The Camp-fires of Napoleon

Napoleon, losing no time, dispatched the same evening several officers to Marshals Davoust and Ney, to bring them back, the one to his right, the other to his left. Marshal Davoust had continued to follow the Alle to Bartenstein, and he was not more than three or four leagues off. He replied that he should arrive at daybreak upon the right of Eylau (the right of the French army) ready to fall upon the flank of the Russians. Marshal Ney, who had been directed upon the left, so as to keep the Prussians at a distance, and to be able to rush upon Konigsberg, in case the Russians should throw themselves behind the Pregel—Marshal Ney was marching for Krentzburg. Messengers were dispatched after him, though it was not so sure that he could be brought back in time to the field of battle, as it was that Marshal Davoust would make his appearance there.

Deprived of Ney’s corps, the French army amounted at most to fifty and some thousand men. If Marshal Ney were to arrive in time, it would be possible to oppose sixty-three thousand men to the enemy, all present under fire. No expectation could be entertained of the arrival of Bernadotte’s corps, which was thirty leagues off.

Napoleon, who slept that night but three or four hours in a chair in the house of the postmaster, placed the corps of Marshal Soult at Eylau itself, partly within the town, partly on the right and left of it, Augereau’s corps and the imperial guard a little in rear, and all the cavalry upon the wings, till daylight should enable him to make his dispositions.

General Bennigsen had at last determined to give battle. He was on level ground, or nearly so, excellent ground for his infantry, not much versed in manœuvres, but solid, and for his cavalry, which was numerous. His heavy artillery, which he had directed to make a circuit, that it might not cramp his movements, had just rejoined him.

His army, amounting to seventy-eight or eighty thousand men, and to ninety thousand with the Prussians, had sustained considerable losses in the late battles, but scarcely any in marches, for an army in retreat, without being in disorder, is rallied by the enemy that pursues it, whereas the pursuing army, not having the same motives for keeping close together, always leaves part of its effective force behind. Deducting the losses sustained at Mohrungen, Bergfried, Waltersdorf, Hoff, Heilsberg, and at Eylau itself, one may say that General Bennigsen’s army was reduced to about eighty thousand men, seventy-two thousand of whom were Russians, and eight thousand Prussians. Thus, in case General Lestocq and Marshal Ney should not arrive, fifty-four thousand French would have to fight seventy-two thousand Russians. The Russians had, moreover, a formidable artillery, computed at four or five hundred pieces. That of the French amounted to two hundred at most, including the guard. It is true that it was superior to all the artilleries of Europe, even to that of the Austrians. General Bennigsen, therefore, determined to attack at daybreak. The character of his soldiers was energetic, like that of the French soldiers, but governed by other motives. The Russians had neither that confidence of success nor that love of glory which the French exhibited, but a certain fanaticism of obedience, which induced them to brave death blindly.

Since debouching upon Eylau, the country appeared level and open. The little town of Eylau, situated on a slight eminence, and topped by a Gothic spire, was the only conspicuous point. The ground gently sloping, on the right of the church, presented a cemetery. In front it rose perceptibly, and on this rise, marked by some hillocks, appeared the Russians in a deep mass. Several lakes, full of water in spring, frozen in winter, at this time covered with snow, were not distinguishable in any way from the rest of the plain. Scarcely did a few barns united into hamlets, and lines of barriers for folding cattle, form a point d’appui, or an obstacle on this dreary field of battle. A gray sky, dissolving at times into thick snow, added its dreariness to that of the country, a dreariness which seized upon both the eye and heart.

During the greater part of the night Napoleon was employed in learning the force and position of the enemy, and drawing a plan of the battle, as he reclined on the snow by his dreary camp-fire. The four hours of sleep in a chair was quite sufficient to refresh his energies, and prepare him for the great struggle of the next day. The troops who bivouacked in the vicinity of Eylau, suffered severely from the cold. They had but few fires, as fuel was scarce. Most of these gallant soldiers, who had been marching and fighting for several days, dared not trust themselves to slumber on the ground for fear of freezing to death.

