In the evening, with the 2nd Grenadier Regiment occupying the ground on a plateau, the soldiers sighted the town of Lützen, with its round bell tower and a tall belfry tower dominating the large tile roofed buildings. The French cavalry had already entered the town to capture a few stragglers. It was known that Blücher was on the right, on the retreat. The Emperor was to stay there, in the municipal administration building. At ten o’clock the Guard advanced on the road to Leipzig, as far as the bridge over a stream near which Gustavus Adolphus had fought the battle in 1632 and lost his life. The action at Lützen was recorded as follows by our grenadier Ballut:
Sunday 2 May. – In the morning our officers announced that we were to spend the evening in Leipsic [sic], a town said to be very prosperous and known for its great annual fair. Around eleven o’clock, the Emperor approached our ranks to behold the Swedish column. This time he was wearing a grey frock coat and was in good spirits. He asked the colonel if we had not run out of food and urged us not to plunder the Saxons, who were complaining about a few petty thefts, especially the theft of geese, as the country is well populated with them. Everyone hoped that the day would pass peacefully, as the enemy was retreating towards Silesia. On leaving us, the Emperor was about to review XI Corps (1) arrayed near the Markanstradt stream. He had scarcely arrived there when the guns began to thunder sharply towards the south. News was soon to arrive. It was said that a Russian army, that of Wittgenstein, was advancing on our right to retake Weissenfels and cut us off, although the French VI Corps (2) was able to arrest it, and that Marshal Ney (3), who had arrived near the river Elster, in the two villages of Gorschen, had all the Prussians charging his front, which forced him to yield ground. Our pleasant Sunday was spoiled.
Our commander, General Roguet, immediately ordered his troops to arms. Twenty minutes later, an order arrived: ‘La Garde au feu!’ The Young Guard under General Dumoutier assumed our right. We advanced at ordinary pace across a vast plateau, leaving Lützen behind us. In our ranks, the veterans who had just returned from Russia vowed not to spare the moscoss. After a quarter of an hour, we noticed the Emperor on our left. He was heading towards Marshal Ney’s guns with all the speed that his white horse was capable of. I believe that he had also been caught off guard by an unexpected attack that day… Behind him, XI Corps began to march past to overtake our left.
About three kilometres from Lützen, we were bordering a small stream. Our battalions were spread out between this bank lined with poplars and the Pegau road. The sun was shining brightly, but the wind was blowing clouds of smoke towards us and we could see nothing thirty paces ahead; during our first halt, which took place at about half past one in the evening, we ate some biscuit and made a few withdrawals from the supply of brandy we had received in the morning. We were chatting amongst ourselves when five horsemen arrived on the other bank of the stream, practically hidden by huge willows. These men started shouting: ‘Rout! Save yourselves!’ Our captain stepped forward to quickly identify them and said: ‘These are Prussian hussars who are trying to deceive us. Hurry and shoot the scoundrels’. Thirty musket shots did the trick. With that done, we resumed our march to take up position in six lines behind the Kaya mill. When the line forces noticed us, they cheered, as they needed assistance.
The Emperor took up his position in the mill. He was directing the battle from above. (4) The aides-de-camp could be seen constantly coming and going. Matters were getting heated. At that moment, at three o’clock, Marshal Ney had just lost the two villages of Gorschen, and later on Kaya, a region comprising thirty buildings. The latter had been captured five times by III Corps, which was fighting on its own, between small marshes, against the forces of Blücher and Wittgenstein. However, the enemy, struck by our artillery, could not debouch from Kaya, which was in flames. Enemy cannonballs rained down on the mill situated sixty metres to the north. The Emperor stayed there and continued to give his orders.
We were required to engage the enemy at about four o’clock, as the battle was in full swing and did not appear to be in our favour, as the enemy numbered between 140,000 and 150,000 men. At that moment, Marshal Ney, who was always to be found in the thick of the most challenging situations, accompanied Ricard’s Division into Kaya. It was too daunting a matter for conscripts to drive out 25,000 Prussians; they lost many men and soon retreated towards Lützen. The Emperor threw himself into their midst and was able to rally them. He ordered IV Corps (5) to reinforce them on the right and the two Guard(s) [units?] to accompany these sheep. The Old Guard held a front of 400 metres along the small stream, and a battery of 100 guns began to pour so much iron upon the enemy that they were shaken for a moment. We took advantage of this to strike at them, and under our bayonets they disbanded before sunset. We pursued them beyond Gorschen. The night and caution forced us to halt behind Gross-Gorschen, on the edge of a lake, and the soldiers of XI Corps joined us.
Although the great battle was over and won without much suffering on our side, the night was not uneventful. The Cossacks and hulans [sic] constantly descended on our ranks. It was dark and all we could see were silhouettes; they drew their pistols and then fled. It was impossible to catch a wink of sleep due to these tormentors.
