11 - Napoleon, A Short Biography by Robert Matteson Johnston

FOREWORD In the popular imagination, Empress Josephine wears a halo of goodness, making her biographers task particularly challenging. The disdain many hold for Napoleon is often linked to the perceived cruelty he showed towards the woman who stood by him for fourteen years. This biography seeks not to judge but to paint a vivid portrait of Josephine as she truly was, allowing readers to form their own opinions about her character. Join Walter Geer and Celine Major in exploring this complex figure of history.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of Napoleon, a short biography. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Napoleon,
a short biography by R. M. Johnston. Chapter ten Jena

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and Friedland, War with Prussia Jenna Murat's March to Lubeck
a Lao Friedland. To present a clear impression, it will
be better to follow the first Great cycle of Wars
to its conclusion, postponing till its termination a consideration of

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the political events and changes that accompanied it. A piece
between France and Austria quickly followed Austerlitz, and after the
treaty signed at Presbourg on the twenty sixth of December,
the French troops gradually evacuated Austrian territory, but instead of
being brought back to the English Channel, the core of

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the Grand Army remained, for the most part quartered in
the South German states that were on friendly terms with Napoleon.
The reason of this was that the downfall of Austria
had settled nothing Russia was still threatening. War with Prussia
had long appeared probable, hanover which Napoleon had seized immediately

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after his rupture with England, was dangled as a bait
before King Frederick William's eyes, while the Emperor pressed on
him an anti British commercial policy. Diplomatic bickering proceeded through
the summer of eighteen o six, and on the first
of October, the Prussian ambassador at Paris presented a series

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of demands, including one for the withdrawal of the French
troops from southern Germany, that brought matters to a crisis.
The demands of Prussia were rejected by Napoleon, who was
already in the midst of his troops. Once more, as
at Ulm, the Emperor repeated the strategic maneuver of Marengo.

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To understand what took place, a glance at the map
is necessary. From the French frontier to the capital of
Prussia ran perhaps the most important road in all Germany,
one that was to figure conspicuously in the history of Napoleon.
It led northeast from Mayence on the Rhine, through Erfurt

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and Leipzig to Berlin. Midway between the two latter places,
it crossed at right angles the River Elbe, which was
defended by several large fortresses. This road described what was
practically a straight line between Paris and Berlin, and appeared
to be the necessary scene of the campaign now about

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to open. But the Prussian generals had not yet learned
the methods of Napoleon. Their army, of which the highest
ranks were filled by veterans trained under the eye of
the Great Frederick, was confident in its machine like precision,
was inspired to martial ardor by the influence of the

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patriotic Queen Louisa and the princes of the Royal house.
Young officers had whetted their swords on the stone steps
of the French embassy in Berlin, and the whole army
was animated by hatred of France and a blind confidence
in its superiority. But the aged Duke of Brunswick, who

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was in command, fell into error. The Prussian divisions were
marched beyond the Elbe and thence slowly advanced in a
great semicircle, stretching out on either side of the Mayans Road.
On the fifth of October, headquarters were at Erfort, and
the one hundred and ten thousand men of the Prussian

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army presented a front of about ninety miles between Cassel
and Rudolstadt, watching the Thuringian forest for a first glimpse
of the enemy. Meanwhile, what had Napoleon been doing? Aiming
as always at dealing a decisive blow, he rapidly moved
the corps that were protecting the French frontier, not along

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the Maid's Berlin line, but to the eastward through Wurtemburg
and Bavaria, where they joined the troops already stationed close
to the Austrian border. The army, numbering about one hundred
and ninety thousand men, was strongly concentrated about Bamberg and
thence marched north and slightly east towards the corner of Bavaria,

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Saxony and Bohemia. On the fifth of October, the front
of the French army, covering not more than thirty five miles,
was between Cobourg and Hoff and Napoleon, who already shrewdly
suspected the approximate position of the Prussians, declared that if
he could march unimpeded a few days more, he would

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be in Bad Berlin. First, the French pressed on by
long days marches, and a week later the outposts of
the two armies were in touch. Not far from Salfeld,
the French extreme left had come into contact with the
extreme left of the Prussians. The French were rapidly marching north,

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the Prussians slowly southwest. Napoleon's object was now to swing
about towards his left so as to get across the
Great Road in the rear of the Duke of Brunswick.
This maneuver was successfully carried out, the French corps getting
into a line roughly indicated by Salfeld, Jena and Noumburg,

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the main strength constantly tending northwards and towards the Elbe.
When the Duke of Brunswick discovered that the French army
had completely turned his left flank and was rapidly moving
towards his line of communications, he issued orders for a
general movement eastwards in hopes of being able to retreat

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towards the line of the Elbe through Jena and Noumburg.
But he was just a few hours too late and
was compelled to fight with his enemy. Between him and
his line of retreat. On the fourteenth of October were
fought two battles within a few miles at Jena, and
at Auerstadt. At Auerstadt, Davoust, with inferior numbers, held his

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position all day and prevented the passage of the King
of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick. At Jena, with
superior numbers, Napoleon utterly crushed Hoenloh. The Prussian infantry fought
well until beaten, then the French cavalry rode them down
with ease. The pursuit of the defeated army by Muraut

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was of an extraordinary character. He all but literally galloped
from Jena to Lubeck on the Baltic Sea in three
weeks with the corps of lan Sioux and Bernadotte, together
with a large division of a cavalry, he swept up
the remains of the Prussian army and captured all the

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fortresses he passed. Blucher, with twenty thousand men, was the
last to hold out, surrendering after Morat had stormed Lubeck
on the seventh of November. In the meanwhile, Napoleon, with
the other half of the army, had pressed on to Berlin,
which he occupied on the twenty seventh of October. This

