The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot

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At this time all the French regiments, with the exception of the
Cuirassiers, had a company of Grenadiers, known as the elite
company, whose customary position was on the right of the line, a
position which they held in the 23rd. General Legrand observed to
the Marshal that, as the enemy had placed their artillery in
front of their centre, it was there that most danger would lie,
and in order to avoid any hesitation which might compromise the
whole operation, it would be advisable to attack this point with
the elite company, which was composed of the most seasoned
soldiers mounted on the best horses. It was in vain that I
assured the Marshal that the regiment was in all respects as
solid in one part as in another, he ordered me to put the elite
company in the centre, which I then did. I next gathered the
officers together and explained to them in low tones what we were
to do, and warned them that, the better to surprise the enemy, I
would give no preparatory commands and would simply order the
charge when we were within close range of the enemy guns. Once
everything had been arranged, the regiment left its bivouac, in
complete silence, at the first faint light of dawn, and made its
way without difficulty through the wood, the great trees of which
were widely spaced, and arrived at the level clearing in which
was the Russian encampment. I alone in the regiment had no sabre
in my hand, for having only one hand which I could use, I needed
that to hold the reins of my horse. You will understand that this
was a very unpleasant situation for a cavalry officer about to
engage the enemy.

However, I had chosen to go with my regiment and so I placed
myself in front of the elite company, having beside me their
gallant captain, M. Courteau, one of the finest of officers and
one whom I valued most highly.

All was quiet in the Russian camp, towards which we advanced
slowly and in silence, and my hopes of achieving a total surprise
were increased by the fact that General Koulnieff not having
brought any cavalry across the ford, we saw no mounted outposts,
and could distinguish, by the feeble light of their fires, only a
few infantry sentries, posted so close to the camp that between
their warning and our sudden arrival the Russians would have
little chance to prepare themselves for defence. Suddenly,
however, two prowling and suspicious Cossack peasants appeared on
horseback, some thirty paces from our line, and after regarding
it for a moment they fled towards the camp, where it was obvious
that they intended to give warning of our presence. This
mischance was very unfortunate, because had it not been for that,
we would certainly have reached the Russians without losing a
man; however since we were now discovered and were in any case
nearing the spot where I had decided to increase the speed of our
advance, I urged my horse into a gallop; the regiment did the
same, and shortly I gave the order to sound the charge.

At this signal my gallant troopers and I launched ourselves at
the enemy, upon whom we fell like a thunderbolt. The two Cossacks
had, however, raised the alarm. The gunners, sleeping beside
their guns, grabbed their slow matches, and fourteen canons
belched grapeshot at the regiment. Thirty-seven men, of whom
nineteen belonged to the elite company, were killed outright. The
brave Captain Courteau was amongst them, as was Lieutenant
Lallouette. The Russian gunners were attempting to reload their
guns when they were cut down by our men. We had few wounded,
almost all the injuries having been fatal. We had some forty
horses killed, mine was maimed by a heavy bullet but was able to
carry me to the Russian camp where the soldiers, rudely awakened
from their sleep, were rushing to take up their arms, but were
being sabred by our troopers, whom I had ordered to get between
them and the rows of muskets, so that few were able to reach one
and fire at us. Then, alerted by the sound of gunfire, General
Albert's two regiments of infantry ran from the wood to attack
the two sides of the camp, bayoneting all who resisted. The
Russians, in disorder, were unable to withstand this triple
attack. Many of them, who having arrived at night had not been
able to see the height of the river banks, tried to escape by
this route and falling fifteen or twenty feet onto the rocks were
injured and in many cases killed.

General Koulnieff, hardly awake, joined a group of two thousand
men of whom about one third had muskets, and following
mechanically this disorganised crowd, he arrived at the ford, but
I had given orders that this important spot should be occupied by
five or six hundred horsemen, amongst whom were the elite company
who, enraged at the loss of their captain, massacred most of the
Russians. General Koulnieff, who had already been drinking,
attacked Sergeant Legendre, who, thrusting his sabre into the
Russian's neck, laid him dead at his feet. M. de. Segur, in his
story of the campaign of 1812, has General Koulnieff making a
dying speech worthy of Homer. I was within a few feet of Sergeant
Legendre when he drove his sabre into Koulnieff's throat, and I
can certify that the General fell without uttering a word. The
victory achieved by General Albert's infantry and the 23rd was
complete. The enemy had at least 2000 men killed or wounded and
we took around 4000 prisoners. The remainder perished by falling
on the sharp rocks of the river. Some of the most agile Russians
managed to rejoin Wittgenstein, who, when he heard of the
sanguinary defeat of his advance-guard, began a retreat toward
Sebej.

