[Footnote 8: Blucher exclaimed on this occasion: "He"s a rascally fellow that dares to say we fly." Even Fain, the Frenchman, confesses in his ma.n.u.script of 1813, in which he certainly does not favor the Germans: "The best Marshals, as it were, killed by spent b.a.l.l.s. Great victories without trophies. All the villages on our route in flames which obstructed our advance. "What a war! We shall all fall victims to it!" are the disgraceful expressions uttered by many, for the iron hearts of the warriors of France are rust-grown." Napoleon exclaimed after the battle, "How! no result after such a ma.s.sacre? No prisoners?
They leave me not even a nail!" Duroc"s death added to the catastrophe. Napoleon was so struck that for the first time in his life he could give no orders, but deferred everything until the morrow.]
[Footnote 9: But they merely encamped in the streets, showed themselves more anxious than threatening, and were seized with a terrible panic on a sudden conflagration breaking out during the night, which they mistook for a signal to bring the _Landsturm_ upon them. And yet there were thirty thousand French in the city. How different to their spirit in 1807!]
[Footnote 10: Brother to the unfortunate Henry von Bulow.]
[Footnote 11: Crome was afterward barefaced enough to boast of this work in his Autobiography, published in 1833. Napoleon dictated the fundamental ideas of this work to him from his headquarters. His object was to pacify the Germans. He promised them henceforward to desist from enforcing his continental system, to restore liberty to commerce, no longer to force the laws and language of France upon Germany. L"empereur se fera aimer des Allemands. The Germans were, on the other hand, warned that the allies had no intention to render Germany free and independent, they being much more interested in retaining Germany in a state of division and subjection. The unity of Germany, it was also declared, was alone possible under Napoleon, etc.]
[Footnote 12: This arose from hatred to the party that dared to uphold the German cause instead of a Prussian, Saxon, etc., one, and by no means by chance, but, as Manso remarks, intentionally, "through low cunning and injustice."]
[Footnote 13: The king of Saxony was, in return, insulted by Napoleon, in an address to the ministers was termed _une veille hete_, and compelled to countenance immoral theatrical performances by his presence, a sin for which he each evening received absolution from his confessor. Vide Stein"s Letter to Munster in the Sketches of the War of Liberation.]
[Footnote 14: He also said, like his master, "I know of no Germans, I only know of Bavarians, Wurtembergers, Westphalians," etc.]
[Footnote 15: His written defence, in which he so lyingly, so humbly and mournfully exculpates himself that one really "compa.s.sionates the devil," is a sort of satisfaction for the Germans.]
[Footnote 16: Poniatowsky"s dismissal with the Polish army from Poland was apparently a service rendered to Napoleon, but was in reality done with a view of disarming Poland. Poniatowsky might have organized an insurrection to the rear of the allies, and would in that case have been far more dangerous to them than when ranged beneath the standard of Napoleon.]
[Footnote 17: The people in Austria fully sympathized with pa.s.sing events. How could those be apathetic who had such a burden of disgrace to redeem, such deep revenge to satisfy? An extremely popular song contained the following lines:
"Awake, Franciscus! Hark! thy people call!
Awake! acknowledge the avenger"s hand!
Still groans beneath the foreign courser"s hoof The soil of Germany, our fatherland.
"To arms! so long as sacred Germany Feels but a finger of Napoleon.
Franciscus! up! Cast off each private tie!
The patriot has no kindred, has no son."
All the able-bodied men, as in Prussia, crowded beneath the imperial standard and the whole empire made the most patriotic sacrifices.
Hungary summoned the whole of her male population, the insurrection, as it was termed, to the field.]
[Footnote 18: Russia was to receive the whole of Poland, the grandduchy of Warsaw was to be annihilated. Such was Napoleon"s grat.i.tude toward the Poles!--Illyria was to be restored to Austria.
Prussia, however, was not only to be excluded from all partic.i.p.ation in the spoil, but the Rhenish confederation was to be extended as far as the Oder. Prussia would have been compelled to pay the expenses of the alliance between France, Russia, and Austria.]
