The Camp-fires of Napoleon

CAMP-FIRES AT ASPERN AND ESSLING

After the taking of Ratisbon, Napoleon advanced upon Vienna, which offered but a feeble resistance, and was easily occupied. But the Austrian army, in abandoning the capital of the empire, had not given up the struggle.

Sheltered by the Danube, the bridges over which they had destroyed at Vienna, and the surrounding places, they awaited a favorable opportunity of taking the offensive. The bridge of Lintz was the first object of their attacks; but Vandamme opposed to them a vigorous resistance, and Bernadotte, arriving, completely routed them. On his side, Napoleon was also impatient to force the passage of the river, in order to finish this glorious campaign. The reconstruction of the bridge, was, therefore, his first care. Massena had thrown several over the arms of the Danube, which bathe the island of Lobau; Napoleon resolved to make use of it for the passage of the whole army. In three days, the corps of Lannes, Bessieres, and Massena had taken up a position on the island. The communication with the right bank, was by a bridge of boats, five hundred yards in length, and extending over three arms of the river. Another bridge, which was not more than sixty-one yards in length, connected the island with the left bank. It was here, that on the 21st of May, thirty-five thousand men crossed without opposition, to give battle between Aspern and Essling.

The reports brought to the French during the night were contradictory. Many lights were seen on the heights of Bisamberg; but nearer to the French and in their front, the horizon exhibited a pale streak of about a league in length, the reflected light of numerous watch-fires, which a rising ground between prevented from being themselves visible. From such indications as could be collected, Lannes was of opinion that they were in presence of the whole Austrian army. Napoleon was on horseback by break of day on the 21st, to judge for himself; but clouds of light troops prevented his getting near enough to reconnoitre accurately. Presently the skirmishers were withdrawn, and the Austrians were seen advancing with their whole force, double in number to the French, and with two hundred and twenty pieces of artillery. Yet with this vast disproportion of odds, they were strangely astonished at the stand which they made on this occasion, as the French were mortified and reproached with having suffered a repulse or made only a drawn battle of it instead of a complete victory. The conflict commenced about four in the afternoon with a furious attack on the village of Aspern, which was taken and retaken several times, and at the close of the day remained (except the church and church-yard) in the possession of Massena, though on fire with the bombs and choked up with the slain. Essling was the object of three general attacks, against all which the French stood their ground. Lannes was at one time on the point of being overpowered, had not Napoleon by a sudden charge of cavalry come to his relief. Night separated the combatants.

The hundred thousand Austrians of the Archduke had not been able to gain an inch of ground from the thirty-five thousand French of Massena, Lannes and Bessieres. After the camp-fires were kindled among the dead of Aspern and Essling, both armies received reinforcements. The grenadiers of Oudinot, the division of St. Hilaire, two brigades of light cavalry, and the train of artillery passed the bridges, and took up a position on the line of battle. Napoleon confidently expected to achieve a decisive victory on the following day.

At four o’clock in the morning, the signal for battle was again given by the enemy against the village of Aspern; but Massena was there to defend it. This illustrious warrior, whose intrepidity, coolness and military talents, never appeared to better advantage than in difficult positions, did not content himself with repulsing the Austrians each time they attacked; he soon took upon himself the defensive, and completely overthrew the columns which were opposed to him. At the same moment, Lannes and the young guard fell impetuously on the centre of the Austrian army, in order to cut off the communication with the two wings. Every thing gave way before the heroic marshal, and the victory became certain and decisive, when, about seven o’clock in the morning, it was announced to the Emperor, that a sudden increase of the Danube, which had carried away trees, vessels and even houses, had also borne away the great bridge which joined the island of Lobau with the right bank, and which formed the only method of communication between the troops engaged on the left bank, and the rest of the French army. At this news, Napoleon, who had scarcely fifty thousand men with him, to make head against a hundred thousand, suspended the movement in advance, and ordered his marshals merely to retain their position, in order, afterwards to effect their retreat in good order to the island of Lobau. This order was executed. Generals and soldiers valorously upheld the honor of the French flag. The enemy informed of the destruction of the bridges, which had kept back the park of reserve of the French army, and which thus deprived the cannon and infantry of cartridges, became so emboldened as to resume the offensive on all points. They attacked Aspern and Essling, three times at the same moment, and were three times repulsed. General Mouton distinguished himself at the head of the fusileers of the guard. Marshal Lannes, whom the Emperor had charged to maintain the field of battle, valiantly fulfilled his task; he powerfully contributed to save this fine portion of the French army, the existence of which a stroke of fate had nearly compromised. But this striking service was the last which this illustrious soldier was to render to his country and to the great captain who was rather his friend than his master. A bullet struck him in the thigh towards the close of the day. Amputation was immediately performed, and with such success as caused hopes to be conceived which were not to be realized.

