Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812

5 August 1796

Battle of Castiglione

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We attacked Mantua yesterday. We warmed it up from two batteries with red-hot shot and from mortars. All night long that wretched town has been on fire. The sight was horrible and majestic. We have secured several of the outworks; we open the first parallel to-night. To-morrow I start for Castiglione with the Staff, and I reckon on sleeping there. I have received a courier from Paris. There were two letters for you; I have read them. But though this action appears to me quite natural, and though you gave me permission to do so the other day, I fear you may be vexed, and that is a great trouble to me. I should have liked to have sealed them up again: fie! that would have been atrocious. If I am to blame, I beg your forgiveness. I swear that it is not because I am jealous; assuredly not. I have too high an opinion of my beloved for that. I should like you to give me full permission to read your letters, then there would be no longer either remorse or apprehension.

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_August 5th.--Augereau victorious at Castiglione, completing the Campaign of Five Days, in which 10,000 prisoners are taken._

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_February 2nd.--Joubert occupies Lawis. Capitulation of Mantua, by Wurmser, with 13,000 men (and 6000 in hospital), but he, his staff, and 200 cavalry allowed to return. Enormous capture of artillery, including siege-train abandoned by Bonaparte before the battle of Castiglione. Advance of Victor on Rome._

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On August 3rd Bonaparte won a battle at Lonato, and the next day Augereau gained great laurels at Castiglione; in later years the Emperor often incited Augereau by referring to those "fine days of Castiglione." Between July 29th and August 12th the French army took 15,000 prisoners, 70 guns, and wounded or killed 25,000, with little more than half the forces of the Austrians.

15–17 November 1796

Battle of Arcole

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_November 15th.--First battle of Arcola. French gain partial victory._

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_November 16th and 17th.--Second battle of Arcola. French completely victorious "Lodi was nothing to Arcola" (Bourrienne)._

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_My Adored Josephine_,--Once more I breathe freely. Death is no longer before me, and glory and honour are once more re-established. The enemy is beaten at Arcola. To-morrow we will repair Vaubois' blunder of abandoning Rivoli. In a week Mantua will be ours, and then your husband will clasp you in his arms, and give you a thousand proofs of his ardent affection. I shall proceed to Milan as soon as I can; I am rather tired. I have received letters from Eugene and Hortense--charming young people. I will send them to you as soon as I find my belongings, which are at present somewhat dispersed.

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"_Once more I breathe freely._"--Thrice had Napoleon been foiled, as much by the weather and his shoeless soldiers as by numbers (40,000 Austrians to his 28,000), and his position was well-nigh hopeless on November 14th. He trusts Verona to 3000 men, and the blockade of Mantua to Kilmaine, and the defence of Rivoli to Vaubois--the weakest link in the chain--and determines to manoeuvre by the Lower Adige upon the Austrian communications. He gets forty-eight hours' start, and wins Arcola; in 1814 he deserved equal success, but bad luck and treachery turned the scale. The battle of Arcola lasted seventy-two hours, and for forty-eight hours was in favour of the Austrians. Pending the arrival of the promised reinforcements, the battle was bought too dear, and weakened Bonaparte more than the Austrians, who received new troops almost daily. He replaced Vaubois by Joubert.

14–15 January 1797

Battle of Rivoli

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_My Adored Josephine_,--Once more I breathe freely. Death is no longer before me, and glory and honour are once more re-established. The enemy is beaten at Arcola. To-morrow we will repair Vaubois' blunder of abandoning Rivoli. In a week Mantua will be ours, and then your husband will clasp you in his arms, and give you a thousand proofs of his ardent affection. I shall proceed to Milan as soon as I can; I am rather tired. I have received letters from Eugene and Hortense--charming young people. I will send them to you as soon as I find my belongings, which are at present somewhat dispersed.

