The Camp-fires of Napoleon / Comprising The Most Brilliant Achievemnents of the Emperor and His Marshals

THE CAMP-FIRE AT AUSTERLITZ.

The victory of Austerlitz is considered by many competent judges as the most splendid triumph ever gained by Napoleon; and the “sun of Austerlitz,” is a watchword with the French soldiery to the present day. The scene of this great battle is in the vicinity of the small seignoral town of Austerlitz, situated on the Littawa, in Moravia.

Napoleon, with that military tact which he had received from nature, and which he had so greatly improved by experience, had adopted, among other positions which he might have taken about Brunn, one which could not fail to insure to him the most important results, under the supposition that he should be attacked—a supposition which had become a certainty.

The mountains of Moravia, which connect the mountains of Bohemia with those of Hungary, subside successively towards the Danube, so completely that near that river Moravia presents but one wide plain. In the environs of Brunn, the capital of the province, they are not of greater altitude than high hills, and are covered with dark firs. Their waters, retained for want of drains, form numerous ponds, and throw themselves by various streams into the Morawa, or March, and by the Morawa and the Danube.

All these characters are found together in the position between Brunn and Austerlitz, which Napoleon has rendered forever celebrated. The high road of Moravia, running from Vienna to Brunn, rises in a direct line to the northward, then, in passing from Brunn to Olmutz, descends abruptly to the right, that is to the east, thus forming a right angle with its first direction. In the angle is situated the position in question. It commences on the left towards the Olmutz road, with heights studded with firs; it then runs to the right in an oblique direction towards the Vienna road, and after subsiding gradually, terminates in ponds full of deep water in winter. Along this position, and in front of it, runs a rivulet, which has no name known in geography, but which, in part of its course, is called Goldbach by the people of the country. It runs through the little villages of Girzikowitz, Puntowitz, Kobelnitz, Sokolnitz, and Telnitz, and, sometimes forming marshes, sometimes confined in channels, terminates in the ponds above mentioned, which are called the ponds of Satschau and Menitz.

Concentrated with all his forces on this ground, defended on the one hand upon the wooded hills of Moravia, and particularly upon a rounded knoll to which the soldiers of Egypt gave the name of the Centon, defended on the other, upon the ponds of Satschau and Menitz—thus covering by his left the Olmutz road, by his right the Vienna road—Napoleon was in a condition to accept with advantage a decisive battle. He meant not, however, to confine his operations to self-defence, for he was accustomed to reckon upon greater results; he had divined, as though he had read them, the plans framed at great length by General Weirother. The Austro-Russians, having no chance of wresting from him the point d’appui which he found for his left in the high wooded hills, would be tempted to turn his right, which was not close to the ponds, and to take the Vienna road from him. There was sufficient inducement for this step; for Napoleon, if he lost that road, would have no other resource but to retire into Bohemia. The rest of his forces, hazarded towards Vienna, would be obliged to ascend separately the valley of the Danube. The French army, thus divided, would find itself doomed to a retreat, eccentric, perilous, nay, even disastrous, if it should fall in with the Prussians by the way.

Napoleon was perfectly aware that such must be the plan of the enemy. Accordingly, after concentrating his army towards his left and the heights, he left towards his right, that is towards Sokolnitz, Telnitz, and the ponds, a space almost unguarded. He thus invited the Russians to persevere in their plans. But it was not precisely there that he prepared the mortal stroke for them. The ground facing him presented a feature from which he hoped to derive a decisive result.

Beyond the stream that ran in front of the position, the ground spread at first, opposite to the left, into a slightly undulated plain, through which passed the Olmutz road; then, opposite to the centre, it rose successively, and at last formed facing the right a plateau, called the plateau of Pratzen, after the name of a village situated half-way up, in the hollow of a ravine. This plateau terminated on the right in rapid declivities towards the ponds, and at the back in a gentle slope towards Austerlitz, the chateau of which appeared at some distance.

