28 See for instance a report from Diebitsch to Barclay timed at 8 a.m. on 16 October in which the former urges that the Guards be moved forward immediately: unless this was done ‘the distance to Rotha is so great that they will never arrive in time’: Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 283, Diebitsch to Barclay, 4/16 Oct. 1813, p. 329.
29 As one might expect, the Austrian official history gives most attention to this part of the battle but its account is largely confirmed by Bogdanovich: the Austrians and Russians were not very fond of each other even in 1813 and had become a good deal less so by the time they got round to writing their official histories of the campaign. On the whole, a good rule of thumb is to believe the Russian history when it praises the Austrians, and vice versa. If in doubt, Friederich is often a remarkably fair and neutral arbiter. Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 471–82; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 461–4; Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 308–12.
30 Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 300, Diebitsch’s account of the battle of Leipzig, 1813, pp. 360–81, at pp. 363–5.
31 Cathcart, Commentaries, pp. 306–7.
32 Ibid., pp. 307–8.
33 Ibid., p. 308; P. Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, SPB, 1896, pp. 271–2; A. Mikaberidze, The Russian Officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1795–1815, Staplehurst, 2005, p. 382.
34 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, p. 460; Pototskii, Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii, pp. 270–73. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 299, Sukhozhanet to Iashvili, 29 Dec. 1813/10 Jan. 1814, pp. 358–60; no. 300, Diebitsch’s account of Leipzig, 1813, pp. 365–7.
35 ‘Vospominaniia Matveia Matveevicha Muromtseva’, RA, 27/3, 1890, pp. 366–94, at p. 378.
36 Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, p. 128.
37 S. Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka 1806–1906, SPB, 1896, pp. 303–13; Istoriia leib-gvardii egerskago polka za sto let 1796–1896, SPB, 1906, pp. 144–50; Griois, Mémoires, pp. 202–3.
38 Gulevich, Istoriia leib gvardii Finliandskago polka, pp. 312–15.
39 ‘Zapiski soldata Pamfila Nazarova’, RS, 9/8, 1878, pp. 536–7.
40 There is a good description of Vasilchikov’s attack in Smith, Leipzig, pp. 166–8.
41 Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 619–27.
42 D. V. Dushenkovich, ‘Iz moikh vospominanii ot 1812 goda’, in 1812 god v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, Moscow, 1995, pp. 124–6.
43 Langeron, Mémoires, p. 330.
44 Ibid., pp. 326–34; Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski, vol. 2, pp. 269–74.
45 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 550–51.
46 On the 39th Jaegers, see RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Ed. Khr. 1802, passim, but also Sacken’s reports after the fall of Czenstochowa (RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 8ii–9i: Sacken to Kutuzov, 25 March 1813 (OS)) and the battle of Leipzig; Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 293, pp. 349–51: Sacken to Barclay, 18/30 Oct. 1813.
47 See RGVIA, Fond 489, Opis 1, Delo 1855, fos. 2 ff., for the 45th Jaegers (‘Spisok…45go Egerskago polka’ dated 1 July 1813) and Delo 1794, fos. 2 ff., for the 29th Jaegers (‘29-go egerskago polka…o sluzhbe ikh i po prochim’, dated 1 Jan. 1814). Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 300, Diebitsch’s account, pp. 379–82; Langeron, Mémoires, p. 343.
48 Smith, Leipzig, p. 272, on attempts to shift responsibility.
49 On allied losses, see e.g. Smith, Leipzig, p. 298; on French statistics, see J. Tulard (ed.), Dictionnaire Napoléon, Paris, 1987, p. 354; on lost guns, see Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 652–4.
Chapter 13: The Invasion of France
1 F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 3: Traktaty s Avstrieiu, SPB, 1876, no. 70, pp. 111–26, and vol. 7: Traktaty s Germeniei 1811–1824, SPB, 1885, no. 259, pp. 96–112, for Russia’s treaties with Austria and Prussia. The Austro-Prussian treaty was identical.
2 See e.g. a letter from Count Münster, the Hanoverian statesman, to the Prince Regent (the future George IV of Britain) about the arguments over military and diplomatic policy towards France in January: ‘The main factor in all these disagreements is that Russia has not stated how far it wishes to extend its borders in Poland.’ A. Fournier, Der Congress von Chatillon: Die Politik im Kriege von 1814, Vienna, 1900, sect. IV, no. 1, Münster to Prince Regent, 30 January 1814, pp. 295–6.