Lannes was borne on a litter before the Emperor, who wept at the sight of the companion of all his victories mortally wounded.

“Was it requisite,” said he in a tone of anguish, “that my heart on this day should have been struck so severe a blow, to force me to give way to other cares than those of my army!”

Lannes was conveyed to the island of Lobau. He had fainted. But he recovered his senses in the presence of Napoleon, the god of his idolatry: he clung around his neck, and said—

“In an hour you will have lost him who dies with the glory and conviction of having been your best friend!”

But Lannes lingered in agony for ten days. He did not want to die. He had not drank deep enough of glory. He said the man who could not cure a Marshal and a Duke of Montebello ought to be hanged!

“It is at the moment of quitting life,” said Napoleon, later, “that one clings to it with all one’s strength. Lannes, the bravest of all men, Lannes, deprived of both legs, wished not to die. Every moment, the unfortunate man asked for the Emperor; he clung to me for the rest of his life; he wished but for me, thought of me only. A species of instinct! Assuredly he loved his wife and children better than me; and yet he spoke not of them; it was because he expected nought from them; it was he who protected them, whilst, on the contrary, I was his protector. I was for him something vague, superior; I was his providence; he prayed to me! It was impossible,” added Napoleon, “impossible to be more brave than Lannes and Murat. Murat remained brave only. The mind of Lannes would have increased with his courage; he would have become a giant. If he had lived in these times, I do not think it would have been possible to have seen him fail either in honor or duty. He was of that class of men who change the face of affairs by their own weight and influence.”

The illustrious marshal expired at Viluna on the 31st of May. He was lamented as the Roland of the army, and one of the greatest generals France had produced. General St. Hilaire, also, an excellent officer, was mortally wounded in this bloody struggle. He was highly esteemed by the Emperor, and if he had lived would doubtless have risen to the rank of marshal.

Napoleon was now cooped up in the island of Lobau. He had fought two indecisive battles. But that they were indecisive, when he contended with an army double his own in number, was a triumph, of which any other commander would not have ceased to boast. However, the Emperor prepared himself to strike a blow as decisive as was Friedland after Eylau.

In the meantime, Napoleon ordered the funeral obsequies of the illustrious Lannes to be celebrated in a style which astonished all Europe, and showed how a man should be honored who had risen from the ranks by force of talent, to be a marshal and a Duke of Montebello. It was a funeral procession of an army of thirty thousand men, detailed for this service, who escorted the remains of the illustrious warrior from Germany to France. They remind us of Alexander honoring the remains of his friend Hœphestion. Paris had never witnessed a grander procession than that which conveyed the remains of Lannes from the Invalides to the Pantheon. It was not a cortege; it was a whole army marching in mourning for a hero, with arms lowered and flags bound with crape, and bearing a magnificent cenotaph. The funeral march was composed by the greatest composer of Germany, the peerless Beethoven, and it was performed by a band, the like of which had never been heard in Paris. Occasionally, the mournful strains were interrupted by the solemn roll of three hundred drums, and the firing of many guns reminded those who listened, of those tremendous storms of battle, in which the lion-hearted Lannes had so often bled for France. The whole funeral ceremony was eminently worthy of the Emperor and his illustrious friend.

