The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot

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The weather, which was already threatening in the morning, should
have warned the Marshal to put off the attack to another day, or
at least to act rapidly. He did neither, and wasted precious time
in giving detailed orders so that it was not until two in the
afternoon that his columns began to move, and no sooner had they
done so than they were overtaken by a tremendous storm which
swelled the Katzbach and made the ford so difficult that General
Saint-Germain's Cuirassiers were unable to cross.

Having arrived on the other bank, we climbed, by a narrow gully,
a very steep slope which the rain had made so slippery that the
horses were falling at every step. We had to dismount and did not
get back into the saddle until we had reached the great plateau
which dominates the valley of the Katzbach. There we found
several divisions of our infantry, which the generals had wisely
placed near the clumps of trees which are scattered over this
plain; for, as I have said, the enemy were far stronger than us
in cavalry, and had a further advantage in that the rain had made
it impossible for the infantrymen to fire their weapons.

When we had arrived on this vast open space, we were astonished
to see no signs of the enemy! The complete silence that reigned
there seemed to me to conceal some kind of a trap, for we were
certain that on the previous night Marshal Blucher was in this
position with more than 100,000 men. It was, in my view,
necessary to reconnoitre the countryside thoroughly before going
any further. General Sebastiani thought differently; so, as soon
as Rousel d'Urbal's division was formed up, he despatched them
into the distance, with not only their own guns but those
belonging to Exelmans' division, which we had dragged onto the
plateau with so much difficulty.

As soon as Exelmans, who had been separated from his troops,
rejoined us, as we emerged from the gully, and saw that
Sebastiani had made off with his guns, he hurried after him to
reclaim them, leaving his division without orders. The two
brigades of which it was composed were some five hundred paces
from one another, facing the same way and formed into columns by
regiment. My regiment was at the head of Wathiez's brigade and
had behind it the 24th Chasseurs. The 11th Hussars were in the
rear.

The plateau of Jau‰r is so huge that although the Roussel d'Urbal
division, which had gone ahead, was made up of seven regiments of
cavalry, we could scarcely see them on the horizon. A thousand
paces to the right of the column of which I was a part, was one
of the clumps of trees which dot the plain. If my regiment had
been on its own I would certainly have had this wood searched by
a platoon; but as Exelmans, who was very jealous of his
authority, had established it as a rule that no one was to leave
the ranks without his order, I had not dared to take the usual
precautions, and for the same reason the general commanding the
brigade had felt obliged to do the same. This passive obedience
was nearly fatal.

I was at the head of my regiment which, as I have said, was
leading the column, when I suddenly heard a great outcry behind
me; this arose from an unforeseen attack by a numerous body of
Prussian lancers who, emerging unexpectedly from the wood,
charged the 24th Chasseurs and the 11th Hussars, whom they took
on the flank and threw into the greatest disorder. The enemy
charge being on the oblique, had first struck the tail of the
column, then the centre, and was now threatening the head. My
regiment was about to be hit on the right flank. The situation
was critical, for the enemy was advancing rapidly; however,
confident in the courage and skill of all ranks of my cavalrymen,
I ordered them to form line facing right at the full gallop.

This movement, so dangerous in the presence of the enemy, was
carried out with such speed and accuracy that in the blink of an
eye the regiment was in line facing the Prussians who, as they
approached us obliquely, exposed a flank, which our squadrons
took advantage of to get among their ranks where they effected
great carnage.

When they saw the success obtained by my regiment, the 24th
recovered from the surprise attack which had at first
disorganised them, and rallying smartly, they repelled the part
of the enemy line which faced them. As for the 11th Hussars,
composed entirely of Hollanders whom the Emperor had believed he
could turn into Frenchmen by a simple decree, their commander
found it impossible to lead them into a charge. But we were able
to do without the assistance of these useless soldiers, for the
23rd and the 24th were enough to rout the three Prussian
regiments which had attacked us.

