Russia Against Napoleon

by Dominic Lieven

  42 Mémoires du Général Bennigsen, 3 vols., Paris, n.d., vol. 3, pp. 278–9 (letter to Alexander Iof 24 June (OS)). RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 70: Essen’s report on his troops’ condition upon departure from their training camps is on fo. 4 and the list of men dispatched on fo. 5.

  43 SIM, 11, no. 13, Lobanov-Rostovsky to Alexander I, 16 Nov. 1812 (OS), pp. 109–11.

  44 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, pp. 578–80. This was in a report by the inspector-general of artillery, Müller-Zakomelsky, dated 3 Jan. 1813 (OS). SIM, 11, no. 12, 14 Nov. 1812 (OS), is Lobanov’s acknowledgement to Alexander that he had received this order. V. N. Speranskii, Voenno-ekonomicheskaia podgotovka Rossii k bor’be s Napoleonom v 1812–1814 godakh, candidate’s dissertation, Gorky, 1967, pp. 385–454 is excellent on small-arms production in 1812–14.

  45 RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 163, fos. 31–2: Gorchakov to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 31 March 1813 (OS).

  46 SIM, 11, Saltykov to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 19 Dec. 1812 (OS), p. 199.

  47 The two key sources on the Reserve Army in this period are Lobanov-Rostovsky’s reports to Alexander I for 7 Jan.–6 Aug. 1813 (RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47) and the journal of outgoing correspondence of Lobanov’s headquarters for 1 Jan.–1 April 1813 (RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 42).

  48 Alexander’s orders are in SIM, 3, no. 52, Alexander to Lobanov-Rostovsky, 5 Feb. 1813 (OS), pp. 39–43. Lobanov’s initial response to the movement orders is in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 147, fos. 17–18: letter dated 15 Feb. 1813 (OS).

  49 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3441, fos. 31–2: Lobanov to Alexander, 17 Feb. 1813 (OS).

  50 For Lobanov’s report, see RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47, fos. 26–9. For Neverovsky’s report to the emperor, see RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 39, fos. 28–9. The statistics come from the same Delo and are on fos. 31–2. Lobanov’s letters to Alexander I of 9 May (fos. 62–4) and 18 July (fos. 104–5) 1813 (OS) (in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47) state that of 9,000 sick left behind in Belitsa 7,000 had already rejoined their units and more were expected to do so. The reserve companies of the Guards Jaeger Regiment, for example, left Petersburg with 704 men and arrived in Silesia with 481; see Istoriia leibgvardii egerskago polka, p. 113.

  51 Even the Chevaliers Gardes at Kulm put out skirmishers: see S. Panchulidzev, Istoriia kavalergardov, SPB, 1903, vol. 3, p. 314.

  52 The best shorthand guide to the Russian cavalry of this era (including useful illustrations of horse furnishings, how to hold the reins and use a sword, and how to deploy to skirmish and charge, etc.) is Alla Begunova, Sabli ostry, koni bystry, Moscow, 1992.

  53 See e.g. Arakcheev’s letter to Kutuzov of 31 March 1813 (OS) and Alexander’s letter to the Grand Duke Constantine of the same date: RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/20, Sv. 3, Delo 22, fos. 42 and 43.

  54 Kologrivov received 269 fine horses from the state studs in December 1812, for example: all were for the Guards and he gave only one even to the Guards Lancers: MVUA 1812, 20, Kologrivov to Gorchakov, 12 Dec. 1812 (OS), p. 153.

  55 V. V. Ermolov and M. M. Ryndin, Upravlenie general-inspektora kavalerii o remontirovanii kavalerii, SVM, 13, SPB, 1906, pp. 126–7.

  56 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3442, is devoted to this mission. See also Komarovsky’s memoirs: Zapiski Grafa E. F. Komarovskago, SPB, 1914, pp. 200 ff. Ermolov and Ryndin, Upravlenie, SVM, 13, pp. 134–6.

  57 Kutuzov, vol. 4ii, no. 513, memorandum, pp. 488–90: no date but probably late November.

  58 A. Grigorovich, Istoriia 13-go dragunskago voennago ordena general-fel’dmarshala Grafa Minikha polka, 2 vols., SPB, 1907 and 1912, vol. 2, pp. 32–3. Even in late October (OS) the five cuirassier regiments of this division had barely 1,000 other ranks present.

  59 N. Durova, The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, ed. and trans. Mary Fleming Zirin, Bloomington, Ill., 1989, p. 168.

