Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4

by Wolfgang Menzel

Napoleon's generals had been thrown back in every quarter, with immense loss, upon Dresden, toward which the allies now advanced, threatening to enclose it on every side. Napoleon manoeuvred until the beginning of October with the view of executing a coup de main against Schwarzenberg and Blucher; the allies were, however, on their guard, and he was constantly reduced to the necessity of recalling his troops, sent for that purpose into the field, to Dresden. The danger in which he now stood of being completely surrounded and cut off from the Rhine at length rendered retreat his sole alternative. Blucher had already crossed the Elbe on the 5th of October, and, in conjunction with the crown prince of Sweden, had approached the head of the main body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was advancing from the Erzgebirge. On the 7th of October, Napoleon quitted Dresden, leaving a garrison of thirty thousand French under St. Cyr, and removed his headquarters to Duben, on the road leading from Leipzig to Berlin, in the hope of drawing Blucher and the Swedes once more on the right side of the Elbe, in which case he intended to turn unexpectedly upon the Austrians; Blucher, however, eluded him, without quitting the left bank. Napoleon's plan was to take advantage of the absence of Blucher and of the Swedes from Berlin in order to hasten across the defenceless country, for the purpose of inflicting punishment upon Prussia, of raising Poland, etc. But his plan met with opposition in his own military council. His ill success had caused those who had hitherto followed his fortunes to waver. The king of Bavaria declared against him on the 8th of October,[8] and the Bavarian army under Wrede united with instead of opposing the Austrian army and was sent to the Maine in order to cut off Napoleon's retreat. The news of this defection speedily reached the French camp and caused the rest of the troops of the Rhenish confederation to waver in their allegiance; while the French, wearied with useless manoeuvres, beaten in every quarter, opposed by an enemy greatly their superior in number and glowing with revenge, despaired of the event and sighed for peace and their quiet homes. All refused to march upon Berlin, nay, the very idea of removing further from Paris almost produced a mutiny in the camp.[9] Four days, from the 11th to the 14th of October, were passed by Napoleon in a state of melancholy irresolution, when he appeared as if suddenly inspired by the idea of there still being time to execute a coup de main upon the main body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg before its junction with Blucher and the Swedes. Schwarzenberg was slowly advancing from Bohemia and had already allowed himself to be defeated before Dresden. Napoleon intended to fall upon him on his arrival in the vicinity of Leipzig, but it was already too late.—Blucher was at hand. On the 14th of October,[10] the flower of the French cavalry, headed by the king of Naples, encountered Blucher's and Wittgenstein's cavalry at Wachau, not far from Leipzig. The contest was broken off, both sides being desirous of husbanding their strength, but terminated to the disadvantage of the French, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, besides proving the vicinity of the Prussians. This was the most important cavalry fight that took place during this war.

On the 16th of October, while Napoleon was merely awaiting the arrival of Macdonald's corps, that had remained behind, before proceeding to attack Schwarzenberg's Bohemian army, he was unexpectedly attacked on the right bank of the Pleisse, at Liebert-wolkwitz, by the Austrians, who were, however, compelled to retire before a superior force. The French cavalry under Latour-Maubourg pressed so closely upon the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia that they merely owed their escape to the gallantry of the Russian, Orlow Denisow, and to Latour's fall. Napoleon had already ordered all the bells in Leipzig to be rung, had sent the news of his victory to Paris, and seems to have expected a complete triumph when joyfully exclaiming, "Le monde tourne pour nous!" But his victory had been only partial, and he had been unable to follow up his advantage, another division of the Austrian army, under General Meerveldt, having simultaneously occupied him and compelled him to cross the Pleisse at Dolnitz; and, although Meerveldt had been in his turn repulsed with severe loss and been himself taken prisoner, the diversion proved of service to the Austrians by keeping Napoleon in check until the arrival of Blücher, who threw himself upon the division of the French army opposed to him at Möckern by Marshal Marmont. Napoleon, while thus occupied with the Austrians, was unable to meet the attack of the Prussians with sufficient force. Marmont, after a massacre of some hours' duration in and around Möckern, was compelled to retire with a loss of forty guns. The second Prussian brigade lost, either in killed or wounded, all its officers except one.

