Читать книгу The Collected Works of Napoleon Bonaparte - Charles Downer Hazen, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne - Страница 195
1812.
ОглавлениеMontgaillard sums up his tirade against Napoleon for the Russian campaign by noting that it took the Romans ten years to conquer Gaul, while Napoleon "would not give two to the conquest of that vast desert of Scythia which forced Darius to flee, Alexander to draw back, Crassus to perish; where Julian terminated his career, where Valerian covered himself with shame, and which saw the disasters of Charles XII."
January 9th.—Suchet captures Valencia, 18,000 Spanish troops, and 400 cannon. The marshal is made Duke of Albuféra.
January 15th.—Imperial decree ordains 100,000 acres to be put under cultivation of beetroot, for the manufacture of indigenous sugar.
January 19th.—Taking of Ciudad Rodrigo by Wellington.
January 26th.—French, under General Friand, occupy Stralsund and Swedish Pomerania.
February 24th.—Treaty of alliance between France and Prussia; the latter to support France in case of a war with Russia.
March 13th.—Senatus Consultus divides the National Guards into three bans, to include all capable men not already in military service. They are not to serve outside France. A hundred cohorts, each 970 strong, of the first ban (men between 20 and 26), put at disposal of Government.
March 14th.—Treaty between France and Austria; reciprocal help, in need, of 30,000 men and 60 guns. The integrity of European Turkey mutually guaranteed.
March 26th.—Treaty between Russia and Sweden. Bernadotte is promised Norway by Alexander.
April 7th.—The English take Badajoz by assault. "The French General, Philippon, with but 3000 men, has been besieged thrice within thirteen months by armies of 50,000 men" (Montgaillard).
April 24th.—Alexander leaves St. Petersburg, to take command of his Grand Army.
May 9th.—Napoleon leaves Paris for Germany.
May 11th.—Assassination of English Prime Minister, Perceval.
May 17th-28th.—Napoleon at Dresden; joined there by the Emperor and Empress of Austria, and a fresh "parterre of kings".
May 28th.—-Treaty of Bucharest, between Turkey and Russia. The Pruth as boundary, and Servia restored to Turkey. This treaty, so fatal to Napoleon, and of which he only heard in October, was mainly the work of Stratford de Redcliffe, then aged twenty-five. Wellington, thinking the treaty his brother's work, speaks of it as "the most important service that ever fell to the lot of any individual to perform."
No. 1.
June 12th.—Suchet defeats an Anglo-Spanish army outside Tarragona.
To the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison.
June 12th, 1812.
My Dear,—I shall always receive news from you with great interest.
The waters will, I hope, do you good, and I shall see you with much pleasure on your return.
Never doubt the interest I feel in you. I will arrange all the matters of which you speak.
Napoleon.
June 16th.—Lord Liverpool Prime Minister of England.
June 18th.—United States declares war against England concerning rights of neutrals.
June 19th.—The captive Pope (Pius VII.) brought to Fontainebleau.
No. 2.
To the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison.
Gumbinnen, June 20th, 1812.
I have your letter of June 10th. I see no obstacle to your going to Milan, to be near the Vice-Reine. You will do well to go incognito. You will find it very hot.
My health is very good. Eugène is well, and is doing good work. Never doubt the interest I have in you, and my friendship.
Napoleon.
June 22nd.—Napoleon from his headquarters, Wilkowyszki, declares war against Russia. His army comprised 550,000 men and 1200 cannon, and he held sway at this epoch over 85,000,000 souls—half the then population of Europe.
June 24th.—French cross the Niemen, over 450,000 strong.40 Of these 20,000 are Italians, 80,000 from Confederation of the Rhine, 30,000 Poles, 30,000 Austrians, and 20,000 Prussians. The Russian army numbers 360,000.
June 28th.—French enter Wilna, the old capital of Lithuania. Napoleon remains here till July 16th, establishing a provisional government, and leaving his Foreign Minister, Maret, there.
July 12th.—Americans invade Canada.
July 18th.—Treaty of peace between England and Sweden; and between Russia and the Spanish Regency at Cadiz.
July 22nd.—Battle of Salamanca (Arapiles). Marmont defeated by Wellington, and badly wounded. French lose nearly 8000 men and 5000 prisoners; English loss, 5200. The Spanish Regency had decided to submit to Joseph Bonaparte, but this battle deters them. French retire behind the Douro.
July 23rd.—Combat of Mohilow, on the Dneiper. Davoust defeats Bagration.
July 28th.—French enter Witepsk.
August 1st.—Treaty of alliance between Great Britain and Russia. English fleet henceforward guards the Gulf of Riga. Combat of Obaiarzma, on the bank of the Drissa. Marshal Oudinot defeats Wittgenstein. Russians lose 5000 men and 14 guns.
