← Memoirs, diaries and letters
memoir
The history of the present war in Spain and Portugal
Theophilus Camden, 1813
Named on the pages for Battle of Eylau, Battle of Aspern-Essling.
machine-read Machine-read (OCR) from a scanned book at the Internet Archive: expect misread words and names. The scan itself is at the library.
draft Matched to the battles automatically; not yet reviewed.
Passages that name the battles; the whole book is at Internet Archive.
7–8 February 1807 (26–27 January Old Style)
Battle of Eylau
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 301
On the leth of October, 1800, Soult refused, at Guiessen, to give confidence to the armistice said fo have been agreed upon by general Kalkrciith, with a view of favouring fho refreat of the column which covered the flight of the king of Prussia; and he rendered great services in Prussia and Poland. At the battle of Eylau, though inferior in number, he held Benningsen's army ia check. Augere.ui had been routed, antl h-ul left fho right of Soult unprotected; Davoust had been retarded in his march by bad roads ; ]!\ey was fighting against the Prussians ; and Bernadotte ^vas too far distant to take a part in the engagement. Soult, how- ever, arranged his forces with so much skill, that he made them appear much more numerous than they were. On the approach of night, Bonaparte, alarmed at; the enormous loss which he had sustained, w ished to retreat. " Let us remain where we are, sire," said Soult to him, " for although we have been dreadfully handled, we shall pass for conquerors, if we remain last on the field of battle; and 1 have observed some movements in the Rus- sian army, which induce me to think the enemy will effect his re- treat during the night." Although Bonaparte was apprehensive of the contrary, he resolved to follow the advice of Soult, of whose extraordinary perspicuity he was well aware. The Rus- sians retreated, and the French gained the battle of Eylau.
21–22 May 1809
Battle of Aspern-Essling
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 291
In 1809, Massi-na was employed in the grand army. His corps not having been able to take a part in any of the great battles, he served in the capacity of au aid-du-camp. Bonaparte says in his bnllttin, that the Duke of Rivoli (Massena's title,) served him by carrying orders to the different corps of the army. At the battle of Essling, he had to perform more important functions. He stood in need of all his firmness to keep up his men under a terrible fire of artillery and musketry, w hich could only be feebly returned, in consequence of the want of ammu- Dition. His conduct in that battle gained him the title of Priuca of ^ssling.
Public domain. Text from Internet Archive.