The battle had, on the 16th of October, raged around Leipzig; Napoleon had triumphed over the Austrians, whom he had solely intended to attack, but had, at the same time, been attacked and defeated by the Prussians, and now found himself opposed and almost surrounded—one road for retreat alone remaining open—by the whole allied force. He instantly gave orders to General Bertrand to occupy Weissenfels during the night, in order to secure his retreat through Thuringia; but, during the following day, the 17th of October, neither seized that opportunity in order to effect a retreat or to make a last and energetic attack upon the allies, whose forces were not yet completely concentrated, ere the circle had been fully drawn around him. The Swedes, the Russians under Bennigsen, and a large Austrian division under Colloredo, had not yet arrived. Napoleon might with advantage have again attacked the defeated Austrians under Schwarzenberg or have thrown himself with the whole of his forces upon Blücher. He had still an opportunity of making an orderly retreat without any great exposure to danger. But he did neither. He remained motionless during the whole day, which was also passed in tranquillity by the allies, who thus gained time to receive fresh reinforcements. Napoleon's inactivity was caused by his having sent his prisoner, General Meerveldt, to the emperor of Austria, whom he still hoped to induce, by means of great assurances, to secede from the coalition and to make peace. Not even a reply was vouchsafed. On the very day, thus futilely lost by Napoleon, the allied army was reintegrated by the arrival of the masses commanded by the crown prince, by Bennigsen and Colloredo, and was consequently raised to double the strength of that of France, which now merely amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men. On the 18th, a murderous conflict began on both sides. Napoleon long and skilfully opposed the fierce onset of the allied troops, but was at length driven off the field by their superior weight and persevering efforts. The Austrians, stationed on the left wing of the allied army, were opposed by Oudinot, Augereau, and Poniatowsky; the Prussians, stationed on the right wing, by Marmont and Ney; the Russians and Swedes in the centre, by Murat and Regnier. In the hottest of the battle, two Saxon cavalry regiments went over to Blücher, and General Normann, when about to be charged at Taucha by the Prussian cavalry under Billow, also deserted to him with two Würtemberg cavalry regiments, in order to avoid an unpleasant reminiscence of the treacherous ill-treatment of Lützow's corps. The whole of the Saxon infantry, commanded by Regnier, shortly afterward went, with thirty-eight guns, over to the Swedes, five hundred men and General Zeschau alone remaining true to Napoleon. The Saxons stationed themselves behind the lines of the allies, but their guns were instantly turned upon the enemy.[11]

In the evening of this terrible day, the French were driven back close upon the walls of Leipzig.[12] On the certainty of victory being announced by Schwarzenberg to the three monarchs, who had watched the progress of the battle, they knelt on the open field and returned thanks to God. Napoleon, before nightfall, gave orders for full retreat; but, on the morning of the 19th, recommenced the battle and sacrificed some of his corps d'armee in order to save the remainder. He had, however, foolishly left but one bridge across the Elster open, and the retreat was consequently retarded. Leipzig was stormed by the Prussians, and, while the French rearguard was still battling on that side of the bridge, Napoleon fled, and had no sooner crossed the bridge than it was blown up with a tremendous explosion, owing to the inadvertence of a subaltern, who is said to have fired the train too hastily. The troops engaged on the opposite bank were irremediably lost. Prince Poniatowsky plunged on horseback into the Elster in order to swim across, but sank in the deep mud. The king of Saxony, who to the last had remained true to Napoleon, was among the prisoners. The loss during this battle, which raged for four days, and in which almost every nation in Europe stood opposed to each other, was immense on both sides. The total loss in dead was computed at eighty thousand. The French lost, moreover, three hundred guns and a multitude of prisoners; in the city of Leipzig alone twenty-three thousand sick, without reckoning the innumerable wounded. Numbers of these unfortunates lay bleeding and starving to death during the cold October nights on the field of battle, it being found impossible to erect a sufficient number of lazaretti for their accommodation. Napoleon made a hasty and disorderly retreat with the remainder of his troops, but was overtaken at Freiburg on the Unstrutt, where the bridge broke, and a repetition of the disastrous passage of the Beresina occurred. The fugitives collected into a dense mass, upon which the Prussian artillery played with murderous effect. The French lost forty of their guns. At Hanau, Wrede, Napoleon's former favorite, after taking Würzburg, watched the movements of his ancient patron, and, had he occupied the pass at Gelnhausen, might have annihilated him. Napoleon, however, furiously charged his flank, and, on the 20th of October, succeeded in forcing a passage and in sending seventy thousand men across the Rhine. Wrede was dangerously wounded.[13] On the 9th of November, the last French corps was defeated at Hochheim and driven back upon Mayence.

