The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot

O >> Oliver C. Colt >> The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47

As a result of a brain fever, Lieutenant N... of the 7th
Chasseurs became completely childish. Marshal Augereau detailed
me to take him to Paris, first to Marshal Murat, who had an
interest in the matter, and then, if I was asked to do so, to the
Quercy. As I had not seen my mother since leaving for the
campaign of Austerlitz, and I knew that she was not far from St.
Cere, in the Chateau de Bras, which my father had bought shortly
before his death, I welcomed with pleasure a mission which would
allow me not only to be of service to Marshal Murat but also to
go and spend several days with my mother. Marshal Augereau lent
me a fine carriage and I set off on the road to Paris. But the
heat and insomnia so excited my poor companion that he went from
a state of idiocy to one of mania and nearly killed me with a
blow from a coach spanner. I have never made a more disagreeable
journey. I arrived at last in Paris, and I took Lieutenant N...
to Murat, who was staying for the summer at the Chateau de
Neuilly. The marshal asked me to take the lieutenant to Quercy. I
agreed to do so, in the hope of being able to see my mother
again, but I pointed out that I could not leave for twenty-four
hours, because Marshal Augereau had given me some despatches for
the Emperor, whom I was going to meet at Rambouillet, to where I
reported officially the same day.

I do not know what was in the despatches which I was carrying,
but they made the Emperor very thoughtful. He sent for M. de
Tallyrand and left with him for Paris to where he ordered me to
follow him and present myself to Marshal Duroc that evening.

I waited for a long time in one of the salons of the Tuileries,
until Marshal Duroc, coming out of the Emperor's study, the door
of which was left half open, called for an orderly officer to get
ready set off on a long mission. But Napoleon called out, "Duroc,
that will not be necessary; we have Marbot here, who is going to
rejoin Augereau; he can push on to Berlin. Frankfurt is half way
there." So Marshal Duroc told me to prepare to go to Berlin with
the Emperor's despatches. This was disappointing as it meant that
I had to give up all hope of seeing my mother; but I had to
resign myself. I hurried to Neuilly to tell Murat what had
happened and as I believed that my new mission was very urgent, I
returned to the Tuileries; but Marshal Duroc dismissed me until
the next day. I was there at dawn: I was dismissed until evening;
then the evening of the next day, and so on for more than a week.
However, I remained patient, because each time I presented
myself, Marshal Duroc kept me for only a minute, which allowed me
time to get around Paris. I had been given quite a large sum of
money for the purpose of buying myself new uniform, so as to
appear well turned out before the king of Prussia, into whose
hands I was personally to deliver a letter from the Emperor. You
will understand that Napoleon neglected no detail when it came to
enhancing the standing of the French army in the eyes of
foreigners.

I left at last, after taking the despatches from the Emperor, who
advised me that I should make sure that I carefully examined the
Prussian troops, their bearing, their arms, their horses, etc. M.
de Tallyrand gave me a packet for M. Laforest, the French
ambassador in Berlin, to whose embassy I was to go. On my arrival
at Maintz, which at that time was still part of French territory,
I was told that Marshal Augereau was at Wiesbaden. I reported to
him there and greatly surprised him by telling him that I was
going to Berlin on the Emperor's orders. He congratulated me and
told me to continue my journey. I travelled night and day, in
superb July weather, and arrived in Berlin somewhat weary. At
this period the Prussian roads were not yet metalled, one went
almost always at walking pace over loose soil into which the
coaches sank deeply, raising clouds of unbearable dust.

I was given a warm welcome by M. Laforest, at whose embassy I
stayed. I was presented to the king and queen, and also to the
princes and princesses. When the king received the letter from
Napoleon, he seemed much affected. He was a fine figure of a man,
with a benevolent expression, but lacking that animation which
suggests a decisive character. The queen was really very pretty;
she had only one blemish, she always wore a large scarf, in
order, it was said, to conceal an ulcerated swelling on her neck.
For the rest, she was graceful and her expression, calm and
spiritual, was evidence of a firm personality.

I was very well received, and since the reply which I was to take
back to the Emperor seemed so difficult to draft that it took
more than a month, the queen was pleased to invite me to the
balls and fˆtes which she gave during my stay.

Of all the members of the royal family, the one who treated me in
the most friendly manner, or so it seemed, was Prince Louis, the
king's nephew.

