BOOK IV, either necessary or advisable, when it is con——————sidered that the main prize was to be contended CHAP. IX. for on the banks of the Danube, not only obtained possession of Dresden and Leipsic, but 1809 even threatened the newly formed kingdom of Westphalia. The war in this part of Germany was attended with various success, but the operations do not, from their general character, claim any particular or detailed narration. most formidable insurrection sprang up in Saxony, Westphalia, and Hanover, which, if it had been cherished and directed by the support and skill either of the British or the Austrians, would have rendered the situation of Bonaparte dangerous and critical in the extreme. Unfortunately, however, no such aid was afforded to the insurgents, so that, after having harassed the French, and prevented the march of troops to the Danube, they were at last crushed by superior numbers and discipline. At the head of these partisans appeared two men, well calculated by their characters, their talents, and their influence, to collect and to animate their followers. Schill, a Major in the Prussian service, filled with a strong and influential detestation of Bonaparte, found no difficulty in rousing the inhabitants of a conquered country; and although it does not appear that the corps which this officer commanded was at any time very numerous; yet it was formidable to the enemy by the rapidity of its movements, by its sudden and unexpected appearance, and by the countenance it afforded to the discontented inhabitants. After traversing the whole of the north of Germany in different directions, and perplexing and defeating the troops that were opposed to him, Schill was at length compelled, from the want of co-operation, and the pressure of superior numbers, to take shelter in Stralsund. Before he had recourse to this measure, he had made himself master of the whole of Mecklenburg, where he had levied very heavy contributions, and raised a great number of recruits. A strong body of Dutch troops, with a column of fifteen hundred Danes, pursued him to Stralsund; in this place, although deprived of its fortifications, Schill had, with incredible industry, perseverance, and skill, made very formidable preparations to defend himself, and resist the attacks of his enemies; but after an obstinate resistance the town was forced; the insurgents were driven from their guns, and the enemy gained possession of streets, filled with the bodies of dead men, who merited a better fate. Schill, and twenty of his officers were killed; and such of his officers as were taken prisoners were tried and executed as deserters from the service of the king of Prussia. The Duke of Brunswick Oels, though in his own person less unfortunate than Schill, did not effect by his army any thing more decisively or permanently beneficial to the cause of Germany. The duke did, indeed, for some time distract the attention of the French, and occupy some of the troops destined to reinforce the army under Bonaparte; but he was at length compelled to seek for safety in flight, and succeeded in embarking with his little corps for England. The operations and movements of the hostile armies in Italy were more important than those of the armies in Poland or in the north of Germany. At the beginning of the campaign in Italy, the Austrians were eminently successful; they soon made themselves masters of Padua and Vicenza, crossed the Adige, and threatened Venice itself. But the victories of Bonaparte in Bavaria rendered it advisable for the Archduke John, who commanded the Austrian army in Italy, to measure back his steps. To this determination he was also probably in some degree led, by the reinforcement of ten thousand men, which the Viceroy of Italy, Prince Eugene, received from Tuscany. Thus reinforced, the French army of Italy retook Padua and Vicenza, and attacked and overthrew the Austrians beyond the Piave, with the loss of sixteen pieces of cannon, and four thousand prisoners. A few days after this engagement the French crossed the Tagliamento, and after a few partial skirmishes, inflicted another defeat upon the Austrian army at Tarvis. Advancing towards Vienna in their victorious career, the French were enabled, on the anniversary of the battle of Marengo, to bring the Archduke John to another engagement at Raab. Victory was for a long time doubtful, but that part of the archduke's army which consisted of the raw and undisciplined troops of the Hungarian insurrection, at length gave way, and six pieces of cannon, four standards, and three thousand prisoners, fell into the hands of the French. After this engagement, the Archduke John retreated with considerable rapidity, and in some disorder, towards Pest, for the purpose of forming a junction with the main Austrian army. After the battle of Raab, the Viceroy of Italy advanced without impediment to the Austrian capital, and by the addition of the force under his command, served to swell the number of combatants in the approaching great and decisive battle of Wagram. From the day of the battle of Aspern till the end of