In the November of this ever memorable year, 1813, Germany, as far as the Rhine, was completely freed from the French.[14] Above a hundred thousand French troops, still shut up in the fortresses and cut off from all communication with France, gradually surrendered. In October, the allies took Bremen; in November, Stettin, Zamosk, Modlin, and those two important points, Dresden and Dantzig. In Dresden, Gouvion St. Cyr capitulated to Count Klenau, who granted him free egress on condition of the delivery of the whole of the army stores. St. Cyr, however, infringed the terms of capitulation by destroying several of the guns and sinking the gunpowder in the Elbe; consequently, on the non-recognition of the capitulation by the generalissimo, Schwarzenberg, he found himself without means of defence and was compelled to surrender at discretion with a garrison thirty-five thousand strong. Rapp, the Alsatian, commanded in Dantzig. This city had already fearfully suffered from the commercial interdiction, from the exactions and the scandalous license of its French protectors, whom the ravages of famine and pestilence finally compelled to yield.[15] Lubeck and Torgau fell in December; the typhus, which had never ceased to accompany the armies, raged there in the crowded hospitals, carrying off thousands, and greater numbers fell victims to this pestilential disease than to the war, not only among the troops, but in every part of the country through which they passed. Wittenberg, whose inhabitants had been shamefully abused by the French under Lapoype, Custrin, Glogau, Wesel, Erfurt, fell in the beginning of 1814; Magdeburg and Bremen, after the conclusion of the war.

The Rhenish confederation was dissolved, each of the princes securing his hereditary possessions by a timely secession. The kings of Westphalia and Saxony, Dalberg, grand-duke of Frankfort, and the princes of Isenburg and von der Leyen, who had too heavily sinned against Germany, were alone excluded from pardon. The king of Saxony was at first carried prisoner to Berlin, and afterward, under the protection of Austria, to Prague. Denmark also concluded peace at Kiel and ceded Norway to Sweden, upon which the Swedes, quasi re bene gesta, returned home.[16]

[Footnote 1: This general belonged to a German family long naturalized in Russia.]

[Footnote 2: He was led through Silesia, which he had once so shamefully plundered, and, although no physical punishment was inflicted upon him, he was often compelled to hear the voice of public opinion, and was exposed to the view of the people to whom he had once said, "Nothing shall be left to you except your eyes, that you may be able to weep over your wretchedness."—Manso's History of Prussia.]

[Footnote 3: An ancient battle-axe of serpentine stone was found on the site fixed upon for the erection of a fresh monument in honor of the present victory.—Allgemenie Zeitung, 1817.]

[Footnote 4: This piece of good fortune befell Langeron, the Russian general, who belonged to the diplomatic party at that time attempting to spare the forces of Russia, Austria, and Sweden at the expense of Prussia, and, at the same time, to deprive Prussia of her well-won laurels. Langeron had not obeyed Blucher's orders, had remained behind on his own responsibility, and the scattered French troops fell into his hands.]