Victor on reaching Ochmiana found, instead of Loison’s strong division, 3000 or 4000 half-frozen recruits who would waste away entirely in a couple of days. He continued his retreat in all haste, followed and harassed by Chaplitz and Platov, who picked up prisoners by thousands and cannon by scores. On the 9th, a little way short of Vilna, Wrede arrived. His force had dwindled from cold, dispersion, and losses in skirmishing to a remnant of less than 3000 men, but he still possessed several guns. Murat and the head-quarters had reached Vilna on the 8th; but as early as the 6th bands of ragged and destitute fugitives had begun to enter the city to the consternation of the inhabitants. Even in Murat’s column there was panic and disorder, which was only checked for a while by the Chasseurs of the Old Guard, who held together in the mob and prevented a mad rush. But when they had entered the crush became terrible, and order impossible. The gates were choked and, amongst others, Davout and his staff could only enter by a gap in a wall. The fugitives poured through the streets seeking for food and shelter—often vainly, for the horrified inhabitants barricaded themselves in their houses—and when they could not obtain it, dropped down to die. The Jewish tradesmen sold food to the helpless wretches literally for its weight in gold; but when the city was evacuated, unless all accounts lie, they murdered and robbed them wholesale.
To stay in Vilna, even for a few days, was impossible. Seslavin and his Cossacks actually entered the city on the 9th, but were, of course, obliged to retreat almost immediately. But the action showed the absolute recklessness of the Russians, and the French army was destitute of power to resist. So many of the men dispersed in the city that on the 10th only 6000 or 7000 at most were under arms. A large part of the fugitives never left Vilna again. Many were worn out by sickness and fatigue, and having once lain down to rest had not power to rise. Many died through drinking spirits, in the hope of resisting the cold. Many more were frost-bitten, and sudden warmth added to neglect produced gangrene. Nearly 20,000 helpless creatures were left, mostly to perish, in the city when the remainder pursued their way to the Niemen. No news as to the actual state of affairs had been allowed to reach Vilna, and the consequence was that no preparations had been made for the reception of the army. Murat simply lost his head; at the first sound of the cannon at the advance posts he left the palace in which he had established himself and hurried to the Kovno gate to be ready to escape. Berthier issued hasty orders to destroy the arms and ammunition in the arsenal. Eblé, whose noble life was almost spent, and who had set the crown upon his reputation by his unfailing heroism and self-sacrifice during the last stages of the retreat, was charged with this melancholy duty, Lariboissière being even nearer his end. Directions were given to issue food and clothes to everybody abundantly and without attention to forms. Orders were sent to Schwarzenberg to withdraw to Bielostok, while Macdonald was instructed to retreat to Tilsit. The hopeless task of holding back the Russians was thrown upon the shoulders of Ney.
Wrede with his frozen and disorganised remnant was driven in upon Vilna by Platov on the 9th. The Cossacks were already all round the town skirmishing with the defenders. Apart from the destruction wrought by the cold the latter suffered considerable loss. The Lithuanian Tartar Squadrons, destined to form part of the Guard, were completely annihilated. In the night Murat evacuated Vilna, and next day Ney abandoned it, the Cossacks following him through the streets.
A few miles from Vilna the road to Kovno leads over a steep hill. The remains of the army trains and those from Vilna, which were following the army, found themselves blocked at the foot of the icebound slope, up which the horses were utterly unable to drag them. The last remaining guns and most of the waggons had to be abandoned. The army pay-chests, containing 10,000,000 francs, were abandoned and partly pillaged by the soldiers. Only Napoleon’s private treasure and carriages, and a very small proportion of the trains, were by desperate exertions preserved, 20 horses being necessary to drag a single vehicle up the hill. In the midst of the disorder and pillage the Cossacks arrived. Platov opened on the crowd with his light guns, but his wild horsemen for the most part fell upon the spoil and apparently disdained to take prisoners. The disaster was due to sheer lack of management, since the Novi Troki road, which was level and little longer, turned the hill to the south, and might easily have been used for the retreat.
NAPOLEON’S TRAVELLING KITCHEN
It was taken to Moscow and afterwards captured on the field of Waterloo
Photographed for this work at the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich
It was as hopeless to attempt to hold firm at Kovno as at Vilna. There were 42 guns in the town, partly those of Loison’s division, which had been left there, great magazines of food and clothing, and about 2,500,000 francs in cash. There was a feeble tête du pont, but the Niemen was frozen and could be crossed anywhere on the ice. On the 12th the main body poured into the town— about 20,000 men, mostly in the last stage of misery and despair and nearly all disarmed. The Guard mustered 1600 bayonets and sabres. Ney, who had been fighting with Platov all the way from Vilna, reached the town in the evening; with the garrison troops added to the relics of the rear-guard he had not 2000 men. Efforts were made to distribute the stores and re-arm the disbanded troops, but the men threw away the muskets. The magazines were pillaged, the miserable wretches naturally fastening upon the spirit stores. Men drunken and dying lay in heaps in the snow-covered streets. Most of the benumbed fugitives lacked even the sense to avail themselves of the ice on the river; they crowded mechanically over the bridge, fighting for precedence, stifling and trampling each other down, as at the Berezina and Vilna. Murat placed some guns in battery on the left bank of the Niemen, and left for Königsberg on the 13th, while Ney and the rear-guard occupied the town, which they held until dark. Platov sent across a detachment on the ice, which captured the guns on the left bank and barred Ney’s retreat. His men were largely huddling in the houses; he had only a few hundred armed soldiers. He turned down the left bank of the river and then diverged to the left across the Pelwiski forest, eventually making his way by Gumbinnen to Königsberg. He abandoned in the forest Loison’s 16 guns, almost the last artillery that the army retained.
The Russians did not immediately cross the political frontier, and bitterly as the Prussian peasantry hated the French they did not actively ill-treat them. Many isolated fugitives were disarmed, but their misery was such as to melt even hearts steeled by hatred and the memory of recent oppression. De Fezensac says that the happiness of being fed and lodged prevented them from noticing the hostility of the people. The bulk of the mob of fugitives reached Königsberg by the 20th, and thence cantonments were spread along the Vistula. On that day the infantry of the Guard counted about 2500 officers and men, of whom 1000 were sick. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Corps mustered between them on January 10th, 1813, some 13,000 men sound and sick, of whom 2500 were officers. As to the condition of the army, nearly all the troops were disarmed and had to be furnished with new muskets from the vast magazines at Danzig. On December 23rd Eblé, now in chief command of the artillery, reported that of all the vast train which had entered Russia with the Central Army there remained but 9 guns and howitzers, and 5 caissons!
Two days before Lariboissière had died, and on December 30th Eblé also passed away. Colonel Pion des Loches, a man who rarely has a good word to say for his superiors, expresses himself thus concerning them: “Both were victims of their zeal and devotion. Our army lost in them its pillars and supports ... and what are all our other generals worth beside them?” As his comrades in arms laid Eblé to rest in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Königsberg, Napoleon was signing the decree which created him First Inspector-General of Artillery. Eblé’s grave has vanished, for the cemetery has been destroyed, but his glory far outshines that of thousands of better known men.