the first week in July, Bonaparte continued stationary on the south bank of the Danube; but though stationary, he was by no means inactive. That he was alarmed, both for his own situation, and from the effects which his. repulse might have on the continent, was abundantly evident. Scarcely a day passed without producing a bulletin, the ostensible object of which was to register the rise and the fall of the Danube, and to congratulate his army on the approach of the Russians, and the junction of the troops under the Viceroy of Italy. But amidst all this seeming trifling and gasconade, Bonaparte was making the most formidable preparations, not merely to protect himself against an attack from the Archduke Charles, but also to enable him to resume offensive operations in such a manner as might secure success. The construction of the bridges over the Danube was intrusted to General Count Bertrand. In the short space of a fortnight, this engineer raised a bridge of sixty arches to In-der-Lobau, so broad that three carriages could pass abreast, over four hundred fathoms of a rapid river.* second bridge, eight feet broad, was constructed for infantry. These bridges were secured against the effects of fire-ships by stuccadoes, raised on piles between the islands in different directions, and an armed flotilla cruised upon the river to defend these various and eopious sources of communication. Each of the bridges was covered and protected by a téte-du-pont, a hundred and sixty fathoms long, surrounded by palisades, frizes, and ditches filled with water; and magazines of provisions, a hundred pieces of A 1809 cannon, and twenty mortars, were stationed on BOOK IV. While Bonaparte was thus engaged in for- BOOK IV. measure confined to this point. of Auerstadt; and the centre, by Bonaparte in person. But the object of Bonaparte in making so much parade about CHAP. IX. this bridge, was to divert the attention of the archduke, and by no means to cross the river in 1809 the face of the enemy's most formidable position. On the 4th of July, at ten o'clock at night, General Oudinot, with 1,500 voltigeurs, embarked in ten gun-boats on the great arm of the Danube, and crossed the river opposite Muhlleiten. During the night four new bridges were completed ;* one of them, in a single piece centre. single piece eighty toises long, was fixed in less than five minutes, and the three others consisted of boats and rafts thrown over the river. The night was unusually dark, the rain fell in torrents, and the violence of the storm favoured the operations of the enemy. At two o'clock in the morning of the 5th the whole French army had crossed the Danube, the corps of the Duke of Rivoli forming the left; that of Count Oudinot the centre; and that of the Duke of Auerstadt the right. At day-break they were arranged in order of battle at the extremity of the left flank of the Austrians. The Archduke Charles was thus completely out-generaled; his works were rendered useless, and he was compelled to abandon his positions, and to fight the enemy on the spot chosen by themselves. At five o'clock, three bodies of the French cavalry, and as many of infantry, with an immense quantity of ordnance, were seen defiling near Wittau. At six o'clock the enemy had surrounded and taken all the Austrian fortifications between Essling. and Enzersdorf, and the garrisons of which were almost all either killed or wounded. The whole of the 5th was spent in manoeuvring, and during the night Bonaparte attempted to gain possession of the village of Wagram, but owing to the gallant resistance of the Austrians, and to a column of Saxons and a column of French mistaking each other in the dark, the operation failed. A general engagement had now become inevitable, and at the dawn of the morning of the 6th, the two armies, each provided with upwards of five hundred pieces of cannon, were drawn out for battle. The right of the Austrian army, under Marshal Klenau, consisting of the third and sixth grenadier corps, extended from Sussenbrunn to the Danube; the left, commanded by Prince Rosenberg, supported by Prince Hohenzollern, was stationed in the neighbourhood of Wagram; and the centre, commanded by Count Bellegarde, and supported by the reserve cavalry, under Prince Lichtenstein, was posted in front of Aderklaa. The left of the French army was commanded by the Prince of Ponte Corvo; the right, by the Duke The arrangements of the two hostile commanders were directly at variance with each other. Napoleon had passed the night in accumulating a force to strengthen his centre, where he placed himself in person within cannonshot of Wagram. The Archduke Charles, who was with the corps of Bellegarde, had on the contrary extended his flanks and weakened his centre. The corps of Prince Rosenberg, and that of the Duke of Auerstadt, moving in opposite directions, encountered each other in the morning, and gave the signal of battle. At this time the Austrians were preparing to make a storming attack upon Ober Siebenbrunn, when the Archduke Charles, perceiving that the right wing had not arrived, ordered the prince