The Illustrious Dead (29 page)

Chapter Ten: Clash

130 “‘Soldiers! Here is the battle’”: Quoted in Zamoyski, p. 265.

131 “‘Trusting in God’”: Quoted in Nicolson, p. 74.

131 “when Soviet generals”: Ibid., preface.

134 “‘When she caught sight’”: Austin, p. 279.

134 “Lieutenant Roth von Schreckenstein”: Brett-James, p. 124.

137 “‘sluggish, apathetic’”: Ségur, p. 69.

137 “‘What’s the Emperor’”: Ibid., p. 71.

138 “‘ceased to exist’”: Parkinson, p. 142.

138 “‘No!’ he told’”: Ségur, p. 65.

139 “When one of his officers”: Ségur, p. 68.

140 “The most conservative”: The figures are from Zamoyski, p. 287.

141 “‘And if there is’”: Quoted in Ségur, p. 72.

142 “Franz Ludwig August von Meerheimb”: Brett-James, p. 135.

143 “‘Whole files,’”: Ibid., p. 127.

144 “‘I had been through’”: Ibid., p. 128.

144 “The Russian general later remarked”: Zamoyski, p. 273.

144 “‘He appeared destitute’”: Clausewitz, p. 141.

145 “‘the bad condition’”: Ibid., p. 142.

147 “‘My battle’”: Ségur, p. 68.

147 “‘For strong, healthy’”: Austin, p. 296.

148 “the captain”: Brett-James, p. 129.

149 “‘Do what you’”: Austin, p. 300.

151 “‘It would be difficult’”: Quoted in Zamoyski, p. 278.

151 “‘In one hand’”: Austin, p. 306.

153 “‘gashed’”: Vossler, p. 67.

153 “‘It was horrible’”: Quoted in Dyer, p. 234.

155 “‘It is another question’”: Clausewitz, p. 168.

155 “‘People will be’”: Brett-James, p. 130.

Chapter Eleven: The Hospital

157 “‘All the villages and houses’”: Quoted in Howard, p. 133.

159 “Imagine the journey”: This account of a typical hospital is drawn largely from the memoirs of Larrey, de Kerckhove, and common soldiers, as well as the eyewitness accounts collected in Brett-James and Austin and Howard’s study of the Grande Armée medical service.

163 “‘horribly disemboweled’”: Austin, p. 311.

163 “As the night progressed”: The description of typhus patients is drawn from the same primary sources listed in the second note for page 49.

164 “The men often gave off”: The odors are mentioned specifically in Bartlett, p. 189, where the author writes of “pungent, ammoniacal and offensive [smells] especially in severe cases, and in fat, plethoric individuals; sometimes, for a few days before death, the smell resembled that of putrid animal matter.” Similar descriptions are given in other firsthand accounts.

164 “‘The face was sometimes’”: For de Kerckhove’s description of typhus symptoms, see his memoir, pp. 406-9.

165 “opium or Hoffman’s drops”: Austin,
The March on Moscow
, p. 176.

165 “
chirurgiens de pacotille”:
Howard, p. 2.

166 “As he tended”: de Kerckhove’s description of his treatment regimen starts at page 406 of his memoir.

Chapter Twelve: The Last City

172 “‘We had never suffered’”: Brett-James, p. 109.

173 “‘With which low bitch’”: Ibid., p. 133.

173 “‘used a dead horse’”: Parkinson, p. 159.

174 “‘Everyone was still’”: Quoted in Zamoyski, p. 284.

175 “‘Six hundred wounded Russians’”: Brett-James, p. 142.

176 “‘You see what they want’”: Ibid., p. 155.

179 “‘We kept on’”: Ibid., p. 150.

180 “‘What blackguard’”: Ibid., p. 160.

181 “140,000 from France”: Zamoyski, p. 311.

181 “‘Not only’”: Ibid., p. 312.

183 “‘Farewell, delightful haunts’”: Troyat, p. 153.

183 “‘They will wait’”: Brett-James, p. 172.

184 “‘It would be difficult’”: Caulaincourt, p. 113.

185 “‘a small machine’”: Bourgnone, p. 23. 185 “‘Even the gallery slaves’”: Labaume, p. 91.

185 “There was, at last”: Memoirists from de Kerckhove to Ségur to Jakob Walter recount the abundance of food in Moscow.

185 “‘as round and large’”: Walter, p. 57.

186 “‘It [would be] difficult’”: Larrey, p. 44.

188 “The fire was now so close”: For an account of Napoleon’s escape from the Moscow fire, see Ségur, pp. 109-11.

189 “a contingent of 10,000”: Ebstein, p. 40.