[Footnote 19: "Everywhere," said this manifesto, "do the impatient wishes of the people antic.i.p.ate the regular proceedings of the government. On all sides, the desire for independence under separate laws, the feeling of insulted nationality, rage against the heavy abuses inflicted by a foreign tyrant, burst simultaneously forth. His Majesty the emperor, too clear-sighted not to view this turn in affairs as the natural and necessary result of a preceding and violent state of exaggeration, and too just to view it with displeasure, had rendered it his princ.i.p.al object to turn it to the general advantage, and, by well-weighed and well-combined measures, to promote the true and lasting interests of the whole commonwealth of Europe."]
CCLXI. The Battle of Leipzig
Immediately after this--for all had been previously arranged--the monarchs of Russia and Prussia pa.s.sed the Riesengebirge with a division of their forces into Bohemia, and joined the emperor Francis and the great Austrian army at Prague. The celebrated general, Moreau, who had returned from America, where he had hitherto dwelt incognito, in order to take up arms against Napoleon, was in the train of the czar. His example, it was hoped, would induce many of his countrymen to abandon Napoleon. The plan of the allies was to advance, with their main body under Schwarzenberg, consisting of one hundred and twenty thousand Austrians and seventy thousand Russians and Prussians, through the Erzgebirge to Napoleon"s rear. A lesser Prussian force, princ.i.p.ally Silesian _Landwehr_, under Blucher, eighty thousand strong, besides a small Russian corps, was, meanwhile, to cover Silesia, or, in case of an attack by Napoleon"s main body, to retire before it and draw it further eastward. A third division, under the crown prince of Sweden, princ.i.p.ally Swedes, with some Prussian troops, mostly Pomeranian and Brandenburg _Landwehr_ under Bulow, and some Russians, in all ninety thousand men, was destined to cover Berlin, and in case of a victory to form a junction to Napoleon"s rear with the main body of the allied army. A still lesser and equally mixed division under Wallmoden, thirty thousand strong, was destined to watch Davoust in Hamburg, while an Austrian corps of twenty-five thousand men under Prince Reuss watched the movements of the Bavarians, and another Austrian force of forty thousand, under Hiller, those of the viceroy Eugene in Italy.
Napoleon had concentrated his main body, that still consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand men, in and around Dresden. Davoust received orders to advance with thirty thousand men from Hamburg upon Berlin; in Bavaria, there were thirty thousand men under Wrede; in Italy, forty thousand under Eugene. The German fortresses were, moreover, strongly garrisoned with French troops. Napoleon had it in his power to throw himself with his main body, which neither Blucher nor the Swedes could have withstood, into Poland, to levy the people _en ma.s.se_ and render that country the theatre of war, but the dread of the defection of the Rhenish confederation and of a part of the French themselves, were the country to his rear to be left open to the allies and to Moreau, coupled with his disinclination to declare the independence of Poland, owing to a lingering hope of being still able to bring about a reconciliation with Russia and Austria by the sacrifice of that country and of Prussia, caused that idea to be renounced, and he accordingly took up a defensive position with his main body at Dresden, whence he could watch the proceedings and take advantage of any indiscretion on the part of his opponents. A body of ninety thousand men under Oudinot meantime acted on the offensive, being directed to advance, simultaneously with Davoust from Hamburg and with Girard from Magdeburg, upon Berlin, and to take possession of that metropolis. Napoleon hoped, when master of the ancient Prussian provinces, to be able to suppress German enthusiasm at its source and to induce Russia and Austria to conclude a separate peace at the expense of Prussia.