THE CAMP-FIRE AT WAGRAM

After the bloody conflicts of Essling and Aspern, Napoleon remained stationary for a considerable time. The Archduke, uneasy at the movements of Marshal Davoust before Presburg, dared not assume the offensive, and employed himself in fortifying his position between Aspern and Ebersdorf. Napoleon labored at the reconstruction of the bridges, and the communication between the island and the right bank was re-established. Soon afterwards, the Emperor learned that the army of Italy, under the command of Prince Eugene, had defeated the Austrians, and that the victors had effected a junction with the army of Germany, on the heights of Simmering. On the 14th of June, the Prince gained another victory over the Austrians at Raab. Marmont, after some successes in Dalmatia, came to re-unite himself with the Grand Army, and to place himself within the circle of the Emperor’s operations. Napoleon’s eagle eye saw that the moment for a decisive stroke had arrived, and he immediately began the advance movement, which led to the famous battle of Wagram.

About ten o’clock at night, on the 4th of July, the French began to cross the Danube. Gunboats, prepared for the purpose, silenced some of the Austrian batteries. Others were avoided by passing the river out of reach of their fire, which the French were enabled to do by their new bridges. At daybreak, on the morning of the 5th, the Archduke Charles was astonished to see the whole French army on the left bank of the Danube, and so posted as to render the fortifications which he had constructed with so much labor utterly useless for defence.

Greatly frightened at the progress of the French army, and at the great results obtained by it, almost without effort, the Archduke ordered all the troops to march, and at six o’clock in the evening, occupied the following position:—the right, from Stradelau to Gerasdorf; the centre, from Gerasdorf to Wagram, and the left, from Wagram to Neusiedel. The French army had their left at Gros-Aspern, their centre at Rachsdorf, and their right at Glinzendorf. In this position, the day had almost closed, and a great battle was expected on the morrow; but this would be avoided, and the position of the enemy destroyed, by preventing them from conceiving any system, if, in the night, possession were taken of Wagram; then their line, already immense, taken by surprise and exposed to the chances of battle, would allow the different bodies of the army to err without order or directions, and they would thus become an easy prey without any serious engagement. The attack on Wagram took place; the French carried this place; but a column of Saxons and another of French mistook each other in the obscurity for hostile troops, and so the operation failed.

When the bloody and indecisive struggle was relinquished for the night, only one house was left standing of the village of Wagram, which had been taken and retaken, and at length destroyed by the furious cannonade.

As the movement designed by the Emperor had failed, it remained to prepare for the struggle of the next day. It appeared that the dispositions of the French and Austrian generals was reversed. The Emperor passed the whole night in strengthening his centre, where he was in person within cannon-shot of Wagram. To effect this, the lion-hearted Massena marched to the left of Aderklau, leaving a single division at Aspern, which had orders to fall back if hard pressed, upon the island of Lobau. The intrepid and inexorable Davoust received orders to leave the village of Grosshoffen to approach the centre. The Austrian general, on the contrary, committed the time-condemned error of weakening his centre in order to strengthen his wings. All night could be seen the far-extending lines of the blazing fires, which seemed to join each other in the distance; and all night could be heard the heavy tread of the troops, marching to take up positions under the vigilant eye of the Emperor. Brave, confident hearts, how many of them were destined to be swept to earth by the storm of the Austrian artillery!

At length, the day of the 6th dawned upon the plain of Wagram, and exhibited the two vast bodies of men, whose accoutrements glittered in the light, who were about to be hurled together in deadly conflict. At the first peep of day, Bernadotte occupied the left, leaving Massena in the second line. Prince Eugene, with the laurels of Raab freshly enwreathing his brow, connected him with the centre, where the corps of Oudinot, Marmont, those of the imperial guard, and the divisions of the cuirassiers, formed eight lines of battle-scarred veterans, eager for the fray. Davoust marched from the right in order to reach the centre.