At break of the day, the position of the Russians was discovered. They were drawn up in two lines, very near to each other, their front being covered by three hundred pieces of cannon, planted on the salient points of the ground. In the rear, two close columns, appuying, like two flying buttresses, this double fine of battle seemed designed to support it, and to prevent its breaking under the shock of a charge from the impetuous French. A strong reserve of artillery was placed at some distance. The cavalry was partly in the rear, and partly on the wings. The Cossacks kept with the body of the army.

Napoleon, on horseback, at daybreak, stationed himself in the cemetery to the right of Eylau, where, scarcely protected by a few trees from the cannonade which the Russians had already commenced, he surveyed the positions of the enemy. He could foresee that victory would cost him dearly, from the solid and obstinate mass which the Russian general had formed.

Owing to the position of Eylau, which stretched itself out facing the Russians, Napoleon could give the less depth to his line of battle, and consequently the less scope to the balls of the artillery. Two of Marshal Soult’s divisions were placed at Eylau, Legrand’s division in advance and a little to the left, Leval’s division, partly on the left of the town, upon an eminence topped by a mill, partly on the right, at the cemetery itself. The third division of Marshal Soult’s, St. Hilaire’s division, was established still further to the right, at a considerable distance from the cemetery, in the village of Rothenen, which formed the prolongation of the position of Eylau. In the interval between the village of Rothenen, and the town of Eylau, an interval left vacant for the purpose of making the rest of the army debouch there, was posted a little in rear, Augereau’s corps, drawn up in two lines, and formed of Desjardins’s and Heudelet’s divisions. Augereau, tormented with fever, his eyes red and swollen, but forgetting his complaints at the sound of the cannon, had mounted his horse to put himself at the head of his troops. Further in rear of that same debouche came the infantry and cavalry of the imperial guard, the divisions of cuirassiers and dragoons, both ready to present themselves to the enemy by the same outlet, and meanwhile somewhat sheltered from the cannon by a hollow of the ground. Lastly, at the extreme right of this field of battle, beyond and in advance of Rothenen, at the hamlet of Serpallen, the corps of Marshal Davoust was to enter into action in such a manner as to fall upon the flank of the Russians.

Thus Napoleon was in open order, and his line having the advantage of being covered on the left by the buildings of Eylau, on the right by those of Rothenen, the combat of artillery, by which he designed to demolish the kind of wall opposed to him by the Russians, would be much less formidable for him than for them. He had caused all the cannon of the army to be removed from the corps, and placed in order of battle. To these he had ordered the forty pieces belonging to the guard, and he was thus about to reply to the formidable artillery of the Russians by an artillery far inferior in number, but much superior in skill.

The Russians had commenced the firing. The French had answered it immediately by a violent cannonade at half cannon-shot. The earth shook under the tremendous detonation. The French artillerymen, not only more expert, but firing at a living mass, which served them for a butt, made dreadful havoc. The balls swept down whole files. Those of the Russians, on the contrary, directed with less precision, and striking against buildings, inflicted less mischief. The town of Eylau and the village of Rothenen were soon set on fire. The glare of the conflagration added its terrors to the horrors of the carnage. Though there fell far fewer French than Russians, still there fell a great many, especially in the ranks of the imperial guard, motionless in the cemetery. The projectiles, passing over the head of Napoleon, and sometimes very close to him, penetrated the walls of the church, or broke branches from the trees at the foot of which he had placed himself to direct the battle.

This cannonade lasted for a long time, and both armies bore it with heroic tranquillity, never stirring, and merely closing their ranks as fast as the cannon made breaches in them. The Russians seemed first to feel a sort of impatience. Desirous of accelerating the result by the taking of Eylau, they moved off to carry the position of the mill, situated on the left of the town.

Part of their right formed in column, and came to the attack. Leval’s division gallantly repulsed it, and by their firmness left the Russians no hope of success.

As for Napoleon, he attempted nothing decisive, for he would not endanger, by sending it forward, the corps of Marshal Soult, which had done so well to keep Eylau under such a tremendous cannonade. He waited for acting till the presence of Marshal Davoust’s corps, which was coming on the right, should begin to be felt on the flank of the Russians.

