XI. 1813. CHAP. all; but, smiling, 'you were ready to follow the footsteps. of Austria; but I pardon you. You are good at bottom, and have a real friendship for me; and you are a brave man; but I committed a mistake when I made you a king. If I had been content with making you a viceroy like Eugene, you would have acted like him; but being a king, you thought more of your own crown than mine.' These words, pronounced in a friendly tone, produced a great impression, and the Emperor soon after took his leave with an affectionate manner, bidding them recollect that the morrow would decide their fate, his own, and that of France." 1 1 Thiers, xvi. 533-535. 20. The next morning (15th) early, Napoleon was on Position of horseback riding over the ground which was to be the and Allies, scene of the coming struggle. By the evening of that the French day all the corps of the French army (except those under Marshal Ney, who had to return from the banks of the Elbe) had either arrived or were approaching the environs of Leipsic. The position taken up by the French and Allied armies at the commencement of this the greatest battle of modern times, has been thus described by an intelligent and able eyewitness: "Marmont was in position at MöCKERN, on the north of Leipsic, looking out towards Halle, where Blucher was concentrated, and Ney and Reynier were hastening from Eilenberg to fall in on his right, and the whole remaining disposable force of the French, under Napoleon and Murat, was assembled to the south of the same town, in the position of WACHAU and Liebertwolkwitz. Only certain posts, however, were regularly occupied ; actual lines of troops were only formed partially when and where they were absolutely required. The line taken up by Murat on the 14th, and approved by Napoleon when he came up, extended from Liebertwolkwitz to the Pleisse, running at right angles to the latter river. The principal posts occupied were Dolitz, on the right, with its walled gardens and strong defensible ground; Wachau, in the centre, a village in a 299. XI. hollow, with a small wood or orchard at one extremity, CHAP. and, being itself commanded by rising ground on both sides, was a difficult post for either party to hold; lastly, 1813. Liebertwolkwitz, on the French left, a much better post and more considerable village, on the top of a hill which formed a regular glacis to it. A ridge ran all the way from the shoulder of the eminence of Liebertwolkwitz to the river Pleisse, passing in rear of Wachau, and commanding it. The position could not fail to present itself to the eye of an experienced officer as the only one which that uninteresting country afforded for the purpose of covering Leipsic towards the south. The distance of the centre of this line from the gates of Leipsic may have been about five English miles, and its extent from right to left about three and a half." The disposition of1 Cathcart, the army which occupied it was as follows: Poniatowski, on the right, held Dolitz, Mark-Kleeberg, and the banks of the Pleisse, with Kellermann's cavalry on the plain to his left; Victor, in the centre, occupied Wachau; Lauriston, on the left, guarded Liebertwolkwitz; beyond him stood Sebastiani's horse; while on the extreme left Macdonald was every instant expected to debouch from Holzhausen. Augereau was in rear of Poniatowski on the right; Napoleon in person, with the Guard and Latour Maubourg's cavalry, took post behind Victor in the centre; Bertrand's corps was in Leipsic, and Margaron's division away on the left bank of the Elster, occupying Lindenau. "To the north of Leipsic, where Marmont's force was posted, the French held the village of Lindenthal as an advanced post; but his own corps, forming his centre and left, was placed in an advantageous position, two miles farther back, having its left on the Elster, near Möckern, and its right at Euteritzsch. He occupied both these villages, and there his principal force was assembled, as they covered the whole approaches to Leipsic from the north. He had also placed in position, though they were not movable, from want of horses, forty pieces of marine XI. 1813. CHAP. artillery that had been adapted for field service and left at Leipsic. His right wing, consisting of Dombrowski's division, sent by Ney, was detached to the right, and occupied another well-chosen position at Widderitzch, covering the Delitsch road. The cavalry of Arrighi, Duke of Padua, was with the right wing, which Reynier and Ney were expected to join; but in the morning neither had yet joined him, though they did in the course of the battle.”1 1 Cathcart, 311, 312. 21. Forces on both sides. The forces of the opposing armies on this occasion were very unequal, if they had been all brought simultaneously into action; but the backward policy of Bernadotte, which kept his force, 60,000 strong, out of action, took away the superiority which otherwise would have existed on the Allied side, and reduced the forces on either side as near as possible to an equality. The French Grand Army, under Napoleon in person and Murat, consisting of the corps of Poniatowski, Victor, Lauriston, Augereau, and Macdonald, with Kellermann and Milhaud's cavalry and the Guards and cuirassiers in reserve, mustered 115,000 combatants, of whom 18,000 were horse, with 500 pieces of cannon.