August 9th.—Battle of Brownstown (near Toronto). Americans defeated; surrender August 16th with 2500 men and 33 guns to General Brock.
August 12th.—Wellington enters Madrid.
August 17th-18th.—Battle and capture of Smolensk. Napoleon defeats Barclay de Tolly; Russians lose 12,000, French less than half.
August 18th.—Battle of Polotsk, fifty miles from Witepsk, down the Dwina. St. Cyr defeats Wittgenstein's much larger army, and takes 20 guns. (St. Cyr made marshal for this battle, August 27th.)
August 19th.—Combat of Volontino-Cova, beyond Smolensk. Ney defeats Russians.
August 27th.—Norway guaranteed Sweden in lieu of Finland by Russia.
August 28th.—Interview at Abo, in Finland, between Alexander, Bernadotte, and Lord Cathcart (English ambassador). Decided that Sweden shall join the crusade against France, and that Moreau be imported from U.S.A. to command another army.
August 29th.—Viazma, burnt by Russians, entered by the French.
September 7th.—Battle of Borodino (La Moskowa). Nearly all the Russian generals are present: Barclay de Tolly, Beningsen, Bagration (who is killed), all under Kutusoff. Russians lose 30,000 men, French 20,000, including many generals who had survived all the campaigns of the Revolution. The French, hungry and soaked in rain, have no energy to pursue.
September 14th.—Occupation of Moscow; fired by emissaries of Rostopchin, its late governor. Of 4000 stone houses only 200 remain, of 8000 wooden ones 500. Over 20,000 sick and wounded burnt in their beds. Fire lasts till September 20th.
September 18th.—Russian Army of the Danube under Admiral Tschitchagow joins the Army of Reserve.
September 26th.—Russian troops from Finland disembark at Riga.
September 30th.—Napoleon finds a copy of Treaty of Bucharest at Moscow.
October 11th.—Admiral Tschitchagow with 36,000 men reaches Bresc, on the Bug, threatening the French communications with Warsaw.
October 17th-19th.—Second combat of Polotsk. Wittgenstein again defeated by St. Cyr, who is wounded.
October 18th.—Combat of Winkowo; Kutusoff defeats Murat. Americans defeated at Queenston Heights, on the Niagara, and lose 900 men.
October 19th.—Commencement of the Retreat from Moscow.
October 22nd.—Burgos captured by Wellington.
October 23rd.—Conspiracy of Malet at Paris; Cambacérès to the rescue. Evacuation of Moscow by Mortier after forty days' occupation. The French army now retreating has only half its original strength, and the best cavalry regiments boast only 100 horses.
October 24th.—Battle of Malo-Jaroslavitz. Eugène with 17,000
men defeats Kutusoff with 60,000; but Napoleon finds the enemy too strong and too tenacious to risk the fertile Kaluga route.
November 3rd.—Battle of Wiazma. Rearguard action, in which Ney and Eugène are distinguished.
November 9th.—Napoleon reaches Smolensk and hears of Malet conspiracy.
November 14th.—Evacuation of Smolensk.
November 16th.—Russian Army (of the Danube) takes Minsk, and cuts off the French from the Niemen.
November 16th-19th.—Combat of Krasnoi, twenty-five miles west of Smolensk. Kutusoff with 30,000 horse and 70,000 foot tries to stop the French, who have only 25,000 effective combatants. Magnificent fighting by Ney with his rearguard of 6000.
November 21st.—Russians seize at Borizow the bridges over the Beresina, which are
November 23rd.—Retaken by Oudinot.
November 26th-28th.—French cross the Beresina, but lose 20,000 prisoners and nearly all their cannon (150).
November 29th.—Napoleon writes Maret he has heard nothing of France or Spain for fifteen days.
December 3rd.—Twenty-ninth bulletin dated Malodeczna, fifty miles west of Borisow.
December 5th.—Napoleon reaches Smorgoni, and starts for France.
December 10th.—Murat, left in command, evacuates Wilna. French retreat in utter rout; "It is not General Kutusoff who routed the French, it is General Morosow" (the frost), said the Russians.
December 14th.—Napoleon reaches Dresden, and
December 18th.—Paris.
December 19th.—Evacuation of Kovno and passage of the Niemen.
December 20th.—Napoleon welcomed by the Senate in a speech by the naturalist Lacépède: "The absence of your Majesty, sire, is always a national calamity."
December 30th.—Defection of the Prussian General York and Convention of Taurogen, near Tilsit, between Russia and Prussia. This defection is the signal for the uprising of Germany from the Oder to the Rhine, from the Baltic to the Julienne Alps.
