Massena invaded Portugal in 1811, but here he was faced by General Wellington, leading a British army, and was forced to retreat. Soult, who followed him, was equally unsuccessful, and when Napoleon in 1812 depleted his army in Spain for the Russian campaign, Wellington marched his army into Spain and, aided by the Spanish patriots, took possession of Madrid, driving King Joseph from his throne.
THE INVASION OF RUSSIA
Meanwhile Napoleon had entered upon the greatest and most disastrous campaign in his history. Defied by Alexander I, Czar of Russia, he had declared war upon that empire and sought its conquest with the greatest army that ever marched under his banners. On the banks of the Niemen, a river that flows between Prussia and Poland, there gathered near the end of June 1812, an immense army of more than 600,000 men, attended by an enormous multitude of non-combatants, their purpose being the invasion of the empire of Russia. Of this great army, made up of troops from half the nations of Europe, there reappeared six months later on that broad stream about 16,000 armed men, almost all that were left of that stupendous host. The remainder had perished on the desert soil or in the frozen rivers of Russia, few of them surviving as prisoners in Russian hands. Such was the character of the dread catastrophe that broke the power of the mighty conqueror and delivered Europe from his autocratic grasp.
We cannot give the details of this fatal campaign, and shall only summarize its chief incidents. Barclay de Tolly, Alexander’s commander in chief, adopted a Fabian policy, that of persistently avoiding battle, and keeping the French in pursuit of a fleeting will-of-the-wisp while their army wasted away from hardship and disease in the inhospitable Russian clime.
His method was a wise one, desertion, illness, death of the untrained recruits in rapid march under the hot midsummer sun, did the work of many battles, and when Smolensk was reached after two months of bootless marching, the “Grand Army” was bound to have been reduced to half its numbers.
Moscow, the old capital of the Empire, was Napoleon’s goal. He felt sure that the occupation of that city would bring the Russians to bay and force them to accept terms of peace. He was sadly mistaken. The Russians, weary of retreating, faced him in one battle, that of Borodino. Here they fought stubbornly, but with the usual result. They could not stand against the impetuous dash of Napoleon’s veterans and were forced to retreat, leaving 40,000 dead and wounded upon the field. But the French army had lost more than 30,000, including an unusual number of generals, two being killed and thirty-nine wounded.
A FATAL RETREAT
On the 15th of September, Moscow, the “Holy City” of Russia was occupied, Napoleon taking up his quarters in the famous palace of the Kremlin, from which he hoped to dictate terms of peace to the obstinate Czar. What were his feelings on the next morning when word was brought him that Moscow was on fire, and flames were seen leaping into the air in all directions.
The fire had been premeditated. From every quarter rose the devouring flames. Even the Kremlin did not escape and Napoleon was obliged to seek shelter outside the city, which continued to burn for three days, when the wind sank and rain poured upon the smoldering embers.
The dismayed conqueror waited in vain. He wrote letters to the Czar, suggesting peace. His letters were left unanswered. He hung on despairingly until the 18th of October, when he reluctantly gave the order to retreat. Too long he had waited, for the terrible Russian winter was about to descend.