3 May. – At daybreak, we realised that we were close to a village called Muschwytz. The sky was overcast and we feared it would rain soon. Good news was circulating among our ranks. Our V Corps entered Leipzig yesterday. A sizeable patrol collected some prisoners in a wood, who appeared forlorn when they reached us. They were moscoss; they begged for bread on their knees. We took pity on their misery and gave them some. One of them, who spoke French, told us that yesterday morning the Tsar announced to his army that it was going to fight a final battle on the grounds that Bonaparte did not have 20,000 men to send into battle, as three quarters of the corps had deserted. However, the Russians soon realised that they had been deceived and abandoned 8,000 to 10,000 dead on the plains, and those who had escaped seemed to be determined to press further afield. Unfortunately, we lacked good cavalry to pursue and finish off these fellows… Otherwise we would have made peace at swordpoint.
We were delighted when the Emperor’s proclamation was read out to us. ‘Soldiers! I am pleased with you; you have fulfilled my expectations. You have defeated and compelled the Russian and Prussian army, commanded by the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia, to flee. (8) You have added a new lustre to the glory of my eagles. You have demonstrated all that French blood is capable of. We will drive the barbarians back into their dreadful climate, which they must never cross again; let them remain in their icy deserts, a dwelling place of slavery, barbarism and corruption, where man is reduced to the level of a brute. You have deserved well of a united Europe. Soldiers! Italy, France and Germany are grateful to you!’
After enjoying a meal, we made our way to Pegau, leaving Marshal Ney to guard the battlefield. Our general had us border a river called Elster, seven or eight leagues from Leipzig. Not a single inhabitant remained in the area, which our enemies had pillaged and even ravaged the church after having performed a Te Deum during the night to celebrate, those wretched deceivers, their alleged victory at Gorschen. Blücher’s horsemen even murdered an old priest from Bohlen who refused to ring the bells as part of the ceremony.
(…)
18 May. – We had to bid farewell to my brunette Louise and my brave haberdasher. We were supplied with white bread, sausages and brandy. The children burst into tears as we left. We were supposed to precede the Emperor on the main road, known as the Silesia road. (6) Once we had crossed the great bridge over the Elbe, we turned right and ascended towards a beech forest. The sites of the former Russian bivouacs could be discerned at the edge of the forest. We were halfway through the forest when a shout set off the alarm. A madman emerged from the ditch. We let him run. At midday, we halted in front of Weisig. The poor inhabitants came to ask for bread. Among them was an old man over a hundred years old, what my lieutenant referred to as a macrobite. (7) Three young women asked to join us as laundresses.
At around three o’clock, the drum resounded; it was the Emperor arriving with his entire staff. We lined the road, two rows on either side. He halted to listen to a courier. ‘Ah’, he said, ‘the Coalition forces have positioned themselves in front of the town of Bautzen. Their emplacements are formidable. We will dislodge them. Come on, gentlemen of the Old Guard, I might need your help. The war must be over before the winter’.
His Majesty went to spend the night at Hortau Castle, an age-old structure. We had to form posts around it, as spies had reported that Cossack horsemen, who marched mainly at night, were promised a million francs if they succeeded in capturing the Emperor. He had to be well guarded against these savages. None came that night, although a patrol that had been sent a long way brought back three of them, who were found half-dead of hunger in a woodsman’s shed. Their prayers could not affect men who had been so ill-treated by their comrades during the retreat from Moscow. The captain forced us to distribute bread to them, and they asked to join the Poles, which was refused, because the Emperor did not intend to include cowardly deserters among his troops.
19. – We set off early in the morning, crossing a battlefield. Marshal Macdonald had been very active; it was reported that his general of division, Charpentier, crushed and cut down an entire division of moscoss. The army showed no mercy to these barbarians. We found heaps of corpses in the fields, and on the roads many baggage carriages wrecked by our guns. This sight extended as far as the entrance to a small town in ruins, the name of which translates into French as Halte-là-l’Évéque [Bischofwerda]. Before retreating, the moscoss slaughtered around a hundred poor people. Only three houses were left standing in the town. One was crammed with wounded Russians being tended to by the physicians.
From this town, we marched slowly, in a large road column, to Little Forgen [Klein-Fortgen], as we were still waiting for the appearance of the infamous Cossacks who often swarmed around our flanks but did not dare approach our bayonets. The best accommodation in the area was occupied by the Imperial service. At around five o’clock an officer in a Polish uniform arrived. It was the Emperor who had adopted this disguise in order to reconnoitre the enemy’s positions in front of Bautzen and the surrounding hills. The sergeant-major announced that the Tsar intended to attack us the following night with 150,000 men. We had to keep watch, but nothing happened to us during the rainy night. Instead, a vicious dog appeared, howled and bit two horses. We suspected it was rabid and killed it. We were able to sleep in the early hours, with our heads on our haversacks and our muskets at hand.