  60 V. Godunov, Istoriia 3-go ulanskago Smolenskago Imperatora Aleksandra III-go polka 1708–1908, Libava, 1908, pp. 133–4. At Slonim they were joined by the 8 officers and 155 veterans of the former reserve squadron, the 7th, which had been deployed in the rear at Olviopol in 1812.

  61 The report is entitled ‘Otnoshenie Generala ot Infanterii kniaz’ia Lobanova-Rostovskago s otchetami o raspredelenii v rezervy voinov i loshadei’. Together with a covering letter from Lobanov to Gorchakov dated 14 April 1815 (OS), it is to be found in RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 3230. The Reserve Army’s cavalry corps had dispatched 543 officers and 21,699 other ranks to the Field Army. Since the formation of the Reserve Army 1,749 officers, 33,423 veteran other ranks and 38,620 recruits had served in its cavalry corps. The Reserve Army’s infantry corps had dispatched 635 officers and 61,843 other ranks to the Field Army; 3,662 officers, 116,904 veterans and 174,148 recruits had served in the infantry corps during the existence of the Reserve Army. It is important to remember that these statistics do not include the ‘first wave’ of reinforcements dispatched by Kologrivov and Lobanov in the spring of 1813 before the Reserve Army was created.

  62 A. S. Griboedov, Sochineniia, Moscow, 1953: ‘O kavaleriiskikh rezervakh’, pp. 363–7.

  63 For the statistics, see Ermolov and Ryndin, Upravlenie, p. 136. For Lobanov’s comments on cavalry training, see e.g. his report to Alexander of 4 Feb. 1814 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 153, fo. 21. RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 47, no. 135: Lobanov to Alexander, 29 Nov. 1813 (OS), on Wittgenstein’s men.

  64 A. Brett-James (ed.), General Wilson’s Journal, 1812–1814, London, 1964, p. 147.

  65 Rudolph von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol 2: Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 18–26.

  66 Friedrich von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 311.

  67 SIM, 3, no. 131, Alexander to Bennigsen, 25 May (OS) 1813, pp. 96–8.

  68 MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Bennigsen, 14 June 1813 (OS), p. 123. On troop strengths, see M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 1, pp. 722–7. Essen’s battalions, intended for Sacken and Langeron’s regiments, were attached to regiments in Bennigsen’s army rather than merged into them, in order to preserve their own regimental identity: see e.g. Lieutenant Lakhtionov, Istoriia 147-go Samarskago polka 1798–1898, SPB, 1898, pp. 66–7.

  69 SIM, 3, no. 150, Alexander to Bennigsen, 10 July 1813 (OS), pp. 107–9. Lobanov passed on these instructions in an order of the day dated 16 July 1813 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 149, fo. 35.

  70 The statistics are from Lobanov’s final report and accounting for the Reserve Army, with a covering note from him to Gorchakov dated 14 April 1815. The figure of 325,000 includes 45,783 supernumerary other ranks, in other words men not yet formally assigned to units. As always, theoretical numbers will have been considerably larger than the number of men actually present in the ranks. See RGVIA, Fond 1, Opis 1/2, Delo 3230 passim. On sickness, see RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 188a, Delo 144, fo. 12, Essen to Lobanov, 8 May 1814 (OS).

  Chapter 11: Europe’s Fate in the Balance

  1 VPR, no. 101, Nesselrode to Alexander, 24 May/5 June 1813, pp. 236–7. W. Oncken, Österreich und Preussen in Befreiungskriege, vol. 2, Berlin, 1878, Metternich to Stadion, 6 June 1813, pp. 663–4; 8 June 1813, pp. 664–5.

  2 VPR, no. 104, Nesselrode to Lieven, 2/14 June, pp. 246–9; Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, Metternich to Stadion, 30 July 1813, pp. 680–81.

  3 VPR, no. 118, Alexander’s instructions to Anstedt, 26 June/8 July 1813, pp. 283–92 (quotation from p. 286).

  4 VPR, no. 107, Nesselrode to Metternich, 7/19 June 1813, pp. 257–8.

  5 E. Botzenhart (ed.), Freiherr vom Stein: Briefwechsel, Denkschriften und Aufzeichnungen, 8 vols., Berlin, 1957–70, vol. 4, Stein to Gneisenau, 11 July 1813; to Münster, 17 July 1813; to Alexander, 18 July 1813, pp. 372–81.

  6 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, pp. 402–5.

  7 Ibid., pp. 405–8.

  8 R. von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vo
l. 2: Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 26, 31; M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 1, p. 448. The figure given by C. Rousset (La Grande Armée de 1813, Paris, 1871, p. 180) is 425,000 soldiers ready for battle, of whom 365,000 were in the ranks of Oudinot, Ney and Napoleon’s three armies. In August 1813 Davout in Hamburg and Girard in Magdeburg were able to contribute 40,000 men to the advance on Berlin.