3 There is a large literature even in English about Metternich and his policies. The two great pillars of this literature are Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848, Oxford, 1994, and Henry Kissinger, A World Restored, London, 1957. Schroeder’s book in particular is a splendid piece of scholarship. Alan Sked punctures some of the more elevated interpretations of Metternich’s ‘system’ in Metternich and Austria, London, 2008. As regards this book’s focus, in other words Metternich’s role in Napoleon’s overthrow, I have some sympathy with his scepticism.
4 On Knesebeck’s views, see R. von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813–1815, vol. 3: Der Feldzug 1814, Berlin, 1913, pp. 81–2.
5 Baron Karl von Müffling, The Memoirs of Baron von Müffling: A Prussian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, London, 1967, pp. 92–3, 100–101, 418–19.
6 On Frederick William, see Chapter 9, n. 18.
7 Fournier, Congress, p. 10. Paul Schroeder tries to defend Aberdeen, not altogether convincingly, in ‘An Unnatural “Natural Alliance”: Castlereagh, Metternich, and Aberdeen in 1813’, International History Review, 10/4, Nov. 1988, pp. 522–40. VPR, 7, no. 191, Alexander’s instructions to Lieven and Pozzo di Borgo, 6 Dec. 1813, pp. 492–500.
8 N. A. M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean, London, 2004, pp. 572–3, sets out the elements of British power.
9 VPR, 7, no. 249, Dubachevsky to Rumiantsev, 2 April 1814, pp. 230–37.
10 Castlereagh’s statement is in a key letter to Aberdeen on British war aims, dated 13 November 1813. See Marquess of Londonderry (ed.), Correspondence, Despatches, and Other Papers of Viscount Castlereagh, 12 vols., vol. 9, London, 1853, pp. 73–6.
11 VPR, 7, no. 180, n.d. but not later than 20 Nov. 1813: Chernyshev to Alexander, pp. 447–51.
12 VPR, 7, no. 171, Gurev to Nesselrode, 3 Nov. 1813, pp. 429–31; N. Kiselev and I. Iu. Samarin (eds.), Zapiski, mneniia i perepiska Admirala A. S. Shishkova, 2 vols., Berlin, 1870; A. de Jomini, Précis politique et militaire des campagnes de 1812 à 1814, 2 vols. in 1, Geneva, 1975, vol. 2, pp. 231–2; Fournier, Congress, annex VI, Hardenberg’s diary, 27 Feb. 1814, p. 364.
13 VPR, 7, no. 197, Nesselrode to Gurev, 19 Dec. 1813, pp. 512–14. Count A. de Nesselrode (ed.), Lettres et papiers du Chancelier Comte de Nesselrode 1760–1850, Paris, n.d., vol. 6, pp. 152–3: Nesselrode to his wife, 16 Jan. 1814.
14 SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 301–3: ‘Memoire présenté par le comte de Nesselrode sur les affaires de Pologne’.
15 VPR, 7, no. 207, Nesselrode to Alexander, 9 Jan. 1814, pp. 539–41.
16 Nesselrode, vol. 6, pp. 161–3, Nesselrode to his wife, 28 Feb. 1814; Countess Nesselrode to her husband, 9 April 1814, pp. 188–90. Castlereagh, vol. 9, Castlereagh to Lord Liverpool, 30 Jan. 1814, pp. 212–14.
17 See Baron Hardenberg’s comments in his diary entry for 27 Feb.: Fournier, Congress, p. 364.
18 Castlereagh, vol. 9, Stewart to Castlereagh, 30 March 1814, pp. 412–13.
19 Fournier, Congress, Metternich to Hudelist, 9 Nov. 1813, p. 242.
20 The manifesto is reproduced in Baron Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, Paris, 1825: no. 5, pp. 60–61.
21 Fournier, Congress, p. 8, mentions the agreement between Alexander and Metternich in Meiningen. Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, nos. 1 and 2, pp. 49–56, gives Saint-Aignan’s report to Napoleon and his memorandum stating the allied terms.