I had been warned that he hated the French, and in particular,
their Emperor, but as he was passionately interested in military
matters, he questioned me endlessly about the siege of Genoa, the
battles of Marengo and Austerlitz and also about the organisation
of our army. Prince Louis was a most handsome man, and in respect
of spirit, ability and character, the only one of the royal
family who bore any resemblance to Frederick the Great. I made
the acquaintance of several members of the court, mainly with the
officers whom I followed daily to parades and manoeuvres. I spent
my time in Berlin very pleasantly. The ambassador showed me much
attention; but in the end I discovered that he wanted me to play,
in a delicate affair, a role for which I was unsuited, so I
became very reserved.

Now, let us examine the position of Prussia vis-…-vis France. The
despatches which I had brought concerned this matter, as I later
found out.

In accepting from Napoleon the gift of the electorate of Hanover,
the patrimony of the English royal family, the cabinet in Berlin
had alienated not only the anti-French party but almost all of
the Prussian nation. Germanic pride was wounded by the victories
won by the French over the Austrians, and Prussia feared that its
commerce would be ruined by the war which had just been declared
against it by the cabinet in London. The queen and Prince Louis
made use of these turbulent emotions to persuade the king to make
war on France by allying himself with Russia who, though
abandoned by Austria, still hoped to take revenge for its defeat
at Austerlitz. The Emperor of Russia was further encouraged in
his plans by a Pole, his favourite aide-de-camp, Prince
Czartoryski.

The anti-French party, which was growing daily, was not yet able
to persuade the king to break with Napoleon; but aware that it
was supported by Russia, this party redoubled its efforts, and
profited adroitly from the mistakes made by Napoleon in placing
his brother Louis on the throne of Holland, and nominating
himself as protector of the confederacy of the Rhine: acts which
were represented to the Prussian king as being steps on the path
to the re-establishment of the empire of Charlemagne. Napoleon,
it was said, wanted finally to reduce all the sovereigns of
Germany to the status of vassals.

These assertions, though greatly exaggerated, had had a
considerable influence on the king's thinking. His conduct toward
France became from this time, more and more equivocal, and it was
this that decided Napoleon to write to him personally, without
going through the usual diplomatic channels, to ask "Are you for
me or against me?" This was the tenor of the letter which I had
given the king. His councillors who wished to gain time for the
completion of their re-armament, delayed the reply, which was the
reason for my long stay in Berlin.

At last, in August, there was a general explosion of ill-feeling
towards France, and one saw the queen, Prince Louis, the
nobility, the army and the general populace, noisily demanding
war. The king allowed himself to become involved but, although
determined to end the peace he still hoped to avoid hostilities,
and it seems that in his reply to the Emperor he undertook to
disarm if the latter would take back to France all the troops he
had in Germany, which Napoleon was unwilling to do until Prussia
had disarmed. So we were in a vicious circle which could be
broken only by a war.

Before I left Berlin, I witnessed the frenzy to which hatred of
Napoleon raised this normally placid people. The officers whom I
knew no longer dared to speak to me or even to greet me. Several
French people were insulted by the populace, and finally soldiers
of the Royal Guard came boastfully to sharpen their sabres on the
stone steps of the French embassy. I left hurriedly for Paris,
taking with me much information on what was going on in Prussia.
Passing through Frankfurt, I found Marshal Augereau very sad at
having heard of the death of his wife, a good, excellent woman
whose loss he felt deeply, and who was mourned by all the general
staff, for she had been very kind to us.

On my arrival in Paris, I delivered to the Emperor the
hand-written reply from the King of Prussia. After reading it, he
questioned me on what I had seen in Berlin. When I told him that
the soldiers of the guard had come to sharpen their sabres on the
steps of the French embassy, he clapped his hand firmly on the
hilt of his sword, exclaiming indignantly, "The insolent
braggarts will soon learn that our arms are in good order!"

My mission now being over, I returned to Marshal Augereau, and
spent all of September in Frankfurt where, while preparing
ourselves for war, we entertained ourselves as best we could, for
we thought that as nothing could be more uncertain than the life
of a soldier, one should enjoy it as much as is possible.

Chap. 29.

