Napoleon's Last Campaign in Germany, 1813

GENERAL MAP OF THEATRE OF WAR.

the battle of BAUTZEN.

THE PRELIMINARIES OF BAUTZEN

ONCE he was convinced that the enemy intended fighting at Bautzen, Napoleon hastened the assembly of his armies for the battle he so greatly desired. He had failed to gain a decisive victory at Liitzen with numbers far larger than his opponent. He now hoped to unite against him a force very nearly double the combined Russians and Prussians.

CHAPTER IX

THE BATTLE OF BAUTZEN i

CHAPTER IX

IT is now necessary to describe the field of the two days' battle of Bautzen. The general line of division between the opponents on the 20th May was the river Spree, from about Doberschau, where it changes its course from north-west to a little east of north, to Leichnam beyond Klix. From Doberschau to Oehna, just below Bautzen, the stream flows in a steep-sided valley, some 150 feet in average depth. The command varies from bank to bank. Be- yond Oehna, as far as the Gottlobsberg, about two miles lower down, the right bank generally commands the left. Beyond this point the river is bordered by meadows, in which, especially on the right bank, are numerous shallow^ muddy ponds used for breeding carp, of which one sees a whole cart-load taken from a single pond. Through these ponds run a little branch of the Spree, which enables them to be filled or emptied when the fish have to be taken up. Across them, as in the case of the long line running north from Doberschiitz, there are narrow causeways separating them into compartments. These ponds, and the marshy land around them, are a very serious military obstacle even for infantry. The Spree is here a small stream, comparable, perhaps, to the Mole about Dorking. It is fordable in most places in ordinary weather, though here and there are deep reaches, one of which is where the road from Nieder Gurig to Bautzen crosses above the former village between the Gottlobsberg and the Kiefernberg.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

have won a decisive battle, you may learn that you have lost two." It was but a few days after this was written that Napoleon, flushed with victory at Dresden, learnt that Macdonald had been disastrously beaten on the Katzbach, that Oudinot had been checked at Gross Beeren, and Vandamme destroyed at Kulm.

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XII From the End of the Armistice to the Battle of Dresden . 185

SHEET IV.

SHEET IV. (a) The Battle of Dresden.

THE NEW GRAND ARMY OF 1813 17

The marshals, or some of them at least, were aware of their deficiencies, as is evidenced by Marmont's famous prophecy, which was realised almost as soon as uttered. In August 181 3, that marshal, criticising the Emperor's plans,^ wrote : " I fear much lest, on the day when Your Majesty has won a victory and believe you have gained a decisive battle, you may learn that you have lost two." A few days later came the news of Macdonald's defeat on the Katzbach, and Oudinot's at Gross Beeren, which had almost coincided in time with the Emperor's own victory at Dresden. His power, his throne, everything depended on himself alone. As Count Yorck von Wartenburg says : " All his actions were connected with his own personality, and based upon it alone ; so, when this became weak, there was no longer anything in his army or state that could support or sustain him." ^ Europe freed herself from the

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

numerical strength of the armies which opposed him, and a complete change in their spirit and enthusiasm. War assumed more the character of that of our own day. It became, not the war of one hired army against another, but of nations against nations. Leipzig was justly called " The battle of the Nations," and in the numbers engaged we must wait for the war of to-morrow to see it largely exceeded.

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXI The Storming of Leipzig ... . . . .373

CHAPTER XX

THE BATTLE OF LEIPZIG— i8th OCTOBER

THE STORMING OF LEIPZIG

THE STORMING OF LEIPZIG