August 18, 2025 • 26 mins
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.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter thirteen 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.
Recording by Jeffrey Wilson, Ames Iowa. Napoleon, A short biography
(00:24):
by R. M. Johnston. Chapter thirteen, The Austrian Marriage and
the Campaign of Russia Dynastic question. Napoleon marries Maria Louisa.
Jealousy of Russia causes for war preparations, Campaign of Russia, Borodino, Moscow,
(00:44):
the retreat. Having concluded the Treaty of Chunbon with Austria,
Napoleon left Vienna for France. But he returned in a
far different mood to that in which he had returned
from Tilsit in eighteen o seven. Then an unclouded series
of successes lay behind him, and before him arose great
(01:06):
schemes that were to lead to the glorious day when
Great Britain should be at his feet. But now his
preoccupations were on a smaller scale. For the security of
his own throne shared his thoughts with the overthrow of
his hated enemy. There were many reasons for the Emperor's dissatisfaction.
(01:26):
The defeat of Austria had proved a harder task than
ever before. At Essling, the Archduke Charles had claimed a
victory at Valgram, he had withdrawn his army from the field,
virtually intact. In Spain, too, a British general was proving
more than a match for the best marshals of the Empire,
(01:49):
while from one end of the peninsula to the other,
insurrection blazed, and King Joseph could barely maintain himself at Madrid.
Greatest of all his anxieties was the dynastic question, whose
was to be the reversion of the imperial throne. The
idea had long been working in his head, the question
(02:11):
had now become an acute one. Perhaps an incident that
occurred during his stay at Vienna drove him finally and
reluctantly to an act that he had first contemplated on
his return from Egypt in seventeen ninety nine. While the
peace negotiations were progressing, a German student named Stops approached
the Emperor as he was inspecting the guards in the
(02:34):
court of the Palace of Chuenbroun. His movements were suspicious.
He was arrested, and on him was found a knife
that could leave no doubt as to his intentions. Brought
before Napoleon, he avowed with perfect composure his intention of
killing him as an enemy of the human race, and
(02:54):
on the Emperor's asking him what he would do if
he were released, he replied slegmatically that he would take
the earliest opportunity of assassinating him. This courageous student was
necessarily shot, but he had evoked before the Emperor the
specter of revenge that underlaid German opinion, and Napoleon was
(03:17):
profoundly affected by the incident. On his return to France,
his resolve was fixed. He had decided that there must
be a direct heir to the Empire, and he promptly
announced her fate to Josephine. After a painful scene, she
consented to all that was asked of her, and a
divorce was decided on the pope refusing his consent. A
(03:41):
somewhat irregular form was gone through by the complaisance of
a committee of cardinals. But had Napoleon pronounced the decree
of his own will and authority, it is not likely
that any one would have dared question its efficacy. In
the Meanwhile, it was necessary to find a suitable consort
(04:02):
for the Emperor, and the alliance between France and Russia
immediately suggested the Grand Duchess Anna, sister of the Czar.
Informal overtures were made at Saint Petersburg. They met with
doubtful answers. It appeared possible that an eventual no would
be the result, and this was an affront Napoleon could
not bear to face. Just at this delicate moment, Austrian diplomacy,
(04:27):
now under the wary guidance of Count Metternich, succeeded in
suggesting the Archduchess Maria Louisa, who in point of age
was far more suitable than the young Russian Princess. Metternich,
whom the Emperor had liked as ambassador, promptly seized the opportunity,
placed it beyond doubt that a favorable reply would be
(04:49):
given to any proposal made, and secured this enormous politico
matrimonial prize for his master's daughter. The rapid conduct of
the preliminminaries, the pomp and magnificence of the ceremonies, the
effusions of the French and Austrian courts, the gratification of
Napoleon with his Habsburg bride, the amicable married life that ensued.
(05:13):
All these are matters of which the details can find
no space here. It is the grim reverse of the
medal that must be dwelt on the political aspects of
the marriage, the so called reasons of state that made
the bringing of one child into existence the cause for
the destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives. Metternich had
(05:37):
come into power at the moment when Austria had touched
her lowest point. He was determined to restore her fortunes,
and to do that he saw clearly that she must
not again bear the brunt of war, but leaving that
to others, quietly prepare to throw in her sword when
next the scale balanced and her intervention might be decisive.
(06:00):
He followed up the French marriage closely, anxious to profit,
clearly perceiving that France must lean either on Russia or
on Austria, and already convinced that the Czar and Napoleon
were fast drifting apart to new and grave causes of
disagreement had arisen between France and Russia as a consequence
(06:23):
of the War of eighteen o nine. One was the
sudden manner in which Napoleon had dropped the proposal for
marrying the Grand Duchess Anna. The other was of an
even more serious character. At the Peace of eighteen o seven,
partly to reward the Poles who had long served France,
(06:43):
partly to obtain a political support in the northeast, Napoleon
had formed of Prussian Poland the Grand Duchy of Warsaw
under the rule of his ally, the King of Saxony.