While the different corps of the French army were approaching the
banks of the Main, the Emperor arrived at Wurtzburg and crossed
the Rhine with his Guard. The Prussians, for their part, were on
the march, and going through Saxony, they compelled the elector
to join forces with them. This enforced, and therefore unstable,
alliance was the only one which the King of Prussia had in
Germany. He was, it is true, expecting the arrival of the
Russians, but their army was still in Poland behind the Niemen,
more than one hundred and fifty leagues from the country where
the destiny of Prussia was to be decided.

It is hard to believe the incompetence displayed, for seven
years, by our enemies' governments. We saw, in 1805, the
Austrians attack us on the Danube, and be defeated in isolation
at Ulm, instead of waiting for Russia to join them and for
Prussia to declare war on Napoleon. Now, in 1806, those same
Prussians who, a year before, could have prevented the defeat of
the Austro-Russians by joining them, not only declared war on us
when we were at peace with Vienna, but repeated the mistake of
attacking us without waiting for the Russians! Finally, in 1809,
the Austrians renewed the war against Napoleon on their own, at a
time when we were at peace with both Prussia and Russia! This
lack of co-operation ensured a French victory. Sadly it was not
so in 1813, when we were crushed by a coalition of our enemies.

In 1806 the King of Prussia was even more mistaken in taking to
the field against Napoleon in the absence of the Russians, in
that his troops, although well trained, were in no condition to
be pitted against ours, because their composition and
organisation were so bad.

In effect, at this time, Prussian captains were the owners of
their company or squadron: men, horses, arms and clothing all
belonged to them and the whole unit was hired out to the
government for a fixed fee. Obviously, since all losses fell to
their account, the captains had a great interest in sparing their
companies, not only on the march but on the field of battle. As
the number of men they were obliged to have was fixed and there
was no conscription, they enrolled for money, first any Prussians
who came forward, and then all the vagabonds of Europe, whom
their recruiters enlisted in neighbouring states. But this was
not enough, and the Prussian recruiters pressed many men into
service, who having become soldiers against their will, were
compelled to serve until they were too old to bear arms; then
they were given a permit to beg, for Prussia could not afford to
provide a home for old soldiers or a retirement pension. For the
duration of their service these men had to be mixed with true
Prussians, who had to constitute at least half of each company to
prevent mutiny.

To maintain an army composed of such heterogeneous parts required
an iron discipline; so the least fault was punished by beating. A
large number of N.C.O.s, all of them Prussian, carried canes
which they made use of frequently, and according to the current
expression there was a cane for every seven men. The penalty for
desertion by a foreign soldier was inevitably death. You can
imagine the frightful position of these foreigners, who having
enlisted in a moment of drunkenness, or been taken by force,
found themselves far from their native land, under a glacial sky,
condemned to be Prussian soldiers, that is slaves, for the rest
of their lives! And what a life it was! Given scarcely enough to
eat. Sleeping on straw. Thinly clad. Without greatcoats, even in
the coldest winter, and paid a sum insufficient for their needs;
they did not wait to beg until they had been given a permit on
their discharge, for when they were not under the eyes of their
superiors, they held out their hands, and there were several
occasions both at Potsdam and Berlin when Grenadiers, even those
at the palace gate, begged me for alms!

The Prussian-born officers were, in general, educated men, who
performed their duties very well; but half of the officers, born
outside the kingdom, were poor gentlemen from almost every
country in Europe who had joined the army only to have a living,
and lacking patriotism, were in no way devoted to Prussia, which
the majority abandoned when there was any adversity. Finally, as
promotion was only by length of service, the great majority of
senior Prussian officers were old and infirm, and in no state to
support the fatigues of war. It was an army thus composed and
commanded which was to confront the victors of Italy, Egypt,
Germany and Austerlitz. This was folly. But the cabinet in
Berlin, recalling the victories which Frederick the Great had won
with mercenary troops, hoped things would be the same. They
forgot that times had changed.

On the 6th of October Marshal Augereau and 7th Corps left
Frankfurt to head, with the rest of the Grande Armee, for the
frontiers of Saxony, already occupied by the Prussians. The
autumn was superb; it froze a little during the night, but by day
there was brilliant sunshine. My little troupe was well
organised; I had a good batman, Francois Woirland, a former
soldier in the black legion, a real rascal and a great scrounger,
but these are the best servants on a campaign, for with one of
them one lacks for nothing. I had three excellent horses, good
weapons, a little money and good health; so I stepped out gaily
to face whatever the future might bring.

