The general results of the halt were very beneficial. The establishments of the regiments began to rise. It is true that the muster rolls for August 4th only show about 197,000 men present out of a nominal 270,000, but stragglers were rallying each day; and men and horses were at least reposing from fatigue. The supply department was not entirely satisfactory. Davout’s troops were able to draw breadstuffs from the country along the Dnieper, and had, as has been seen, captured several Russian depôts. The corps north of the Dnieper, however, depended for bread mainly on what could be brought up by the over-worked transport from Vilna and Minsk. Here, however, there was an improvement, since the halt allowed the trains to close up. If bread were not regularly served out the men at any rate obtained something, and the corps commanders were able to begin to accumulate a small reserve.
Besides the increase caused by stragglers and convalescents rejoining, reinforcements were arriving. The rear detachments of the Imperial Guard were beginning to come up, also the Hesse-Darmstadt Guards, under Prince Emil, of which one battalion joined at Vitebsk, while the other was marching from Vilna. Three newly formed battalions for the Vistula Legion were also on the way, and various régiments de marche (i.e. drafts, convalescents, etc.). A Portuguese cavalry regiment had joined Davout, and the Grand Quarter-General, 4690 strong, reached Vitebsk on the 7th. When hostilities recommenced the Grand Army was considerably the better for its rest. Davout’s troops especially were in excellent order, and carried on the person bread, biscuit and flour for fifteen days. The Westphalians also were well supplied. North of the Dnieper matters were less satisfactory. Friant on rejoining Davout stated that he had always had to forage for breadstuffs, though he had plenty of meat.
The administration of the hospitals was still very bad, even at Vitebsk; and elsewhere no doubt it was much worse. Matters were not improved by the fact that Surgeon-General Larrey and General Mathieu Dumas, the chief of the military administration, were on bad terms with each other.
Some changes were at this time made in the commands. Napoleon’s old, but not very capable or energetic, friend, Junot, was appointed to the command of the 8th Corps. Marchand was given the Württemberg division of Ney’s corps. It had been commanded at the outset by the Crown Prince Wilhelm, but, partly owing to disgust at the disorder, and the fashion in which he and his men were slandered to save the faces of the French, partly owing to illness, he had returned to Vilna, leaving the command to Lieutenant-General Scheler. Marchand declined to take the direct control out of the hands of the latter, and the two worked well together. Otherwise, being an old comrade and subordinate, Marchand was probably welcome to Ney.
The Marquis d’Alorna, one of the few Portuguese officers who had preferred to serve Napoleon willingly, was appointed Military Governor of Mohilev. General Charpentier was placed in charge of Vitebsk, and Gomès Freyre, another Portuguese, of Glubokoïe. The two brigades of Bavarian light cavalry belonging to the 6th Corps were combined into a division, under General Graf von Preising, and transferred to the 4th Corps, which now had 36 squadrons.
Napoleon, of course, did not intend the halt to be more than temporary. At the outset of the campaign he had told Metternich that he did not intend to go farther than Smolensk in 1812, but, having established himself there, purposed to organise Lithuania and consolidate his rule in the former Polish provinces before attempting to conquer Russia Proper. This statement he repeated to others—notably to Jomini—and it can hardly be considered as a mere blind. Up to the present he had failed to strike a heavy blow at the opposing Russian army The extent of country which he occupied was by no means an advantage, since it was too poor to support his huge forces, and merely lengthened his already long line of communications. But now, at last, a battle might reasonably be expected. Barclay and Bagration had united their forces, and it was scarcely within the bounds of probability that Smolensk, a home of the ancient Rurikovich line, long contended for with hated Poland, one of the sacred cities of Russia, would be abandoned without fighting. The halt had for its primary object the putting of the army into good condition preparatory to a fresh and energetic advance.
As early as August 6th Napoleon told Eugène that an early renewal of hostilities was to be anticipated, and that he should probably advance on Smolensk by the left bank of the Dnieper. On the same day he was asking Davout for information as to which bank of the river was in his opinion the better for the advance. Davout’s reply was that upon the whole he thought the left bank the more suitable, and apparently this decided the Emperor. The merits and demerits of the plan will be discussed later. Here it is only necessary to observe that it was preconceived, and not due to the influence of Russian operations.