to halt, and he was ultimately obliged to retire under a galling fire to his former position. This inauspicious commencement of the battle was succeeded by a vigorous attempt on the centre of the French lines at Raschdorf, where Napoleon, surrounded by sixty thousand men in close order, stood directing the operations of his army. The attempt to penetrate the French lines proving unsuccessful, two columns of infantry, protected by a body of cavalry, advanced towards Aderklaa;. here the quantity of grape-shot poured in upon the Austrians became overwhelming, and a momentary panic seized the battalions under Marshal Bellegarde; but, at length, the heroism and energy of the field officers succeeded in restoring order, and the enemy was driven at the point of the bayonet towards Aderklaa. The cannonade now became general along the whole line, and the effect of the injudicious dispositions of the Austrian general, in weakening his centre, every moment manifested itself. Bonaparte, surprised at this manœuvre, at first suspected some stratagem, but he was soon convinced that the Archduke Charles had committed a fatal error, of which he hastened to take advantage. With this view the Duke of Rivoli was ordered to attack the Austrians at the extremity of the centre, while the Duke of Auerstadt was directed first to turn the position of Mark Grafen Neusiedel, and then to push upon Wagram. The attack upon Mark Grafen was vigorous in the extreme, and Prince Rosenberg was, after a deperate resistance, obliged to evacuate that village. success of the enemy in out-flanking the Austrians continued to increase; and five battalions and one regiment of cavalry, sent by Prince Hohenzollern, were found incapable of arresting his operations. The tower of Neusiedel, built in ancient times to check the incursions of the * Marked in the Sketch (d d d d.) The Hungarians, formed the key of this position, and was defended by Prince Rosenberg, with great gallantry and perseverance; but a concentric discharge of grape-shot mowed down his ranks with so much rapidity that he was at length obliged to give way, and to leave the French general in possession of the eminence. At the same moment that the attack upon Mark Grafen was taking place, a furious effort was directed against the Austrian centre. Napoleon, acting upon the principle of all his former campaigns, ordered the centre of his army to form in two columns, supported by two batteries consisting of one hundred and sixty pieces of artillery. As soon as these columns were formed General Macdonald advanced at their head at the pas de charge; General Reille, with the brigade of fusileers and sharp-shooters, supported Macdonald; and to render the attack irresistible, the guards at the same time made an advance in front. The Austrian centre, incapable of withstanding this tremendous onset, fell back a league. The right, perceiving the dangerous position in which it was now placed, retreated along with the centre; and the left, being outflanked by the Duke of Auerstadt, fell back upon Wagram. At ten o'clock in the morning, it was clear, to a military eye, that the fate of the day was decided, and from that moment the Austrians fought only to secure their retreat. At noon the important position of Wagram was carried; and the Archduke Charles, finding himself cut off from Hungary and Moravia, fell back upon Bohemia. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Archduke John, at the head of his corps, arrived on the field of battle from Presburg, but the battle was then decided, and in the evening he retreated in the same direction in which he had advanced. This battle, fought in the vicinity of the Austrian capital, by three hundred thousand warriors, in the view of an equal number of spectators, decided the fate of Germany. The number of the slain was immense; and ten pairs of colours, forty pieces of cannon, and twenty thousand prisoners, formed the trophies of the victory. The French, in estimating the loss of the Austrians, stated that the battle of Wagram had deprived them of sixty thousand soldiers; and the Austrians, in their official returns, admit a loss, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of upwards of thirty thousand men.+ The loss of the French, was considerable; in their own bulletins it was stated at fifteen hundred killed, and four thousand wounded; but the Austrian accounts swell that number to twenty thousand. One of the disastrous consequences of this BOOK IV The French, who lost no time in pursuing In every part of Germany peace was now * Twenty-fifth French Bulletin. + Müller's Relation of the Operations of the Austrian and French armies in 1809. 