This was virtually reconstituting Polish independence and caused great uneasiness
to the Tsar. When the War of eighteen o nine
(07:07):
broke out, Napoleon called on Alexander as his ally, to
place an army in the field. This the Tsar did,
but in an inefficient way that did nothing to help
Napoleon's operations. The Poles of the Grand Duchy, however, ably
led by Poniatowski, made a strong diversion in Galicia, and
(07:28):
Napoleon duly rewarded them with a large slice of Austrian
Poland when peace was signed after Vagram. Nothing could have
been more calculated to alarm and alienate the Tsar, who
was now declaredly offended at the course of French policy.
The year eighteen ten was not old before it was
(07:48):
common report that a war between the two great empires
must surely ensue, and it appears that from that date
both Napoleon and Alexander began quietly to make preparations for
the gigantic struggle all felt was coming. But in its
essential aspect, this great war arose from Napoleon's policy of
(08:09):
the continental blockade. For a brief moment it looked as
though that policy might meet with success. In eighteen ten,
British funds fell to sixty five, commercial ruin appeared imminent.
Bread was at famine prices, the Tory cabinet was falling
to pieces. Wellington's generalship probably saved his country from a
(08:33):
humiliating peace driven from Spain by Massena. He fell back
on the lines of Torres Vedras in front of Lisbon,
and there successfully stopped the French advance to the sea.
His foresight and strategy had turned the scale in the
Spanish War. For from this moment the Anglo Spanish position
(08:55):
grew steadily stronger, and it may be said with little
exaggeration that the lines of Torres Vedras mark one of
the great turning points in Napoleonic history, for it was
essentially the commercial necessities of the war against Great Britain
that led to the rupture between France and Russia in
eighteen twelve. Even in northern Germany, notwithstanding armies of custom
(09:20):
house officers, repressive and inquisitive laws, wholesale burnings and destroyings,
British goods still found a market, though at exorbitant rates.
The Baltic trade was still carried on under the neutral flag,
and Russia, in defiance of the continued representations of the
French ambassador, did not defend herself very strenuously against the
(09:44):
importation of British luxuries. The court party at Saint Petersburg
constantly opposed the French policy, and Alexander was easily convinced
that he must arm and prepare to struggle against Napoleon's dictation.
In the spring of eighteen eleven, both empires were openly
(10:05):
preparing for war, yet in Paris all appeared prosperous. Never
had Napoleon enjoyed the splendor of reigning as he did
at this period, and his last wish was gratified when,
on the twentieth of March eighteen eleven, the Empress Maria
Louisa gave birth to a son, whom he named King
(10:27):
of Rome. The title of this ill fated child, taken
from what was now the second city of the Empire,
was reminiscent of the King of the Romans, the appointed
successor to the crown of the Germanic Roman Empire that
Napoleon had destroyed. In the early part of eighteen twelve
(10:48):
came the long expected crisis in the relations of France
and Russia. Napoleon summoned Alexander to carry out his obligations
and exclude British common Elusive answers were returned and the
troops received marching orders. Napoleon had often declared that an
(11:10):
invasion of Russia was a fullhardy undertaking, and that he
would never as Charles the twelfth had lead an army
to destruction in the steps. He had always disliked the enterprise,
and it was only the alternative of seeing the continental
blockade policy fail that drove him into it. His preparations
(11:33):
were of the most elaborate nature. The army he assembled
was gigantic. In eighteen eleven, the movement of these masses
from France, Germany and Italy towards Poland and Russia had begun.
Every little detail of organization and especially of transport, received
(11:54):
the Emperor's personal attention. Austria was summoned to affirm her
alliance by placing an army in the field, and sent
thirty thousand men to the frontier. Under Schwarzenberg. This body
formed Napoleon's extreme right. Unfortunate, Prussia was compelled at the
point of the sword also to furnish a body of troops, which,
(12:18):
together with a French corps under the command of Marshal MacDonald,
was to operate along the Baltic and form the extreme left.
In the center came the vast hosts that Napoleon in
person was to lead, the Old Corps of the Grand
Armee under such leaders as Davoust ne Urdunod Sincere Besier,
(12:40):
Juno Victor, the massed cavalry chasseurs, lancers, dragoons and curissirs
under the King of Naples, the Westphalians under King Jerome,
the Italians under Prince Eugene, the Poles under Poniatowski, the Saxons,
(13:01):
the Bavarians, the magnificent divisions of the Old and Young Guard,
with its veteran bodies of grenadiers and voltageurs, and its
superb horse artillery and cavalry, all made up a central
army of more than three hundred thousand men, including the
flanking armies and the supports that followed the main columns.