There were to be seen considerable forces; there a multitude of fires blazed at night, and a great movement of men and horses was observable by day. On these appearances, Napoleon had no longer any doubt of the designs of the Austro-Russians. They intended evidently to descend from the position which they occupied, and, crossing the Goldbach rivulet, between the ponds and the French right, to cut them off from the Vienna road. But, for this reason, it was resolved to take the offensive in turn, to cross the rivulet at the villages of Girzikowitz and Puntowitz, to ascend to the plateau of Pratzen while the Russians were leaving it, and to take possession of it. In case of success, the enemy’s army would be cut in two; one part would be thrown to the left into the plain crossed by the Olmutz road; the other to the right into the ponds. Thenceforward the battle could not fail to be disastrous for the Austro-Russians. But, for this effect, it was requisite that they should not blunder by halves. The prudent, nay even timid attitude of Napoleon, exciting their silly confidence, would induce them to commit the entire blunder.

Agreeably to these ideas, Napoleon made his dispositions. Expecting for two days past to be attacked, he had ordered Bernadotte to quit Iglau on the frontier of Bohemia, to leave there the Bavarian division which he had brought with him, and to hasten by forced marches to Brunn. He had ordered Marshal Davoust to march Friant’s and if possible Gudin’s division towards the abbey of Gross Raigern, situated on the road from Vienna to Brunn, opposite to the ponds. In consequence of these orders, Bernadotte marched, and had arrived on the 1st of December. General Friant, being alone apprised in time, because General Gudin was at a greater distance towards Presburg, had set out immediately, and travelled in forty-eight hours the thirty-six leagues which separate Vienna from Gross Raigern. The soldiers sometimes dropped on the road, exhausted with fatigue; but at the least sound, imagining that they heard the cannon, they rose with ardor to hasten to the assistance of their comrades, engaged, they said, in a bloody battle. On the night of the 1st of December, which was extremely cold, they bivouacked at Gross Raigern, a league and a half from the field of battle. Never did troops on foot perform so astonishing a march; for it is a march of eighteen leagues a day for two successive days.

On the 1st of December, Napoleon, reinforced by Bernadotte’s corps and Friant’s division, could number sixty-five or seventy thousand men, present under arms, against ninety thousand men, Russians and Austrians, likewise present under arms.

At his left he placed Lannes, in whose corps Caffarelli’s division supplied the place of Gazan’s. Lannes, with the two divisions of Suchet and Caffarelli, was to occupy the Olmutz road, and to fight in the undulated plain outspread on either side of that road. Napoleon gave him, moreover, Murat’s cavalry, comprising the cuirassiers of Generals d’Hautpoul and Nansouty, the dragoons of General Walther and Beaumont, and the chasseurs of Generals Milhaud and Kellermann. The level surface of the ground led him to expect a prodigious engagement of cavalry on this spot. On the knoll of the Centon, which commands this part of the ground, and is topped by a chapel called the chapel of Bosenitz, he placed the 17th light artillery, commanded by General Claparede, with eighteen pieces of cannon, and made him take an oath to defend this position to the death.

At the centre, behind the Goldbach rivulet, he ranged Vandamme’s and St. Hilaire’s divisions, which belong to the corps of Marshal Soult. He destined them to cross that stream at the villages of Girzikowitz and Puntowitz, and to gain possession of the plateau of Pratzen, when the proper moment should arrive. A little further behind the marsh of Kobelnitz and the chateau of Kobelnitz, he placed Marshal Soult’s third division, that of General Legrand. He reinforced it with two battalions of tirailleurs, known by the names of chasseurs of the Po and Corsican chasseurs, and by a detachment of light cavalry, under General Margaron. This division was to have only the third of the line and the Corsican chasseurs at Telnitz, the nearest point to the ponds, and to which Napoleon was desirous of drawing the Russians. Far in rear, at the distance of a league and a half, was posted Friant’s division at Gross Raigern.

Having ten divisions of infantry, Napoleon, therefore, presented but six of them in line. Behind Marshals Lannes and Soult, he kept in reserve Oudinot’s grenadiers, separated on this occasion from Lannes’s corps, the corps of Bernadotte, composed of Drouet’s and Rivaud’s divisions, and, lastly, the imperial guard. He thus kept at hand a mass of twenty-five thousand men, to move to any point where they might be needed, and particularly to the heights of Pratzen, in order to take those heights at any cost, if the Russians should not have cleared them sufficiently.