  9 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 33, 348.

  10 N. S. Pestreikov, Istoriia leib gvardii Moskovskago polka, SPB, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 129–30. RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1098, fo. 220, on the men detached from the Iaroslavl Regiment.

  11 F. G. Popov, Istoriia 48-go pekhotnago Odesskago polka, 2 vols., Moscow, 1911, vol. 1, pp. 119–27.

  12 RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1098, fos. 177–94 and 271–391 (Iaroslavl Regiment); Delo 105, fos. 194i–195ii (Belostok Regiment); Delo 106, fos. 111–13 (Kursk Regiment).

  13 All this information comes from the two regiments’ service records in RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Dela 105 and 106. In the Belostok Regiment, 10 of the 29 sub-lieutenants, lieutenants and staff captains were of lower-class origin. None of the more senior officers and none of the ensigns was.

  14 Oncken, Österreich, vol. 2, Bubna to Metternich, 9 Aug. 1813, pp. 684–6. Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, pp. 64–8.

  15 Karl Fürst Schwarzenberg, Feldmarschall Fürst Schwarzenberg: Der Sieger von Leipzig, Vienna, 1964, p. 233.

  16 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Wittgenstein, 9/21 Aug. 1813, fo. 1i.

  17 A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.), Voennye dnevniki, Moscow, 1990, p. 355; Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, p. 233.

  18 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964, Trachenberg Conference, 28–30 June/10–12 July 1813, p. 462; Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz, Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 3: E. Glaise von Horstenau, Feldzug von Dresden, Vienna, 1913, pp. 3–6.

  19 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Alexander to Bernadotte, 9/21 Aug. 1813, fos. 2–3.

  20 On the Swedish army, see Marquess of Londonderry, Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 72–4. On Bernadotte, the latest book is C. Bazin, Bernadotte, Paris, 2000.

  21 The best appreciation of Bernadotte’s position is in the Prussian general staff’s history: Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 146–8. See also M. Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, Stroud, 2002, for a fine account of operations in the northern theatre and the mobilization of Prussian resources.

  22 The best angle on this is the two volumes of the Austrian staff history, which discuss the planning and execution of Schwarzenberg’s initial advance to Dresden in August and subsequent move on Leipzig. See Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 63–106; Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 5: Max von Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, Vienna, 1913, especially pp. 127–34.

  23 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 336–7.

  24 Baron von Odeleben, A Circumstantial Narrative of the Campaign in Saxony in the Year 1813, 2 vols., London, 1820, vol. 1, p. 140.

  25 The quotation is from Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 22.

  26 On the French emigration in Russia in general, see A. Ratchinski, Napoléon et AlexandreIer, Paris, 2002; on Langeron and Richelieu, see L. de Crousaz-Cretet, Le Duc de Richelieu en Russie et en France, Paris, 1897, especially pp. 18–20. Langeron’s personality and career are summarized by Emmanuel de Waresquiel in J. Tulard (ed.), Dictionnaire Napoléon, Paris, 1999 edn., 2 vols., vol. 2, pp. 144–6.

  27 On Langeron, see especially Schubert, Doppeladler, pp. 163–7. For the quotation, see Langeron, Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, p. 205.

  28 On the action at Bunzlau, see in particular E. Nikolaev, Istoriia 50 pekhotnago Belostokskago, Ego Vysochestva Gertsoga Saksen-Al’tenburgskago polka, SPB, 1907, pp. 71–3. Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 122, notes the poor quality of Sebastiani’s regiments.

  29 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 220; J. von Pflugk-Harttung, Das Befreiungsjahr 1813: Aus dem Geheimen Staatsarchivs, Berlin, 1913, no. 196, Gneisenau to Hardenberg, 25 Aug. 1813, pp. 276–8.

  30 Yorck’s letter is quoted by Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 42. Bennigsen also complained about Blücher’s strategy: see his letter to Alexander of 14/26 Aug., written from Kalicz: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3385, fos. 191–2.

  31 Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire, Paris, 1831, vol 4, no. 8, Protocole de la conférence de Trachenberg: no. 9, Instructions pour S. Ex. M. de Blücher, pp. 347–53.

  32 Alexander’s letter to Blücher is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 7ii–8i.

  33 Blücher’s letter to Alexander, undated but received on 27 Aug., is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 215i–ii.

  34 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fo. 247ii: Venançon to Volkonsky, 16/28 Aug. 1813, on MacDonald’s failure to reconnoitre the allied position.