(13:23):
It is calculated that over five hundred thousand men marched
into Russia that summer, As had been the case in
eighteen o seven, it was well on in June before
active operations became possible. Napoleon and Maria Louisa made a
short stay at Dresden, capital of their ally, the King
of Saxony. There they met the Emperor and Empress of Austria,
(13:48):
with many of the princes of Germany. Thence the Emperor
proceeded to join his army, whose columns were already converging
on the Niemen. The French army crossed that river nearly
one thousand miles from the frontiers of France on the
twenty fourth of June eighteen twelve. Napoleon hoped to be opposed,
(14:10):
to crush the Russian generals with his superior numbers and
to conclude a prompt peace without advancing far, but in
all this, he was disappointed. The advance of the French
was opposed only by Cossacks or light cavalry. The Russians
showed no sign of effective resistance. On the twenty eighth,
(14:31):
Napoleon reached Vilna, and so disinclined was he to plunge
further into the half desert country beyond that he stayed
there three weeks, hoping for some arrangement. But Alexander gave
no sign. He had long foreseen the situation that now
faced him, and both he and his advisers believed that
(14:51):
Napoleon could be defeated. More than two hundred thousand Russians
were in the field, but the Czar had decided not
to rely on his troops alone, but also on the
nature of his country. From the Niemen to Moscow was
a distance of some seven hundred miles through thinly peopled steps,
in which supplies could only be obtained during the summer months.
(15:15):
Moscow was nearly two thousand miles from Paris, and between
them lay hostile Europe. Was it possible that Napoleon could
maintain himself there. Such was the Tsar's reasoned attitude, and
the Russian armies were given orders not to engage, but
to fall back before the French advance until a favorable
(15:37):
opportunity should arise. Finding the occupation of Vilna fruitless, Napoleon
advanced into the interior of Russia, and, after an action
with the enemy's rear guard, occupied Smolensk on the eighteenth
of August. His line was now extremely extended, his transport
(15:58):
arrangements had broken down, the army was much disorganized. Yet,
against the feeling of all the marshals, he decided that
the war must be brought to a conclusion by a
decisive move, and ordered the advance to Moscow. The Czar
now departed from his policy of retreat, for it was
impossible and impolitic to resist the clamor of the Russian
(16:22):
army to fight. It was decided to make a stand
before Moscow, and Kutuzov selected a strong position barring the
road at Borodino on the Moskva. Here, on the seventh
of September, the two armies met, the French numbering rather
more the Russians rather less than one hundred and twenty
(16:42):
thousand men. The fighting was of a desperate character and
might have ended in a decisive victory for Napoleon had
he consented to employ the Guard, but he probably already
viewed his position so far from France with secret anxiety,
and not risk impairing the efficiency of that splendid body,
(17:05):
as it was. A bare victory was won at the
frightful cost of not less than thirty thousand men to
each side, and Kutuzov retreated during the night, leaving Moscow
at the mercy of the French. Napoleon entered the ancient
capital of Russia on the fourteenth of September, and there
awaited once more proposals for peace from Alexander, but they
(17:28):
came not and Moscow itself was burned down by incendiaries.
It was difficult to feed the army from day to day,
and the Cossacks made foraging difficult. The total of the
Grand Army, after its losses in detachments and in action,
was barely ninety thousand men. The King of Naples was
(17:50):
hard pressed to maintain his line of outposts against Kutuzov,
and suffered one severe reverse. Autumn was now nearly spent,
and to delay longer was madness. On the eighteenth of
October Napoleon began his retreat. He attempted to follow a
road to the south of that by which he had advanced,
(18:11):
so as to pass through country not yet wasted by war.
But Kutuzov barred the way, and for some days there
was heavy fighting and marching. It appears probable that Napoleon
could have forced a passage, but he dared not draw
too largely on his reserves of ammunition, and abandoned the
road through Keluga to return to that by which he
(18:33):
had advanced, passed the ghastly fields of Borodino, where the
remains of thousands of their unburied comrades greeted the returning troops.
In the first week of November, when midway to Smolensk,
the Grand Army was suddenly struck by the first wave
of the Russian winter. The roads became frozen sheets of ice,
(18:57):
and in a week nearly all the horses perished. The
cavalry was dismounted and could no longer patrol and ward
off the Cossacks. Many of the guns had to be abandoned,
and there was no artillery to fight a big battle.
The convoy was in large part unhorsed, and the army's
(19:17):
supplies had to be abandoned food had been scanty enough
from the first, but now the soldiers had little else
than what they could find in the desolate villages they
had already plundered in their advance. The marauders were cut
down and captured by the Cossacks, and the army began
to melt at a frightful rate. There was nothing to
(19:39):
do now but to press forward, giving Kutuzov no time
to catch up the fugitives before they reached Smolensk. At
that point were large magazines, and there Napoleon hoped he
would be able to restore order and perhaps take winter quarters.
