XI.

1813.

Recent success, present strength, seemed the sure presage CHAP. of victory. No proclamation was issued to the French troops; no heart-stirring address animated the spirit of the men. All was still in their lines. Their watch-fires1 Lond. 168; Thiers, xvi. burned with a steady light, and no moving figures around 547-549; their flames indicated an intention to retreat in the x. 218. morning.1

Capefigue,

24.

battle of

Oct. 16.

All things being in readiness, three guns were fired at eight o'clock from the Allied headquarters, and imme- Commencediately a tremendous cannonade commenced on both sides. ment of the The Allies at all points made the attack. They advanced Wachau. preceded by two hundred guns, to which the French replied with three hundred, arrayed along their whole line. Kleist, with the left wing, attacked and carried Mark-Kleeberg on the Allied left, while Prince Eugene of Würtemberg, with the centre, marched against Wachau, and made himself master of a portion of it and of a small wood adjoining. At the same time Prince Gortschakoff, with the right, marched against Liebertwolkwitz, and Klenau, on the extreme right, advanced to support this attack; but as Gortschakoff had a considerable distance to march before he reached the enemy, the attacks were not made simultaneously, and after some success Klenau was obliged to retire. The success which he at first gained, however, had the effect of inducing Napoleon, who, from his position at the elevated sheepfold of Meitsdorf, beheld all, and with reason regarded Liebertwolkwitz as the key of his position, to bring up half the Young Guard, under Mortier, to the support of Lauriston, to whom the defence of that part of the position was intrusted. This accession of strength enabled Lauriston to repulse Klenau, and he drove him back in such a direction as effectually disunited 302, 303; him from the remainder of the line. By this advantage, Thiers, xvi. Liebertwolkwitz was effectually secured; and as Macdonald 551, 552; was now coming up from Holzhausen, Napoleon, deem- Odel. ii. 19, ing his own left safe, was enabled to turn his attention to i. 206. the centre and right of his line."

2

Lond. 169;

Bout. 113;

20; Vaud.

CHAP.

XI.

1813.

25. Battle at

the centre.

able success.

This was the more necessary that the advance of the Allies in that quarter had been attended with considerVictor in the centre was hard pressed by Prince Eugene of Würtemberg, and it was with difficulty Wachau in that he maintained himself in Wachau against the impetuous attacks of the Russians. To support him, Napoleon brought up two divisions of the Young Guard under Oudinot, who entered the village, situated, as already mentioned, in a hollow, and the reserve artillery of the Guard was placed on the heights behind so as to play on the columns of the enemy descending to the attack. The Emperor Alexander, who from the opposite heights watched the progress of the attack, feeling the force in the centre inadequate to forcing the village of Wachau, sent to Schwartzenberg for the support of Prince Eugene, and after some delay Bianchi's division was ordered up to his assistance. Meanwhile, in the French right centre, between Wachau and Mark-Kleeberg, Lewachoff's Russian cuirassiers had cut to pieces a body of Kellermann's dragoons, and the French cavalry reserves had to be brought up before his progress was checked. Kellermann then, however, gained possession of the level ground to the French right of Wachau, and being supported by Augereau's infantry, brought up from the second line, threatened to separate the Allied centre from their left. Napoleon, who designed to make his principal attack on the Allied centre, now directed Victor and Oudinot to debouch from Wachau upon Prince Eugene, while Lauriston and Mortier were to drive back Gortschakoff from Liebertwolkwitz, and eighty guns of the Guard, under Drouot, placed in battery between the two, were to connect and cover the attack. Victor and Oudinot assailed Prince Eugene with such an overwhelming force that he was obliged to retire over the hill on his rear to the farm of Auenhayn, where the reserve, under General Raeffskoi, was placed, who immediately came to the front and gallantly stopped their further advance. The retreat to

XI.

1813.

Auenhayn, however, though conducted with the steadi- CHAP. ness of which the iron veterans of Russia alone are capable, was attended with very heavy loss; upwards of a thousand dead lay upon the field, and double that number of wounded fell into the hands of the enemy. The battle seemed gained, for the French were established Cathcart, in great strength not only in the centre but beyond it, Odel. ii. 21, and Napoleon, deeming the victory secure, wrote to the i. 205, 206; King of Saxony that he was entirely successful, and had Lond. 159. made two thousand prisoners.1

1

304, 305;

22; Vaud.

Bout. 114;

26.

vantages

gained by

in the centre.

