The effect was astonishing, when we consider how little real liberty the people had enjoyed. But they had been educated in patriotic sentiments by another power than the Government. For years, the works of the great German authors had become familiar to them: Klopstock taught them to be proud of their race and name; Schiller taught them resistance to oppression; Arndt and Körner gave them songs which stirred them more than the sound of drum and trumpet, and thousands of high-hearted young men mingled with them and inspired them with new courage and new hopes. Within five months Prussia had 270,000 soldiers under arms, part of whom were organized to repel the coming armies of Napoleon, while the remainder undertook the siege of the many Prussian fortresses which were still garrisoned by the French. All classes of the people took part in this uprising: the professors followed the students, the educated men stood side by side with the peasants, mothers gave their only sons, and the women sent all their gold and jewels to the treasury and wore ornaments of iron. The young poet, Theodor Körner, not only aroused the people with his fiery songs, but fought in the "free corps" of Lützow, and finally gave his life for his country: the Turner, or gymnasts, inspired by their teacher Jahn, went as a body into the ranks, and even many women disguised themselves and enlisted as soldiers.
With the exception of Mecklenburg and Dessau, the States of the Rhine-Bund still held to France: Saxony and Bavaria especially distinguished themselves by their abject fidelity to Napoleon. Austria remained neutral, and whatever influence she exercised was against Prussia. But Sweden, under the Crown Prince Bernadotte (Napoleon's former Marshal) joined the movement, with the condition of obtaining Norway in case of success. The operations were delayed by the slowness of the Russians, and the disagreement, or perhaps jealousy, of the various generals; and Napoleon made good use of the time to prepare himself for the coming struggle. Although France was already exhausted, he enforced a merciless conscription, taking young boys and old men, until, with the German soldiers still at his disposal, he had a force of nearly 500,000 men.
The campaign opened well for Prussia. Hamburg and Lübeck were delivered from the French, and on the 5th of April the Viceroy Eugene was defeated at Möckern (near Leipzig) with heavy losses. The first great battle was fought at Lützen, on the 2d of May, on the same field where Gustavus Adolphus fell in 1632. The Russians and Prussians, with 95,000 men, held Napoleon, with 120,000, at bay for a whole day, and then fell back in good order, after a defeat which encouraged instead of dispiriting the people. The greatest loss was the death of Scharnhorst. Shortly afterwards Napoleon occupied Dresden, and it became evident that Saxony would be the principal theatre of war. A second battle of two days took place on the 20th and 21st of May, in which, although the French outnumbered the Germans and Russians two to one, they barely achieved a victory. The courage and patriotism of the people were now beginning to tell, especially as Napoleon's troops were mostly young, physically weak, and inexperienced. In order to give them rest he offered an armistice on the 4th of June, an act which he afterwards declared to have been the greatest mistake of his life. It was prolonged until the 10th of August, and gave the Germans time both to rest and recruit, and to strengthen themselves by an alliance with Austria.
1813. ALLIANCE OF AUSTRIA.
Francis II. judged that the time had come to recover what he had lost, especially as England formally joined Prussia and Russia on the 14th of June. A fortnight afterwards an agreement was entered into between the two latter powers and Austria, that peace should be offered to Napoleon provided he would give up Northern Germany, the Dalmatian provinces and the Grand-Duchy of Warsaw. He rejected the offer, and so insulted Metternich during an interview in Dresden, that the latter became his bitter enemy thenceforth. The end of all the negotiations was that Austria declared war on the 12th of August, and both sides prepared at once for a final and desperate struggle. The Allies now had 800,000 men, divided into three armies, one under Schwarzenberg confronting the French centre in Saxony, one under Blücher in Silesia, and a third in the North under Bernadotte. The last of these generals seemed reluctant to act against his former leader, and his participation was of little real service. Napoleon had 550,000 men, less scattered than the Germans, and all under the government of his single will. He was still, therefore, a formidable foe.
1813.
Just sixteen days after the armistice came to an end, the old Blücher won a victory as splendid as many of Napoleon's. He met Marshal Macdonald on the banks of a stream called the Katzbach, in Silesia, and defeated him with the loss of 12,000 killed and wounded, 18,000 prisoners and 103 cannon. From the circumstance of his having cried out to his men: "Forwards! forwards!" in the crisis of the battle, Blücher was thenceforth called "Marshal Forwards" by the soldiers. Five days before this the Prussian general Bülow was victorious over Oudinot at Grossbeeren, within ten miles of Berlin; and four days afterwards the French general Vandamme, with 40,000 men, was cut to pieces by the Austrians and Prussians, at Kulm on the southern frontier of Saxony. Thus, within a month, Napoleon lost one-fourth of his whole force, while the fresh hope and enthusiasm of the German people immediately supplied the losses on their side. It is true that Schwarzenberg had been severely repulsed in an attack on Dresden, on the 27th of August, but this had been so speedily followed by Vandamme's defeat, that it produced no discouragement.
The month of September opened with another Prussian victory. On the 6th, Bülow defeated Ney at Dennewitz, taking 15,000 prisoners and 80 cannon. This change of fortune seems to have bewildered Napoleon: instead of his former promptness and rapidity, he spent a month in Dresden, alternately trying to entice Blücher or Schwarzenberg to give battle. The latter two, meanwhile, were gradually drawing nearer to each other and to Bernadotte, and their final junction was effected without any serious movement to prevent it on Napoleon's part. Blücher's passage of the Elbe on the 3d of October compelled him to leave Dresden with his army and take up a new position in Leipzig, where he arrived on the 13th. The Allies instantly closed in upon him: there was a fierce but indecisive cavalry fight on the 14th, the 15th was spent in preparations on both sides, and on the 16th the great battle began.
Napoleon had about 190,000 men, the Allies 300,000: both were posted along lines many miles in extent, stretching over the open plain, from the north and east around to the south of Leipzig. The first day's fight really comprised three distinct battles, two of which were won by the French and one by Blücher. During the afternoon a terrific charge of cavalry under Murat broke the centre of the Allies, and Frederick William and Alexander I. narrowly escaped capture: Schwarzenberg, at the head of a body of Cossacks and Austrian hussars, repulsed the charge, and night came without any positive result. Napoleon sent offers of peace, but they were not answered, and the Allies thereby gained a day for reinforcements. On the morning of the 18th the battle was resumed: all day long the earth trembled under the discharge of more than a thousand cannon, the flames of nine or ten burning villages heated the air, and from dawn until sunset the immense hosts carried on a number of separate and desperate battles at different points along the line. Napoleon had his station on a mound near a windmill: his centre held its position, in spite of terrible losses, but both his wings were driven back. Bernadotte did not appear on the field until four in the afternoon, but about 4,000 Saxons and other Germans went over from the French to the Allies during the day, and the demoralizing effect of this desertion probably influenced Napoleon quite as much as his material losses. He gave orders for an instant retreat, which was commenced on the night of the 18th. His army was reduced to 100,000 men: the Allies had lost, in killed and wounded, about 50,000.
1813. THE BATTLE OF LEIPZIG.