But the disintegration and demoralization of the starving army made
(20:03):
such alarming progress that Napoleon was only able to stay
a few hours at Smolensk. The first column of the
fugitives to reach the town threw themselves on the magazines,
and before the last passed out, it had been completely
pillaged and gutted. Just beyond Smolensk, Kutuzov succeeded in throwing
(20:25):
his leading division across the road, cutting off the French
rear guard. Under Ney, the marshal succeeded in holding his
ground all day crossed the kneeper on the ice during
the night, made a long detour, and finally rejoined the
army a few days later, but his corps had dwindled
(20:47):
away to less than one hundred men. The army was
now reduced to some fifteen thousand men. It presented an
appalling spectacle of misery and appeared doomed. At its head
marched Napoleon, clad in furs and supporting himself with a stick,
his face covered with a beard, his expressions set but
(21:09):
curiously placid. Behind him marched a new formed Cores, in
which the rank and file were captains or lieutenants, and
officers of the highest rank acted as majors and captains.
Then on the road came a few harnessed wagons with
the emperor's papers and war chest, and behind him a
(21:30):
long column of men, in which only here and there
was there any semblance of alignment or discipline. Towards the
end came the stragglers, unarmed, limping, half frozen, some wandering
away with ravenous looks, others dropping by the roadside. Thus
marched the army in several divisions from Smolensk westwards. Between
(21:54):
Smolensk and the river Berezena, a few days March distant,
was the most critical point of the retreat. To the
north of Smolensk. Udinot and Victor had been operating to
cover the line of communications against a Russian army under Wittgenstein.
They were now retreating before him to join Napoleon, with
(22:15):
some eighteen thousand men in fair fighting condition. So here
were two French armies converging on the Berezina, one from
the east, the other from the northeast, each with a
superior Russian force in hot pursuit. But there was a
third Russian army marching from a totally different direction the south.
(22:36):
That army, under the command of Chichagov, was on the
further side of the Berezina and reached its southern bank
just in time to oppose the passage of the French.
To make matters worse for Napoleon. The wave of cold
was now spent, a thaw had set in, the ice
was broken up, and the rivers were impassable to steer.
(23:00):
Bill A passage across the Berezina between the three converging
Russian armies was now the only means of escape, and
Napoleon solved the problem on familiar lines. He demonstrated ostentatiously
at the point where he did not mean to cross,
and thus persuaded Chichagov to draw off his troops from
(23:20):
the point he had decided on. Victors and Udinot's corps
were drawn up so as to hold off Wittgenstein and Kutuzov,
and the long train of fugitives began to cross the bridges.
The passages closed in disaster. Wittgenstein drove in the French
(23:40):
rear guard long before the crowd of fugitives had finished crossing.
Many of the stampeded mob were crowded into the river.
The Russian artillery found them an easy target, and most
horrible of all, the French rearguard corps, whose efficiency made
them too precious to lose, received orders to force their
(24:00):
way through to the bridge by firing on their disbanded
and unarmed comrades. Last of all, the bridges were broken
down amid the despairing shrieks of the wretched beings who
saw in them their only avenue to safety. The tragic
passage of the Berezina cost the French army about eighteen
(24:21):
thousand lives, roughly one half of its strength. No sooner
had the remnant of the army crossed than a second
and more severe cold wave overtook it. The Russian pursuit,
save that of the Cossacks, was now fairly distanced, but
nature proved an even more terrible destroyer. The few remaining
(24:44):
thousands struggled on, but hunger and cold killed the greater part.
Every morning, fewer men arose from the snowy bivouax than
had lain down the night before. Advancing supports fared no
better than the exhausted men who had he marched the
whole weary way from Moscow. Two regiments of light horse
(25:05):
of the Neapolitan Royal Guard, freshly arrived from the south,
were nearly entirely destroyed in two nights, without even seeing
the enemy. At Gambinin, near the frontier, Napoleon decided to
leave the army for Paris, where his presence was urgently required.
He handed over the command to the King of Naples
(25:28):
and wrote the famous twenty ninth Bulletin of the Grand Armai,
in which he acknowledged such parts of the catastrophe that
had overtaken him. As it was useless to deny. But
in what light did that great calamity, that direct and
awful warning of nature, as many thought it appear to
him on whose shoulders was its responsibility. He closed the
(25:52):
bulletin with the words, the Emperor has never been in
better health. The awful destruction and death and sorrow, the
loss of so many brave lives, all counted, but as
an incident in the personal career of a soldier of fortune.
On the sixth of December, the fugitives reached Vilna, still
(26:14):
numbering twenty thousand men. Footnote. The discrepancy in figures is
only apparent. As the army retreated, it picked up some
detachments left in garrison and met others advancing from the base.
End of footnote. When Marshal Nay, the bravest of the brave,
musket in hand brought the rear guard into Kernigsberg some
(26:37):
days later, he counted less than one thousand men under arms.
End of chapter thirteen. Recording by Jeffrey Wilson, Ames, Iowa.