Such were the skilful dispositions of the Emperor, and having completed what may be called the foundation of victory, he issued a confident proclamation to his soldiers, as follows:

“Soldiers—The Russian army appears before you to avenge the Austrian army of Ulm. They are the same battalions that you beat at Hollabrunn, and that you have since been constantly pursuing to this spot.

“The positions which we occupy are formidable; and while they are marching to turn my right, they will present their flank to me.

“Soldiers, I shall myself direct your battalions. I shall keep out of the fire, if, with your usual bravery, you throw disorder and confusion into the enemy’s ranks. But, if the victory should be for a moment uncertain, you will see your Emperor the foremost to expose himself to danger. For victory must not hang doubtful on this day, most particularly, when the honor of the French infantry, which so deeply concerns the honor of the whole nation, is at stake.

“Let not the ranks be thinned upon pretence of carrying away the wounded, and let every one be thoroughly impressed with this thought, that it behoves us to conquer these hirelings of England, who are animated with such bitter hatred against our nation.

“This victory will put an end to the campaign, and we shall then be able to return to our winter-quarters, where we shall be joined by the new armies which are forming in France, and then the peace which I shall make will be worthy of my people, of you, and of myself.

Napoleon.”

CAMP SCENE ON THE EVENING BEFORE THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ. Page 171.

Napoleon had passed the whole day on horseback, and had himself placed every division in position, inspecting every position. All his marshals dined with him, and received his careful and precise orders for the operations of the next day. He then once more glanced at the position of the Russian and Austrian armies, and a smile illumined his features as he said to his marshals,

“Before to-morrow night that army will be in my power. Since the Czar refuses to negotiate for a peace, we must drub him into it.”

He then entered a rude hut, which his soldiers had constructed for him, and stretched himself upon some straw to repose. A hard couch for an emperor! Yet there Napoleon fell into so deep a sleep that his aid-de-camp, Savary, was obliged to shake him, in order to wake him up, to listen to a report which he had ordered to be brought to him. Rousing himself, he left the hut, accompanied by his aid, and proceeded to visit the bivouacs of the army. The night was cold and dark; and the Emperor had reason to believe that he could go among the soldiers without being noticed. But he had only proceeded a few steps before he was discovered, and in a few moments, the whole line was illuminated with torches of straw, while the air was filled with acclamations of “Vive l’Empereur!” It was a glorious sight, and the glare of the torches must have astonished the enemy. That tremendous shout must have told Kutusoff, the Prussian general, that he would be compelled to fight an enemy, full of spirit and confidence.

As Napoleon passed along, one of the old grenadiers, a veteran of Italy, stepped forward, and accosted him with an air of republican familiarity and kindly patronage.

“Sire,” said this old soldier, “you will have no need to expose yourself to danger; I promise you, in the name of the grenadiers of the army, that you will only have to fight with your eyes, and that we will bring you all the flags and cannon of the Russian army, to celebrate the anniversary of your coronation.”

The Emperor was delighted at the spirit displayed by the troops, and, in accordance with their general request, he promised to keep beyond the reach of the enemy’s guns.

Sir Walter Scott finely remarks upon this: “Napoleon,” says he, “promises that he will keep his person out of the reach of the fire: thus showing the full confidence that the assurance of his personal safety would be considered as great an encouragement to the troops as the usual protestations of sovereigns and leaders, that they will be in the front, and share the dangers of the day. This is, perhaps, the strongest proof possible of the complete and confidential understanding which subsisted between Napoleon and his soldiers. Yet there have not been wanting those who have thrown the imputation of cowardice on the victor of a hundred battles, and whose reputation was so well established amongst those troops, who must have been the best judges, that his attention to the safety of his person was requested by them, and granted by him, as a favor to his army.”

