched and without hope? No, Sire. You have been sent by Providence, power is placed in the hands of your Majesty, and the existence of the Grand Duchy is due to the power of your arms.

"Say, Sire, Let the kingdom of Poland exist! and the decree will be to the world equivalent to the reality. We are sixteen millions of Poles, among whom there is not one whose blood, arms, and fortune, are not devoted to your Majesty: every sacrifice will appear to us light, if it has for its object the reestablishment of our native country. From the Dwina to the Dniester, from the Borysthenes to the Oder, one word only from your Majesty will command every arm, every effort, every heart. This unexampled war which Russia has dared to declare, notwithstanding the recollections of Austerlitz, Pultusk, Eylau, Friedland; in spite of the oaths taken at Tilsit and at Erfurth, is, we have no doubt, an effect of Providence, which, moved by the misfortunes of our nation, has determined to bring them to a termination. The second Polish war has only just begun, and already we pay our homage to your Majesty in the capital of the Jagellons. Already are the eagles of your Majesty on the Dwina, and the armies of Russia, separated, divided, cut up, wander in uncertainty, and seek in vain to unite and to form themselves, &c."

"It is well.—Yes, undoubtedly; but he is so enchanted with the _chef-d'œuvre_, that he would think himself wanting to his glory if he did not publish to the world that his genius protects Poland. Twenty times a-day I am obliged to moderate these excesses of self-love. This very morning I have been remonstrating with him on the impropriety of his freaks of vanity. He Ossianizes; do you recollect the word? It describes him admirably. But now, if his style goes well, his embassy scarcely moves. But for Duroc, who covers him with his wing, I would have already sent him to his flocks. What the devil has the almonership in common with embassies? Why should he put himself to the trouble of so much exertion, to do nothing of any possible use?"

CHAPTER XXVII

I resumed my route: it was through forests, steeps, every thing that is most wild in nature; but I met at every step officers who were going on missions; they gave me news of my friends, of the army. I forgot the scenes that I was passing through; I discussed the probable chances of the war; they talked to me of the valour of the troops, of the prodigious activity of the Emperor. It was indeed inconceivable, the movements, the administrations, the measures of security and precaution; he embraced every thing, he was equal to every thing. The instructions that were given to M. d'Hautpoult are an example of it. They merit preservation.

"The orderly officer d'Hautpoult will go to Ostrowno, and from thence to Beszenkowiczi. He will see at Ostrowno whether the village is inhabited, and whether it has an engineer to re-organize it; he will see at Beszenkowiczi whether the bridges are erected, and if a bridge of rafts has been substituted for the fixed one, which would not stand the first swelling of the river; he will see whether the tête-du-pont is in progress; he will see also the hospital, the workhouse, the magazines, and in fine, if the country begins to be re-organized. He will give me an account of the troops that he may meet, whether cavalry, artillery, or military equipages. He will see at Beszenkowiczi the fourth regiment of the chasseurs of the guard, and the battalion of Hesse Darmstadt, which I have commanded to remain there till farther orders. There should also be there several pieces of artillery; he must take care that every thing be in its proper position, and that the works at the tête-du-pont be proceeded with in order to finish it. He will inform himself if there are any news of the Cossacks, and, if it is necessary, he will remain one day at Beszenkowiczi in order to see every thing, and draw up his despatch. He will write to me from that quarter, taking care to send his letter by the first estafette that may pass through Beszenkowiczi. He will continue his road to Polozk, from whence he will send me his second despatch; he will see the functionaries of the town, hospital, and workhouse. He will inform me how many prisoners the Duke de Reggio has taken in the different affairs which have just taken place; how many wounded; all that he can learn on this matter, and on the situation of the Duke de Reggio's corps. The Duke de Tarentum having taken Dünabourg, the orderly officer d'Hautpoult will learn whether the communication between the two corps has been effected. He will get every information which can make me acquainted with the nature of the forces opposed to the Duke de Reggio; he will remain with this Marshal (to whom he will send the inclosed letter) till he shall have attacked the enemy, cleared the right bank of the river, and effected his communication with Dünabourg.

"Napoleon."

