A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon / For the Use of Schools and Colleges

by John Lord

But neither danger nor difficulty deterred Napoleon from the commission of a gigantic crime, for which no reasonable apology could be given, and which admits of no palliation. He made, however, a fearful mistake, and his rapid downfall was the result. Providence permitted him to humble the powers of Europe, but did not design that he should be permanently aggrandized by their misfortunes.

The forces of all the countries he had subdued were marshalled with the French in this dreadful expedition, and nothing but enthusiasm was excited in all the dominions of the empire. The army of invasion amounted to above five hundred thousand men, only two hundred thousand of whom were native French. To oppose this enormous force, the Russians collected about three hundred thousand men; but Napoleon felt secure of victory.

On the banks of the Niemen he reviewed the principal corps of his army, collected from so many countries, and for the support of which they were obliged to contribute. On the 24th of June, he and his hosts crossed the river; and never, probably, in the history of man, was exhibited a more splendid and imposing scene.

The Russians retreated as the allied armies advanced; and, on the 28th of June, Napoleon was at Wilna, where he foolishly remained seventeen days—the greatest military blunder of his life. The Emperor Alexander hastened to Moscow, collected his armaments, and issued proclamations to his subjects, which excited them to the highest degree of enthusiasm to defend their altars and their firesides.

Both armies approached Battle of Smolensko. Smolensko about the 16th of July, and there was fought the first great battle of the campaign. The town was taken, and the Russians retreated towards Moscow. But before this first conflict began, a considerable part of the army had perished from sickness and fatigue. At Borodino, another bloody battle was fought, in which more men were killed and wounded than in any battle which history records. Napoleon, in this battle, did not exhibit his usual sagacity or energy, being, perhaps, overwhelmed with anxiety and fatigue. His dispirited and broken army continued the march to Moscow, which was reached the 14th of September. The Sacred City of the Russians was abandoned by the army, and three hundred thousand of the inhabitants took to flight. Napoleon had scarcely entered the deserted capital, and taken quarters in the ancient palace of the czars, before the city was discovered to be on fire in several places; and even the Kremlin itself was soon enveloped in flames. Who could have believed that the Russians would have burnt their capital? Such an event surely never entered into a Frenchman's head. The consternation and horrors of that awful conflagration can never be described, or even conceived. Pillage and murder could scarcely add to the universal wretchedness. Execration, indignation, and vengeance filled the breasts of both the conquerors and the conquered. But who were the conquerors? Alas! those only, who witnessed the complicated miseries and awful destruction of the retreating army, have answered.

The Retreat of the French. retreat was the saddest tragedy ever acted by man, but rendered inevitable after the burning of Moscow, for Napoleon could not have advanced to St. Petersburg. For some time, he lingered in the vicinity of Moscow, hoping for the submission of Russia. Alexander was too wise to treat for peace, and Napoleon and his diminished army, loaded, however, with the spoil of Moscow, commenced his retreat, in a hostile and desolate country, harassed by the increasing troops of the enemy. Soon, however, heavy frosts commenced, unusual even in Russia, and the roads were strewed by thousands who perished from fatigue and cold. The retreat became a rout; for order, amid general destruction and despair, could no longer be preserved. The Cossacks, too, hung upon the rear of the retreating army, and cut off thousands whom the elements had spared. In less than a week, thirty thousand horses died, and the famished troops preyed upon their remains. The efforts of Napoleon proved in vain to procure provisions for the men, or forage for the horses. Disasters thickened, and all abandoned themselves to despair. Of all the awful scenes which appalled the heart, the passage of the Beresina was the most dreadful. When the ice was dissolved in the following spring, twelve thousand dead bodies were found upon the shore. The shattered remnants of the Grand Army, after unparalleled suffering, at length reached the bank of the Niemen. Not more than twenty thousand of the vast host with which Napoleon passed Smolensko left the Russian territory. Their course might be traced by the bones which afterwards whitened the soil. But before the Polish territories were reached, Napoleon had deserted his army, and bore to Paris himself the first intelligence of his great disaster. One hundred and twenty-five thousand of his troops had died in battle, one hundred and ninety thousand had been taken prisoners, and one hundred and thirty-two thousand had died of cold, fatigue and famine. Only eighty thousand had escaped, of whom twenty-five thousand were Austrians and eighteen thousand were Prussians. The annals of the world furnish no example of so complete an overthrow of so vast an armament, or so terrible a retribution to a vain-glorious nation.

