Passages from my life

2 December 1805

Battle of Austerlitz

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 9

By order of this council of war, a small corps under General von Blücher was collected at Bay- reuth (to which I was sent as Lieutenant Quarter master), in order to watch thence more closely the consequences of the battle of Austerlitz, namely, the occupation of the Principality of Ansbach by Marshal Bomadotte's corps.

14 October 1806

Battles of Jena and Auerstedt

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 17

The battles of Jena and Auerstädt, the retreat and the capitulation of Prenzlau and Lübeck, are events so well known that I may pass them over here.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 21

The Duke knew that I had renewed in Erfurt my Berlin acquaintance with Duroc, and left all this arrangement to me. Duroc proposed to me that on the first day there should be a stag-hunt, then a dinner in Weimar, after dinner a short concert, con- cluding with the theatre and a ball. On the fol- lowing day Napoleon would show the Emperor the battle-field of Jena, afterwards a ddjeüner under the tent, a hare-hunt, and the journey back to Erfiirt.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 177

As Aide-de-camp to Greneral von Küchel in Pots- dam, he became better known to the King ; and on the evening of the battle of Auerstadt, being then Quartermaster of the King's staff, he rendered him the important personal service of saving him, by his presence of mind, from what seemed almost inevi- table captivity. The royal pair felt towards hun, in consequence, gratitude that lasted to the end of their lives.

20–21 May 1813

Battle of Bautzen

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 31

When we had crossed the Elbe on our retreat^ I was sent on to Bautzen, to procure from him verbal information upon many points ; but on my arrival there, I found that he had set out that morning for Prague.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 41

After the battle of Bautzen, the Emperor Alex* ander found himself obliged to confer the chief com- mand of the Bussian armies on General Barclay de Tolly. I have never learnt whether this was in consequence of the false report by which Coimt Witt* genstein had risked the &te of Üxe battle. It was alleged that C!ount Wittgenstein had bestowed too little care on the internal order of the troops. The convalescent, in marching battalions 1000 strong; led by few officersi arrived by the route along which

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 41

Instead of immediately dissolving such a march- ing battalion, which contained soldiers from all the regiments of the Russian army, and incorporating the men in their old regiments, these battalions were brought as they were into the field of battle at Bautzen, where, unorganized, without superior or subaltern oifficers, they -fought with uncertainty, were irregularly provided, and, if they straggled from their battalion, could not regain their places. Thus on the retreat from Bautzen, large bodies of Russian soldiers, just out of the hospital, still weak, badly armed and clothed, were roaming about ; they often did not even know the numbers of their battalions, and when they did, the Russian oflGlcers were unable to direct them how to find them again, as such num- bers were quite unknown in the Russian army.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 41

eompletixig its preparaiiona. Dming the battle of Bautzen, I had' to convey orders from the Emperor to (General Barclay, which the latter executed fidthr fbUy in my presence ; but he had nevertheless been forced to give way to a superior force. The Emr peror, dissatisfied with the issue of Barclay's fight on the windmill-hill of Gleime, censured his conduct; I defended it with all my power, and gave some explanations to the Emperor which fiiUy vindicated Barclay.

26–27 August 1813

Battle of Dresden

UFB AKD WRITINGS. 15

There was not a particle of sound sense in this idea. Saxony, encircled by the Erzgebirge, and the Thurmgian forest as far as the Hartz, forms a tSte de pont for the Elbe from Dresden to Magdeburg. We occupied this tSte de pont; we had resolved not to begin hostiUties, and Mas- senbach wanted to lead us out of this Ute de pont through a needle's eye to Franconia. For what purpose ?

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 71

that only one-tenth of the army opposed to us had engaged vnth us on the plateau, and that of the eight battalions (and he had not seen more) five were come back, and three of them even in good order — was obliged to admit to me, that the combat on the plateau could not lead to the supposition that the whole army was defeated ; but he entered into General Blücher's notion, assented to all he wished, and admitted that by this hussar-pursuit Macdonald would reach Dresden alo7ie. This was in accordance with the principle laid down by him, that you must always require from men more than they can per- form, since in execution invariably less is done than is demanded — a principle which I have always con- sidered as dangerous as it is incorrect.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 325

• On the 27th of Augiist the battle of Dresden was fought. Napoleon forced the Grand Army to retreat, which, on the 29th, engaged at Kulm with Vandamme, who was totally defeated and taken pritiouer.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 385

* The greater portion consisted of Austrian prisoners, taken at the battle of Dresden, August 26th, who were dragged along bj the enemj, and suffered to tiarve^ to make them take service in the French army.

16 June 1815

Battle of Ligny

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 229

to him, WheÜier and where he would concentrate his army, as in consequence of this news, Field- Marshal Blücher would concentrate his forces at Ligny, if he had not already taken up this position.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 229

All took place accordingly ; the Duke appeared very cheerfid at the ball, where all the great people of Brussels were collected; he remained there till three o'clock, and about five we were on horseback. We overtook the troops, and reached Quatre Bras about eleven a.m., where the enemy had placed his advanced posts opposite the troops of Perponcher's division. As the enemy remained quiet, and intelli- gence had meanwhile reached me that the Prussian army was assembling at Ligny, the Duke thought it best to ride over to the Field-Marshal, and concert with him by word of mouth, what measures must be taken for a decisive battle with our combined forces. This was immediately put in execution. On the way the Duke said to me : " I^ as seems likely, the division of the enemy's forces posted at Frasnes, opposite Quatre Bras, is inconsiderable, and only intended to mask the English army, I can employ

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 231

If the English army were posted at Gosselies with the line of connection and retreat by Brussels to Antwerp in their reaT,-the Prussian army at Ligny having the Boman road to the Mouse, their line of connection and retreat, in their rear, — ^they would be quite, unassailable in front by the Sambre. But if Napoleon were obliged to attack one of the two wings, still he would not be able to hinder the other wing, possessed of a secure line of retreat, from wheeling in front of him and cutting him off from the Sambre.

LIFE AND WRITINGS. 239

The Quartermaster-General of the English army had ridden out with the same object witli which I had charged my aides-de-camp ; he came back with the news that Field-Marshal Blücher had quitted the battle-field of Ligny. Of this there could be no doubt, for the Quartermaster-General, Colonel