* The army of the Allies, opposed to this mass to the south of the town, consisted of 131,000 men, of whom 25,000 were cavalry, with 620 guns. This force was on the ground entire, with the exception of Klenau's corps, of nearly 10,000 men, who was detached five miles to the extreme right; but, on the other hand, Benningsen and Colloredo's reserves had not yet come up; but they might be expected on the day following with 48,000 men, of * C "Ainsi dans la première journée Napoléon avait pour la bataille qui allait se livrer au sud de Leipsic 115,000 hommes à opposer aux 160,000 de Schwartzenberg. Si li lutte s'engageait en même temps au nord, il avait à opposer aux 60,000 hommes de Blucher Marmont avec 20,000, Bertrand avec 10,000, sans compter les 10,000 de Margaron qui gardaient Leipsic et la grande route du Rhin."-THIERS, xvi. 542. "The Allied force actually in the field thus amounted to 131,000 men, and the total moving from Bohemia upon Leipsic to 179,000 men. The enemy had about 130,000 in the field, and Buonaparte commanded in person." -WILSON, ii. 166. CHAP. XI. 1813. whom 3000 were horse, with 130 guns. To the north of Leipsic, Ney's whole force-including Marmont at Lindenthal (20,000), Bertrand in Leipsic (10,000), and Souham, Reynier, and Dombrouski on the march (35,000)— numbered 65,000 combatants, with a reserve of 10,000 at Lindenau under Margaron; but they were opposed to 120,000 under Blucher and the Crown Prince, if their forces were all brought up. But as the latter had kept his army so far back that it could not possibly take a part in the approaching action, his entire army was to be deducted from the attacking body, which left the opposing forces in that quarter as nearly as possible on an equality. But, on the other hand, as Souham and Reynier had not come up at the commencement of the action, and Bertrand was obliged to hasten to Lin- 542; Vaud. denau, the numerical superiority throughout the day was Kausler, largely on the side of the Allies, and the stubborn . 340; resistance they there made in the highest degree honour- 449. able to the French soldiers.1 1 Thiers, xvi. i. 202-204; 932; Plotho, Jom. iv. 22. of the town There was one peculiarity, however, in the position of Leipsic, in a military point of view, of the very highest Description importance, and which was the cause in the end of the of Leipsic. most frightful disasters to the French army. It had only one line of retreat, and that a narrow defile through marshes nearly two miles broad. The town itself is of no great extent, and is surrounded, like most German towns, by an old wall, forming nearly a square. It consists of a half-ruined curtain of masonry, covered by a ditch, in most places almost obliterated, without a counterscarp. The suburbs, which stretched much farther out, were also at their extremities shut in towards the south and west by walls, and the gates in them defended by palisades; but towards the north-west, on the side of the Partha, they were entirely open. To the south-east, on the road to France, the city is bounded by the marshes of the Pleisse and the Elster, which descend from the Bohemian mountains, and, lazily flowing through swampy mea XI. 1813. CHAP. dows, wholly impassable for carriages, form a barrier two miles across, against the passage of an enemy. This broad belt is traversed by a single road, that to Lützen and Mayence, which enters the city over a bridge across the Elster. There were no other arches over that river, except one or two wooden ones for foot passengers, save this stone bridge, over which the great road passed, well known from the fearful catastrophe which occurred at it a few days after. Thus Napoleon, with a force inferior by at least sixty thousand men to the collected mass of his enemies, chose a battle-field with no other 1 Bout. 161; retreat passable for horsemen, artillery, or carriages, but a 383; Cape single road traversing a single arch; a selection the more Introd. 15; extraordinary in a general who has laid it down as "the first duty of a commander never to fight with a defile in Fain, ii. figue, ix. Thiers, xvi. 546-550. 23. berg's ad troops. At midnight on the 15th, two rockets were sent up to Schwartzen- a prodigious height from the headquarters of Prince dress to his Schwartzenberg, to the south of Leipsic, which were immediately answered by three, two of a blue and one of a red light, to the north. These signals announced to the assembled multitudes that all things were in readiness, and that the battle of giants was about to begin. At one in the morning an animated proclamation, signed by Schwartzenberg, was issued and read at the head of every company in the army.* Great was the ardour which it awakened in the Allied ranks joyfully the men looked to their swords and tried their flints, nothing doubting they were preparing for a decisive victory. Confidence pervaded every bosom: every heart beat high with hope. * "Braves guerriers ! L'époque la plus importante de la sainte lutte est arrivée ; l'heure decisive vient de sonner : preparez vous au combat. Le lien qui réunit les plus puissantes nations pour un et même but, va se resserrer sur le champ de bataille. Russes, Prusses, Autrichiens! vous combattez pour la même cause pour la liberté de l'Europe, pour l'independance, pour l'immortalité. Tous pour un! et un pour tous ! que ce soit votre cri de guerre dans ce saint combat: restez lui fidèle dans le moment decisif, et la victoire est à vous. "CHARLES P. SCHWARTZENBERG." -LONDONDERRY, 168. |