In August, 1813, the tempest of war broke loose on every side, and all Europe prepared for a decisive struggle. About this time, the whole of Northern Germany was visited for some weeks, as was the case on the defeat of Varus in the Teutoburg forest, with heavy rains and violent storms. The elements seemed to combine, as in Russia, their efforts with those of man against Napoleon. There his soldiers fell victims to frost and snow, here they sank into the boggy soil and were carried away by the swollen rivers. In the midst of the uproar of the elements, b.l.o.o.d.y engagements continually took place, in which the bayonet and the b.u.t.t-end of the firelock were almost alone used, the muskets being rendered unserviceable by the wet. The first engagement of importance was that of the 21st of August between Wallmoden and Davoust at Vellahn. A few days afterward, Theodore Korner, the youthful poet and hero, fell in a skirmish between the French and Wallmoden"s outpost at Gadebusch.--Oudinot advanced close upon Berlin, which was protected by the crown prince of Sweden. A murderous conflict took place, on the 23d of August, at Gross-Beeren between the Prussian division under General von Bulow and the French. The Swedes, a troop of horse artillery alone excepted, were not brought into action, and the Prussians, unaided, repulsed the greatly superior forces of the French. The almost untrained peasantry comprising the _Landwehr_ of the Mark and of Pomerania rushed upon the enemy, and, unhabituated to the use of the bayonet and firelock, beat down entire battalions of the French with the b.u.t.t-end of their muskets. After a frightful ma.s.sacre, the French were utterly routed and fled in wild disorder, but the gallant Prussians vainly expected the Swedes to aid in the pursuit. The crown prince, partly from a desire to spare his troops and partly from a feeling of shame--he was also a Frenchman--remained motionless. Oudinot, nevertheless, lost two thousand four hundred prisoners. Davoust, from this disaster, returned once more to Hamburg. Girard, who had advanced with eight thousand men from Magdeburg, was, on the 27th, put to flight by the Prussian _Landwehr_ under General Hirschfeld.
Napoleon"s plan of attack against Prussia had completely failed, and his sole alternative was to act on the defensive. But on perceiving that the main body of the allied forces under Schwarzenberg was advancing to his rear, while Blucher was stationed with merely a weak division in Silesia, he took the field with immensely superior forces against the latter, under an idea of being able easily to vanquish his weak antagonist and to fall back again in time upon Dresden. Blucher cautiously retired, but, unable to restrain the martial spirit of the soldiery, who obstinately defended every position whence they were driven, lost two thousand of his men on the 21st of August. The news of Napoleon"s advance upon Silesia and of the numerical weakness of the garrison left at Dresden reached Schwarzenberg just as he had crossed the Erzgebirge, and induced him and the allied sovereigns a.s.sembled within his camp to change their plan of operations and to march straight upon the Saxon capital. Napoleon, who had pursued Blucher as far as the Katzbach near Goldberg, instantly returned and boldly resolved to cross the Elbe above Dresden, to seize the pa.s.ses of the Bohemian mountains, and to fall upon the rear of the main body of the allied army. Vandamme"s _corps d"armee_ had already set forward with this design, when Napoleon learned that Dresden could no longer hold out unless he returned thither with a division of his army, and, in order to preserve that city and the centre of his position, he hastily returned thither in the hope of defeating the allied army and of bringing it between two fires, as Vandamme must meanwhile have occupied the narrow outlets of the Erzgebirge with thirty thousand men and by that means have cut off the retreat of the allied army. The plan was on a grand scale, and, as far as related to Napoleon in person, was executed, to the extreme discomfiture of the allies, with his usual success. Schwarzenberg had, with true Austrian procrastination, allowed the 25th of August, when, as the French themselves confess, Dresden, in her then ill-defended state, might have been taken almost without a stroke, to pa.s.s in inaction, and, when he attempted to storm the city on the 26th, Napoleon, who had meanwhile arrived, calmly awaited the onset of the thick ma.s.ses of the enemy in order to open a murderous discharge of grape upon them on every side. They were repulsed after suffering a frightful loss. On the following day, destined to end in still more terrible bloodshed, Napoleon a.s.sumed the offensive, separated the retiring allied army by well-combined sallies, cut off its left wing, and made an immense number of prisoners, chiefly Austrians. The unfortunate Moreau had both his legs shot off in the very first encounter. His death was an act of justice, for he had taken up arms against his fellow- countrymen, and was moreover a gain for the Germans, the Russians merely making use of him in order to obscure the fame of the German leaders, and, it may be, with a view of placing the future destinies of France in his hands. The main body of the allied army retreated on every side; part of the troops disbanded, the rest were exposed to extreme hardship owing to the torrents of rain that fell without intermission and the scarcity of provisions. Their annihilation must have inevitably followed had Vandamme executed Napoleon"s commands and blocked up the mountain pa.s.ses, in which he was unsuccessful, owing to the gallantry with which he was held in check at Culm by eight thousand Russian guards, headed by Ostermann,[1] who, although merely amounting in number to a fourth of his army, fought during a whole day without receding a step, though almost the whole of them were cut to pieces and Ostermann was deprived of an arm, until the first corps of the main body, in full retreat, reached the mountains. Vandamme was now in turn overwhelmed by superior numbers. One way of escape, a still unoccupied height, on which he hastened to post himself, alone remained, but Kleist"s corps, also in full retreat, unexpectedly but opportunely appeared above his head and took him and the whole of his corps prisoners, the 29th of August, 1813.[2]