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_January 13th.--Joubert attacked; retires from Corona on Rivoli in the morning, joined by Bonaparte at night._

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_January 14th.--Battle of Rivoli: Austrian centre defeated. Bonaparte_ _at close of day hurries off with Massena's troops to overtake Provera, marching sixteen leagues during the night. Massena named next day enfant cheri de la victoire by Bonaparte, and later Duc de Rivoli._

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_January 15th.--Joubert continues battle of Rivoli: complete defeat of Austrians. Provera, however, has reached St. Georges, outside Mantua._

21 July 1798

Battle of the Pyramids

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_July 21st.--Defeats Mamelukes at Battle of the Pyramids, and enters Cairo the following day._

14 June 1800

Battle of Marengo

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_June 14th.--Bonaparte wins Marengo, but loses Desaix--"the man I loved and esteemed the most." In his bulletin he admits the battle at one time was lost, until he cried to his troops "Children, remember it is my custom to sleep upon the battlefield." He mentions the charges of Desaix and Kellermann, and especially eulogises the latter--a fact interesting on account of the false statements made of his ignoring it. In the bulletin of June 21st he blames the "punic faith" of Lord Keith at Genoa, a criticism the Admiral repaid with usury fifteen years later._

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_My Dear_,--I write you only a line, for I am very tired, by reason of several days' bivouacking. My children have worthily celebrated the anniversary of the battle of Marengo.

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The battle of Friedland will be as celebrated for my people, and equally glorious. The entire Russian army routed, 80 pieces of cannon captured, 30,000 men taken or slain, 25 Russian generals killed, wounded, or taken, the Russian Guard wiped out. The battle is worthy of her sisters--Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena. The bulletin will tell you the rest. My loss is not considerable. I out-manoeuvred the enemy successfully.

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I despatch a page to tell you that, on the 14th, the anniversary of Marengo, Eugene won a battle against the Archduke John and the Archduke Palatine, at Raab, in Hungary; that he has taken 3000 men, many pieces of cannon, 4 flags, and pursued them a long way on the road to Buda-Pesth.

2 December 1805

Battle of Austerlitz

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LETTERS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON TO THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, DURING THE AUSTERLITZ CAMPAIGN, 1805.

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I have concluded a truce. The Russians have gone. The battle of Austerlitz is the grandest of all I have fought. Forty-five flags, more than 150 pieces of cannon, the standards of the Russian Guard, 20 generals, 30,000 prisoners, more than 20,000 slain--a horrible sight.

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_Fatigues, bivouacs ... have made me fat._--The Austerlitz campaign had the same effect. See a remarkable letter to Count Miot de Melito on January 30th, 1806: "The campaign I have just terminated, the movement, the excitement have made me stout. I believe that if all the kings of Europe were to coalesce against me I should have a ridiculous paunch." And it was so!

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_I trust I may hear you have been rational in your sorrow._--As a matter of fact he had heard the opposite, for the following day (May 15th) he writes to his brother Jerome: "Napoleon died in three days at the Hague; I know not if the King has advised you of it. This event gives me the more pain insomuch as his father and mother are not rational, and are giving themselves up to all the transports of their grief." To Fouche he writes three days later: "I have been very much afflicted by the misfortune which has befallen me. I had hoped for a more brilliant destiny for that poor child;" and on May 20th, "I have felt the loss of the little Napoleon very acutely. I would have wished that his father and mother should have received from their temperament as much courage as I for knowing how to bear all the ills of life. But they are younger, and have reflected less on the frailty of our worldly possessions." It is typical of Napoleon that the only man to whom, as far as we know, he unbosomed his sorrow should be one of his early friends, even though that friend should be the false and faithless Fouche, who requited his confidence later by vile and baseless allegations respecting the parentage of this very child. In one respect only did Napoleon resemble David in his supposititious sin, which was, that when the child was dead, he had neither time nor temperament to waste in futile regrets. As he said on another occasion, if his wife had died during the Austerlitz Campaign it would not have delayed his operations a quarter of an hour. But he considers practical succour to the living as the most fitting memorial to the dead, and writes on June 4th to De Champagny: "Twenty years ago a malady called croup showed itself in the north of Europe. Some years ago it spread into France. I require you to offer a prize of L500 (12,000 francs), to be given to the doctor who writes the best essay on this malady and its mode of treatment." Commenting on this letter Bignon (vol. vi. p. 262) adds, "It is, however, fortunate when, on the eve of battles, warlike princes are pondering over ways of preserving the population of their states."

14 October 1806

Battles of Jena and Auerstedt

That with Wieland took place at the ball which followed the entertainment on the field of Jena.

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_October 14th.--Battles of Jena and Auerstadt._

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_My Dear_,--I have received your letter. I note with pleasure that you are well. I have just been shooting over the battlefield of Jena. We had breakfast (_dejeune_) at the spot where I bivouacked on the night of the battle.