Marshal Oudinot, encouraged by the resounding success which he
had just gained, decided to pursue the Russians, and took his
army, as on the previous day, back across the Drissa to the right
bank; but in order to give General Albert's infantry brigade and
the 23rd Chasseurs an opportunity to recover from the effects of
the fighting, he left them to keep watch on the field of battle
at Sivotschina. I took advantage of this period of rest to carry
out a ceremony rarely seen in war. This was to pay my last
respects to those of our brave comrades who had lost their lives.
They were laid, arranged by rank, in a large pit, with Captain
Courteau and his lieutenant at their head. Then the fourteen
canons, so gallantly captured by the 23rd, were placed before
this military tomb.

Having completed this act of piety, I wished to dress my wound of
the previous day, which was causing me a great deal of pain, and
to do this I went to sit apart under a huge pine tree. There I
saw a young battalion commander, who with his back against the
trunk and held up by two Grenadiers, was painfully closing a
little package on which a name was traced in his blood. This
officer, who belonged to Albert's brigade, had suffered, during
the attack on the Russian camp, an appalling bayonet wound which
had slit open his abdomen from which the intestines were
protruding, pierced in several places. Although some dressing
had been applied the blood still flowed and the wound was mortal.
The doomed man, who was well aware of this, had wished, before he
died, to take leave of a lady whom he loved but did not know to
whom he might entrust this precious message, when chance brought
me there. We knew each other only by sight, but nonetheless,
urged by the approach of death, he asked me, in a voice now
faint, to do him two favours, then motioning the Grenadiers to
one side he gave me the package, and saying, with tears in his
eyes, "It is a portrait," he made me promise to deliver it
secretly, with my own hands, if I was fortunate enough to return
one day to Paris. "In any case," he added "there is no hurry, for
it would be better if this was received long after I am gone." I
promised to carry out this sad task, which I was unable to do
until two years later in 1814. The second request which he made I
was able to carry out within some two hours. He was distressed to
think that his body would be devoured by the wolves which
abounded in the country and asked to be put beside the captain
and the troopers of the 23rd, whose burial he had seen. This I
promised, and when he died not long after our unhappy meeting, I
carried out this last wish.

Chap. 10.

Deeply moved by this unhappy event,I was meditating with much
sadness, when I was awakened from my reveries by the distant
sound of a sustained cannonade. The two armies were once more in
action. Marshal Oudinot, after passing the inn at Kliastitsoui,
where I had been wounded the day before, had contacted the
Russian rear-guard at the beginning of the marsh, the exit from
which had been so disastrous for us on the previous day. He was
determined to drive the enemy back, but they were not prepared to
pass through this dangerous defile, and mounted a
counter-offensive against the French troops who, after suffering
considerable losses, retreated, followed by the Russians. One
might have thought that Oudinot and Wittgenstein were playing a
game of prisoner's base, advancing and retreating by turn. The
news of this fresh retreat by Oudinot was given to us on the
battlefield of Sivotschina by an aide-de-camp, who brought to
General Albert the order to take his brigade, together with the
23rd Chasseurs, two leagues to the rear, in the direction of
Polotsk.

When it came to leaving, I was unwilling to part with the
fourteen artillery pieces captured that morning by my regiment,
and as the horses which pulled them had also fallen into our
hands, they were harnessed up and we took the guns to our next
bivouac, and on the night following to Polotsk, where it was not
long before they played an effective part in the defence of that
town.

Oudinot withdrew that same day to the ford at Sivotschina, which
he had crossed in the morning in pursuit of Wittgenstein who,
bearing in mind the disaster which had overwhelmed his
advance-guard at this place on the occasion, did not risk sending
any isolated unit across to the bank which we occupied. So the
two armies, separated by the Drissa, settled themselves for the
night.