The two Russian armies were concentrated at Smolensk by August 4th. The city had practically no fortifications of value. Its massive brick walls were capable of resisting the attack of field guns, but there were several ill-closed breaches; and the only guns in the place were antique pieces without carriages, kept mainly as relics. Smolensk was garrisoned by a column of 17 depôt battalions, 8 squadrons and 4 batteries of artillery—about 6000 or 7000 men—which had been brought from Kaluga by General Winzingerode. The infantry was drafted into the two armies, ten battalions going to the 1st, seven to the 2nd, which had dwindled during its forced marches, and needed more strengthening in proportion. The artillery was also divided, but the squadrons were sent back to Kaluga to serve as a nucleus for fresh formations. Winzingerode was sent with the Kazan Dragoons from Uvarov’s division and 3 regiments of Cossacks to observe the French left wing towards Surazh and Poriechie. There then remained a held army of 121,000 men, of whom over 18,000 were regular cavalry, with some 650 pieces of artillery.
Unhappily there was no unity of command. Barclay, as minister of war, was the hierarchical chief, but both Bagration and himself were Generals of Infantry, and the former was the senior in rank. Though a Georgian by birth he posed as an ultra Russian and received accordingly the willing, not to say eager and unscrupulous, support of the many officers who chose to regard Barclay as a half-hearted and even treacherous foreigner. His fighting record was a good one, and he might, with some justice, consider that he had the better title to the command-in-chief. Barclay also, with all his fine qualities, appears to have been deficient in tact. He does not appear to have fully realised the difficulties with which Bagration had had to contend, nor the very creditable attempts which he had made to effect a junction. After crossing the Dnieper Bagration appears to have considered that his best service would be performed in operating upon Napoleon’s flank. Von Wollzogen, sent to urge him to hasten the union of the two armies, found him, according to his own account, by no means willing to do so, and informed Barclay. The latter thereupon wrote pressing him to hasten, in phrases which, though hardly beyond what the urgency of the case required, were perhaps unjust in their implications, and were certainly fiercely resented by Bagration. He reached Smolensk in a frame of mind which would find cause of offence in every trifle. Barclay, however, displayed unusual tact, for which his aide-de-camp Löwenstern gives himself the credit. When Bagration came to report himself the War-Minister met him in his antechamber in full uniform, and expressed his regret that he had been anticipated in calling upon him. The two chiefs then had a conversation, as the result of which Barclay apologised by letter for any injustice which he might have done his colleague. For the moment good relations were established, and Barclay wrote to the Tzar expressing his admiration of Bagration’s character. But it is to be feared that Bagration’s friendly feelings were of no very long continuance, and a sense of injury still rankled in his mind. What was worse, many of the general officers were almost openly intriguing for the definite appointment of Bagration to the supreme command. Yermólov actually wrote to the Tzar urging him to make it. The chief of the malcontents was the Grand Duke Constantine, who, as the Tzar’s brother and heir apparent, was the most important commander in the army. Constantine was a violent and irrational person, bearing, both in disposition and in the exceeding ugliness of his features, a strong resemblance to his ill-fated father. Barclay’s position rapidly became almost an intolerable one.
For the moment all went well. A council was called for the 6th of August, and to it came the two commanders-in-chief, the Grand Duke Constantine, whom Barclay dared not omit, Yermólov, Toll and St. Priest, Bagration’s French chief-of-staff. The decision as to an offensive had been taken before the meeting, and only the details were to be settled. There was naturally considerable divergence of opinion. The extension of the French cantonments appeared to afford an excellent opportunity. It was determined to throw strong forces against Napoleon’s extreme left, under Eugène, which might perhaps be completely destroyed. Bagration, however, wished to drive the attack home with the full force of both armies, and to this Barclay would not agree. He was very naturally uneasy as to what the mighty conqueror opposed to him might do to turn the tables. Smolensk, weak as it was, was the pivot of the Russian operations, and its loss would shatter the entire strategic plan. Barclay therefore proposed that Bagration should hold it while the First Army pushed forward against Vitebsk. To this Bagration demurred, and eventually it was decided to leave only a detachment to cover the city and to march upon Vitebsk with the combined armies, the Second holding rather back on the left to guard against a turning movement.