Russia Against Napoleon (103 page)

72 Helldorff’s description of these events, of which he was an eyewitness, is on pp. 35–8 of
Kulm
.

73 Eugen,
Memoiren
, vol. 3, p. 149.

74 All the general histories describe the terrain well, but Bogdanovich, Friederich and Ehnl presumably take it for granted that a reader will know that Bohemian villages were built of wood and say nothing about buildings. It is because he provides small but crucial details of this sort that Aster is so important: on houses, for example, see Aster:
Kriegsereignisse…Kulm
, pp. 14–15.

75 Helldorff,
Kulm
, p. 45.

76 Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, p. 88; Brett-James,
Wilson’s Journal
, p. 173; Londonderrry,
Narrative
, p. 124.
Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka
, p. 135.

77 For Kovalsky’s account, see ‘Iz zapisok pokoinago general-maiora N. P. Koval’skago’,
Russkii vestnik
, 91/1, 1871, pp. 78–117, especially p. 102; ‘Zapiski N. N. Murav’eva-Karskago’,
RA
, 24/1, 1886, pp. 5–55, especially pp. 22–6; P. Bobrovskii,
Istoriia leibgvardii ulanskago E.I.V. gosudarynyi Imperatritsy Aleksandry Fedorovny polka
, SPB, 1903, p. 231.

78 On French losses, see Muravev’s conversation with Vandamme’s chief of staff: ‘Zapiski’, p. 25; Brett-James,
Wilson’s Journal
, p. 173; Bobrovskii,
Istoriia leib-gvardii ulanskago…polka
, p. 230.

79 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.),
Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina,
1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, pp. 252 ff.; ‘Zapiski N. N. Murav’eva’, 24/1, 1885, p. 26.

80 This point is well documented by Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, pp. 90–92, and Ehnl,
Kulm
, pp. 112–18, so there is no reason why the fable still exists.

81 Bernhardi,
Denkwürdigkeiten
, p. 454.

82 Ehnl,
Kulm
, p. 132, writes that 41,000 allied infantry and 10,000 cavalry faced 39,000 French infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Given Vandamme’s casualties on 28 and 29 August, the figure for his infantry seems too high.

83 P. A. Kolzakov, ‘Vziatie v plen marshala Vandama 1813 g.’,
RS
, 1, 1870, pp. 137–44. Bogdanovich,
Istoriia
…1813, vol. 2, p. 704;
SIM
, no. 254, Alexander to Rostopchin, 22 Dec. 1813, p. 164.

84 Tartakovskii,
Voennye dnevniki
: Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s journal for 1813, p. 360.

85 This does not count members of the Romanov family or foreigners.

86 Hoen,
Feldzug von Leipzig
, p. 274: neutral in the sense that Hoen was an Austrian.

87 Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, pp. 144–8; Leggiere,
Napoleon and Berlin
, ch. 7 and especially pp. 137–41.

88 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 213–4, Thuyl to Volkonsky, 21 Aug./2 Sept. 1813.

89
VPR
, no. 141, Alexander’s instructions to Pozzo, 31 July/10 Aug. 1813, p. 345; Botzenhart,
Stein
, vol. 4, Stein to Munster, 7 and 10 Aug. 1813, pp. 390–92; Londonderry,
Narrative
, p. 179.

90 V. von Löwenstern,
Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern
, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 2, pp. 136–7, 184–5; S. G. Volkonskii,
Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskago (dekabrista)
, SPB, 1902, pp. 264–5, 306–7.

91 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, Winzengerode to Alexander, 7/19 Aug. 1813, fos. 148–9; 22 Aug./3 Sept. 1813, fos. 289–91; RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 53, Delo 18, fo. 7: Kankrin to Lotthum, 1/19 July 1813.

92 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/120, Sv. 18, Delo 57, fos. 5–6: Barclay to Lanskoy, 28 July 1813 (OS): Sv. 53, Delo 18, fo. 25, Barclay to Kankrin, 8 Aug. 1813 (OS).

93 Löwenstern,
Mémoires
, vol. 2, pp. 100, 146–78; Volkonskii,
Zapiski
, pp. 258–9; V. M. Bezotosnyi,
Donskoi generalitet i ataman Platov v
1812
godu
, Moscow, 1899, pp. 109–18.

94 Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, pp. 139–73, provides an excellent analysis and description.

95 A recent full account in English of both the battle and some of the disputes that surrounded it is in Leggiere,
Napoleon and Berlin
, ch. 11. Leggiere is more hostile to Bernadotte than is Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, pp. 177–91.

96 V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812
god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov
, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 2, p. 28.

97 Major-General E. S. Kamenskii,
Istoriia 2-go dragunskago S-Peterburgskago generalafel’dmarshala kniazia Menshikova polka
1707–1898, Moscow, 1900, pp. 225–37. Volkonskii,
Zapiski
, p. 266.

98 Bogdanovich,
Istoriia
…1813, vol. 2, pp. 275, 281.

Chapter 12: The Battle of Leipzig

1 The treaty is in F. Martens (ed.),
Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami
, vol. 3:
Traktaty s Avsrtieiu
, SPB, 1876, no. 71, pp. 126–38. Kankrin’s comments are in
Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov
, Warsaw, 1815, pp. 72–6.