We went first to Aschaffenburg and from there to Wurtzburg, where
we caught up with the Emperor, who ordered a march-past by the
troops of 7th Corps, who were in good heart. Napoleon who kept a
dossier about all the regiments, and who skillfully used to
employ extracts from it to flatter the self-esteem of each unit,
said when he saw the 44th line regiment, "Of all the units of the
army you are the one with the most long service chevrons, so your
three battalions I count as six!"...an announcement which was
greeted by cheers. To the 7th, composed mostly of men from the
lower Languedoc and the Pyrenees, the Emperor said, "There are
the best marchers in the army, one never sees anyone fall behind,
particularly when there is a battle to be fought." Then he added,
laughingly, "But, to do you justice, I must say that you are the
most brawling, thieving unit in the army!" "It's true! It's
true!" replied the soldiers, each of whom had a duck, a chicken
or a goose in his knapsack, an abuse which had to be tolerated,
because, as I have told you, Napoleon's armies, once in the
field, rarely received any rations, and had to live off the
country as well as they could. This system had without doubt many
defects, but it had one huge benefit, that of allowing us to move
forward without being held up by convoys and supply lines, which
gave us a great advantage over an enemy whose movements were
subordinated to the cook-house, or the arrival of bread, and to
the progress of herds of cattle, etc...etc.

From Wurtzburg, 7th Corps went to Coburg, where the marshal was
lodged in the prince's palace. All his family had fled on our
approach, except the celebrated Austrian Field-marshal, the
Prince of Coburg. This old warrior, although he had fought for
many years against the French, had enough confidence in the
French character to await their coming, a confidence which was
not misplaced, for Marshal Augereau sent him a guard of honour,
returned promptly a visit he had received, and ordered that he
was to be treated with the utmost respect.

We were not very far from the Prussians, whose king was at
Erfurt. The queen was with him and rode up and down the ranks of
the army on horseback, endeavouring to excite their ardour by her
presence. Napoleon did not think that this was behaviour
befitting a princess, and his bulletins made some wounding
comments on the subject. The French and Prussian advance-guards
met eventually, at Schleitz: where there took place, in view of
the Emperor, a minor action in which the enemy were defeated; it
was for them an ill-omened beginning.

That same day, Prince Louis, with a body of ten thousand men,
found himself stationed in Saalfeld. This town is on the bank of
the River Saale, in the middle of a plain which we could reach
only by crossing some steep mountains. While Marshals Lannes' and
Augereau's corps were moving toward Saalfeld through these
mountains, Prince Louis, who had decided to await the French,
should have occupied positions in this difficult country, full of
narrow passes, where a few men could hold up a much greater
number, but he failed to do this, probably because he was
convinced that the Prussian soldiers were infinitely better than
the French. He carried this scorn for all precautions so far as
to place part of his force in front of a marshy stream, which
would make their retreat very difficult in the event of a
reverse. Old General Muller, a Swiss in the service of Prussia,
whom the king had attached to his nephew as a steadying
influence, made some observations which the prince took very
badly, adding that there was no need to take precautions to beat
the French, all that was needed was to fall on them the moment
they appeared.

They appeared in the morning on the 10th; Marshal Lannes' corps
leading and Marshal Augereau's behind him. This last did not
arrive in time to take part in the action where, as it happened,
their presence was not needed, for Marshal Lannes' troops were
more than sufficient.

While waiting for his corps to emerge onto the plain, Marshal
Augereau, accompanied by his staff, went up onto a little hill
which overlooked the open country, from where we could follow all
stages of the action.

Prince Louis could still have retreated to join the Prussian
corps which occupied Jena; but having been the leading instigator
of the war he perhaps felt he should not do so without a fight.
He was most cruelly punished for his temerity. Marshal Lannes,
making use of the heights, at the foot of which Prince Louis had
imprudently deployed his troops, first raked them with grape-shot
from his artillery, and when this had demoralised them, he
advanced several masses of infantry, which descending rapidly
from the high ground, swept like a torrent onto the Prussian
battalions and instantly overwhelmed them! Prince Louis, aghast,
and probably aware of his mistake, hoped to repair it by putting
himself at the head of his cavalry and impetuously attacking the
9th and 10th Hussars. He had at first some success, but our
Hussars having made a new and furious charge, drove the Prussians
back into the marshes, while their infantry fled in disorder.

