Diary of a Napoleonic Footsoldier (18 page)

Napoleon was one of the first to make large-scale and effective use of what we call psychological warfare; and he did it with the populations at home in view. His famous
Bulletins de la Grande Armée
served that purpose and, naturally, gave the most optimistic accounts of victories, captured trophies, progress of the campaign, weakness of the enemy. And when the going went from bad to worse, the
Bulletins
camouflaged the disasters as much as possible. To preserve the credibility of the official news,
all correspondence from the front lines was censored. Letters that would have contributed to demoralizing the home front, or that would have reflected the hardships and horrors of the campaign were confiscated. Some of the confiscated letters were forwarded to military or civilian authorities, so that they could take appropriate measures to maintain discipline and preserve law and order at home.

This accounts for the fact that some soldiers’ letters (with or without official comments) found their way into the administrative files of the Kingdom of Westphalia. Portions of the archives of the kingdom fell into the possession of a general in Russian service and were eventually turned over to the Russian Government. At present they are deposited in the Manuscript Division of the Leningrad Public Library.

Mr. S. N. Iskiul’—senior researcher at the Leningrad Division of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.—has discovered the six letters translated below in the course of his work on Russian diplomacy with respect to the German states in the Napoleonic era. He has published them, in Russian, with his commentaries and notes, in
Osvoboditel’noe dvizhenie v Rossii
(The liberation movement in Russia), No. 7 (Saratov: University of Saratov), 1978, pp. 101–10. He has kindly provided me with a typed copy of the original German text. I am very grateful to him for allowing reproduction of this material. I have made use of his valuable commentaries and Russian translation for the introduction and to clarify some obscure passages. In my own translation, I have attempted to convey not only the meaning
but also the manner of writing and the uneducated flavor of these letters, which have an immediacy that memoirs written years after the events do not have as a rule. We have no information on either the background or the fate of the authors—they speak for the suffering, faceless common people.

M
ost beloved parents, Father and Mother. If this small letter of mine reaches you still in good health it will be a heartfelt pleasure for me. As to myself, I am, thank God, so far still quite fresh and healthy, and, dear parents, that I could not write you earlier has saddened me much.

But, dear parents and good friends, if I am to write you of my present condition, how pitifully I am faring, me and my comrades, it is not to be described. God would soon take pity and give us, poor folk, soon again rest and peace.

Now, dear parents, as I have so pitifully kept my Easter and Pentecost, so did the poorest man on earth have it better than me and many. For Pentecost we had so little to live on that me had not half a pound of bread in three days. It would have been the same if we had had more, for it was too little to fill one and too much to starve, for we received no meat nor vegetables; so that from hunger thirty men killed ourselves a dog and have picked nettles and have cooked us a greenery dish with the dog’s fat
[
as shortening
]
and eaten the meat for much hunger, for in the Polish lands there is so little to live on, that it would be little wonder if one would at the end starve to death, for bread, beer, and brandy is so expensive that our five days’ pay could be used up in half an hour and
[
still
]
not know whether one has eaten or not. I get every five days six good pennies
[Groschen].
¹
If at home in Eisleben me buys for one Groschen spirits or liquor
[Schnaps],
me gets more for it than for twenty farthings
[Kreuzer]
in Poland, bread and beer. At that, the beer is as bad as the worst in Eisleben. We stand now not far from the Russian border in camp, where we arrived 5 June at twelve
o’clock of the night and expect to see the enemy any day and hour. We are from home at least 160 miles away. Now then, dear parents and good friends, if I may ask you if it is possible to help me out with a little money so that I can still the great hunger, and should I return home I’ll know how to thank you, so help me God on Judgment Day. Dear Father and Mother, be so kind to give a greeting to Louise Dordner from her brothers, they both are still quite hale and healthy and they are as pitiful as I am. We are together in camp with the 1st Division, 2nd Brigade. I am still with the 3rd Line Regiment, 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Company and Louise Dordner’s brothers are with the 2nd Regiment, 2nd Battalion of the Voltigeur Company.

Fare well you all and I would wish that this letter not be the last. I remain your faithful son unto death.