While our Chasseurs were pursuing them, an elderly enemy colonel
who had been unhorsed, recognising my rank by my epaulets, and
fearing that he might be killed by one of my men, came to take
refuge beside me where, in spite of the excitement of the action,
no one would dare to strike him while he was under my protection.
Although he was on foot, in the clinging mud, he followed for a
quarter of an hour the hurried movements of my horse, supporting
himself by a hand on my knee and repeating all the time "You are
my guardian angel!" I was truly sorry for the old fellow, for
although he was dropping with fatigue he was unwilling to leave
me, so when I saw one of my men leading a captured horse, I had
him lend it to the Prussian colonel, whom I sent to the rear in
the charge of a trusted Sous-officier. You will see that this
enemy officer was not slow in showing his gratitude.

The plateau of Jau‰r now became the theatre for a desperate
struggle. From each of the woods there emerged a horde of
Prussians, so that the plain was soon covered by them. My
regiment, whose pursuit of their opponents I had been unable to
slow down, found itself before long facing a brigade of enemy
infantry, whose muskets put out of action by the rain, could not
fire a shot at us. I tried to break the Prussian square, but our
horses, bogged down in the mud to their hocks, could move only at
a slow walk, and without the weight of a charge it is almost
impossible for cavalry to penetrate the close-packed ranks of
infantry who, calm and well-led, present a hedge of bayonets. We
could go close enough to the enemy to speak with them and strike
their muskets with the blades of our sabres, but we could never
break through their lines, something which we could have done
easily if General Sebastiani had not sent our brigade artillery
elsewhere.

Our situation and that of the enemy infantry was really rather
ridiculous for we were eye to eye without being able to inflict
the least harm, our sabres being too short to reach the enemy,
whose muskets could not be fired. We remained in this state for a
considerable time, until General Maurin, the commander of a
neighbouring brigade, sent the 6th Regiment of Lancers to help
us. Their long weapons, outreaching the bayonets of the
Prussians killed many of them and allowed not only the Lancers
but also the Chasseurs of the 23rd and 24th to get into the enemy
square, where they did great carnage. During the fighting, one
could hear the sonorous voice of Colonel Perquit shouting in a
very pronounced Alsatian accent "Bointez, Lanciers! Bointez!"

The victory which we had won on this part of the vast battlefield
was snatched from us by the unexpected arrival of more than
20,000 of Prussian cavalry who, after overwhelming the Roussel
d'Urbal division, which had been so unwisely sent alone more than
a league ahead of us, now came to attack us with infinitely
greater numbers.

The approach of this enormous body of enemy troops was signalled
by the arrival of General Exelmans who, as I have said, had
briefly left his division to go almost unaccompanied to claim
back from General Sebastiani his battery of artillery, which that
General had so inappropriately despatched to join that of Roussel
d'Urbal. Having been unable to find General Sebastiani, he
arrived close to the leading division only to witness the capture
of Roussel d'Urbal's guns and also his own, and to find himself
involved in the utter rout of his colleague's squadrons. We had a
warning of some disaster in the sight of our General, his
appearance altered by the fact that he had lost his hat and even
his belt! We hastened to recall our soldiers, who were busy
sabring the enemy infantry which we had just broken into, but
while we were engaged in forming them up in good order we were
completely overrun by the many Prussian squadrons who were
pursuing the debris of d'Urbal's division.

Instantly, Sebastiani's cavalry division, consisting at the most
of 5 to 6000 men was confronted by 20,000 enemy horsemen who, as
well as outnumbering us, had the advantage of being almost all of
them Uhlans, that is to say armed with lances, while we had only
a few such squadrons! So in spite of the stiff resistance which
we put up, the groups which we formed were broken up by the
Prussians, who drove us steadily back to the edge of the plain
and to the verge of the steep descent into the gorge, at the
bottom of which ran the river Katzbach.

We were met here by two divisions of French infantry, together
with which we hoped to make a stand; but the muskets of our men
were so wet that they would not fire, and they had no other means
of defence but a battery of six guns and their bayonets, with
which they momentarily arrested the Prussian cavalry; but the
Prussian generals having brought up some twenty cannons, the
French guns were instantly disabled and their battalions crushed!
Then, cheering loudly, the twenty thousand enemy cavalry advanced
on our troops and drove them in confusion towards the Katzbach.

This river, which we had crossed in the morning with so much
difficulty although it was not very deep, had been transformed
into a raging torrent by the pouring rain which had continued
ceaslessly throughout the whole day. The water, surging between
the two banks, covered almost entirely the parapet of the bridge
at Chemochowitz and made it impossible to discover if the ford at
that point was still passable. However it was by those two points
we had crossed in the morning, and it was to them that we went.
The ford proved impassable for the infantry and a number were
drowned there, but the great majority were saved by the bridge.

