X.

perial Austrian and Russian staffs, arrive in time to cancel CHAP. the previous directions, certain it is that an attack took place on the Grosse Garten, on the morning of the 26th, 1813. by the corps of Kleist, which, after a sharp conflict, led to the occupation of the greater part of that important enclosure by the Allied troops. Upon this the French, in obedience evidently to orders from their chief, abandoned their whole positions outside the works, and retired at all points into the intrenched camp in front of the line of the old ramparts, now almost entirely demolished, where they prepared to make a desperate resistance. This camp con- 286-297, sisted of four large redoubts, strengthened by palisades, 217, 218; and armed with heavy artillery, capable of long retarding, 112. if not withstanding, the most formidable attacks.1

1 Thiers, xvi.

298; Cath.

Lond. 111,

14.

At Aug. 26.

This success, and the intelligence received of the arrival of Napoleon in person in Dresden, to be speedily followed An attack by that of the Guards and reserves, induced the Austrian on Dresden commander-in-chief again to alter his plans, and hazard, solved on. what he called in his bulletin giving an account of the battle which ensued, "a strong reconnoissance" against Dresden, but which, in truth, was either intended to be, or ere long became, a general attack on that city.* three in the afternoon of the 26th, the Allied army was in motion at all points, and in five massy columns, each preceded by fifty pieces of artillery, advanced against the French redoubts around the town. Wittgenstein commanded the right, having on his left Kleist's Prussians, who had just won the Grosse Garten, and he was to attack the barrier of Pirna, in front of which strong batteries had been erected, which rendered the advance a Thiers, xvi. matter of extreme difficulty. Kleist advanced through 217, 218; the Grosse Garten, and was to attack the barriers beyond 99, 100 it. In the centre, the Austrians under Colloredo directed Lond. 113. their masses against the Garten Moczinski, and the gate

"The Prince Marshals order," says Wilson, "was limited to the assault of the exterior redoubts. The generals commanding at the different points were to judge of the practicability of further operations.”—WILSON, ii. 248.

298; Cath.

St Cyr, iv.

Fain, ii.268;

CHAP.

X.

1813.

15.

return to

den.

Aug. 23.

of Dohna and Freyberg, which were near it, while, on the extreme left, other Austrians, forming the advanced-guard of Klenau's corps, which was now coming up, formed towards Plauen columns of attack on the heights, menacing, indeed, and from which a violent fire of artillery issued, but which were not apparently destined to take a very active part in the conflict which followed.

Meanwhile Napoleon, redoubling his energy with the Napoleon's danger which threatened him, was hastening back with all wards Dres- his disposable forces to the Saxon capital. It was at Lowenberg, in Silesia, on the evening of the 22d, that he first received intelligence of the approach of the enemy in great strength to Dresden, and he immediately halted his Guards and reserves, and, giving the command of the army destined to follow Blucher, consisting of Lauriston's, Macdonald's, and Ney's corps, with Sebastiani's cavalry, to Macdonald, he himself, taking Ney along with him, made every preparation, in the utmost haste, to return to Dresden. He took with him the entire Guard and reserve cavalry, with the corps of Marmont, which had been the least engaged; and at the same time he sent orders to Vandamme and Victor to fall back from the Bohemian frontier also to the same capital, leaving Poniatowski to guard the defile of Zittau, through which pursuit might be apprehended. By this concentration of force he reckoned on having in four days 80,000, in six, 180,000 men grouped around Dresden; and he thought there was no doubt that St Cyr could hold the intrenched camp there till these succours arrived. The same evening he despatched Murat to the Saxon capital to report the state of affairs, and encourage St Cyr, who was writing very despondingly as to his means of defence, and assure him of the speedy arrival of the Emperor, with the elite of the army, to his support. On the day following, he despatched General Gourgaud, afterwards his faithful companion at St Helena, on the same destination, to whom he verbally communicated the strongest words of encourage

CHAP.

X.

1813.

ment to be repeated to Murat and St Cyr. Meanwhile the Emperor himself marched, surrounded by his Guards, till noonday on the 24th, by which time he had reached Bautzen. Having there, however, received still more alarming advices from that general, he advanced alone to Stolpen, on the road leading alike to Pirna and Dresden, as yet undetermined whether to move on the former and strike at the enemy's rear, or the latter, to resist the front attack of the Grand Army. He nourished the most magnificent designs in his breast, designing to march with 120,000 men by Pirna and Koenigstein on the enemy's communica-1 Thiers, xvi. tions, while St Cyr, in his intrenched camp, kept him at bay 267, 268; in front. He was in the highest spirits, and repeatedly said 257: Odel. to those around him, " Well, we shall gain a great battle; Bout. 30. we shall soon march on Prague, on Berlin, on Vienna.”1

Fain, ii. 256,

i. 246-249;

16.