22 On Alexander’s innermost thoughts, see ‘Grafinia Roksandra Skarlatovna Edling: Zapiski’, in A. Libermann (ed.), Derzhavnyi sfinks, Moscow, 1999, p. 181; SIRIO, 31, 1881: ‘Considérations générales sur la politique du Cabinet de
Russie à la fin de la Campagne de 1813’, pp. 343–5. For Castlereagh’s very measured subsequent ‘advice’ to Aberdeen, see Castlereagh, vol. 9, Castlereagh to Aberdeen, 30 Nov. 1813, pp. 73–6.
23 Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, no. 5, pp. 60–61.
24 Benckendorff’s own account is in Zapiski Benkendorfa, 1812 god: Otechestvennaia voina. 1813 god. Osvobozhdenie Niderlandov, Moscow, 2001, pp. 205–38. On the jaegers, see V. V. Rantsov, Istoriia 96-go pekhotnago Omskago polka, SPB, 1902, pp. 187–90. The French comment is by Captain Koch in Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la campagne de 1814, 3 vols., Paris, 1819, vol. 1, p. 69.
25 The fullest recent study of events in the Netherlands is M. V. Leggiere, The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France 1813–1814, Cambridge, 2008, pp. 100–104, 145–87. For the background to the revolt, see Simon Schama, Patriots and Liberators, London, 2005.
26 See e.g. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 6–10.
27 VPR, 7, no. 172, Barclay to Alexander, 9 Nov. 1813, pp. 431–3. For Blücher, see e.g. his report to Alexander of 23 Nov.: RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3915, fos. 121–2. The historian of the Riazan Regiment wrote that ‘the storming of Schönefeld had weakened the regiment and the march to the Rhine almost destroyed it’: I. I. Shelengovskii, Istoriia 69-go Riazanskago polka, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, p. 246.
28 For most of these statistics, see M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1814 goda vo Frantsii, 2 vols., SPB, 1865, vol. 1, pp. 35–40, 48–9. He states that 45 squadrons had arrived by
27 December from Lobanov but 18 more were on the way, and in fact still more arrived subsequently. See e.g. Lobanov’s report to Alexander of 15 Nov. 1813 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1, Delo 148, fos. 44–7.
29 S. Panchulidzev, Istoriia kavalergardov, SPB, 1903, vol. 3, p. 433. Barclay reported to Alexander that of the 6,250 men on the rolls of the reserve units reaching Wittgenstein, only 48 had been left behind in hospital en route: MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Alexander, 22 Dec. 1813 (OS), p. 276.
30 MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Alexander, 30 Nov., 1 and 22 Dec. 1813 (OS), pp. 258–60, 276; Barclay to Army Corps GOCs, 21 Dec. 1813 (OS), p. 275. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, p. 80. SIM, 4, no. 3, Alexander to Lobanov, 3 Jan. 1814 (OS), p. 3. On the general appearance of the line army in the 1814 campaign, see Il’ia Ul’ianov, ‘I eti nas pobedili’, Rodina, 8, 2002, pp. 74–8; Oleg Sheremet’ev, ‘Katat’ shineli, gospoda’, Rodina, 6, 2006, pp. 53–9.
31 Bogdanovich’s and Friederich’s histories of the 1814 campaign say something about this, but the key text is by Peter Graf von Kielmansegg, Stein und die Zentralverwaltung 1813/14, Stuttgart, 1964.
32 For Kutuzov’s comments, see Count de Puybusque, Lettres sur la Guerre de Russie en 1812, Paris, 1816, pp. 153 ff., 18 Dec. 1812. For the fortresses, see a recent work by Paddy Griffith, The Vauban Fortifications of France, Oxford, 2006.
33 See e.g. Barclay’s report to Alexander of 9 Nov. 1813 (VPR, 7, no. 172, pp. 431–3), but also his letter to Kankrin of 29 Jan. 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fo. 128.
34 For the Austrian view on this, see Karl Fürst Schwarzenberg, Feldmarschall Fürst Schwarzenberg: Der Sieger von Leipzig, Vienna, 1964, pp. 268–71. Jomini’s line is inevitably different: see Jomini, Précis, vol. 2, pp. 224–5, 228–31. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 9–15, gives a balanced account but argues that going through Switzerland was probably unnecessary. Alexander’s letter to Bernadotte is in VPR, 7, no. 174, pp. 434–6. His indignant letter to Schwarzenberg of 5 Jan. 1814 is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 108.