The Emperor was on the field by one o’clock in the morning, to get an army under arms in silence. A thick fog, through which the light of the torches could not penetrate to the distance of ten paces, enveloped all the bivouacs; but he knew the ground as well as the environs of Paris. His army, amounting in all to about seventy thousand men, was arranged as follows. The two divisions of Marshal Soult, placed on a vast plateau, formed the right; the division of united grenadiers, drawn up in line behind, constituting the reserve of the right. The two divisions of Marshal Bernadotte, in line with the united grenadiers, formed the centre of the army. The left wing was composed of the two divisions of Marshal Lannes; the infantry of the guard forming the reserve of the left. In advance of the centre, and between the right and left wings, was posted the whole of the cavalry, under the command of Murat. The divisions of hussars and chasseurs were entrusted to Kellermann; the dragoons, to Valther and Beaumont. The cuirassiers and eighty pieces of light artillery formed the reserve of the cavalry. The right of the army rested on some long and narrow defiles formed by ponds; the left, on the strongly fortified position of the Centon. The two divisions of Marshal Davoust were posted on the extreme right, beyond the ponds, to face the left wing of the Russians, which had been extended, as we have said, to a dangerous distance from their centre, and intended, as the Emperor perceived, to commence the battle with an attempt to turn his right. The Emperor himself, with Berthier, Junot, and the whole of his staff, occupied a commanding position, as the reserve of the army, with ten battalions of the imperial guard, and ten battalions of grenadiers, commanded by Oudinot and Duroc. This reserve was ranged in two lines, in columns, by battalions, having in their intervals forty pieces of cannon served by the artillery of the guard. With this reserve, equal to turning the fate of almost any battle, he held himself ready to act wherever occasion should require.

As the day dawned, the mist which had overhung all the dreadful show, began slowly to ascend, like a vast curtain, from the broad plain below. The sun rose in unclouded and majestic brilliancy; and dissipating all remains of the vapors, disclosed to view the great Russian army, commanded by Field-Marshal Kutusoff, to the number of eighty thousand men, ranged in six divisions, on the opposite heights of Pratzen. The magnificence of the sunrise of this eventful morning, enhanced at the time by the previous dense mist, and by the national memories ever since, has caused the “sun of Austerlitz” to become proverbial with the people of France. The two emperors of Russia and Austria were witnesses of the fierce contest; being stationed on horseback on the heights of Austerlitz. As the first rays of the sun were flung from the horizon, the Emperor Napoleon appeared in front of his army, surrounded by his marshals, and formed every division, both of infantry and cavalry, into columns. A brisk fire had just commenced on the extreme right, where Davoust was already at his post; and the Russians began to put themselves in motion to descend from the heights upon the plain. The marshals who surrounded the Emperor importuned him to begin. “How long will it take you,” said he to Soult, “to crown those opposite heights which the Russians are now abandoning?” “One hour,” answered the marshal. “In that case, we will wait yet a quarter of an hour,” replied the Emperor. The cannonade increased, denoting that the attack had become serious. The extreme of the Russian left had commenced its movement to turn the right flank of the French army, but had encountered the formidable resistance of Davoust’s two divisions, with whom they were just engaged. Napoleon now dismissed all the marshals to their posts, and ordered them to begin.

The whole of the right and left wings at once moved forward, in columns, to the foot of the Russian position. They marched as if to exercise, halting at times to rectify their distances and directions; while the words of command of the individual officers were distinctly heard. The two divisions of Marshal Soult came first within reach of the enemy’s fire. The division commanded by General Vandamme overthrew the opposing column, and was master of its position and artillery in an instant; the other, commanded by General St Hilaire, had to sustain a tremendous fire, which lasted for two hours, and brought every one of its battalions into action. The Emperor now dispatched the united grenadiers, and one of Marshal Bernadotte’s division, to support those of Soult, while Lannes had engaged the right of the Russians, and effectually prevented them from moving to the assistance of their left, which was wholly engaged by the tremendous attack we have described, and entirely cut off from their centre. The extreme left of the Russians, which had begun the battle, perceiving the fatal mistake which had been made, attempted to re-ascend the Pratzer, but were so desperately pressed by Davoust, that they were compelled to fight where they stood, without daring either to advance or retire.