I gathered together my regiment, as much as was possible, and
having been formed into tight-packed half-platoons which could
give each other mutual support, they entered the water in
reasonably good order and gained the other bank with the loss of
only two men. All the other cavalry units took the same route,
for in spite of the confusion inseparable from such a retreat,
the troopers realised that the bridge had to be left for the
infantry. I must confess that the descent of the slope was one of
the most critical moments in my life... The very steep hillside
was slippery under our horses' feet, and they stumbled at every
pace over numerous outcrops of rock; in addition the constant
hail of grape-shot which was hurled from the enemy guns made our
position highly precarious. I came out of this without any
personal accident, thanks to the courage, determination, and
skill of my excellent Turkish horse, which by walking along the
edge of precipices like a cat on a roof, saved my life, not only
on this occasion but on several others. I shall mention this
admirable creature later.

The French infantry and cavalry who had been driven down from the
Jau‰r plateau thought themselves safe from their enemies once
they had crossed the river, but the Prussians had sent a strong
column to a bridge upstream of that at Chemochowitz, where they
had crossed the Katzbach, so that having arrived on the bank
which we had quitted in the morning, we were astonished to be
attacked by squadrons of Uhlans. However, in spite of the
surprise, several regiments, among which Marshal Macdonald in his
report mentioned mine, unhesitatingly attacked the enemy...
Nonetheless, I do not know what would have happened without the
arrival of the division of General Saint-Germain. He had remained
on the left bank of the river in the morning, and having in
consequence taken no part in the fighting, found himself in full
readiness to come to our aid. This division composed of two
regiments of carabiniers, a brigade of Cuirassiers, and with six
twelve pounders, fell furiously on the enemy and drove back into
the river all those who had crossed with the aim of cutting off
our retreat, and as there is nothing so terrible as troops who,
having suffered a setback, resume the offensive, the troopers of
Exelmanns' and d'Urbal's divisions slaughtered all whom they
could reach.

This counter-attack did us much good, for it halted the enemy
who, for that day, did not dare to follow us across the Katzbach.

However, the French army suffered an immense disaster, for
Marshal Macdonald having crossed the river by all the bridges and
fords which there were between Liegnitz and Goldberg, that is to
say on a line of more than five leagues, and now finding nearly
all these crossing points cut off by flooding, the French army
was extended in a long cordon with the Prussians at their back
and facing an almost uncrossable river, and so the frightful
scenes which I had witnessed on the Jau‰r plateau were reproduced
at all points of the field of battle. Everywhere the rain
prevented our infantry from firing and aided the attacks of the
Prussian cavalry, four times more numerous than ours; everywhere
retreat was made highly perilous by the difficulty of crossing
the flooded Katzbach. Most of the men who tried to swim across
were drowned, Brigadier-general Sibuet being among their number;
we were able to save only a few pieces of artillery.

Chap. 27.

After the unhappy affair at the Katzbach, Marshal Macdonald, in
an attempt to re-unite his troops, indicated as rallying points
the towns of Bunzlau, Lauban, and Gorlitz. A pitch-dark night,
rutted roads, and continuous torrential rain made movement slow
and very difficult; and many soldiers, particularly those of our
allies, went astray or lagged behind.

Napoleon's army lost at the battle of the Katzbach 13,000 men
killed or drowned, 20,000 prisoners, and 50 cannons. A veritable
calamity! Marshal Macdonald, whose faulty tactics had led to this
irreparable catastrophe, although he forfeited the confidence of
the army, was able to retain his personal esteem by the frankness
and loyalty with which he admitted to his mistakes; for the day
following the disaster he called together all the generals and
colonels, and after engaging us to do all we could to maintain
order, he said that every officer and man had done his duty, and
there was only one person who was responsible for the loss of the
battle, and that was himself; because, in view of the rain, he
should not have left a well-broken terrain to go and attack, in a
vast open space, an enemy who squadrons greatly outnumbered our
own, nor, during a rain-storm, have put a river at his back. This
contrite admission disarmed the critics, and everyone buckled to
in order to help save the army, which retreated towards the Elbe
via Bautzen.