189 “‘Want, sickness’”: Wilson, p. 57.

190 “They received a contingent”: Howard, p. 219.

190 “The troops who had been on the campaign”: Rose, quoting the Prussian doctor-memoirist Krantz, attests that reinforcements or rear units who came in contact with the main body of the Grande Armée often fell ill almost immediately. “The Prussian soldiers of York’s corps had not been with the Grand Armée in Moscow, and there was no typhus among them until they followed the French on their road of retreat from Russia. [Krantz:] ‘From this moment on, however, the disease spread with the greatest rapidity in the whole Prussian army corps,’ and this spreading took place with a certain uniformity among the different divisions … In the first East Prussian regiment of infantry, when it came to the Vistula, there was not a single case of typhus, ‘while after a march of 14 miles on the highway which the French had passed before them there were 15 to 20 men sick in every company, every tenth or even every seventh man. In those divisions which had been exposed to infection while in former cantonments, the cases were much more numerous, 20 to 30 in every company.’”

190 “‘During our first days’”: de Kerckhove, p. 88.

190 “typhus ‘ripped’”: Ebstein, p. 48.

190 “‘Thousands of sick soldiers’”: de Kerckhove, p. 88.

190 “The diseases awakened by the war”: For estimates of Russian casualties from disease, especially typhus, see Bernhardy’s report, quoted in Ebstein, p. 66. For Davidov’s account, see
In the Service of the Tsar Against Napoleon.

Chapter Thirteen: Decision

193 “General de Marbot acknowledged”: See
The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot.
Published online at
http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Memoirs-of-General-the-Baron-de-Marbot8.html
, section 8.

195 “‘One could have heard’”: Quoted in Troyat, p. 155.

196 “‘At every step’”: Brett-James, p. 187.

197 “‘if we met with the slightest’”: Caulaincourt, p. 145.

198 “‘What?!’ he cried”: Ségur, p. 120.

199 “‘I want peace’”: Ibid., p. 122.

200 “‘What a frightful’”: Ségur, p. 126.

200 “‘A thick fog descended’”: from
Hilaire Belloc: An Anthology of His Prose and Verse
, London: R. Hart Davis, 1951, p. 233.

202 “‘oriental despotism’”: Schom, p. 180.

203 “‘The mortality continues’”: Parkinson, Wenda, p. 190.

Chapter Fourteen: Two Roads

205 “By the beginning of November”: Zamoyski estimates Napoleon’s forces as he departed Moscow at “no more than 95,000 and probably less.” Riehn’s estimate is rather higher, at 109,000. Clausewitz recorded 90,000.

205 “‘had scarcely’”: Howard, p. 214.

205 “‘These unfavorable circumstances’”: Larrey, p. 6.

206 “There is no question”: Ségur.

207 “The historian Jean Morvan”: Howard, p. 36.

210 “In the famous”: These facts are drawn from
The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science
, by Todd Tucker, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

211 “‘chronic disorders’”: See, for example, Smyth’s
Description of a Jail Distemper
, p. 14, where the doctor writes: “Even those who escaped from the more immediate danger of the disease recovered in general very slowly, were a long time weak and subject to returns of fever, or they fell into chronic disorders which in the end proved no less fatal.”

211 “they could quite easily drop back”: There are numerous accounts of this mini-army of stragglers trailing the main body of troops, among them Ségur, who wrote, on p. 21, at Vitebsk, “The interminable lines of sick and stragglers must be given time to rejoin their regiments or get into hospitals.”

213 “‘The typhus made’”: Brett-James, p. 210.

214 “The generals found”: Labaume, p. 120.

216 “‘She experienced’”: Ibid., p. 121.

217 “‘The time has come’”: Ségur, p. 145.

218 “‘We were going’”: de Kerckhove, p. 100.

219 “‘to his boundless’”: Roeder, p. 188.

220 “‘Our heads were hideous’”: Austin, p. 213.

221 “‘On all sides’”: Ibid.

221 “‘She didn’t cry’”: Bourgogne, p. 147.

222 “‘let out’”: de Kerckhove, p. 100.

222 “‘Typhus strongly advancing’”: Ibid., pp. 142, 155.

224 “‘You want to fight’”: Quoted in Zamoyski, p. 407.

Chapter Fifteen: Graveyard Trees

225 “On July 8”: Cooper, p. 1.

228 “‘We resemble our lackeys’”: Brett-James, p. 230-1.

228 “‘If the circumstances’”: Austin, p. 98.

229 “‘old grenadier’”: Austin, p. 98.

230 “‘As long’”: Quoted in Zamoyski, p. 451.

230 “‘No one among us’”: Austin, p. 101.

