Chef d’escadron Mathieu and the 1813 campaign …

The author of the following account was a French squadron commander in the horse artillery. Here is an extract from his recollections, set during the 1813 campaign …

An order of the Minister of War stated to form four companies with 78 men [remnants of the seven companies remaining at the end of the Russian campaign, including non-commissioned officers, brigadiers and gunners]. I could not keep my 36 men. We placed all of them in four groups and we received gunners from the foot artillery regiments and the cohorts. My company was immediately increased to 104 men and 100 horses. This took place in the first fifteen days of March.

On 1 April 1813, we crossed the Elbe at Magdeburg and, on the 5th, we fought bravely and, from that day onward, I had a good opinion of my new gunners. We crossed the river again on the same pontoon bridge and arrived to billet near the city. There, I completed the organization of my company; I had coats, portemanteaux, boots, etc., so that on 20 April, I could present myself in line just as proudly as with my virtuous and brave gunners whom I had to leave behind in the various affairs of 1812.

On 2 May took place the famous battle of Lützen against the Russians and Prussians combined. We still fired our guns at 10 o’clock in the evening and we were forced to do so due to the enemy who did not cease their fire. At the end, in spite of the enemy cannonballs, the order was given to feed the horses, but only one half of them at a time. We remained standing in this manner all night, and at two in the morning, the enemy made a forward movement as if to attack us. However, although we were prepared, we allowed them to advance on us within close range of our guns. Noticing that we did not budge, they halted, and an hour later their rear guard was seen withdrawing.

We set out in pursuit, but we did not have enough cavalry to take advantage of our superiority. We pushed them onward in this fashion until Dresden, where we crossed the Elbe on the 8th, and we remained at ease until the 21st, when the battle of Bautzen took place.

Having won the affair, we pursued the enemy towards the Bober, and there we heard the armistice was arranged, which lasted from 30 May to 17 August [the Allies beseeched an armistice on 25 May 1813. Napoleon granted it. The Pleiswitz armistice was signed on 4 June. Hostilities were to be suspended until 20 July 1813; it was extended (on 30 June) until 10 August] to our great misfortune, for if the enemy had been further pursued, we would have thrown them back at least to the Vistula and the Austrians would not have interfered. We were informed, on 20 August, that the Austrians had declared war on us and that they were marching on Dresden in order to capture it. We set out to march and we advanced with great speed under the 1st Cavalry Corps, of which I was a part, and the Guard. We arrived on 26 August and we were obliged to proceed under a heavy cannon fire, to lead us to the banks of the river which we passed as quickly as possible, and, after having enjoyed a little rest, we were forced to attack the enemy who stood very close to the suburbs. We returned to the location where we had rested; it was nearly 10 o’clock. At 11, it started to rain and it did so very heavily, which did not help us at all, and, at dawn, we attacked the enemy during a downpour which lasted all day of 27 August 1813.

At 3 o’clock, our cavalry was ordered to charge the Austrian squares; the first one that was assaulted stood at the junction of the two roads which lay beyond the town of Dresden on its southern side. The battalion fixed bayonets; it was crushed without firing a shot and eventually surrendered. It was Doumerc’s Division which was there, composed of dragoons. The other squares surrendered almost without resisting. The battle only ended at night. We slept one league from Dresden, on the road to Auessburg [Auerberg?]. The following day, the 28th, we proceeded on the road towards Pirna, which leads to Bohemia, where we were informed, much to the misfortune of the army, that Vandamme’s corps, 30,000 men strong, had been annihilated; that Marshal Macdonald was beaten on the Bober; that Marshals Ney and Oudinot were defeated marching on Berlin.

We were obliged to cross the river at Dresden and come to the aid of Marshal Macdonald. We drove the enemy beyond the Bober and returned once more to the right bank, where we remained until 26 September. We crossed back to the left bank at Meissen and arrived near Torgau. We passed again on the right bank on 12 October at Wittemberg, to attack the Swedes whom we drove back near Magdeburg. From there, we proceeded through forced marches, without taking part of the battle of Leipzig on 16 October 1813.

All was well on the 16th. On the 17th, it was quiet and it rained that morning. There was talk of peace. On the 18th, we were attacked from all sides. We ran out of ammunition in the evening. The enemy had driven us so tightly together that cannonballs were fired at the large artillery park near the town on the east side. I was sent there at five o’clock, having no more ammunition. I spent the night there. During the night, the large park passed by the town. I had been ordered to wait for the army corps. At 8 o’clock in the morning, on the 19th, I found myself alone with my twelve guns. The corps had crossed the town during the night and they had forgotten to send me orders. I set out to march and I arrived as best I could on the banks of the Elster which I crossed with four cannon. The remainder of my batteries, my van, etc., all remained in enemy hands, noticing that the bridge, having been blown up due to the clumsiness of the man who set it on fire too early, was the cause of the defeat of our army.

From Leipzig to Mainz, where we arrived on 31 October 1813, in a sorrowful state, one hardly resisted, and, in spite of the fact that we were retreating through a resourceful country, the army was to be pitied while passing this famous river again, which cost us so many gun shots to cross in 1794, and which we perhaps left behind us for ever!

We remained quartered near Kreuznach from 1 November to 28 December 1813, the day when the army corps set out to march to reach and find lodgings near Landau, while awaiting the peace which, it was said, was going to be made with the sovereigns of the North…

Source : Souvenirs militaires du chef d’escadron Mathieu, de 1787 à 1815 (publié par Camille Lévi), Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, Éditeur militaire, published around 1910, pp. 29-33.