This lieutenant, punctual as he was intrepid, had actually arrived at the village of Serpallen. Friant’s division marched at the head. It debouched the first, encountered the Cossacks, whom it had soon driven back, and occupied the village of Serpallen with some companies of fight infantry. No sooner was it established in the village and in the grounds on the right, than one of the masses of cavalry posted on the wings of the Russian army detached itself, and advanced towards. General Friant, availing himself with intelligence and coolness of the advantages afforded by the accidents of the locality, drew up the three regiments of which his division was then composed behind the long and solid wooden barrier, which served for folding cattle. Sheltered behind this natural intrenchment, he kept up a fire within point-blank range upon the Russian squadrons, and forced them to retire. They fell back, but soon returned, accompanied by a column of nine or ten thousand infantry. It was one of the two close columns, which served for flying buttresses to the Russian fine of battle, and which now bore to the left of that fine, to retake Serpallen. General Friant had but five hundred men to oppose to it. Still, sheltered behind the wooden barrier with which he had covered himself, and able to deploy without apprehension of being charged by the cavalry, he saluted the Russians with a fire so continuous and so well directed, as to occasion them considerable loss. Their squadrons having shown an intention to turn him, he formed the 33d into square on his right, and stopped them by the imperturbable bearing of his foot-soldiers. As he could not make use of his cavalry, which consisted of some horse chasseurs, he made amends for it by a swarm of tirailleurs, who kept up such a fire upon the flanks of the Russians, as to oblige them to retire towards the heights in rear of Serpallen, between Serpallen and Klein-Sausgarten. On retiring to these heights, the Russians covered themselves by a numerous artillery, the downward fire of which was very destructive. Morand’s division had arrived in its turn on the field of battle. Marshal Davoust, taking the first brigade, that of General Ricard, went and placed it beyond and on the left of Serpallen; he then posted the second, composed of the 51st and the 61st, on the right of the villages, so as to support either Ricard’s brigade or Friant’s division. The latter had proceeded to the right of Serpallen, towards Klein-Sausgarten. At this very moment, Gudin’s division was accelerating its speed to get into line. Thus the Russians had been obliged by the movement of the French right to draw back their left from Serpallen towards Klein-Sausgarten.

The expected effect on the flank of the enemy’s army was therefore produced. Napoleon, from the position which he occupied, had distinctly seen the Russian reserves directed towards the corps of Marshal Davoust. The hour for acting had arrived; for, unless he interfered, the Russians might fall in mass upon Marshal Davoust and crush him. Napoleon immediately gave his orders. He directed St. Hilaire’s division, which was at Rothenen, to push forward and to give a hand to Morand’s division about Serpallen. He commanded the two divisions of Augereau’s corps, to debouch by the interval between Rothenen and Eylau, to connect themselves with St. Hilaire’s division, and to form all together an oblong line from the cemetery of Eylau to Serpallen. The result expected from this movement was to overturn the Russians, by throwing their right upon their centre, and thus break down, beginning at its extremity, the long wall which he had before him.