On the following day, the 2nd August, Oudinot having joined his
units at Polotsk, hostilities ceased for a few days, as both
sides were in need of a rest. We were rejoined by the good
General Castex and also by the 24th Chasseurs, who were very
angry with their Colonel for leading them away when it was their
turn to attack the Russian camp. On their trip up the Drissa they
had seen no sign of the enemy nor had they found any trace of the
supposed ford.

After several days rest Wittgenstein led part of his troops
towards the lower Dvina, from where Macdonald was threatening his
right. When Marshal Oudinot followed the Russian army in that
direction it turned to face him, and for a week or ten days there
was a series of marches and countermarches, and several minor
engagements which it would be too long and wearisome to describe,
and which resulted only in the useless killing of men and the
demonstration of the indecision of both commanders.

The most serious engagement during this short period took place
on the 13th August near the magnificent monastery of Valensoui,
built on the bank of the Svolna. This little river, which has
very muddy banks, separated the French and the Russians, and it
was obvious that whichever general attempted to force a crossing
on such unfavourable terrain would come to grief. Neither Oudinot
nor Wittgenstein had any intention of crossing the Svolna at this
point; but instead of going to look for some other place where
they could meet in combat, they took up positions on either side
of this watercourse, as it were in mutual despite. Soon there was
from both banks a lively cannonade which was totally useless as
the troops on neither side could attack their adversaries and was
no credit to either party.

However Wittgenstein, to protect the lives of his men, had
restricted himself to posting some battalions of unmounted
Chasseurs among the willows and reeds which bordered the stream,
and had kept the bulk of his force out of the range of the French
guns, whose brisk fire hit only some of his sharpshooters, while
Oudinot, who had insisted, in spite of the sensible advice of
several generals, on bringing his first line up to the Svolna
suffered losses which he could have and should have avoided. The
Russian artillery is nowhere as good as ours, but they used
pieces called licornes, which had a range exceeding that of the
French guns of the period, and it was these licornes which did
the most damage among our troops.

Marshal Oudinot, in his belief that the enemy were going to cross
the river, not only kept a division of infantry in position to
repel them, but supported them with General Castex's cavalry, an
unnecessary precaution, since a crossing of even a small river
takes more time than is needed for the defenders to hurry into a
position to oppose it. Nonetheless my regiment was exposed for
twenty-four hours to the Russian fire, which killed or wounded
several of my men.

During this confrontation in which the troops remained stationary
for a long period, there arrived the aide-de-camp whom Oudinet
had sent to Witepsk to report to the Emperor the result of the
battles at Kliastitsoui and at Sivotschina. Napoleon, who wanted
to make it clear to the troops that he did not blame them for the
lack of success in our operations, loaded 2nd Corps with rewards
in the way of decorations and promotions, and then, turning to
the cavalry, he awarded four Crosses of the Legion of Honour to
each of the cavalry regiments. In the despatch announcing this
news, Major-general the Prince Berthier added that in order to
show his satisfaction with the conduct of the 23rd Chasseurs at
Wilkomir, at the bridge of Dvinaburg, in the night battle at
Drouia, at Kliastitsoui, and above all in the attack on the
Russian camp at Sivotschina, the Emperor was awarding them, in
addition to the four decorations given to the other regiments,
fourteen decorations, one for each of the guns captured by them
from Koulnieff's advance-guard, so that I had now eighteen
crosses to distribute among my brave soldiers. The aide-de-camp
had not brought the awards themselves, but the Major-general had
added to his letter the request that the regimental commanders
should draw up a list of recipients and forward it to him.

I assembled all the captains, and after taking their advice, I
drew up my list, and presented it to Marshal Oudinot, asking at
the same time if I might be allowed to announce the awards
immediately to my regiment: "What, here, under fire?" "Yes,
marshal, under fire. That enhances their value."

General Lorencez, who as chief of staff had written the report of
the various actions, in which he had highly praised the 23rd,
agreed with my suggestion and so the Marshal consented. The
decorations would not arrive until later, but I had my servant
look in my baggage for a piece of ribbon which I had in my
portmanteau, and when it was found, and after it had been cut
into eighteen pieces, I announced to the regiment the awards
which the Emperor had presented, and calling out of the ranks
each of the recipients in turn, I gave them a piece of the red
ribbon, then so keenly wished for and so proudly worn, and which
has since then been so diminished in value, almost prostituted,
by handing it out indiscriminately to all and sundry.