The enemy, on the contrary, ordered the corps of Bellegarde to march upon Stradelau. The corps of Colowrath, Lichtenstein, and Hiller, connected this right with the position of Wagram, where the Prince of Hohenzollern was, and to the extremity of the left, at Neusiedel, to which extended the corps of Rosemberg, in order to fall upon Davoust. The corps of Rosemberg and that of Davoust, making an inverse movement, met with the first rays of the sun, and gave the signal for battle. The Emperor made immediately for this point, reinforced Davoust with the divisions of cuirassiers, and took the corps of Rosemberg in flank with a battery of twelve pieces of General Count Nansouty. In less than three quarters of an hour, the fine corps of Davoust had defeated Rosemberg’s troop, and driven it beyond Neusiedel, with great loss.

In the meantime the cannonade commenced throughout the line, and the dispositions of the enemy became developed every moment; the whole of their left was studded with artillery; one would have said that the Austrian general was not fighting for the victory, but that the only object he had in view, was how to profit by it. This disposition of the enemy appeared so absurd, that some snare was dreaded, and the Emperor hesitated some time before ordering the easy dispositions which he had to make, in order to annul those of the enemy, and render them fatal to him. He ordered Massena to make an attack on a village occupied by the foe, and which somewhat pressed the extremity of the centre of the army. He ordered Davoust to turn the position of Neusiedel, and to push from thence upon Wagram; and bade Massena and General Macdonald form in column, in order to carry Wagram the moment Davoust should march upon it.

While this was going forward, word was brought that the enemy was furiously attacking the village which Massena had carried; that the left had advanced about three thousand yards; that a heavy cannonade was already heard at Gross-Aspern, and that the interval from Gros-Aspern to Wagram appeared covered by an immense line of artillery. It could no longer be doubted: the enemy had committed an enormous fault, and it only remained to profit by it. The Emperor immediately ordered General Macdonald to dispose the divisions of Broussier and Lamarque in attacking columns; they were supported by the division of General Nansouty, by the horse guards, and by a battery of sixty pieces of the guard and forty pieces of different corps. General Count de Lauriston, at the head of this battery of a hundred pieces of artillery, galloped towards the enemy, advanced without firing to within half cannon-shot, and then commenced a prodigious cannonade which soon silenced that of the enemy, and carried death into their ranks. General Macdonald marched forward to the charge. And such a charge had never before been witnessed upon the field of battle. Macdonald advanced, as it were, in the face of a volcano pouring forth a red tide of death. Whole squadrons were swept to the earth, but, led by a man without fear, the guards never even faltered; but on, on—still on—they advanced, like a decree of fate, which nothing could check. To sustain them, Bessieres charged with the cavalry of the old guard, but was hurled from his horse by a cannon-shot, which damped the enthusiasm of his troops, and rendered their onset weak. Napoleon, who, riding on a splendid white charger, was a conspicuous mark for the balls of the enemy, seeing his faithful Bessieres fall, turned away, saying, “Let us avoid another scene!” alluding to the incidents attending the death of the illustrious Lannes. But Macdonald continued his rapid advance, attacked and broke the centre of the Austrians, and captured their guns. But here he was compelled to halt; the column which he had led to the charge had been reduced to between two and three thousand effective men. Its path was piled with the slain. But the centre of the enemy was broken. Their right, seized with a panic, fell back in haste, and Massena then attacked in front, while Davoust, who had carried Neusiedel and Wagram, attacked and penetrated the left. It was but ten o’clock, and yet the victory already clung to the eagles of the French. From that time until noon, the Archduke only fought for a safe retreat. The French continued to gain ground; until, when the sun had reached the meridian, the dispirited Austrian general gave the order for retreat. The French pursued. But Murat, to Napoleon’s regret, was not at the head of the cavalry, and many of the advantages of such a glorious victory were lost. Long before night’s shadows descended, the Austrians were out of sight, and the French encamped upon the field of their victory, although the cavalry had posts advanced as far as Soukirchen.