It was ten in the morning. General St. Hilaire moved off, left Rothenen, and deployed obliquely in the plain, under a terrible fire of artillery, his right at Serpallen, his left towards the cemetery. Augereau moved nearly at the same time, not without a melancholy foreboding of the fate reserved for his corps d’armee, which he saw exposed to the danger of being dashed to pieces against the centre of the Russians, solidly appuyed upon several hillocks. While General Corbineau was delivering the orders of the Emperor to him, a ball pierced the side of that gallant officer. Marshal Augereau marched immediately. The two divisions of Desjardins and Heudelet debouched between Rothenen and the cemetery, in close columns; then, having cleared the defile, formed in order of battle, the first brigade of each division deployed, the second in square. While they were advancing, a squall of wind and snow, beating all at once into the faces of the soldiers, prevented them from seeing the field of battle. The two divisions, enveloped in this kind of cloud, mistook their direction, and bore a little to the left, leaving on their right a considerable space between them and St. Hilaire’s division. The Russians, but little incommoded by the snow, which they had at their backs, seeing Augereau’s two divisions advancing towards the hillocks on which they appuyed their centre, suddenly unmasked a battery of seventy-two pieces, which they kept in reserve. So thick was the grape poured forth by this formidable battery, that in a quarter of an hour half of Augereau’s corps was swept down. General Desjardins, commanding the first division, was killed; General Heudelet, commanding the second, received a wound that was nearly mortal. The staff of the two divisions was soon hors de combat. While they were sustaining this tremendous fire, being obliged to re-form while marching, so much were their ranks thinned, the Russian cavalry, throwing itself into the space which separated it from Morand’s division, rushed upon them en masse. Those brave divisions, however, resisted—but they were obliged to fall back towards the cemetery of Eylau, giving ground without breaking, under the repeated assaults of numerous squadrons. The snow having suddenly ceased, they could then perceive the melancholy spectacle. Out of six or seven thousand combatants, about four thousand killed or wounded strewed the ground. Augereau, wounded, himself, but more affected by the disaster of his corps d’armee than by his personal danger, was carried into the cemetery of Eylau to the feet of Napoleon, to whom he complained, not without bitterness, of not having been timely succored. Silent grief pervaded every face in the imperial staff. Napoleon, calm and firm, imposing on others the impassibility which he imposed on himself, addressed a few soothing words to Augereau, then sent him to the rear, and took his measures for repairing the mischief. Dispatching, in the first place, the chasseurs of his guard and some squadrons of dragoons which were at hand, to drive back the enemy’s cavalry, he sent for Murat, and ordered him to make a decisive effort on the line of infantry which formed the centre of the Russian army, and which, taking advantage of Augereau’s disaster, began to press forward. At the first summons, Murat came up at a gallop. “Well,” said Napoleon, “are you going to let those fellows eat us up?” He then ordered that heroic chief of his cavalry to collect the chasseurs, the dragoons, the cuirassiers, and to fall upon the Russians with eighty squadrons, to try what effect the shock of such a mass of horse, charging furiously, would have on an infantry reported not to be shaken. The cavalry of the guard was brought forward, ready to add its shock to the cavalry of the army. The moment was critical, for, if the Russian infantry were not stopped, it would go and attack the cemetery, the centre of the position, and Napoleon had only six foot battalions of the imperial guard to defend it.

Murat galloped off, collected his squadrons, made them pass between the cemetery and Rothenen, through the same debouch by which Augereau’s corps had already marched to almost certain destruction. General Grouchy’s dragoons charged first, to sweep the ground, and clear it of the enemy’s cavalry. That brave officer, whose horse fell with him, put himself, on rising, at the head of a second brigade, and effected his purpose of dispersing the groups of cavalry which preceded the Russian infantry. But, for overturning the latter, nothing short of the heavy iron-clad squadrons of General d’Hautpoul was required. That officer, who distinguished himself by consummate skill in the art of managing a numerous cavalry, came forward with twenty-four squadrons of cuirassiers, followed by the whole mass of dragoons. These cuirassiers, ranged in several lines, started off and threw themselves upon the Russian bayonets. The first lines, arrested by the fire, could not penetrate, and falling back to right and left, went to form afresh behind those who followed them, in order to charge anew. At length, one of them, rushing on with more violence, broke the enemy’s infantry at one point, and opened a breach, through which cuirassiers and dragoons strove which should penetrate first. As a river, which has begun to break down a dike, soon carries it away entirely, so the masses of the squadrons, having once penetrated the infantry of the Russians, finished in a few moments the overthrow of their first line. The horse then dispersed to slaughter. A most horrible fray ensued between them and the Russian foot soldiers. They went, and came, and struck on all sides those obstinate antagonists. While the first line of infantry was thus overturned and cut in pieces, the second fell back to a wood that bounded the field of battle. A last reserve of artillery had been left there. The Russians placed it in battery, and fired confusedly at their own soldiers and at the French, not caring whether they slaughtered friends or foes, if they only got rid of the formidable horse. General d’Hautpoul was mortally wounded by a rifle ball. While the cavalry was thus engaged with the second line of the Russian infantry, some parties of the first rallied and renewed their fire. At this sight the horse grenadiers of the guard, headed by General Lepic, one of the heroes of the army, came forward in their turn to second Murat’s efforts. Dashing off at a gallop, they charged the groups of infantry which they perceived to be still on their legs, and crossing the ground in all directions, completed the destruction of the centre of the Russian army, the wrecks of which at last fled for refuge to the patches of wood which had served them for an asylum.