Fate now seemed to be against us; for a few days after Marshal
Oudinot had lost the battle of Gross-Beeren, Macdonald that of
the Katzbach, and Vandamme that of Kulm, the French forces
suffered another major reverse. Marshal Ney, who had succeeded
Oudinot in command of the troops who were destined to march on
Berlin, not having a sufficiently powerful force to accomplish
this difficult task, was defeated at Jutterbach (Juterbog) by the
turncoat Bernadotte, and compelled to quit the right bank of the
Elbe.

The Emperor came back to Dresden with his Guard. The various
units under the command of Macdonald took up positions not far
from that town, while Marshal Ney, having pushed back the Swedes
to the right bank, concentrated his troops on the left bank at
Dassau and Wittemberg. For almost a fortnight, between the end of
September and the beginning of October, the French army remained
almost motionless around Dresden. My regiment was in bivouac
close to Veissig on the heights of Pilnitz, which were occupied
by a division of infantry supported by the cavalry of Sebastiani
and Exelmans.

Although there was no official armistice, the weariness of both
sides led to a de facto suspension of hostilities, from which
both parties profited to prepare for new and more terrible
conflicts.

While we were in camp at Pilnitz, I received a letter from the
colonel of Prussian cavalry to whom I had lent a horse after he
had been captured and injured by the men of my regiment at the
start of the battle of the Katzbach. This senior officer, named
M. de Blankensee, who had been freed by his own troops when
things turned against us, was nonetheless grateful for what I had
done, and to prove it he sent me ten Chasseurs and a lieutenant
belonging to my regiment who had been left wounded on the
battlefield and taken prisoner. M. de Blankensee had seen that
their wounds were dressed, and after caring for them for a
fortnight he had obtained permission to have them led to the
French outposts, with a thousand thanks to me, for having, as he
assured me, saved his life. I believe he was right, but I was
still touched by this expression of thanks from one of the
leaders of our opponents.

During the time we were in this camp there took place a strange
event which was witnessed by all the regiments. A corporal of the
4th Chasseurs, while drunk, had shown disrespect to an officer,
and a Lancer of the 6th whose horse had bitten him and would not
let go had struck it in the belly with some scissors which led to
its death. Certainly the two men deserved to be punished, but
only by proper disciplinary procedures. General Exelmans
condemned them both to death on his own authority, and having
ordered that the division should mount their horses, he drew them
up in a huge square, one side of which was left open, where two
graves were dug, to the side of which the two convicted men were
led.

I had been away all night and returned to the camp in time to see
these lugubrious preparations. I had no doubt that the prisoners
had been tried and condemned, but I soon learned that this was
not the case, and drawing near to a group formed by General
Exelmans, the two brigadiers and all the regimental commanders, I
heard M. Devence, Colonel of the 4th Chasseurs, and Colonel
Perquit of the 6th Lancers beg General Exelmans to pardon the two
culprits. General Exelmans refused to do so.

I have never been able to see an act which I consider unjust
without expressing my indignation. It was perhaps wrong of me,
but I addressed Colonels Devence and Perquit saying that it was
an affront to their dignity that men of their regiments should be
paraded through the camp as criminals when they had not had a
proper trial, and I added, "The Emperor has given no one the
power of life or death, and has reserved for himself the right to
grant pardon."

General Exelmans was sufficiently influenced by the effect
produced by my outburst to announce that he would pardon the
Chasseur of the 4th, but that the Lancer would be shot; that is
to say he would pardon the soldier who had been disrespectful to
his officer, but condemn to execution the one who had killed a
horse.

In order to carry out this execution each regiment was asked to
provide two N.C.O.s., but as they did not carry muskets, they
would have to use those belonging to other soldiers. When this
order reached me, I did not reply to my regimental
sergeant-major, who took my meaning; so that no one from the 23rd
presented himself to take part in the execution. General Exelmans
noticed this but said nothing! Eventually a shot rang out, and
all those present muttered with indignation! Exelmans ordered
that, as was usual, the troops would be marched past the corpse.
The march began. My regiment was second in the column and I was
in some doubt whether I should make it march past the unlucky
victim of Exelmans' severity when a great burst of laughter was
heard from the 24th Chasseurs, who were in front of me and had
already arrived at the scene of the execution. I sent a warrant
officer to find out the cause of this unseemly mirth in the
presence of the dead, and I soon discovered that the dead man was
in remarkably good health!