Marshal Soult now ordered his division, under Vandamme, supported by one of Bernadotte’s divisions, to make a change of direction by the right flank, for the purpose of turning all the Russian troops which still resisted St. Hilaire’s division. The movement was completely successful; and Soult’s two divisions crowned the heights to which the Emperor had pointed before the battle began.

The right wing of the Russian army was meanwhile sustaining the tremendous onset of Lannes with both his divisions. The fight raged in that quarter throughout the whole of the operations we have detailed; but at this point, Bernadotte’s division being no longer required to support those of Soult, the Emperor ordered the centre of the army to support the left. The Russian right was now entirely broken; the French cavalry by desperate and repeated charges completed the rout, and pursued the fugitives, who took the road to Austerlitz, till nightfall. Bernadotte, after pursuing the Russian infantry a full league, returned to his former position; nobody knew why. Had he, on the contrary, continued marching another half hour, he would have entirely intercepted the retreat, and taken or destroyed the whole of the Russian right. As it was, their flight was disastrous in the extreme: they were forced into a hollow, where numbers attempted to escape across a frozen lake; but the ice proving too weak for them, gave way, and the horrible scene which ensued—the crashing of the broken fragments, the thundering of the artillery, and the groans and shrieks of wounded and drowning men—baffles the imagination.

THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ. Page 177.

Marshal Soult, now changing his position again by the right flank, descended the heights, having traversed a complete semi-circle, and took the Russian extreme left in the rear. The Emperor of Russia, who perceived the imminent danger of his whole army, dispatched his fine regiment of Russian guards, supported by a strong force of artillery, to attack Soult. Their desperate charge broke one of the French regiments. It was at this crisis that Napoleon brought his reserve into action. Bessieres, at the head of the imperial guard, rushed with irresistible fury into the fight. The Russians were entirely broken; their army, surprised in a flank movement, had been cut into as many separate masses as there were columns brought up to attack it. They fled in disorder, and the victory of Austerlitz was decided.

It was with the utmost difficulty that the two emperors of Russia and Austria effected their personal escape. The Emperor Alexander lost all his artillery, baggage, and standards; twenty thousand prisoners, and upwards of twenty thousand killed and wounded. In the precipitate flight, the wounded were abandoned to their fate. Kutusoff, however, with laudable humanity, left placards in the French language, on the doors of the churches and the barns towards which they had crept, inscribed with these words:—“I recommend these unfortunate men to the generosity of the Emperor Napoleon, and the humanity of his brave soldiers.”

In attempting to escape across some frozen ponds, the Russians broke through, and a large number of them were drowned. An eye-witness, General Langeron, says, “I have previously seen some lost battles, but I had no conception of such a defeat.”

Napoleon, who had participated in the pursuit, returned about night-fall. He was received with shouts by his triumphant troops, and they could scarcely be prevented from taking him in their arms. He soon commanded silence, and set about relieving the wounded, who actually covered the field. He administered brandy with his own hand to some suffering Russians, who could only repay him with a blessing, and gave orders that all the wounded should be attended to as speedily as possible. The troops had already given a name to the battle, that of the “Three Emperors.” But Napoleon himself gave this great conflict the name of the village near which it was fought. He issued the following proclamation, immediately after victory had been achieved.

“Soldiers—I am satisfied with you: in the battle of Austerlitz you have justified all that I expected from your intrepidity. You have decorated your eagles with immortal glory. An army of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in less than four hours either cut in pieces or dispersed. Those who escaped your weapons are drowned in the lakes.

“Forty colors, the standards of the imperial guard of Russia, one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, more than thirty thousand prisoners, are the result of this ever-celebrated battle. That infantry, so highly vaunted and superior in number, could not withstand your shocks, and thenceforward you have no rivals to fear. Thus, in two months, this third coalition has been vanquished and dissolved. Peace cannot now be far distant, but, as I promised my people, before I passed the Rhine, I will make only such a peace as gives us guarantees and insures rewards to our allies.

“Soldiers, when all that is necessary to secure the welfare and the prosperity of our country is accomplished, I will lead you back to France: there you will be the object of my tenderest concern. My people will see you again with joy, and it will be sufficient to say, I was at the battle of Austerlitz, for them to reply, there is a brave man.

“Napoleon.”

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