Chapter thirteen 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.
Recording by Jeffrey Wilson, Ames Iowa. Napoleon, A short biography
(00:24):
by R. M. Johnston. Chapter thirteen, The Austrian Marriage and
the Campaign of Russia Dynastic question. Napoleon marries Maria Louisa.
Jealousy of Russia causes for war preparations, Campaign of Russia, Borodino, Moscow,
(00:44):
the retreat. Having concluded the Treaty of Chunbon with Austria,
Napoleon left Vienna for France. But he returned in a
far different mood to that in which he had returned
from Tilsit in eighteen o seven. Then an unclouded series
of successes lay behind him, and before him arose great
(01:06):
schemes that were to lead to the glorious day when
Great Britain should be at his feet. But now his
preoccupations were on a smaller scale. For the security of
his own throne shared his thoughts with the overthrow of
his hated enemy. There were many reasons for the Emperor's dissatisfaction.
(01:26):
The defeat of Austria had proved a harder task than
ever before. At Essling, the Archduke Charles had claimed a
victory at Valgram, he had withdrawn his army from the field,
virtually intact. In Spain, too, a British general was proving
more than a match for the best marshals of the Empire,
(01:49):
while from one end of the peninsula to the other,
insurrection blazed, and King Joseph could barely maintain himself at Madrid.
Greatest of all his anxieties was the dynastic question, whose
was to be the reversion of the imperial throne. The
idea had long been working in his head, the question
(02:11):
had now become an acute one. Perhaps an incident that
occurred during his stay at Vienna drove him finally and
reluctantly to an act that he had first contemplated on
his return from Egypt in seventeen ninety nine. While the
peace negotiations were progressing, a German student named Stops approached
the Emperor as he was inspecting the guards in the
(02:34):
court of the Palace of Chuenbroun. His movements were suspicious.
He was arrested, and on him was found a knife
that could leave no doubt as to his intentions. Brought
before Napoleon, he avowed with perfect composure his intention of
killing him as an enemy of the human race, and
(02:54):
on the Emperor's asking him what he would do if
he were released, he replied slegmatically that he would take
the earliest opportunity of assassinating him. This courageous student was
necessarily shot, but he had evoked before the Emperor the
specter of revenge that underlaid German opinion, and Napoleon was
(03:17):
profoundly affected by the incident. On his return to France,
his resolve was fixed. He had decided that there must
be a direct heir to the Empire, and he promptly
announced her fate to Josephine. After a painful scene, she
consented to all that was asked of her, and a
divorce was decided on the pope refusing his consent. A
(03:41):
somewhat irregular form was gone through by the complaisance of
a committee of cardinals. But had Napoleon pronounced the decree
of his own will and authority, it is not likely
that any one would have dared question its efficacy. In
the Meanwhile, it was necessary to find a suitable consort
(04:02):
for the Emperor, and the alliance between France and Russia
immediately suggested the Grand Duchess Anna, sister of the Czar.
Informal overtures were made at Saint Petersburg. They met with
doubtful answers. It appeared possible that an eventual no would
be the result, and this was an affront Napoleon could
not bear to face. Just at this delicate moment, Austrian diplomacy,
(04:27):
now under the wary guidance of Count Metternich, succeeded in
suggesting the Archduchess Maria Louisa, who in point of age
was far more suitable than the young Russian Princess. Metternich,
whom the Emperor had liked as ambassador, promptly seized the opportunity,
placed it beyond doubt that a favorable reply would be
(04:49):
given to any proposal made, and secured this enormous politico
matrimonial prize for his master's daughter. The rapid conduct of
the preliminminaries, the pomp and magnificence of the ceremonies, the
effusions of the French and Austrian courts, the gratification of
Napoleon with his Habsburg bride, the amicable married life that ensued.
(05:13):
All these are matters of which the details can find
no space here. It is the grim reverse of the
medal that must be dwelt on the political aspects of
the marriage, the so called reasons of state that made
the bringing of one child into existence the cause for
the destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives. Metternich had
(05:37):
come into power at the moment when Austria had touched
her lowest point. He was determined to restore her fortunes,
and to do that he saw clearly that she must
not again bear the brunt of war, but leaving that
to others, quietly prepare to throw in her sword when
next the scale balanced and her intervention might be decisive.
(06:00):
He followed up the French marriage closely, anxious to profit,
clearly perceiving that France must lean either on Russia or
on Austria, and already convinced that the Czar and Napoleon
were fast drifting apart to new and grave causes of
disagreement had arisen between France and Russia as a consequence
(06:23):
of the War of eighteen o nine. One was the
sudden manner in which Napoleon had dropped the proposal for
marrying the Grand Duchess Anna. The other was of an
even more serious character. At the Peace of eighteen o seven,
partly to reward the Poles who had long served France,
(06:43):
partly to obtain a political support in the northeast, Napoleon
had formed of Prussian Poland the Grand Duchy of Warsaw
under the rule of his ally, the King of Saxony.