At the same time, the 26th of August, a most glorious victory was gained by Blucher in Silesia. After having drawn Macdonald across the Katzbach and the foaming Neisse, he drove him, after a desperate and b.l.o.o.d.y engagement, into those rivers, which were greatly swollen by the incessant rains. The muskets of the soldiery had been rendered unserviceable by the wet, and Blucher, drawing his sabre from beneath his cloak, dashed forward exclaiming, "Forward!" Several thousand of the French were drowned or fell by the bayonet, or beneath the heavy blows dealt by the _Landwehr_ with the b.u.t.t-end of their firelocks. It was on this battlefield that the Silesians had formerly opposed the Tartars, and the monastery of Wahlstatt, erected in memory of that heroic day,[3] was still standing. Blucher was rewarded with the t.i.tle of Prince von der Wahlstatt, but his soldiers surnamed him Marshal Vorwarts. On the decline of the floods, the banks of the rivers were strewn with corpses sticking in horrid distortion out of the mud. A part of the French fled for a couple of days in terrible disorder along the right bank and were then taken prisoner together with their general, Puthod.[4] The French lost one hundred and three guns, eighteen thousand prisoners, and a still greater number in killed; the loss on the side of the Prussians merely amounted to one thousand men.
Macdonald returned almost totally unattended to Dresden and brought the melancholy intelligence to Napoleon, "Votre arme du Bobre n"existe plus."
The crown prince of Sweden and Bulow had meanwhile pursued Oudinot"s retreating corps in the direction of the Elbe. Napoleon despatched Ney against them, but he met with the fate of his predecessor, at Dennewitz, on the 6th of September. The Prussians, on this occasion, again triumphed, unaided by their confederates.[5] Bulow and Tauenzien, with twenty thousand men, defeated the French army, seventy thousand strong. The crown prince of Sweden not only remained to the rear with the whole of his troops, but gave perfectly useless orders to the advancing Prussian squadron under General Borstel, who, without attending to them, hurried on to Bulow"s a.s.sistance, and the French were, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, completely driven off the field, which the crown prince reached just in time to witness the dispersion of his countrymen. The French lost eighteen thousand men and eighty guns. The rout was complete. The rearguard, consisting of the Wurtembergers under Franquemont, was again overtaken at the head of the bridge at Zwettau, and, after a frightful carnage, driven in wild confusion across the dam to Torgau. The Bavarians under Raglowich, who, probably owing to secret orders, had remained, during the battle, almost in a state of inactivity, withdrew in another direction and escaped.[6] Davoust also again retired upon Hamburg, and his rearguard under Pecheux was attacked by Wallmoden, on the 16th of September, on the Gorde, and suffered a trifling loss. On the 29th of September, eight thousand French were also defeated by Platow, the Hetman of the Cossacks, at Zeitz: on the 30th, Czernitscheff penetrated into Ca.s.sel and expelled Jerome. Thielemann, the Saxon general, also infested the country to Napoleon"s rear, intercepted his convoys at Leipzig, and at Weissenfels took one thousand two hundred, at Merseburg two thousand, French prisoners; he was, however, deprived of his booty by a strong force under Lefebvre-Desnouettes, by whom he was incessantly hara.s.sed until Platow"s arrival with the Cossacks, who, in conjunction with Thielemann, repulsed Lefebvre with great slaughter at Altenburg. On this occasion, a Baden battalion, that had been drawn up apart from the French, turned their fire upon their unnatural confederates and aided in their dispersion.[7]
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 pa.s.sed 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 Blucher, who threw himself upon the division of the French army opposed to him at Mockern 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 ma.s.sacre of some hours" duration in and around Mockern, 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 Blucher. 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.surances, 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 ma.s.ses 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 Blucher, and General Normann, when about to be charged at Taucha by the Prussian cavalry under Billow, also deserted to him with two Wurtemberg cavalry regiments, in order to avoid an unpleasant reminiscence of the treacherous ill-treatment of Lutzow"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 G.o.d. 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded. 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 mult.i.tude 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 repet.i.tion of the disastrous pa.s.sage of the Beresina occurred. The fugitives collected into a dense ma.s.s, 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 Wurzburg, watched the movements of his ancient patron, and, had he occupied the pa.s.s at Gelnhausen, might have annihilated him. Napoleon, however, furiously charged his flank, and, on the 20th of October, succeeded in forcing a pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sed.