In the middle of the melee, Prince Louis found himself engaged
with a sous-officier of the 10th Hussars named Guindet, who
summoned him to surrender; the prince replied with a slash of his
sword which cut the sous-officier's face, who thereupon ran the
prince through and killed him.

After the fight and the complete rout of the enemy, the prince's
body having been recognised, Marshal Lannes had it carried with
honour to the chateau of Saalfeld, where it was handed to the
princely family of that name, who were allied to the royal house
of Prussia, and in whose residence the prince had spent the
previous day and evening, looking forward to the coming of the
French, and even, it is said, giving a ball for the local ladies.
Now he was returned to them, vanquished and dead!... The next
morning I saw the prince's body, laid out on a marble table, all
traces of blood had been cleaned away, he was naked to the waist,
still wearing his leather britches and his boots. He seemed to be
asleep. He was a truly fine looking man, and I could not help
indulging in some sad reflections on the uncertainty of human
affairs, when I saw the remains of this young man, born on the
steps of a throne, and, but lately, so loved, so courted and so
powerful!

The news of the prince's death spread consternation in the enemy
army, and also throughout Prussia, where he was highly popular.

7th Corps spent the day of the 11th at Saalfeld. On the 12th we
went to Neustadt, and on the 13th to Kehla, where we encountered
some remains of the Prussian troops defeated at Saalfeld. When
Marshal Augereau attacked them, they put up little resistance and
laid down their arms. Amongst those captured was the regiment of
Prince Henry in which Augereau had once served as a soldier, and
since, unless one was of high birth, it was very difficult to
become a senior officer in the Prussian army, and as sergeants
never became second lieutenants, his former company still had the
same captain and the same sergeant-major. Placed by a quirk of
fate in the presence of his one-time soldier, now a marshal, the
Prussian captain, who remembered Augereau perfectly well, acted
as a man of discretion and spoke always to the marshal as if he
had never seen him before. Augereau invited him to dinner and
seated him next to himself, then, learning that the officer's
baggage had been seized, he lent him all the money he needed and
gave him letters of introduction to take to France. What must
have passed through the captain's mind! But nothing can describe
the astonishment of the old Prussian sergeant-major at seeing his
former soldier covered with decorations, surrounded by a numerous
staff and in command of an army corps! All of which seemed like a
dream! The marshal was more expansive toward this man than he had
been toward the captain. Addressing the sergeant by name, he
shook him by the hand, and arranged for him to be given
twenty-five louis for himself and two for every soldier who had
been in the ranks with him and was still there. We thought this
behaviour was in the best of taste.

The marshal had expected to sleep at Kehla, which is only three
leagues from Jena; but just as night was falling 7th Corps was
ordered to go immediately to this last town which the Emperor had
just entered, at the head of his guard and the troops of Marshal
Lannes, without striking a blow.

The Prussians had abandoned Jena in silence, but some candles,
forgotten in the stables, had probably started the fire, the
spreading flames of which were consuming part of the unfortunate
town when Marshal Augereau's corps entered it at about midnight.
It was a sorry spectacle to see the inhabitants, women and old
people, half naked, carrying their children and seeking to escape
by flight from the scene of destruction, while our soldiers, kept
in their ranks by discipline and the nearness of the enemy,
remained unmoved, their arms at the ready, regarding the fire as
a small matter in comparison to the dangers they would soon have
to face.

The part of the town through which our troops arrived was not
affected by the fire and so they could move around freely, and
while they were gathering in the squares and main streets, the
marshal set up his headquarters in a nice looking mansion. I was
about to enter, on returning from delivering an order, when I
heard loud shrieks coming from a nearby house, the door of which
was open. I hurried there and guided by the cries I found my way
to a well-appointed apartment where I saw two charming girls, of
about eighteen to twenty years of age, dressed only in their
chemises, struggling against the advances of four or five
soldiers from Hesse-Darmstadt, belonging to the regiments which
the landgrave had attached to the French troops of 7th Corps.
Although these men, who were drunk, understood not a word of
French, and I spoke little German, my appearance and my threats
took them aback, and being used to beatings from their own
officers, they made no retaliation to the kicks and cuffs which
in my indignation I distributed freely in driving them
downstairs. In this I was perhaps a little imprudent, for in the
middle of the night, in a town in utter confusion there was a
risk that they might turn on me and even kill me; but they ran
away, and I put a platoon of the marshal's escort in one of the
lower rooms.