This was virtually reconstituting Polish independence and caused great uneasiness
to the Tsar. When the War of eighteen o nine
(07:07):
broke out, Napoleon called on Alexander as his ally, to
place an army in the field. This the Tsar did,
but in an inefficient way that did nothing to help
Napoleon's operations. The Poles of the Grand Duchy, however, ably
led by Poniatowski, made a strong diversion in Galicia, and
(07:28):
Napoleon duly rewarded them with a large slice of Austrian
Poland when peace was signed after Vagram. Nothing could have
been more calculated to alarm and alienate the Tsar, who
was now declaredly offended at the course of French policy.
The year eighteen ten was not old before it was
(07:48):
common report that a war between the two great empires
must surely ensue, and it appears that from that date
both Napoleon and Alexander began quietly to make preparations for
the gigantic struggle all felt was coming. But in its
essential aspect, this great war arose from Napoleon's policy of
(08:09):
the continental blockade. For a brief moment it looked as
though that policy might meet with success. In eighteen ten,
British funds fell to sixty five, commercial ruin appeared imminent.
Bread was at famine prices, the Tory cabinet was falling
to pieces. Wellington's generalship probably saved his country from a
(08:33):
humiliating peace driven from Spain by Massena. He fell back
on the lines of Torres Vedras in front of Lisbon,
and there successfully stopped the French advance to the sea.
His foresight and strategy had turned the scale in the
Spanish War. For from this moment the Anglo Spanish position
(08:55):
grew steadily stronger, and it may be said with little
exaggeration that the lines of Torres Vedras mark one of
the great turning points in Napoleonic history, for it was
essentially the commercial necessities of the war against Great Britain
that led to the rupture between France and Russia in
eighteen twelve. Even in northern Germany, notwithstanding armies of custom
(09:20):
house officers, repressive and inquisitive laws, wholesale burnings and destroyings,
British goods still found a market, though at exorbitant rates.
The Baltic trade was still carried on under the neutral flag,
and Russia, in defiance of the continued representations of the
French ambassador, did not defend herself very strenuously against the
(09:44):
importation of British luxuries. The court party at Saint Petersburg
constantly opposed the French policy, and Alexander was easily convinced
that he must arm and prepare to struggle against Napoleon's dictation.
In the spring of eighteen eleven, both empires were openly
(10:05):
preparing for war, yet in Paris all appeared prosperous. Never
had Napoleon enjoyed the splendor of reigning as he did
at this period, and his last wish was gratified when,
on the twentieth of March eighteen eleven, the Empress Maria
Louisa gave birth to a son, whom he named King
(10:27):
of Rome. The title of this ill fated child, taken
from what was now the second city of the Empire,
was reminiscent of the King of the Romans, the appointed
successor to the crown of the Germanic Roman Empire that
Napoleon had destroyed. In the early part of eighteen twelve
(10:48):
came the long expected crisis in the relations of France
and Russia. Napoleon summoned Alexander to carry out his obligations
and exclude British common Elusive answers were returned and the
troops received marching orders. Napoleon had often declared that an
(11:10):
invasion of Russia was a fullhardy undertaking, and that he
would never as Charles the twelfth had lead an army
to destruction in the steps. He had always disliked the enterprise,
and it was only the alternative of seeing the continental
blockade policy fail that drove him into it. His preparations
(11:33):
were of the most elaborate nature. The army he assembled
was gigantic. In eighteen eleven, the movement of these masses
from France, Germany and Italy towards Poland and Russia had begun.
Every little detail of organization and especially of transport, received
(11:54):
the Emperor's personal attention. Austria was summoned to affirm her
alliance by placing an army in the field, and sent
thirty thousand men to the frontier. Under Schwarzenberg. This body
formed Napoleon's extreme right. Unfortunate, Prussia was compelled at the
point of the sword also to furnish a body of troops, which,
(12:18):
together with a French corps under the command of Marshal MacDonald,
was to operate along the Baltic and form the extreme left.
In the center came the vast hosts that Napoleon in
person was to lead, the Old Corps of the Grand
Armee under such leaders as Davoust ne Urdunod Sincere Besier,
(12:40):
Juno Victor, the massed cavalry chasseurs, lancers, dragoons and curissirs
under the King of Naples, the Westphalians under King Jerome,
the Italians under Prince Eugene, the Poles under Poniatowski, the Saxons,
(13:01):
the Bavarians, the magnificent divisions of the Old and Young Guard,
with its veteran bodies of grenadiers and voltageurs, and its
superb horse artillery and cavalry, all made up a central
army of more than three hundred thousand men, including the
flanking armies and the supports that followed the main columns.