But all this vigilance did not remedy the evil. The soldiers who were unable to keep up with their corps increased visibly; they encumbered our rear. I gave an account to the Emperor, whom I joined at the bivouac three leagues on this side of Smolensko, of the melancholy picture that I had had incessantly before my eyes during the whole of my journey. "It is the effect of long marches; I will strike a great blow, and every one will rally. You come from Wilna. What is Hogendorp doing? he is wallowing in indolence. Has he not his wife with him?" I knew nothing about it; I could not answer. Napoleon replied, "If he had his wife, she must go back to France, or at least that he must send her to Germany on the rear. Berthier is going to write to him." Some papers were brought in that had just been translated; some were the accounts of the victories in which some handfuls of Cossacks had beaten us all; others were proclamations and addresses, in which we were designated as a troop of missionaries. "See," said Napoleon to me, "you had no suspicion that we were apostles; but here it is proved that we are coming with damnation for the Russians. These poor Cossacks are going to become idolators. But here is another of a different kind; here, read, it is pure Russian. Poor Platoff! All are of equal strength in these dreary climates!" I read it; it was a long rhapsody with which the patriarch seasoned a relic of St. Sergius that he offered to the Emperor Alexander. He ended it with this paragraph: "The city of Moscow, the first capital of the empire, the new Jerusalem, receives its Christ, as a mother, in the arms of her zealous sons; and through the mist which is rising foreseeing the brilliant glory of his power, it sings in transports, Hosanna, blessed be he who cometh! Let the arrogant, the brazen Goliath carry from the borders of France mortal terror to the confines of Russia; pacific religion, this sling of the Russian David shall suddenly bow the head of his sanguinary pride. This image of St. Sergius, the ancient defender of the happiness of our country, is offered to your Imperial Majesty."

CHAPTER XXVIII

The affair of Smolensko took place. The battle was obstinate, the cannonade violent. The Russians, taken in flank and enfiladed, were defeated. They could not defend those walls which so many times had witnessed their victories; they evacuated them; but the bridges and public buildings were a prey to the flames. The churches in particular poured out torrents of fire and smoke. The domes, the spires, and the multitude of small towers which arose above the conflagration, added to the effect of the picture, and produced those ill-defined emotions which are only to be found on the field of battle. We entered the place. It was half consumed, of a barbarous appearance, encumbered with the bodies of the dead and wounded, which the flames had already reached. The spectacle was frightful. What a train is that of glory!

We were obliged to turn our views from these scenes of slaughter. The Russians were flying; our cavalry rushed to the pursuit, and soon came up with the rear-guard. Korff attempted to make a stand; he was overwhelmed. Barclay came forward with his masses. We, on our side, received reinforcements; the action became terrible: Ney attacked in front, Junot on the flank: the enemy's army would have been cut off if the Duke had pressed forward. Wearied with not seeing him appear, Murat ran to him, "What are you about? Why do you not come on?" "My Westphalians are wavering." "I will give them an impetus." The King of Naples put himself at the head of a few squadrons, charged, and overthrew every thing that opposed him. "There is thy Marshal's staff half gained; complete the work, the Russians are lost." Junot did not complete it; whether from fatigue or distrust, the brave of the brave slumbered amidst the sound of the cannon, and the enemy, who were coming up to support their rear, again fell back on their line. The engagement became terrible; the brave Gudin lost his life, and the Russian army escaped us. Napoleon visited the places where the battle had been fought. "It was not at the bridge—it is there—at the village, where the eighth corps ought to have debouched—that the battle hinged. What was Junot doing?" The King of Naples endeavoured to extenuate his fault: the troops, the obstacles, all the customary commonplaces were employed. Berthier, who had always loved the Duke, interested himself for him; Caulincourt did the same. Every one pleaded to the utmost in favour of a brave man who could be reproached with nothing but a moment of forgetfulness. But the advantages we had lost were too great. Napoleon sent for me. "Junot has just lost for ever his Marshal's staff. I give you the command of the Westphalian corps: you speak their language, you will show them an example, you will make them fight." I was flattered with this mark of confidence, and expressed my sense of it; but Junot was covered with wounds, he had signalized himself in Syria, in Egypt, every where; I begged the Emperor to forget a moment's absence of mind on account of twenty years' courage and devotion. "He is the cause of the Russian army not having laid down its arms. This affair will, perhaps, hinder me from going to Moscow. Put yourself at the head of the Westphalians." The tone with which he pronounced these last words was already much softened. The services of the old aide-de-camp extenuated the inactivity of the 8th corps. I resumed: "Your Majesty has just talked to me of Moscow. The army is not in expectation of such an expedition." "The glass is full, I must drink it off. I have just received good news: Schwartzenberg is in Wolhinia, Poland is organizing, I shall have every kind of assistance."