This calamity proved the chief cause of Napoleon's overthrow. Had he retained his forces to fight on the defensive, he would have been too strong for his enemies; but, by his Russian campaign, he lost a great part of his veteran troops, and the veneration of his countrymen.

His failure was immediately followed by the resurrection of Germany. Both Austria and Prussia threw off the ignominious yoke he had imposed, and united with Russia to secure their ancient liberties. The enthusiasm of the Prussians was unbounded, and immense preparations were made by all the allied powers for a new campaign. Napoleon exerted all the energies, which had ever distinguished him, to rally his exhausted countrymen, and a large numerical force was again raised. But the troops were chiefly conscripts, young men, unable to endure the fatigue which his former soldiers sustained, and no longer inspired with their sentiments and ideas.

The campaign of 1813 was opened in Germany, signalized by the battles of Battles of Lutzen and Bautzen. Lutzen and Bautzen, in which the French had the advantage. Saxony still remained true to Napoleon, and he established his head-quarters in Dresden. The allies retreated, but only to prepare for more vigorous operations. England nobly assisted, and immense supplies were sent to the mouth of the Elbe, and distributed immediately through Germany. While these preparations were going on, the battle of Vittoria, in Spain, was fought, which gave a death blow to French power in the Peninsula, and placed Wellington in the front rank of generals. Napoleon was now more than ever compelled to act on the defensive, which does not suit the genius of the French character, and he resolved to make the Elbe the base of his defensive operations. His armies, along this line, amounted to the prodigious number of four hundred thousand men; and Dresden, the head-quarters of Napoleon, presented a scene of unparalleled gayety and splendor, of licentiousness, extravagance, and folly. But Napoleon was opposed by equally powerful forces, under Marshal Blucher, the Prussian general, a veteran seventy years of age, and Prince Schwartzenberg, who commanded the Austrians. But these immense armies composed not one half of the forces arrayed in desperate antagonism. Nine hundred thousand men in arms encircled the French empire, which was defended by seven hundred thousand.

The allied forces marched upon Dresden, and a dreadful battle was fought, on the 27th of August, beneath its walls, which resulted in the retreat of the allies, and in the death of General Moreau, who fought against his old commander. But Napoleon was unable to remain long in that elegant capital, having exhausted his provisions and forage, and was obliged to retreat. On the 15th of October was fought the celebrated battle of Battle of Leipsic. Leipsic, in which a greater number of men were engaged than in any previous battle during the war, or probably in the history of Europe—two hundred and thirty thousand against one hundred and sixty thousand. The triumph of the allies was complete. Napoleon was overpowered by the overwhelming coalition of his enemies. He had nothing to do, after his great discomfiture, but to retreat to France, and place the kingdom in the best defence in his power. Misfortunes thickened in every quarter; and, at the close of the campaign, France retained but a few fortresses beyond the Rhine. The contest in Germany was over, and French domination in that country was at an end. Out of four hundred thousand men, only eighty thousand recrossed the Rhine. So great were the consequences of the battle of Leipsic, in which the genius of Napoleon was exhibited as in former times, but which availed nothing against vastly superior forces. A grand alliance of all the powers of Europe was now arrayed against Napoleon—from the rock of Gibraltar to the shores of Archangel; from the banks of the Scheldt to the margin of the Bosphorus; the mightiest confederation ever known, but indispensably necessary. The greatness of Napoleon is seen in his indomitable will in resisting this confederation, when his allies had deserted him, and when his own subjects were no longer inclined to rally around his standard. He still held out, even when over a million of men, from the different states that he had humbled, were rapidly hemming him round and advancing to his capital. Only three hundred and fifty thousand men nominally remained to defend his frontiers, while his real effective army amounted to little over one hundred thousand men. A million of his soldiers in eighteen months had perished, and where was he to look for recruits?