(13:23):
It is calculated that over five hundred thousand men marched
into Russia that summer, As had been the case in
eighteen o seven, it was well on in June before
active operations became possible. Napoleon and Maria Louisa made a
short stay at Dresden, capital of their ally, the King
of Saxony. There they met the Emperor and Empress of Austria,
(13:48):
with many of the princes of Germany. Thence the Emperor
proceeded to join his army, whose columns were already converging
on the Niemen. The French army crossed that river nearly
one thousand miles from the frontiers of France on the
twenty fourth of June eighteen twelve. Napoleon hoped to be opposed,
(14:10):
to crush the Russian generals with his superior numbers and
to conclude a prompt peace without advancing far, but in
all this, he was disappointed. The advance of the French
was opposed only by Cossacks or light cavalry. The Russians
showed no sign of effective resistance. On the twenty eighth,
(14:31):
Napoleon reached Vilna, and so disinclined was he to plunge
further into the half desert country beyond that he stayed
there three weeks, hoping for some arrangement. But Alexander gave
no sign. He had long foreseen the situation that now
faced him, and both he and his advisers believed that
(14:51):
Napoleon could be defeated. More than two hundred thousand Russians
were in the field, but the Czar had decided not
to rely on his troops alone, but also on the
nature of his country. From the Niemen to Moscow was
a distance of some seven hundred miles through thinly peopled steps,
in which supplies could only be obtained during the summer months.
(15:15):
Moscow was nearly two thousand miles from Paris, and between
them lay hostile Europe. Was it possible that Napoleon could
maintain himself there. Such was the Tsar's reasoned attitude, and
the Russian armies were given orders not to engage, but
to fall back before the French advance until a favorable
(15:37):
opportunity should arise. Finding the occupation of Vilna fruitless, Napoleon
advanced into the interior of Russia, and, after an action
with the enemy's rear guard, occupied Smolensk on the eighteenth
of August. His line was now extremely extended, his transport
(15:58):
arrangements had broken down, the army was much disorganized. Yet,
against the feeling of all the marshals, he decided that
the war must be brought to a conclusion by a
decisive move, and ordered the advance to Moscow. The Czar
now departed from his policy of retreat, for it was
impossible and impolitic to resist the clamor of the Russian
(16:22):
army to fight. It was decided to make a stand
before Moscow, and Kutuzov selected a strong position barring the
road at Borodino on the Moskva. Here, on the seventh
of September, the two armies met, the French numbering rather
more the Russians rather less than one hundred and twenty
(16:42):
thousand men. The fighting was of a desperate character and
might have ended in a decisive victory for Napoleon had
he consented to employ the Guard, but he probably already
viewed his position so far from France with secret anxiety,
and not risk impairing the efficiency of that splendid body,
(17:05):
as it was. A bare victory was won at the
frightful cost of not less than thirty thousand men to
each side, and Kutuzov retreated during the night, leaving Moscow
at the mercy of the French. Napoleon entered the ancient
capital of Russia on the fourteenth of September, and there
awaited once more proposals for peace from Alexander, but they
(17:28):
came not and Moscow itself was burned down by incendiaries.
It was difficult to feed the army from day to day,
and the Cossacks made foraging difficult. The total of the
Grand Army, after its losses in detachments and in action,
was barely ninety thousand men. The King of Naples was
(17:50):
hard pressed to maintain his line of outposts against Kutuzov,
and suffered one severe reverse. Autumn was now nearly spent,
and to delay longer was madness. On the eighteenth of
October Napoleon began his retreat. He attempted to follow a
road to the south of that by which he had advanced,
(18:11):
so as to pass through country not yet wasted by war.
But Kutuzov barred the way, and for some days there
was heavy fighting and marching. It appears probable that Napoleon
could have forced a passage, but he dared not draw
too largely on his reserves of ammunition, and abandoned the
road through Keluga to return to that by which he
(18:33):
had advanced, passed the ghastly fields of Borodino, where the
remains of thousands of their unburied comrades greeted the returning troops.
In the first week of November, when midway to Smolensk,
the Grand Army was suddenly struck by the first wave
of the Russian winter. The roads became frozen sheets of ice,
(18:57):
and in a week nearly all the horses perished. The
cavalry was dismounted and could no longer patrol and ward
off the Cossacks. Many of the guns had to be abandoned,
and there was no artillery to fight a big battle.
The convoy was in large part unhorsed, and the army's
(19:17):
supplies had to be abandoned food had been scanty enough
from the first, but now the soldiers had little else
than what they could find in the desolate villages they
had already plundered in their advance. The marauders were cut
down and captured by the Cossacks, and the army began
to melt at a frightful rate. There was nothing to
(19:39):
do now but to press forward, giving Kutuzov no time
to catch up the fugitives before they reached Smolensk. At
that point were large magazines, and there Napoleon hoped he
would be able to restore order and perhaps take winter quarters.