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.]
[Footnote 5: The proud armies of Russia and Sweden (forty-six battalions, forty squadrons, and one hundred and fifty guns) followed to the rear of the Prussians without firing a shot and remained inactive spectators of the action.--_Plotho._]
[Footnote 6: In order to avoid being carried along by the fugitive French, they fired upon them whenever their confused ma.s.ses came too close upon them.--_Bolderndorf._]
[Footnote 7: Vide Wagner"s Chronicle of Altenburg.]
[Footnote 8: Maximilian Joseph declared in an open manifesto; Bavaria was compelled to furnish thirty-eight thousand men for the Russian campaign, and, on her expressing a hope that such an immense sacrifice would not be requested, France instantly declared the princes of the Rhenish confederation her va.s.sals, who were commanded "under punishment of felony" unconditionally to obey each of Napoleon"s demands. The allies would, on the contrary, have acceded to all the desires of Bavaria and have guaranteed that kingdom. Even the Austrian troops, that stood opposed to Bavaria, were placed under Wrede"s command.--Raglowich received permission from Napoleon, before the battle of Leipzig, to return to Bavaria; but his corps was retained in the vicinity of Leipzig without taking part in the action, and retired, in the general confusion, under the command of General Maillot, upon Torgau, whence it returned home.--_Bolderndorf._ In the Tyrol, the brave mountaineers were on the eve of revolt. As early as September, Speckbacher, sick and wasted from his wounds, but endued with all his former fire and energy, reappeared in the Tyrol, where he was commissioned by Austria to organize a revolt. An unexpected reconciliation, however, taking place between Bavaria and Austria, counter orders arrived, and Speckbacher furiously dashed his bullet- worn hat to the ground.--_Brockhaus, 1814._ The restoration of the Tyrol to Austria being delayed, a mult.i.tude of Tyrolese forced their way into Innsbruck and deposed the Bavarian authorities; their leader, Kluibenspedel, was, however, persuaded by Austria to submit.
Speckbacher was, in 1816, raised by the emperor Francis to the rank of major; he died in 1820, and was buried at Hall by the south wall of the parish church. His son, Andre, who grew up a fine, handsome man, died in 1835, at Jenbach (not Zenbach, as Mercy has it in his attacks upon the Tyrol), in the Tyrol, where he was employed as superintendent of the mines. Mercy"s Travels and his account of Speckbacher in the Milan Revista Buropea, 1838, are replete with falsehood.]
[Footnote 9: According to Fain and Coulaincourt.]
[Footnote 10: On the evening of the 14th of October (the anniversary of the battle of Jena), a hurricane raged in the neighborhood of Leipzig, where the French lay, carried away roofs and uprooted trees, while, during the whole night, the rain fell in violent floods.]
[Footnote 11: Not so the Badeners and Hessians. The Baden corps was captured almost to a man; among others, Prince Emilius of Darmstadt.
Baden had been governed, since the death of the popular grandduke, Charles Frederick, in 1811, by his grandson, Charles.--Franquemont, with the Wurtemberg infantry, eight to nine thousand strong, acted independently of Normann"s cavalry. But one thousand of their number remained after the battle of Leipzig, and, without going over to the allies, returned to Wurtemberg. Normann was punished by his sovereign.]
[Footnote 12: The city was in a state of utter confusion. "The noise caused by the pa.s.sage of the cavalry, carriages, etc., by the cries of the fugitives through the streets, exceeded that of the most terrific storm. The earth shook, the windows clattered with the thunder of artillery," etc.--_The Terrors of Leipzig, 1813._]