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was the most decisive and brilliant in its results of
all the campaigns of Napoleon, but the uncertainty of war
the fickleness of fortune were demonstrated by the course of
that which was immediately to follow. Russia was now as
anxious to support Prussia against France as she had been

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to support Austria. But once more the allies had gone
in singly and paid the consequence. By the time that
Napoleon had destroyed the army of Prussia and occupied her
capital with the greater part of her territory, the Russian
corps were barely across the frontier. Napoleon decided not to

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await them, but to march even to Poland if necessary,
and there dispose of these last enemies. During two months
following Jenna, French columns were marching steadily north and east
from prosperous and rich central Germany towards the desolate plains
of eastern Prussia and Poland. Napoleon, so as to utilize

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the political sentiments of the Poles, now in hopes of
recovering their lost independence, determined to base himself on the
line of the Vistula and to place his headquarters at Warsaw.
The Russian commander Bennigsen anxious to support the Prussians, moved
into the coast provinces covering Kernesburg and operating towards Danzig.

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These two fortresses, with a small body of troops, now
represented all that remained of the Prussian power. On the
twenty fifth of December, a partial engagement between the two
armies took place at Pultusk, in which the losses were
heavy and the results indecisive. Then Napoleon and Bennigsen both

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went into winter quarters until early in February eighteen o seven,
when the latter determined to make an attempt to crush
Bernardotte's corps before it could be assisted by the others.
In this he failed. Napoleon, rapidly concentrating, hoped in turn
to deal a heavy blow at his antagonist. But the

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success of great military operations often depends on the most
trifling details. A staff officer conveying dispatches to Marshal Bernadotte
fell into the hands of the Cossacks, and Benigsen thus
became informed of Napoleon's plans. He promptly moved his army

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to safer positions and finally stood his ground and offered
battle near the Little village of Ailao. There, on the
eighth of February was fought one of the most bloody
battles of the Empire. A raging snowstorm impeded the first
movements of the French. Marshal Auguerout's corps lost its direction,

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advanced to the attack diagonally, and was surrounded and annihilated
by the Russians. A great gap was opened in the
French line at Ailaoo, and Benigsen sent forward his infantry
to pierce it. Napoleon and his staff appeared in the
greatest danger, but a few battalions of the Guard held
their ground with grim desperation, and the Emperor, calm and unmoved,

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declined to change his position. It was necessary to relieve
the pressure on the French center at any cost, and
thus gained time to bring fresh troops up. So Murat
was ordered to collect all the available cavalry and advance
on the Russian center. Seventy squadrons of dragoons and cuirassiers,

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lancers and chasseurs about ten thousand men then followed that
most brilliant of cavalry leaders through the whirls of snow,
straight for the Russian line. This remarkable charge of cavalry
was carried a distance of nearly three thousand yards before
it was spent. It swept everything in its front, pierced

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completely through the Russian center, and gave Napoleon the relief
he so urgently needed. From then on to dusk, the
battle was fought with dogged obstinacy on both sides, the
French making but little progress. At night, each army and
each commander was beaten. A thousand dead men four thousand

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dead horses lay between them. Napoleon and Benigsen both made
preparations for retreat, but the former guest his opponent's intentions
in time counter manded his first orders, occupied the Russian
positions next morning and claimed Alao as a victory. But
the French army and all Europe realized that the victory

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was purely technical, and that Bennigsen had come very near
defeating the invincible conqueror. Was the spell broken all through Germany,
in Austria and in the remotest parts of Italy. The
opponents of Napoleon drew breath and declared his fall was near.
He meanwhile, retired to winter quarters once more, and called

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up from every corner of the Empire, fresh contingents of
men to stop the enormous gaps made in his ranks.
One of Napoleon's favorite theories was that numbers constituted the
essential factor of success. It was not till June that
the armies could be once more got into motion. In
a country where the spring comes so late, as in

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Prussian Poland, the new campaign opened badly for the French,
as Bennigsen held his ground successfully in a partial engagement
at Heilsburg. Maneuvering followed, and at last an opportunity arose,
of which Napoleon took full advantage. Bennigsen marched down the
right bank of the Ale towards Kernigsburg, which one half

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of the French army under Murat was threatening at Friedland.
He sent a detachment to the further bank to occupy
that town. A French corps that of Lan, deployed against
the town and engaged the Russians. Bennigsen sent over more
troops in support, and, seeing no sign of French reinforcements,

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came to the hasty conclusion that he had only LUN's
corps to deal with. He accordingly decided to cross the
river in strength and crush this isolated opponent. But behind Lan,
in the wooded semicircle of hills that nearly surround Friedland,
the Emperor U denot Ney, Victor Mortier, and the Guard

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were hurrying on. Napoleon watched the Russian movements until he
judged that Benixen had gone too far to withdraw, and
then the whole army advanced to Lan's support. The Russians
were outnumbered nearly two to one and were in a
wretched position to fight. Massed in a contracted space where

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the converging fire of the French artillery could not fail
to cause havoc, and with a river behind them, Benigsen
was utterly defeated with heavy loss, and retreated with his
shattered army to the Russian frontier. Napoleon pursued and a
few days days later reached the Little River Niemen boundary

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of Prussia and Russia. At this point he received overtures
for peace from the Tsar Alexander, which he accepted, and
it was agreed that the two emperors should meet in
a raft moored in mid stream close to the town
of Tilsit. This famous interview, which will be dealt with
in the following chapter. Marks the close of the first

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great cycle of the wars of the Empire, that which
was marked by nearly unclouded success. End of Chapter ten.
Recording by Linda Johnson,