But the disintegration and demoralization of the starving army made
(20:03):
such alarming progress that Napoleon was only able to stay
a few hours at Smolensk. The first column of the
fugitives to reach the town threw themselves on the magazines,
and before the last passed out, it had been completely
pillaged and gutted. Just beyond Smolensk, Kutuzov succeeded in throwing
(20:25):
his leading division across the road, cutting off the French
rear guard. Under Ney, the marshal succeeded in holding his
ground all day crossed the kneeper on the ice during
the night, made a long detour, and finally rejoined the
army a few days later, but his corps had dwindled
(20:47):
away to less than one hundred men. The army was
now reduced to some fifteen thousand men. It presented an
appalling spectacle of misery and appeared doomed. At its head
marched Napoleon, clad in furs and supporting himself with a stick,
his face covered with a beard, his expressions set but
(21:09):
curiously placid. Behind him marched a new formed Cores, in
which the rank and file were captains or lieutenants, and
officers of the highest rank acted as majors and captains.
Then on the road came a few harnessed wagons with
the emperor's papers and war chest, and behind him a
(21:30):
long column of men, in which only here and there
was there any semblance of alignment or discipline. Towards the
end came the stragglers, unarmed, limping, half frozen, some wandering
away with ravenous looks, others dropping by the roadside. Thus
marched the army in several divisions from Smolensk westwards. Between
(21:54):
Smolensk and the river Berezena, a few days March distant,
was the most critical point of the retreat. To the
north of Smolensk. Udinot and Victor had been operating to
cover the line of communications against a Russian army under Wittgenstein.
They were now retreating before him to join Napoleon, with
(22:15):
some eighteen thousand men in fair fighting condition. So here
were two French armies converging on the Berezina, one from
the east, the other from the northeast, each with a
superior Russian force in hot pursuit. But there was a
third Russian army marching from a totally different direction the south.
(22:36):
That army, under the command of Chichagov, was on the
further side of the Berezina and reached its southern bank
just in time to oppose the passage of the French.
To make matters worse for Napoleon. The wave of cold
was now spent, a thaw had set in, the ice
was broken up, and the rivers were impassable to steer.
(23:00):
Bill A passage across the Berezina between the three converging
Russian armies was now the only means of escape, and
Napoleon solved the problem on familiar lines. He demonstrated ostentatiously
at the point where he did not mean to cross,
and thus persuaded Chichagov to draw off his troops from
(23:20):
the point he had decided on. Victors and Udinot's corps
were drawn up so as to hold off Wittgenstein and Kutuzov,
and the long train of fugitives began to cross the bridges.
The passages closed in disaster. Wittgenstein drove in the French
(23:40):
rear guard long before the crowd of fugitives had finished crossing.
Many of the stampeded mob were crowded into the river.
The Russian artillery found them an easy target, and most
horrible of all, the French rearguard corps, whose efficiency made
them too precious to lose, received orders to force their
(24:00):
way through to the bridge by firing on their disbanded
and unarmed comrades. Last of all, the bridges were broken
down amid the despairing shrieks of the wretched beings who
saw in them their only avenue to safety. The tragic
passage of the Berezina cost the French army about eighteen
(24:21):
thousand lives, roughly one half of its strength. No sooner
had the remnant of the army crossed than a second
and more severe cold wave overtook it. The Russian pursuit,
save that of the Cossacks, was now fairly distanced, but
nature proved an even more terrible destroyer. The few remaining
(24:44):
thousands struggled on, but hunger and cold killed the greater part.
Every morning, fewer men arose from the snowy bivouax than
had lain down the night before. Advancing supports fared no
better than the exhausted men who had he marched the
whole weary way from Moscow. Two regiments of light horse
(25:05):
of the Neapolitan Royal Guard, freshly arrived from the south,
were nearly entirely destroyed in two nights, without even seeing
the enemy. At Gambinin, near the frontier, Napoleon decided to
leave the army for Paris, where his presence was urgently required.
He handed over the command to the King of Naples
(25:28):
and wrote the famous twenty ninth Bulletin of the Grand Armai,
in which he acknowledged such parts of the catastrophe that
had overtaken him. As it was useless to deny. But
in what light did that great calamity, that direct and
awful warning of nature, as many thought it appear to
him on whose shoulders was its responsibility. He closed the
(25:52):
bulletin with the words, the Emperor has never been in
better health. The awful destruction and death and sorrow, the
loss of so many brave lives, all counted, but as
an incident in the personal career of a soldier of fortune.
On the sixth of December, the fugitives reached Vilna, still
(26:14):
numbering twenty thousand men. Footnote. The discrepancy in figures is
only apparent. As the army retreated, it picked up some
detachments left in garrison and met others advancing from the base.
End of footnote. When Marshal Nay, the bravest of the brave,
musket in hand brought the rear guard into Kernigsberg some
(26:37):
days later, he counted less than one thousand men under arms.
End of chapter thirteen. Recording by Jeffrey Wilson, Ames, Iowa.
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