The truth was that all that had happened was a theatrical
performance staged to scare any soldiers who were tempted to
indiscipline; a performance which included shooting a man with
blanks; and to keep the operation secret from the rank and file,
our chief had formed the firing squad of sous-officiers, to whom
he had issued the blank cartridges. However, to complete the
illusion it was necessary for the troops to view the body, and
Exelmans had told the Lancer who was to play the part to throw
himself on his face at the sound of the shots and pretend to be
dead, then to leave the army the next night, dressed as a peasant
and with a sum of money which he had been given for the purpose;
but the soldier who was a sharp-witted Gascon, had understood
perfectly well that General Exelmans was exceeding his authority,
and had no more right to have him shot without trial than he had
to dismiss him from the army without a proper discharge, and so
he remained standing when the shots were fired and refused to
leave the camp without a pass which would guarantee him from
arrest by the gendarmerie.

When I learned that it was this discussion between the General
and the dead man which had produced the shouts of laughter from
the 24th Chasseurs at the head of the column, I thought it better
that my regiment did not take part in this comedy which seemed to
me to be as much contrary to discipline as the misdemeanors it
was supposed to punish or prevent. I therefore turned my
squadrons about, and setting off at the trot I left this
unhelpful scene and, returning to the camp, I ordered them to
dismount. My example having been followed by all the brigadiers
and regimental commanders of the division, Exelmans was left
alone with the "dead man", who set off calmly down the road to
the bivouac where he tucked into a meal with his comrades, amid
much more laughter.

During our stay on the plateau of Pilnitz, the enemy, and above
all the Russians, received many reinforcements, the main one, led
by General Benningsen was of not less than 60,000 men, and was
composed of the corps of Doctoroff and Tolsto‹ and the reserve of
Prince Labanoff. This reserve came from beyond Moscow and
included in its ranks a large number of Tartars and Baskirs,
armed only with bows and arrows.

I have never understood with what aim the Russian government
brought from so far and at such great expense these masses of
irregular cavalry, who having neither sabres nor lances nor any
kind of firearm, were unable to stand up against trained
soldiers, and served only to strip the countryside and starve the
regular forces, which alone were capable of resisting a European
enemy. Our soldiers were not in the least alarmed at the sight of
these semi-barbarous Asiatics, whom they nicknamed cupids,
because of their bows and arrows.

Nevertheless, these newcomers, who did not yet know the French,
had been so indoctrinated by their leaders, almost as ignorant as
themselves, that they expected to see us take flight at their
approach; and so they could not wait to attack us. From the very
day of their arrival in sight of our troops they launched
themselves in swarms against them, but having been everywhere
repulsed by gunfire, the Baskirs left a great number of dead on
the ground.

These losses, far from calming their frenzy, seemed to excite
them still more, for without any order and in all directions,
they buzzed around us like a swarm of wasps, flying all over the
place and being very hard to catch, but when our cavalry did
catch them they effected a fearful massacre, our lances and
sabres being immensely superior to their bows and arrows. All the
same, as the attacks by these barbarians were incessant and the
Russians supported them with detachments of Hussars to profit
from the confusion which the Baskirs could create at various
points on the line, the Emperor ordered the generals to be doubly
watchful, and to make frequent visits to our advance posts.

Now both sides were preparing to renew hostilities which, as I
have already said, had not been suspended by any agreement, but
simply de facto. All was completely peaceful in my camp, and I
had as usual taken off my coat and was preparing to shave in the
open air before a little mirror nailed to a tree, when I was
given a slap on the shoulder. As I was in the middle of my
regiment, I turned round sharply to see who had used this
familiarity with his commanding officer... I found myself facing
the Emperor, who, wishing to examine some neighbouring positions
without arousing the enemy, had arrived with only one
aide-de-camp. As he was not accompanied by a detachment of his
Guard, he was followed by squadrons chosen in equal numbers from
all the regiments in the division, and having, on his orders,
taken command of this escort, I spent the entire day at his side,
and have nothing but praise for his kindliness.