  35 The best source on the movements of Third Corps is the journal compiled by Captain Koch: Journal des opérations du IIIe Corps en 1813, Paris, 1999. The description of the corps’s role at the Katzbach is on pp. 54–60.

  36 Müffling’s description of the battle comes in two sections of his memoirs, which were written and published years apart because some of his comments would have caused offence if published earlier: see Baron Karl von Müffling, The Memoirs of Baron von Müffling: A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1997, pp. 58–75 and 317–24. The quotation is on p. 60.

  37 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 246ii–247i: Venançon to Volkonsky, 16/28 Aug. 1813. Venançon’s long report is much the best account of the battle from the perspective of Osten-Sacken’s corps. Koch gives the best French eyewitness account and Müffling is the best Prussian source. Bogdanovich provides an excellent detailed account too, which Friederich confirms.

  38 Apart from the general works and Koch, the history of the Odessa Regiment, which was part of Neverovsky’s 27th Division, is useful on this little-remarked last episode in the battle: Popov, Istoriia 48-go, pp. 139–41.

  39 Prince A. G. Shcherbatov, Moi vospominaniia, SPB, 2006, p. 87.

  40 Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 67–8. I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 2, p. 202.

  41 Captain Geniev, Istoriia Pskovskago pekhotnago general-fel’dmarshala kniazia Kutuzova-Smolenskago polka: 1700–1831, Moscow, 1883, pp. 216–17; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 65.

  42 Pflugk-Harttung, Befreiungsjahr, no. 219: Silesian military government to the military governor of Berlin, 28 Aug. 1813, pp. 283–4.

  43 Koch, Journal, p. 64; RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 24i–25i: Sacken to Volkonsky, 3 Sept. 1813.

  44 Schubert, Doppeladler, p. 321.

  45 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 216, Journal of Military Operations, 23 Aug./4 Sept. 1813, pp. 245–7. Apart from Bogdanovich, there is a good account of the pursuit in Prince N. B. Golitsyn, Zhizneopisanie generala ot kavalerii Emmanuelia, Moscow, 1844, pp. 97–104.

  46 The statistics are drawn from George Nafziger, Napoleon at Dresden, Chicago, 1994, pp. 77, 301.

  47 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 78.

  48 Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 1–11.

  49 The key sources on Austrian organization and preparations are the first three volumes of Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814 authored by O. Criste (Österreichs Beitritt zur Koalition, Vienna, 1913), Wlaschutz (Österreichs entscheidendes Machtaufgebot, Vienna, 1913) and Glaise von Horstenau. See e.g. Horstenau’s comment in Dresden, p. 78. See also, however, a very interesting conversation with Radetsky recorded in Wilson’s diary: A. Brett-James (ed.), General Wilson’s Journal 1812–1814, London, 1964, 20 Aug.
1813, p. 63.

  50 See e.g. an indignant protest from Vorontsov to Barclay on hearing that he was being subordinated to Bülow, who had become a lieutenant-general one month after Vorontsov himself. Barclay accepted the protest and subordinated him to Winzengerode. RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 53, Delo 18, fos. 15–16: Vorontsov to Barclay, 9 July 1813 (OS).

  51 See e.g. Barclay’s letter to Sacken of 10 Sept. 1813 (OS), one of many such examples: MVUA 1813, 1, p. 202; Eugen, Memoiren, vol. 3, pp. 145–6.

  52 Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 15, Napoleon to Saint-Cyr, 17 Aug. 1813, pp. 365–8.

  53 Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 78–117. Brett-James, Wilson’s Journal, p. 165.

  54 Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 103, 106–7, 123–4.

  55 Hon. George Cathcart, Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813, London, 1850, p. 29. Langeron, Mémoires, p. 256.

  56 Horstenau, Dresden, p. 159; Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 69; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 127. Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 26, Saint-Cyr to Napoleon, 25 Aug. 1813, pp. 383–4.

  57 A quick guide to Napoleon’s initial plan is conveyed in a letter to the Duc de Bassano of 24 August: Saint-Cyr, Mémoires, vol. 4, no. 21, 24 Aug. 1813, pp. 377–8.

  58 Cathcart, Commentaries, pp. 231–2. Horstenau, Dresden, p. 270.

  59 Cathcart, Commentaries, p. 228. On Constantine’s views, see e.g. RA, 1, 1882, pp. 142–54.

  60 These points are all made by Horstenau, Dresden, pp. 257–68, 277–86: since he was the official Austrian historian of the campaign he had no reason to exaggerate the failings of Austrian leadership, so one can assume that his judgements are fair. See also Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 76–8.