The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign WarsGrant, James
History
The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign Wars
Grant, James
British -- Foreign countries; Great Britain -- History, Military
With 1131 pieces of cannon, there were taken by the Russians 41
generals, 1298 officers. 167,410 sergeants and rank and file. The
_rest_ were accounted for by the frost and snow, the Cossack lances,
the bullet and the sabre, rendering the paths across the whitened
wastes of Russia impassable with the bodies of the dying and the dead.
Never in all the annals of war were greater sufferings detailed than
those endured by the miserable French on their retreat from flaming
Moscow.
In 1813, Macdonald commanded a corps in Saxony, where, on the 29th
April, he had the satisfaction of routing at Mercebourg the division of
General Yorck, composed of the _same_ Prussians who had abandoned him
at Riga during the previous year; and at Lutzen, where, on the 2nd May,
the combined forces of Russia and Prussia met the French in battle, led
by the Emperor in person, he attacked the Prussian reserve, and after a
long and severe engagement cut it to pieces.
"Now," said he, "I have fully avenged the desertion of General Yorck."
After this Napoleon retired and established his head-quarters at
Dresden, while Leipzig and Breslau were also occupied by his troops.
On being reinforced by the Saxons, whose king he held as a species
of hostage for his people, he resolved on attacking the northern
allies near Bautzen; and Macdonald hastened with his division across
the Spree, to share in the battle which ensued in June. The French
triumphed, and their foes had to retreat, but in fine order, into
Silesia. Macdonald was despatched by the Emperor in pursuit; but was
compelled to fall back, as the roads by which he must have marched were
almost inundated.
Nowhere did he attain more distinction than during the horrors of the
three days of Leipzig.
This Saxon city, which is situated in a fertile plain, has suffered
in many wars, but by none so much as the campaign of 1813. In that
year Napoleon made it the general hospital for the sick and wounded
of his army; thus its beautiful environs soon became the sad scene of
many important events. In several battles and skirmishes the allies
had defeated the French during the months of August and September; but
Napoleon, who, with his characteristic obstinacy, adhered to Dresden as
the centre of his position, found himself out-manoeuvred, when eighty
miles _in his rear_ he heard of Marshal Blucher passing the Black
Elster, and that Bernadotte, a prince of his own making, but now in
arms against him, had arrived, after a long and circuitous march, near
the suburbs of Leipzig, while Schwartzenbourg drew near that city from
the south-east.
This was in the month of October.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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