Marshal Kutuzov reached Vilna on December 12th to control the hitherto independent movements of Chichagov and Wittgenstein. His own troops were following under Tormazov, but they were so shattered by the long march from Moscow that their offensive power was for the time at an end, and they were cantoned about Vilna. Chichagov was to follow to the Niemen to support Platov and the advance-guards which hung on the heels of the retreating French. Wittgenstein was ordered to intercept Macdonald on his expected retreat to the Niemen, while Paulucci was to press him in rear. Sacken’s army, supported by the Mozyr force, now under Tuchkov II, and a detachment from Bobruisk, was to deal with Schwarzenberg. The Emperor Alexander reached Vilna on December 22nd, and at once devoted himself to the task of endeavouring to save the lives of his captured enemies. The hospitals were choked with the Russian sick, and the French prisoners, almost all ill and helpless, were perishing wholesale. Biscuit and bread they received, but there was no other help for them. Gangrened wounds, frost-bite, and typhus produced by filth, hunger, and putrefaction, swept them away. In three weeks 15,000 are said to have died. Alexander and Constantine made magnificent efforts to cope with the awful mass of human misery. Reckless of personal danger, they personally superintended the relief operations; the Grand Duke nearly died of the fever which he caught in the midst of his labour of humanity. St. Priest was transferred from the work of collecting the Russian stragglers to that of superintending the hospitals of the prisoners, for which his French origin especially fitted him.
Macdonald, before Riga, received his orders to retreat on December 18th, and started next day in two main columns, he himself leading the way with Grandjean’s division, a Prussian infantry brigade, and Massenbach’s cavalry; while Yorck followed a day’s march behind the rest of the Prussians. Wittgenstein himself could hardly intercept him; but the flying detachments of Kutuzov II and Diebich, thrown far forward, might hope to impede Macdonald’s march. The Marshal on reaching Koltiniani divided his own column, taking advantage of two roads thence to Tilsit, and intending to reunite his whole corps at Tauroggen. Kutuzov II was too weak to intercept him; but Diebich, with his 1500 cavalry and a few sledge-guns, got between Macdonald and Yorck on the 25th, and boldly proposed to the latter a conference in order to prevent useless bloodshed. After some hesitation Yorck at last made up his mind, and on the 30th concluded the famous convention of Tauroggen, by which the Prussians were declared neutral. The results were incalculably important, but belong rather to the history of the German War of Liberation. The immediate consequence was that the wreck of the Grande Armée was weakened by 16,000 or 17,000 excellent soldiers and 60 guns.
Macdonald, meanwhile, was pursuing his retreat, and on the 27th repulsed Vlastov’s divisions, which had come up to support Kutuzov II, capturing some prisoners and a gun. But at Tilsit, on the 31st, he was deserted by Massenbach and was forced to fall back on Königsberg. He marched rapidly and steadily, and reached the Prussian capital in safety. On January 3rd, 1813, his rear-guard, under Bachelu, was driven through Labiau, after a hard fight, by Wittgenstein’s advance-guard under Chepelev. At Königsberg Macdonald was joined by Heudelet’s division, but Yorck’s defection ended all hope of being able to make a stand on the Pregel, and the retreat was continued to Danzig. When the blockade of Riga was raised, Paulucci sent Lewis with 8000 men to pursue Macdonald, and himself with 3000 made a dash for Memel, which he reached on December 15th, after an amazing march of 200 miles in 8 days. The place immediately surrendered.
While Schwarzenberg had been contending with Sacken, General Kosinski with his Poles had once more invaded Volhynia, but was repulsed after a little skirmishing by Musin-Pushkin.
Schwarzenberg, turning from his pursuit of Sacken, reached Slonim again on December 7th; but on learning of the catastrophe of the Grande Armée he retreated on the 14th to Bielostok, arriving there on the 18th. Reynier drew back behind the Bug. On the advance of Sacken and Tuchkov, to assist whom Kutuzov also directed a column under Miloradovich, Schwarzenberg steadily withdrew, there being nothing but the most insignificant fighting. The Austrians eventually fell back into their own territory, while Reynier retreated towards Saxony. The Polish troops remained in the Vistula fortresses, and were mostly captured in the following year. The little field army which Poniatowski was able to collect was allowed to join Napoleon in Saxony, since its blockade employed too many troops.
Thus in the last days of December the Russian territory had been freed from the vast host which had threatened to overwhelm it. The immediate result of the campaign was the all but complete destruction of an army nearly 700,000 men strong and its immense material. In all it would appear that, exclusive of Polish stationary troops and local levies other than those already mentioned, some 674,000 combatants crossed the Vistula against Russia, of whom about 640,000 actually took part in military operations. Of these 640,000 there remained as organised troops at the end of the campaign only the forces of Schwarzenberg and Macdonald, perhaps 68,000 combatants in all. All the other corps and divisions were represented by about 25,000 disorganised and generally disarmed men—largely officers—without cavalry and with scarcely any artillery. The number of guns which actually entered Russia is somewhat doubtful, but appears to have been over 1300, exclusive of the Riga siege train. Of these some 250 can be accounted for as having returned. The Russians claimed 929 as captured; the rest were no doubt abandoned and never recovered. More than 200,000 trained horses were lost; and it was the want of them which, even more than the deficiency of trained men, ruined Napoleon’s chances in 1813. The total chasm in the Napoleonic ranks was over 550,000 fighting men. As prisoners the Russians claimed 48 generals, 3000 officers, and 190,000 men, but it is to be feared that half of them were captured only to die. Even without making allowance for this, more than 350,000 soldiers must have perished, besides the tens of thousands of camp-followers, refugees, and other non-combatants.
The Russian losses are extremely difficult to compute. It is impossible to work upon the number of men successfully put into the field, and those remaining active at the close of the campaign, since the deficiency does not, as in the case of the Napoleonic army, represent absolute loss. There are reasons for believing that the actual loss of fighting men was nearly 150,000. The number of non-combatants—largely peaceful inhabitants of the country—who perished must have been enormous.
The ultimate results of the Russian victory were the general uprising of northern Germany against Napoleon, the adhesion of Austria—after considerable hesitation—to the anti-Napoleonic coalition, and the complete overthrow within little more than a year of the empire of force which he had built in Europe. Britain had long since destroyed Napoleon’s efforts at gaining power on the sea, and had struck heavy blows at his prestige on land. As the Russian army lay at Tarutino it was gladdened by the news of Wellington’s victories. And the prestige of Napoleon, shaken in Spain, was now shattered in Russia, and his material military power so broken that he was never really able again to face his antagonists on equal terms. It is perhaps true to say that the enthusiastic uprising of Germany was the chief factor in Napoleon’s downfall in 1813, but it was Russia who gave the impulse and cleared the way; and her military aid was of vital importance.