During this scene of confusion, a fragment of that vast line of infantry had advanced to that same cemetery. Three or four thousand Russian grenadiers, marching straight forward with the blind courage of braver and more intelligent troops, came to throw themselves on the church of Eylau, and threatened the cemetery occupied by the imperial staff. The foot guard, motionless till then, had endured the cannonade without firing a piece. With joy it beheld an occasion for fighting arrive. A battalion was called for; two disputed the honor of marching. The first in order, led by General Dorsenne, obtained the advantage of measuring its strength with the Russian grenadiers, went up to them without firing a shot, attacked them with the bayonet, and threw one upon another, while Murat dispatched against them two battalions of chasseurs under General Bruyere. The Russian grenadiers, hemmed in between the bayonets of the grenadiers of the guard and the swords of the chasseurs, were almost all taken or killed, before the face of Napoleon, and only a few paces from him.

This cavalry action, the most extraordinary perhaps of any in the great wars, had for its result to overthrow the centre of the Russians, and to drive it back to a considerable distance. It would have been requisite to have at hand a reserve of infantry, in order to complete the defeat of troops which, after being laid on the ground, rose again to fire. But Napoleon durst not venture to dispose of Marshal Soult’s corps, reduced to half of its effective, and necessary for keeping Eylau. Augereau’s corps was almost destroyed.

Napoleon, in the cemetery, in which were heaped the bodies of a great number of his officers among the time-browned tombstones, was graver than usual; but his countenance was inflexible as ever, and no thought of retreat crossed his resolute soul. Crowds of his bravest veterans were lying mangled around him; and the prospect of the field must have been gloomy, indeed. But his iron will did not bend; he had confidence that the star of his fortune had not yet begun to descend.

Marshal Davoust and General St. Hilaire justified the confidence of their chief, and not only maintained their own position against the enemy, but had even pushed detachments upon their rear. But the event which Napoleon dreaded had occurred.

General Lestocq, perseveringly pursued by Marshal Ney, appeared on that field of carnage, with seven or eight thousand Prussians, eager to revenge themselves for the disdain of the Russians. General Lestocq, only an hour or two ahead of Marshal Ney’s corps, had merely time to strike one blow before he was struck himself. He debouched upon the field of battle at Schmoditten, passed behind the double line of the Russians, now broken by the fire of the artillery, by the swords of the horse, and presented himself at Kuschitten, in front of Friant’s division, which, passing beyond Klein-Sausgarten; had already driven back the left of the enemy upon its centre. The village of Kuschitten was occupied by four companies of the 108th, and by the 51st, which had been detached from Morand’s division for the support of Friant’s division. The Prussians, rallying the Russians around them, dashed impetuously on the 51st, and on the four companies of the 108th, without being able to break them, though they obliged them to fall back to a considerable distance, in rear of Kuschitten. The Prussians, after this first advantage, pushed on beyond Kuschitten, in order to recover the positions of the morning. They marched, deployed in two lines. The Russian reserves, being rallied, formed two close columns on their wings. A numerous artillery preceded them. In this manner they advanced across the rear of the field of battle, to regain the lost ground, and to beat back Marshal Davoust upon Klein-Sausgarten, and from Klein-Sausgarten to Serpallen. But Generals Friant and Gudin, having Marshal Davoust at their head, hastened up. Friant’s entire division, and the 12th, 21st and 25th regiments, belonging to Gudin’s division, placed themselves foremost, covered by the whole of the artillery of the third corps. To no purpose did the Russians and Prussians exert themselves to overcome the formidable obstacle; they were unsuccessful. The French, appuyed on woods, marshes and hillocks, here deployed in line, there dispersed as tirailleurs, opposed an invincible obstinacy to this last effort of the allies. Marshal Davoust, passing through the ranks till dark, kept up the firmness of his soldiers, saying, “Cowards will be sent to die in Siberia; the brave will die here like men of honor.” The Prussians and the raided Russians desisted from the attack. Marshal Davoust remained firm in that position of Klein-Sausgarten, where he threatened the rear of the enemy.