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No battle was more beautifully worked out than the battle of Jena--Davoust performing specially well his move in the combinations by which the Prussian army was hopelessly entangled, as Mack at Ulm a year before. Bernadotte alone, and as usual, gave cause for dissatisfaction. He had a personal hatred for his chief, caused by the knowledge that his wife (Desiree Clary) had never ceased to regret that she had missed her opportunity of being the wife of Napoleon. Bernadotte, therefore, was loth to give initial impetus to the victories of the French Emperor, though, when success was no longer doubtful, he would prove that it was not want of capacity but want of will that had kept him back. He was the Talleyrand of the camp, and had an equal aptitude for fishing in troubled waters.

7–8 February 1807 (26–27 January Old Style)

Battle of Eylau

The notes on the battles of Eylau (Series H) and Essling (Series L), the two most conspicuous examples of where it was necessary to colour the bulletins, will show what is meant.

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_February 8th.--Battle of Eylau; retreat of Russians._

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The battle of Eylau was very sanguinary, and very hardly contested. Corbineau was slain. He was a very brave man. I had grown very fond of him.

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A great deal of nonsense will be talked of the battle of Eylau; the bulletin tells everything; our losses are rather exaggerated in it than minimised.--Yours ever,

14 June 1807 (2 June Old Style)

Battle of Friedland

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_June 14th.--Battle of Friedland, completing the "Campaign of Ten Days."_

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The battle of Friedland will be as celebrated for my people, and equally glorious. The entire Russian army routed, 80 pieces of cannon captured, 30,000 men taken or slain, 25 Russian generals killed, wounded, or taken, the Russian Guard wiped out. The battle is worthy of her sisters--Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena. The bulletin will tell you the rest. My loss is not considerable. I out-manoeuvred the enemy successfully.

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_My Dear_,--Yesterday I despatched Moustache with the news of the battle of Friedland. Since then I have continued to pursue the enemy. Koenigsberg, which is a town of 80,000 souls, is in my power. I have found there many cannon, large stores, and, lastly, more than 160,000 muskets, which have come from England.

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This morning I despatched Tascher to you, to calm all your fears. Here all goes splendidly. The battle of Friedland has decided everything. The enemy is confounded, overwhelmed, and greatly weakened.

21–22 May 1809

Battle of Aspern-Essling

The notes on the battles of Eylau (Series H) and Essling (Series L), the two most conspicuous examples of where it was necessary to colour the bulletins, will show what is meant.

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_Ebersdorf._--Written five days after the murderous battle of Essling. Montgaillard, whose temper and judgment, as Alison remarks, are not equal to his talents, cannot resist a covert sneer (writing under the Bourbons) at Napoleon's generalship on this occasion, although he adds a veneer by reminding us that Caesar was defeated at Dyrrachium, Turenne at Marienthal, Eugene at Denain, Frederick the Great at Kolin. The crossing of the river was one which none but a victorious army, with another[76] about to join it, could afford to risk, but which having effected, the French had to make the best of. As Napoleon said in his tenth bulletin, "The passage of a river like the Danube, in front of an enemy knowing perfectly the localities, and having the inhabitants on its side, is one of the greatest operations of war which it is possible to conceive." The Danube hereabouts is a thousand yards broad, and thirty feet deep. But the rising of its water fourteen feet in three days was what no one had expected. At Ebersdorf the first branch of the Danube was 500 yards across to an islet, thence 340 yards across the main current to Lobau, the vast island three miles broad and nearly three miles long, separated from the farther bank by another 150 yards of Danube. Bertrand had made excellent bridges, but on the 22nd the main one was carried away by a floating mill.

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_I have ordered the two princes to re-enter France._--After so critical a battle as the battle of Essling the Emperor's first thoughts were concerning his succession--had he been killed or captured. He was therefore seriously annoyed that the heir-apparent and his younger brother had both been taken out of the country without his permission. He therefore writes the Queen of Holland on May 28th from Ebersdorf: "My daughter, I am seriously annoyed that you have left France without my permission, and especially that you have taken my nephews out of it. Since you are at Baden stay there, but an hour after receiving the present letter send my two nephews back to Strasburg to be near the Empress--they ought never to go out of France. It is the first time I have had reason to be annoyed with you, but you should not dispose of my nephews without my permission, you should realise what a bad effect it will have. Since the waters at Baden are doing you good you can stay there a few days, but, I repeat, lose not a moment in sending my nephews back to Strasburg. If the Empress is going to the waters at Plombieres they may accompany her there, but they must never pass the bridge of Strasburg.--Your affectionate father, Napoleon." This letter passed through the hands of Josephine at Strasburg, who was so unhappy at not having heard from her husband that she opened it, and writes to Hortense on June 1st when forwarding the letter: "I advise you to write to him immediately that you have anticipated his intentions, and that your children are with me: that you have only had them a few days in order to see them, and to give them a change of air. The page who is announced in Meneval's letter has not yet arrived. I hope he will bring me a letter from the Emperor, and that at least he will not be as vexed with me for your being at Baden. Your children have arrived in excellent health."