WILHELM FIGNER

[
On the side added
]
Dear parents, don’t take it amiss that the letter is so poorly written, it was
[
written
]
on the ground. But if you write to me you must write to 3rd Regiment, 2nd Battalion Grenadier Company to Westphalian Army in Poland.

Y
our dear letter from last month arrived properly in Warsaw, however, the one you sent to Mr. Lieutenant Kessmann I did not receive, it must have gotten lost. Not I am in Russia where it is worse for me than in the other Poland.
¹
Here there is a lack of all foodstuffs. The bread that is delivered is so bad that one can’t eat it, yet very dear to buy, one bread is paid eight pennies
[Groschen],
it is baked from chaff and at that it is not baked through, it lies like lead on the stomach. Hunger drives it down though. Meat is also very bad, half smelly, and yet it has to be eaten. What else can one eat? Our march from Warsaw to here was good and bad, we quartered under the free sky, God was our host. Thunderstorm rains have at times drenched us thoroughly. For four days I did not have a single dry thread on me and then nothing in the belly but a gulp of wutki
[
vodka
]
and a piece of dark bread
[Pomzernickel,
i.e.
, Pumpernickel].
We marched with the King
[
of Westphalia
]
without rest, ten to sixteen hours a day on horseback. Of rivers we crossed the Narwa
[
actually the Warthe
],
Narev, Bug and now we are across the Niemen in Russian Poland. There were ten regiments of Cossacks in this town, but they have been expelled by the Polish army while the Cossacks burned down the bridges behind themselves.
²
One hundred Cossacks were taken prisoner, many died. The captured Cossacks were all pitifully dressed, poorly armed. They must have been irregulars. One can’t go far from the town, there is always some of this riffraff around. The Russians have retreated a lot. The
[
ir
]
army stands far from here. Our army follows on their heels. The headquarters of Emperor Napoleon is in Wilno, so far did the French army
advance. There will be a major battle these days. Tomorrow our march resumes with the King. This town greeted the King with all expressions of honor and swore fealty to Napoleon. Our good life has ended since we left Warsaw. Now one has to learn to suffer hunger and thirst. Our faces look different. Brown in the face like a chestnut and a mustache under my nose have completely disfigured me. Thank God I am in health, I bite at times in the old army bread, so that it rattles, and drive the hunger away. I could not get any money from Dr. Dieffenbach, for he has none, he would have gladly obliged me if he had not given all his cash against a remittance through a good friend. I am now so broke that I have no money to make myself shirts. I don’t know what to do. Today I’ll speak again to our doctor, if he has none
[
money
]
I’ll go immediately to Nan at the field post
[
office
]
if he can’t lend me money. It would be good if you would immediately speak with his parents and pay them the money. You have to ask them to write him that if I have money needs he should lend me
[
some
].
I have to have two louis d’or to pay off my debts to my comrades and buy myself three shirts or have them made.
³
One louis d’or can’t help me at all, I got too broke on the march to pay everything with one louis d’or. If I can hunt up money today I’ll let you know and will put a note with the letter for your guidance. I greet my brothers and sisters. Farewell and stay nicely in health.

KUNKEL

D
ear Mother
,

I am forced not to send off this letter yet for lack of time. We had to march off from Grodno in a hurry and made a big march. The Russians are pushed back and soon there will be fought a major battle. Until now there were only avant-garde skirmishes at which several Cossacks were left dead, the streets are full of horses that died or were killed. Dr. Dieffenbach cannot give me money for he has not gotten his pay. Send me right away two louis d’or so that I can soon be free
[
of need
].
It goes very bad for me, it cannot last longer this way. There is no pay either, not much to live on, so one has to go hungry. You pay these two louis d’or at the post, you get a receipt for it that you send me in a letter. I receive thus the money without trouble at the army, it has to be done right away or much time is lost and I have to wait that much longer. This letter will get fast to Cassel through an opportunity with the former
garde du corps
Schmidt. Keep well. I am still healthy.

HER
[
MANN
?]
KUNKEL

B
est mother, sisters, brother-in-law, and friends!