the informa

Dresden on

But ere long the Emperor was wakened from these splendid dreams to the stern realities of his situation. On Napoleon's the night of the 25th, at eleven o'clock, Gourgaud returned, plan in conchange of having accomplished his mission with extraordinary speed, sequence of and confirmed, in the minutest particulars, all that St Cyr tion from had written. He reported that Dresden was environed the 25th. on the whole left bank of the Elbe by an immense army, amply supplied with a formidable artillery, and that it could not hold out beyond another day without the personal appearance of the Emperor. The lines of investiture extended from Pirna to Plauen, forming a vast semicircle around the city on the western side, and the Allies were awaiting only the arrival of Klenau, who was expected on the night of the 25th or morning of the 26th, to make a grand attack, which, from their immense superiority of force, it would be impossible for its garrison unaided to resist. Already the accumulation of the enemy's best troops around the Grosse Garten had become such that preparations were making to evacuate it on the following morning. Strongly bent as the French Emperor was on his grand operation from the camp of Pirna with 120,000 men on the enemy's rear, he was staggered by this intel

X.

1813.

CHAP. ligence, which seemed to render an entire change of measures necessary. After deliberating an hour, he took his line. At midnight on the 25th, orders were issued to the whole Old Guard, which had already arrived at Stolpen, the cavalry of Latour Maubourg, and the half of the division Teste, which were all that had come up, to set out at daybreak, and march with the utmost expedition direct on Fain, ii. 257, Dresden. Vandamme alone, under whose orders he placed iv. 98, 99, 40,000 men, was to continue the movement on the Allied 254; Grosse rear by Koenigstein. He himself took a few hours' rest, and at six set out on horseback at the gallop for the same capital.1

1Thiers, xvi. 288-290;

259; St Cyr,

Odel. i. 253,

Chron. i.

374-386.

17.

on ap

proaching Dresden.

Before the Emperor, however, reached Dresden, he Danger of had ocular demonstration how pressing affairs had bethe Emperor come, and how indispensable his personal presence with large reinforcements was. As he approached the city, the fire of the batteries, placed at the extremity of the French and Allied lines, became very violent, and the Emperor directed the alteration of one of St Cyr's on the right bank, to enable it to play with more effect on those of Wittgenstein on the left. Presently, as he drew nearer, the fire on either side became so violent, that the balls crossed over the Emperor's head, from the Russian guns on the one hand, and the redoubt Marcellini on the other, and he was obliged to pass the spot ventre à terre, as Odeleben, an eyewitness, says, to avoid the risk of being struck. Having in this way got over the dangerous ground, he galloped into Dresden surrounded by Latour Maubourg's cuirassiers, and suddenly appeared at the gate of the royal palace. His arrival excited no little surprise and the most unbounded enthusiasm among all classes. As he passed the Great Bridge, the wounded soldiers crept out of their beds in an hospital adjoining, 249-251; and made the air resound with cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" 291, 292; and the joyful sound, repeated from mouth to mouth, soon spread over the whole city, and reanimated all in a defence, which many had begun to regard as hopeless. 2

2 Odel. i.

Thiers, xvi.

Fain, ii.

263, 264.

X.

Already the Russian balls were falling on the great CHAP. bridge, which was soon crowded with cavalry and infantry crossing over, and in the Grand Place itself; but the 1813. terror which a few minutes before had possessed every breast soon gave place to joyous confidence, when it was known that the Emperor with his invincible Guards was among them.

18.

of Napoleon

The assault of the Allies, as already mentioned, did not commence till three in the afternoon, and the Emperor Dispositions employed the precious hours which intervened between to defend nine, when he had arrived, and that hour, in inspect- Dresden. ing the works and making the additional dispositions which the successive arrival of reinforcements put in his power. The cuirassiers, under Latour Maubourg, who had come up with him, were quickly followed by the Old Guard; but the Young Guard, of four strong divisions, could not arrive till late in the evening, and the corps of Marmont and Victor, which followed next, could only follow in the course of the night. Meanwhile an attack was imminent, and required to be instantly guarded against; already the heights around the city were crowded with troops, and the strong batteries in their front, with the matches lighted, portended an immediate assault. In this extremity the Emperor placed a portion of the Old Guard in the rear of the other troops, at each of the barriers, with orders not to bring them forward till the last extremity, and he himself took post with the remainder in the Grand Place, ready to bear succour to any point which might require it. He arranged the formidable cuirassiers of Latour Maubourg outside the gates, in the plain of Frederickstadt, so as to 1 Thiers,xvi. prolong the concave line of defence in that quarter back 292, 293; to the Elbe, and in support of them were placed Teste's 265; Grosse brigade; while the centre of the line, which did not 391-394. appear to be sufficiently guarded, was strengthened by a brigade of Westphalians.'

It was between three and four o'clock when the

VOL. II.

B

Fain, ii.264,

Chron. i.