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_Thus everything ends._--The fourteenth bulletin says that the end was caused by a pernicious fever, and in spite of Dr. Franck, one of the best physicians in Europe. "Thus ends one of the most distinguished soldiers France ever possessed."[77] He had received thirteen wounds. The death of Lannes, and the whole of the Essling period, is best told by Marbot. The loss of Lannes was a more serious one to Napoleon than the whole 20,000 men lost in this battle. The master himself has told us that "in war men are nothing, a man is everything." They could be replaced: Lannes never. Like Kleber and Desaix, he stood on a higher platform than the older Marshals--except Massena, who had serious drawbacks, and who was the only one of Napoleon's best generals that Wellington met in the Peninsula. Lannes had always the ear of the Emperor, and always told him facts, not flattery. His life had been specially crowded the last few weeks. Rebuked by Napoleon for tardiness in supporting Massena at Ebersberg, his life was saved by Napoleon himself when he was thrown from his horse into the flooded Danube; and finally, on the field of Essling, he had under his orders Bessieres, the man who had a dozen years before prevented his engagement to Caroline Bonaparte by tittle-tattling to Napoleon.

5–6 July 1809

Battle of Wagram

[6] Sometimes he is perhaps more to be trusted than the leading lexicographer, as for example when, the day after Wagram, he writes his Minister of War that the _coup de Jarnac_ will come from the English in Spain. Now, when the Jarnac in question was slain in fair fight by La Chateignerie by a blow _au jarret_, it was an _unexpected_ blow, but not surely, as Littre tells us, _manoeuvre perfide_, _deloyale_. Nothing was too disloyal for perfidious Albion, but for 30,000 English to outmanoeuvre three marshals and 100,000 French veterans would be, and was, the unexpected which happened at Talavera three weeks later.

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_July 6th.--Battle of Wagram._ The most formidable artillery battle ever fought up to this date (900 guns in action). The Austrians had 120,000 men, with more guns and of larger calibre than those of the French.

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_My Dear_,--I have sent you one of my pages. You will have learnt the result of the battle of Wagram, and, later, of the suspension of arms of Znaim.

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_Wolkersdorf._--On July 8th he writes General Clarke: "I have the headquarters lately occupied by the craven Francis II., who contented himself with watching the whole affair from the top of a tower, ten miles from the scene of battle." On this day also he dictated his twenty-fifth bulletin, of which the last portion is so skilfully utilised in the last scene of Act V. in L'Aiglon. One concluding sentence is all that can here be quoted: "Such is the recital of the battle of Wagram, a decisive and ever illustrious battle, where three to four hundred thousand men, twelve to fifteen hundred guns, fought for great stakes on a field of battle, studied, meditated on, and fortified by the enemy for many months."

3–5 May 1811

Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro

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_April 4th._--Battle of Fuentes d'Onoro. Massena attacks English, and is repulsed.

7 September 1812 (26 August Old Style)

Battle of Borodino

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_September 7th._--Battle of Borodino (_La Moskowa_). Nearly all the Russian generals are present: Barclay de Tolly, Beningsen, Bagration (who is killed), all under Kutusoff. Russians lose 30,000 men, French 20,000, including many generals who had survived all the campaigns of the Revolution. The French, hungry and soaked in rain, have no energy to pursue.

26–27 August 1813

Battle of Dresden

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_My Dear_,--Yesterday I arrived at Dresden at 5 P.M., in excellent health, although I remained a hundred hours in the carriage without getting out. I am staying here with the King of Saxony, with whom I am highly pleased. I have now therefore traversed more than half the distance that separates us.

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_May 17th-28th.--Napoleon at Dresden; joined there by the Emperor and Empress of Austria, and a fresh_ "parterre _of kings"._

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_December 14th.--Napoleon reaches Dresden, and_

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_November 11th._--Surrender of Dresden by Gouvion St. Cyr; its French soldiers to return under parole to France. Austrians refuse to ratify the convention, and 1700 officers and 23,000 men remain prisoners of war.