1809 BOOK IV of this country, though deserted and given up by that government in whose favour they had CHAP. IX. risen in arms, and to whom they had manifested an attachment unbroken by the most dreadful sacrifices and sufferings, still refused submission to the conquerors. Their resistance was most formidable; some of the most experienced generals of Bonaparte, at the head of his best troops, were repeatedly defeated, and driven back with great loss, even after they had penetrated into the centre of the Tyrol. At the head of the mountaineers appeared a man worthy of being a leader among a nation of heroes. The brave Hoffer animated and directed the actions of his countrymen; and before him, untutored as he was in the art of war, the experienced troops of Europe fled in dismay. In vain did Bonaparte pour in fresh forces, block up the passes of the mountains, and forbid all communication between the inhabitants and the neighbouring countries. All his schemes were foiled; and if for a short time the Tyrolese fled before his armies, or appeared not to oppose their progress, it was only to attack them to more advantage in the passes of the mountains, or to fall upon them when they were unprepared. On the conquest of the country, however, Bonaparte was determined, and at length he effected his purpose, by pouring in continued reinforcements, and by the capture and infamous execution of the gallant Hoffer. While Bonaparte was at Vienna, and within a few days of the great battle of Aspern, when a less ambitious mind would have been solely fixed on military preparations, he caused proclamations to be made in the public squares and market-place of that city, that from the 1st of June the Papal territory should be united with the French empire; and that Rome should at the same time be declared a free and imperial city. This decree, which fixed the annual revenue of the pope at two millions of francs, was grounded on three propositions; first, that the territories of Rome were fiefs bestowed by the Emperor Charlemagne, the predecessor of the Emperor Napoleon, on the Bishops of Rome, to maintain the peace of his subjects; second, that ever since that time the union of temporal and spiritual power has been, and still is, the source of dissension; and third, that the temporal pretensions of the pope are irreconcileable with the security of the French army, the repose and prosperity of the nations subject to the sway of Napoleon, and the dignity and inviolability of his empire. The pope solemnly protested against the violence and injustice by which be had been stripped of his temporal sovereignty; and at the same time issued an act of excommunication against the French Emperor, and all his co-operators in this act of unprovoked spoliation. But the thunders of the Vatican had lost their terrors; and an act, which three centuries ago would have roused to arms all the states of Europe, was now witnessed without one single effort on the part of the surrounding sovereigns to pluck the prey from the hands of the spoiler.* A rumour had for a long time prevailed, which, though it occasionally died away, was always revived after a short interval, that Napoleon meant to divorce Josephine, for the purpose of uniting himself with a younger and more noble bride. On the 16th of December, this design to dissolve his marriage was formally announced to the conservative senate; and on the same day, the project of a decree was submitted to that assembly, and before the sitting terminated, the law authorising the divorce was enacted. To witness these proceedings most of the relations of the emperor and empress were summoned to Paris. The arch-chancellor was ordered to attend in the grand cabinet of Napoleon, where the Empress, the Kings of Holland, Westphalia, and Naples; the Viceroy of Italy; ' the Queens of Holland, Westphalia, and Spain; Madame, the mother of Bonaparte; and the Princess Pauline, were assembled. The emperor explained to the assembly his views, and the motives by which he was actuated: and the empress declared that she willingly consented to the divorce, in order to further the policy of the emperor and the interests of France. A proces verbal was then drawn up, which was signed by the kings, queens, princes, and princesses, present, as well as by the emperor and empress, and to which was annexed a decree, pronouncing the marriage contract between the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine to be dis * ACT OF EXCOMMUNICATION. "By the authority of God Almighty, and of St. Paul and St. Peter, we declare you, (Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France,) and all your co-operators in the act of violence which you are executing, to have incurred the same excommunication, which we, in our apostolic letters, contemporaneously affixing in the usual places of this city, declare to have been incurred by all those who, on the violent invasion of this city on the 2d of February, last year, were guilty of the acts of violence against which we have protested, as well really in so many declarations, that by our order have been issued by our successive secretaries of state, as also in two consistorial collocutions, of the 16th of March, and the 11th of July, 1808, in common with all their agents, abettors, advisers, and whoever else may have been accessary to, or himself been engaged in, the execution of those attempts. "Given at Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore, June 10, in the 10th year of our pontificate. (Locus Signi) "PIUS PAPA VII." |