232 “‘See how they’”: Austin, p. 123.

233 “‘A horrible, death-dealing stench’”: Quoted in Ségur, p. 185.

234 “‘Farewell, good mother’”: Bourgogne, p. 199.

234 “On November 12”: Roeder, p. 168.

236 “‘Their complaints tore at our hearts’”: Austin, p. 197.

237 “‘The misery of my poor soldiers’”: Ségur, p. 206.

237 “‘I was delirious’”: Bourgogne, p. 196.

238 “‘I noticed,’”: Larrey, p. 68.

239 “‘Ah yes!’”: Ségur, p. 231.

240 “‘This is beginning’”: Caulaincourt, p. 235.

246 “‘A Russian musket ball’”: Austin, p. 290.

246 “‘surrounded on all sides’”: Ibid., p. 300.

250 “‘nothing but a vast’”: Austin, p. 366.

Epilogue: Rendezvous in Germany

253 “‘Drummers without drumsticks’”: Quoted in Cate, p. 392.

254 “As the survivors marched”: For an account of the attitudes of townspeople toward the infected soldiers, see Walter, p. 108.

254 “‘Wherever we went’”: Vossler, p.99.

255 “‘Epidemic maladies’”: Larrey, p. 67.

255 “‘application of the skin’”: Ibid., p. 88.

255 “‘It is morning’”: Roeder, p. 191.

255 “‘I feel that I’”: Ibid., p. 207.

256 “As Napoleon hurried”: For Caulaincourt’s account of the sleigh ride, see his memoirs, pp. 271-323.

258 “It is impossible”: That disease was the lead killer in the Russian campaign is supported not only by the accounts of doctors and common soldiers on the campaign, but by a second wave of medical historians. In
Napoleon’s Doctors
, Martin writes, “In Russia, typhus can be easily identified in the eyewitness accounts of an army which lost perhaps over 200,000 soldiers solely from disease.” And that typhus was dominant among a host of contagious illnesses is confirmed by specialist secondary authors such as Prinzing, in his excellent
Epidemics Resulting from Wars
, who writes that “the most common disease even in Moscow was typhus fever” (p. 116). The analysis is seconded by Zinnser, who writes that “typhus remained the dominant disease” during the invasion (p. 163). Zinsser does perhaps overemphasize the rate of infection at the end of the campaign when he asserts, “The vestiges of the army which escaped from Russia were almost without exception infected with typhus.” There are accounts of units that were free from the disease on the march home, and the DNA evidence from the skeletons at Vilnius don’t support an infection rate that high.

260 “According to the military surgeon”: For an extended discussion of typhus’s effects on the armies of 1813-14, see Prinzing, pp. 127-34. He writes: “After the battle of Dresden (August 26-27) from which Napoleon again emerged victorious, but especially during the short siege of Dresden (from the middle of October to November 11), the epidemic increased in both extent and fury. The increased mortality went from 184 in January to 960 by November. In the course of the year 1813, no less than 21,090 soldiers died in Dresden, while in the same year 5,194 residents died.”

260 “‘Tears came’”: Quoted in McLynn, p. 654.

263 “‘We found’”: This quote is from
Bemerkungen ueber den Gang der Krankheiten welche in der königlich preussischen Armee vom Ausbruch des Krieges im Jahre 1812 bis zu Ende des Waffenstillstandes (im Aug.) 1813 geherrscht haben. (Remarks on the Course of the Diseases Which Have Reigned in the Royal Prussian Army from the Beginning of the War in the Year 1812 until the End of the Armistice [in August] 1813).
The text is included in Rose (unpaginated).

263 “In Berlin”: Prinzing, p. 125.

264 “‘Who of us’”: Ibid., p. 153.

Author’s Note: The Doorway of the Hospital at Tunis

267 This account draws mainly from Kim Pelis’s biography of Nicolle.

271 “In his speech”: The text can be read in full at
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1928/nicolle-lecture.html

272 “During 1914-18”: The “3 million” total is not uncontested, and some analysts believe it is overstated. But the Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, quoting a Russian physician and epidemiologist, estimated that there were 25 million cases of typhus in Russia, with more than 3 million deaths, in the years 1918-1922 alone.

273 “‘Either socialism’”: Quoted in
The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BC–1800 AD
, by Lawrence Conrad, Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

274 “The Red Army’s scientists”: For a full account of the Russian biological weapons program, including the typhus experiments, see Ken Alibek and Stephen Handelman’s
Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World—Told from the Inside by the Man Who Ran It
, New York: Dell, 2000.

275 For Irma Sonnenberg Menkel’s account, see “I Saw Anne Frank Die,”
Newsweek
, July 21, 1997.