This ceremony, conducted in the field and under fire, had a great
effect, and the enthusiasm of the regiment was at its height when
I announced the name of Sergeant Prud'homme, reputed justly to be
the most intrepid and unassuming of the warriors of the 23rd.
This brave survivor of many a fierce encounter, accepted with
modesty his piece of ribbon, to the sound of loud acclamation
from all the squadrons. A moment of well earned triumph. I shall
never forget this moving scene which took place, as you know,
within range of the enemy guns.

Sadly, there is no rose without its thorn. Two of the men who
were included in my list had just been severely wounded. Sergeant
Legendre, who had killed General Koulnieff, had an arm carried
away, and Corporal Griffon had a leg smashed. The injured limbs
were being amputated when I went to the dressing station to give
them their decorations. At the sight of the ribbons they forgot
for a moment their pain, but unhappily, Sergeant Legendre did not
long survive his injury, though Griffon recovered and was sent
back to France, where I saw him some years later in Les
Invalides.

The 24th Chasseurs, who received only four decorations as opposed
to the eighteen awarded to the 23rd, conceded that this was fair,
but nevertheless they regretted that they had been deprived of
the honour of taking the fourteen Russian guns at Sivotschina,
even at the cost of suffering such casualties as ours, "We are
soldiers" they said, "and must take our chances for better or
worse." They blamed their colonel for providing them with what
they called this let-down. Here was an army whose men actually
clamoured for action.

You will doubtless wonder what I got out of all this, and the
answer is nothing. The Emperor, before he removed Colonel de La
Nougarede from the command of the regiment and either made him a
general or head of a legion of gendarmes, wanted to know if his
health would permit him to carry out the duties of either of
these two ranks. As a consequence Marshal Oudinot was ordered to
bring Colonel de La Nougarede before a medical board, whose
conclusion was that he would never be able to mount a horse. In
view of this, the Marshal authorised the Colonel's return to
France, where he was given the command of a minor fortress. The
unfortunate Colonel, before leaving Polotsk, where his
infirmities had forced him to remain, wrote me a very touching
letter in which he took his leave of the 23rd, and although he
had never led the regiment into action, an event which increases
the men's regard for their commander, his departure was
justifiably regretted.

The regiment now being without a colonel, the Marshal expected to
receive at any moment the order for my promotion to that rank,
and quite frankly so did I. The Emperor had however moved away,
and had left Witepsk to take Smolensk and from there to march on
Moscow, and the work of his cabinet had been slowed by their
preoccupation with military operations to such an extent that I
was not gazetted Colonel until three months later.

Let us now return to the banks of the Svolna, which the French
left hurriedly after depositing some of their wounded in the
monastery of Valensoui. Amongst those whom we lost was M.
Casabianca, Colonel of the 11th light infantry regiment, who had
served with me as aide-de-camp to Massena. He was a very fine
officer whose promotion had been rapid; but his career was ended
by a head injury received when he was visiting some of his men on
the bank of the Svolna. He was dying when I saw him on a
stretcher carried by some sappers. He recognised me and shaking
my hand he observed that he was sorry to see our army corps so
poorly managed. The poor fellow died that evening.

His last words were only too well founded, for our leader seemed
to proceed without method or plan. After a success, he pursued
Wittgenstein regardless of any obstacles and spoke of nothing
less than driving him back as far as St. Petersburg, but at the
least check he retreated swiftly and started seeing enemies
everywhere. It was in this last state that he took his troops
back to Polotsk, although they were displeased being at being
made to fall back before the Russians whom they had recently
defeated in almost every encounter.

On the 15th of August, the Emperor's birthday, 2nd Corps arrived
dejectedly at Polotsk, where we met with 6th Corps, formed of the
two fine Bavarian divisions of General Wrede, which had a French
general, Gouvion Saint-Cyr in overall command. The Emperor had
sent this reinforcement of 8 to 10,000 men to Marshal Oudinot,
who would have received it with more pleasure if he had not been
afraid of the man in command.