20. – At around nine o’clock in the morning, Quartermaster Griois read out the orders. ‘Today, the Old Guard will follow Marshal Macdonald’s Corps on the road to Gorlitz and will halt near the crossing of the Spree, beneath Bautzen’. Twenty minutes later we set off with confidence. (8) After ascending a hill, we spotted the line of the first buildings of Bautzen, which formed a formidable rampart, and at the top the Bishop’s château, a veritable fortress. Three kilometres from the town, General Roguet ordered us to swerve to the right and arrive, through a valley, in front of the river, which the infantry was just about to ford at midday, to the left of a large elm tree behind which the Emperor had been the day before to reconnoitre the area. He had overheard a peasant telling Mr. Ney how convenient it was to pass, near the shelter of the laundresses. (9) At half past midday, Morand’s Division scaled Bautzen. It was a dreadful stampede and massacre; hundreds of moscoss were slaughtered, and the others fled. We went up to the Bishop’s château where the Emperor would spend the night. We were provided with mattresses and enjoyed a good night’s sleep.
21. – We were about to engage in a great battle; I guessed as much when I observed 10,000 men of the Young Guard march past on the hills north of Bautzen and pass five times in the same place to deceive the enemy, who was garrisoning the Wurtschen plain and monitoring all our movements. Four corps descended on them and wrested their entrenchments from them. The affair was especially bitter on the sides of the main road to Gœrlitz. Prussian cavalry attacked my regiment in front of Little Bautzen. We massacred 5 to 600 men who were left behind. Then, we stood by with arms crossed and waited. In the evening, we were led along muddy paths to the little Purchwitz inn where the Emperor was going to sleep in the same bed as the Tsar did. Around the inn we found a lot of abandoned items and a gold image known as an icon. All we had for dinner was flour taken from the moscoss. We had to make galettes from it, cooked over the bivouac fires.
22. – We were to march behind the Emperor as far as the small town of Weissenburg. Multitudes of crows descended on the plain to tear up the corpses. The cavalry fought in front of us on the hillsides. We often came across bands of prisoners. We halted for a meal in Reichenbach on the large square. The Emperor left us to reconnoitre the positions of the advance. Soon an aide-de-camp reported that Grand Marshal Duroc and General Kirgener had been knocked off their horses by the same cannonball. Napoleon, who was at the scene, had Mr. Duroc taken to the vicarage of Markesdorf. We arrived at this village, situated on a hill, in the evening. The Emperor was with the Grand Marshal and wept upon seeing him mortally wounded. This brave man was to be removed the next day and taken to Gœrlitz, where he passed away.
23. – On the road to Gœrlitz. On the right, under an oak tree, the Emperor watched his troops march past. We cheered and he lifted his little hat several times. At Gœrlitz, a Silesian community, the Old Guard stacked their muskets in front of the cathedral. We found ourselves in the Kingdom of Prussia and the people refused to accommodate us. We broke down doors to find shelter. Ten of us slept in one room…
Notes
(1) Macdonald, commanding Charpentier, Gérard and Fressinet’s Divisions.
(2) Marmont, commanding Compans and Bonnet’s Divisions.
(3) Commander of III Corps; Souham, Brenier, Ricard and Marchand’s Divisions, along with troops from Baden and Hessians.
(4) Small error. He only stayed there for fifteen minutes, for observation.
(5) IV Corps was under Bertrand’s command. He committed only Morand’s Division.
(6) Napoleon was to leave Dresden at two o’clock in the evening. The King of Saxony was to accompany him halfway to Hortau.
(7) Gunther Schilling, a former soldier of Frederick the Great, who passed away in the hospital of Dresden at the age of one hundred and seven.
(8) This is incorrect; it was Macdonald’s artillery that was to bombard, for twenty minutes, the heights of Sinkwitz, the point of support for the Allied right.
(9) A lancer officer, who was an eyewitness, recounted how he captured a peasant and led him to Ney, who questioned him: ‘Is there much water standing in the ravine to the right of here?’ – ‘Not higher than the knee,’ replied the peasant. ‘Did you ever pass it in a cart?’ – ‘All the time, except during spring and autumn, when there is a lot of water’. Napoleon asked Berthier for some money and gave the peasant a handful of louis, saying: ‘Here, this is to drink to the health of the Emperor of the French’. The peasant wanted to throw himself at his feet. Napoleon held him back. Have you met the Emperor?’ – ‘No, I would like to see him’. – ‘Well, there he is’, he said, pointing to Ney, who at that moment was showing off his embroidered uniform under his frock coat. The peasant threw himself at his feet. Ney laughed.
Source : ‘1813 – Récit d’un témoin’, in Revue des études napoléoniennes, 1919, pp. 268-276.
Other accounts to read :
> Some notes of a grenadier of the Imperial Guard, 1813 …
> Chef d’escadron Mathieu and the 1813 campaign …
> The battle of Leipzig and imprisonment, as witnessed by an officer …
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