And in truth it was gained, if either the Allies had been less active in bringing up forces to supply the chasm Great admade in the centre, or Napoleon had had ten thousand and additional men in hand to secure his advantages. Schwart- the French zenberg, seeing his centre so nearly forced, brought up his whole reserve, under Prince Hesse Homburg, which, in spite of the remonstrances of the Emperor Alexander and General Jomini, had been stationed on the western side of the Pleisse, far from the decisive point, to support the menaced part of the line. This force at length arrived at Grobern, behind Mark-Kleeberg, where Kleist still, though with great difficulty, maintained himself. The Allied army now formed a new line, still turning on the pivot of Mark-Kleeberg, and slanting from that point behind Wachau, through Auenhayn and Gossa, till it rested on the wood of the University, in the rear of Liebertwolkwitz, from which Gortschakoff had of necessity been driven back by Lauriston and Mortier, after the centre was forced at Wachau. In every part of the field except MarkKleeberg, the line was forced back, and the French occupied all the posts which had been held by the Allies at the commencement of the action. Klenau was with Cathcart, difficulty holding the head of the wood of the University Jom. iv. far in the rear of Liebertwolkwitz;2 Gortschakoff was Bout. 116; defending to the last extremity the other side of the 384-386; University wood and the village of Gossa, while Prince 555-559. Eugene and Raeffskoi stood fast at the sheep-farm of

2

305, 306;

456-458 :

Plotho, ii.

Thiers, xvi.

XI.

CHAP. Auenhayn, and the French cavalry were rapidly traversing every part of the field of battle, and collecting 1813. prisoners at every step.

27.

The Allies worsted in

are further

the centre.

Napoleon, who saw his advantage, now deemed the decisive moment arrived, and he made every arrangement to turn it to the very best advantage. He collected the Old Guard in front of the space between Gossa and Auenhayn, which was the weakest point of the enemy's line; he placed the artillery of the Guard, under Drouot, in front, the cavalry behind them, and the infantry in heavy masses in rear; while, on either flank of the guns, Victor and Oudinot on the right, Lauriston and Mortier on the left, stood ready to advance and establish themselves in any aperture which the artillery fire might make in their front. Raeffskoi's grenadiers, with artillery in the intervals of regiments, were immediately moved to the menaced point near Auenhayn, and the French artillery of the Guard, advancing to within musket-shot, began firing with the utmost violence at the Russian line. Raeffskoi's men came down like scales of walls under the terrible discharges, but the soldiers instantly closing to the centre filled up the gaps as fast as they were made, and still presented an invincible front to the enemy. The farm of Auenhayn was at last carried for a moment by Dubreton's division of Victor's corps; but no efforts of Lauriston could dislodge the Russians from Gossa. The Allies still held an eminence in the open ground on the extreme left of the French, called the Swedish Redoubt, where the bones of the warriors of Gustavus Adolphus reposed. Macdonald, who had now come up from Holzhausen, was engaged in the attack on this point. Napoleon, who rode up to the spot, attracted by the violence of the fire 1 Thiers, xvi. around the eminence, seeing a regiment of infantry at the foot of the redoubt, asked what regiment it was, and being told it was the 22d light, he said, "That is impossible; the 22d light would never remain there to be massacred by grape-shot, without rushing on the artillery

560, 561; Cathcart,

306; Odel. ii. 331; Fain, ii. 397.

1

which was destroying them." Stung by this reproach, CHAP. the regiment sprang up, and at a run carried the redoubt. XI. This advantage gained, Macdonald pressed on, entirely 1813. turned the Allied right, drove back Klenau, and made himself master of the wood of the University.

on the

28.

Napoleon had now gained a very great advantage in almost every part of the line, and he resolved to push it Grand cato the uttermost. For this purpose he brought forward valry attack the enormous mass of cavalry which on so many previ- centre. ous occasions had proved decisive of victory. Twelve thousand horse, fresh and hitherto untouched, advanced to the charge in two columns, one on the Allied right, and the other on their left centre, where their line seemed least supported. The attack on the right centre, between Auenhayn and Gossa, is thus described by a gallant eyewitness, himself engaged in the affray: "At this moment the enemy's cavalry, of which we could count fifty squadrons, were standing in formidable array on the shoulder of the hill of Liebertwolkwitz. A small brook or drain ran from Gossa towards the Pleisse, and in rear of the place where two Russian regiments of horse had taken post. Its banks were swampy, and could only be passed with difficulty, and a leap across a wide drain, unless by causeways made in two or three places by the farmers for agricultural purposes. The cavalry on the hill proved to be the whole corps of Latour Maubourg, amounting to upwards of 5000 horse; Murat had taken the command, and began to descend the hill, directing his attack upon the two Russian regiments at its foot. French advanced in line of contiguous columns of regiments; certainly in one body only, with no second line The narrowness of the front to be attacked, as well as the nature of the ground, caused this powerful force to crowd into one dense mass before it came in contact with the Russian dragoons; these were overwhelmed and driven across the swamp or over the causeways. Many of the rearmost were killed, but the rest

or reserve.

The