Saint-Cyr was one of the most competent soldiers in Europe. A
contemporary and rival of Moreau, Hoche, Kleber and Desaix, he
had successfully commanded one wing of the French army of the
Rhine at a time when Oudinot was scarcely a colonel or a brigade
commander. I do not know anyone who could command troops in the
field better than Saint-Cyr.

The son of a small landowner in Toul, he had studied to be a
civil engineer, but he gave this up to become an actor in Paris,
where he created the well-known role of "Robert,the Brigand
Chief." In the City Theatre, where he was when the revolution of
'89 broke out, Saint-Cyr joined a volunteer battalion, where he
showed great courage and military talent, and soon became a
divisional general and gained a number of victories. He was a
tall man but looked more like a schoolmaster than a soldier, due
in part perhaps to the habit adopted by the generals of the army
of the Rhine of wearing neither uniform nor epaulets, but only a
plain blue greatcoat.

One could not imagine anyone more self-controlled; the greatest
dangers, setbacks, successes, or defeats, failed to rouse him to
any show of emotion. He maintained an icy calm in all situations.
It is obvious how useful such a temperament coupled with a taste
for study and meditation, might be to a general officer, but
Saint-Cyr had also some serious faults. Jealous of his comrades,
he had been known to hold his troops back while, close to him,
other divisions were decimated in a desperate struggle. He would
then advance and profiting from the exhaustion of the enemy he
would overcome them, and thus appear to have won the victory
single-handed. Secondly, if Saint-Cyr was one of the best
officers in the employment of troops in the field, he was without
doubt the one who took the least interest in their welfare. He
never inquired if the men had food, clothing or footwear, or if
their arms were in proper repair. He never held an inspection,
nor visited the hospitals, nor even asked if there were any! In
his opinion it was the duty of the colonels to see to all that.
In short he wanted to be presented on the field of battle with
regiments in fighting order, without troubling himself to see
that they were kept in that condition. This sort of behaviour had
not done Saint-Cyr any good. Wherever he served, the soldiers,
although acknowledging his military talents, regarded him without
affection. His fellow officers dreaded working with him and the
various governments which had taken power in France had employed
him only out of necessity. The Emperor did the same, but he so
much disliked Saint-Cyr that when he created the rank of marshal
he left his name off the list of promotions, even though he had
seen more service and shown more skill than most of those to whom
Napoleon awarded the baton. Such was the man whom the Emperor had
just placed under Oudinet's orders, to the great regret of the
latter, who feared that he would be shown up by comparison with
Saint-Cyr's superior talents.

On the 16th of August, the day on which my eldest son Alfred was
born, the Russian army of some sixty thousand men attacked
Oudinot, who, including the Bavarian unit led by Saint-Cyr, had
fifty two thousand men under his command. In any other
circumstances an engagement between one hundred and twelve
thousand men would have been called a battle; but in 1812 the
when the total number of combatants amounted to some six or seven
hundred thousand, a fight involving one hundred thousand men was
no more than an action, and it is this description which is given
to the struggle at Polotsk between the Russian troops and those
of Marshal Oudinot.

The town of Polotsk, built on the right bank of the Dvina, is
surrounded by old earthen ramparts. Before the main frontage of
the town the fields are divided by a large number of little
ditches between which vegetables are grown. Although these
obstacles are not impassable for artillery and cavalry, they
hinder their movement. These gardens extend for less than half a
league in front of the town, but on their left, on the bank of
the Divna, there is a large area of level ground. It is here that
the Russian general should have attacked Polotsk, for it would
have given him command of the frail and only pontoon bridge,
which was our communication with the left bank from which we drew
our ammunition and food supply. But Wittgenstein chose to make a
frontal attack and directed his main force towards the gardens
from where he hoped to scale the ramparts which, to tell the
truth, were no more than easily climbed embankments, whose
height, however, allowed them to dominate the ground in front of
them. The attack was pressed home vigourously, but our infantry
put up a stout defence among the gardens, while from the height
of the ramparts the guns, among which were the fourteen captured
by the 23rd at Sivotschina, ravaged the enemy ranks. The Russians
fell back in disorder to reform themselves on the plain.
Oudinot, instead of staying sensibly where he was, went after
them and was in turn driven off with casualties. The greater part
of the day was spent in this way, the Russians returning
repeatedly to the attack, only to be driven back beyond the
gardens by the French.