2 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.),
Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v
1813
g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov
, Moscow, 1964, no. 214, Jomini to Alexander, 21 Aug./

2 Sept. 1813, pp. 241–2.

3 The letter to Knesebeck is quoted by Rudolph von Friederich,
Die Befreiungskriege
1813– 1815, vol. 2:
Der Herbstfeldzug
1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 214–15; the letter to Alexander is printed in Beskrovnyi (ed.),
Pokhod
, no. 232, Blücher to Alexander, 30 Aug./11 Sept. 1813, pp. 268–9.

4 Rühle’s words are quoted by Friederich in
Herbstfeldzug
, p. 215:
VPR
, no. 162, Nesselrode to Pozzo, 21 Sept./3 Oct. 1813, pp. 393–4.

5 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, nos. 50 and 51, Volkonsky to Blücher, Volkonsky to Bennigsen, 1/13 Sept. 1813, fos. 21ii–22ii; Delo 3416, ‘Zhurnal voennykh deistvii Pol’skoi armii’, fos. 12i–14i.

6 M. I. Bogdanovich,
Istoriia voiny
1813
g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii
, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 2, pp. 336–41; RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Platov, 4 Sept. 1813 (OS), fos. 24ii–25i.

7 Chernyshev’s journal covers the raid in fos. 26–31 of RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386. Bogdanovich,
Istoriia
…1813, vol. 2, pp. 342–55, provides a narrative, though my conclusions are very different from his.

8 A. Raevskii,
Vospominaniia o pokhodakh
1813
i
1814
godov
, Moscow, 1822, pp. 1–77.

9 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3416, fos. 16i–17ii.

10 The best and most detailed narrative is in
Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz. Befreiungskrieg
1813
und
1814, vol. 5: M. von Hoen,
Feldzug von Leipzig
, Vienna, 1913; on Schwarzenberg’s fears see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Oppermann, no. 97, 24 Sept. 1813 (OS), fos. 38i–39i; on victualling, see A. A. Eiler, ‘Zapiski A. A. Eilera’,
RS
, 1/11, 1880, p. 367 and
Pokhod
, no. 254, Barclay to Wittgenstein, 20 Sept./2 Oct. 1813, pp. 296–7.

11 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3385, Bernadotte to Winzengerode, 2 Oct. 1813, fo. 57i; I. Radozhitskii,
Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s
1812
po
1816
god
, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 2, p. 246.

12 It is true that some of the 35,000 were sick, but the basic point remains valid: on Bennigsen’s deployment of troops at Dresden, see
Feldzug der kaiserlichen Russischen Armee von Polen in den Jahren
1813
und
1814, Hamburg, 1843, pp. 33–6.

13
Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de
1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, pp. 222, 298.

14 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 27i–28ii, Sacken to Barclay, 1 Oct. 1813 (OS).

15 Langeron,
Mémoires
, pp. 299–300.

16 I visited the battlefield on two occasions, before major construction began on the motor-way which will provide a bypass for Leipzig and in the process ruin much of the southern battlefield.

17 Hon. George Cathcart,
Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in
1812
and
1813, London, 1850, p. 298.

18 Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, p. 294.

19 Ibid., p. 295.

20 Bogdanovich cites Alexander’s words:
Istoriia
…1813, vol. 2, p. 439.

21 Hoen,
Feldzug von Leipzig
, pp. 402–10. The possibility of treason is raised by Digby Smith (1813
– Leipzig, Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations
, London, 2001, p. 69) but no evidence is provided. My own explanation is partly drawn from Ludwig von Wolzogen,
Mémoires d’un Général d’Infanterie au service de la Prusse et de la Russie (1792–1836)
, Paris, 2002, pp. 179–82.

22 The statistics come from Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, pp. 296–300.

23 Eugen,
Memoiren
, vol. 3, p. 230.

24 J.-N. Noel,
With Napoleon’s Guns
, London, 2005, pp. 180–81.

25 Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, p. 232;
Mémoires du Général Griois
, Paris, n.d., p. 202; Eugen,
Memoiren
, vol. 3, p. 232. Smith,
Leipzig
, p. 86, argues that Eugen should have moved his corps out of the line of fire or at least ordered them to lie down. But the prince could not just decamp and leave a hole in the allied line. Moreover, Russian troops (or Prussian and Austrian ones) were not trained to lie down in sight of enemy guns. Even Wellington’s infantry might have hesitated to do so on an open glacis with a mass of enemy cavalry nearby.

26 RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 754, fos. 38 ff.

27 All this information comes from the personnel records (
posluzhnye spiski
) of the Murom Regiment in RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 517: each rank has its separate
posluzhnoi spisok
, beginning on fo. 2.

28 See for instance a report from Diebitsch to Barclay timed at 8 a.m. on 16 October in which the former urges that the Guards be moved forward immediately: unless this was done ‘the distance to Rotha is so great that they will never arrive in time’: Beskrovnyi (ed.),
Pokhod
, no. 283, Diebitsch to Barclay, 4/16 Oct. 1813, p. 329.

29 As one might expect, the Austrian official history gives most attention to this part of the battle but its account is largely confirmed by Bogdanovich: the Austrians and Russians were not very fond of each other even in 1813 and had become a good deal less so by the time they got round to writing their official histories of the campaign. On the whole, a good rule of thumb is to believe the Russian history when it praises the Austrians, and vice versa. If in doubt, Friederich is often a remarkably fair and neutral arbiter. Hoen,
Feldzug von Leipzig
, pp. 471–82; Bogdanovich,
Istoriia
…1813, vol. 2, pp. 461–4; Friederich,
Herbstfeldzug
, pp. 308–12.