35 Marquess of Londonderry, Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 254–5. Perhaps Stewart’s feelings at the time were not as clear-cut as this last sentence, written in 1830, implies.
36 Lord Burghersh, The Operations of the Allied Armies in 1813 and 1814, London, 1822, pp. 72–3.
37 Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 142–3. I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 3, pp. 36–9. ‘Iz zapisok pokoinago general-maiora N. P. Koval’skago’, Russkii vestnik, 91/1, 1871, pp. 106–7. RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 120i–ii, Alexander to Platov, 24 Jan. 1814 (OS).
38 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 99ii–100i, Alexander to Blücher, 14 Dec. 1813 (OS). For reasons of space this is an abbreviated account: for a fuller one, see Leggiere, Fall of Napoleon, chs. 10–16, and Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 60–72.
39 These points are covered by Leggiere, Fall of Napoleon, and Friederich, Feldzug, but on the running down of conscription see Isser Woloch, The New Regime: Transformations of the French Civil Order, 1789–1820s, London, 1994, ch. 13, pp. 380–426.
40 For accounts of the battle, see Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 89–95; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 108–13; James Lawford, Napoleon: The Last Campaigns. 1813–15, London, 1976, pp. 68–101. Sacken’s own rather laconic report on the battle is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 34ii–35ii, Sacken to Barclay, 17 Jan. 1814 (OS).
41 Quotation from Friederich, Feldzug, p. 103. See Sacken’s letter to Barclay de Tolly of 27 Jan. 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fo. 37i.
42 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 36i–ii, Sacken to Barclay, 21 Jan. 1814 (OS). Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, p. 128.
43 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 343, on Blücher and the wine cellar.
44 See Alexander’s letter to Blücher of 26 Jan. 1814 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 121ii–122i.
45 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 276–300.
46 Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 81–2. Burghersh, Operations, pp. 91–103, 250–52.
47 Fournier, Congress, pp. 42–4, 58–63; see above all Francis II’s reply (p. 277) to Schwarzenberg’s letter of 8 Feb. (pp. 272–3). Schwarzenberg was clearly asking for instructions to stand still and these the emperor supplied. Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 276–9, 293–9.
48 Fournier, Congress, pp. 105–14. The text of Metternich’s memorandum is in SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 349–55.
49 Alexander’s response to Metternich’s questions is in SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 355–60. A summary of the British, Austrian and Prussian views is in Fournier, Congress, pp. 285–9.
50 For Madame de Staël’s view on Alexander, see her Ten Years’ Exile, Fontwell, 1968, pp. 377–82. On Alexander’s view of Louis, see Philip Mansel, Louis XVIII, London, 2005, p. 164. On Bernadotte’s candidacy, see F. D. Scott, ‘Bernadotte and the Throne of France 1814’, Journal of Modern History, 5, 1933, pp. 465–78. There is nothing in the Russian military or diplomatic correspondence of 1814 which suggests more than a passing interest in Bernadotte’s candidature. In 1813 Alexander had written that Bernadotte’s private hopes for the French crown could be indulged so long as they did not impede his contribution to the allied cause. In 1814 the emperor may even have encouraged Bernadotte’s hopes as a way of luring him back from his campaign against Denmark.
51 Baron de Vitrolles, Mémoires et relations politiques, 3 vols., Paris, 1884, vol. 1, pp. 115–20.
52 For the conversation with Castlereagh, see T. von Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben des kaiserlichen russischen Generals der Infanterie Carl Friedrich Grafen von Toll, 5 vols., Leipzig, 1858, vol. 4ii, p. 58.
53 Fournier, Congress, pp. 105–37; Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 156–64.
54 See e.g. Karl von Clausewitz, Der Feldzug von 1812 in Russland, der Feldzug von 1813 bis zum Waffenstillstand und der Feldzug von 1814 in Frankreich, Berlin, 1862, pp. 361–71. Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 115–45. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 117–47, is as always admirably fair and balanced.
55 Major-General Kornilov was the senior officer of Olsufev’s corps who escaped: his report on the battle is in M. Galkin, Boevaia sluzhba 27-go pekhotnago Vitebskago polka 1703–1903, Moscow, 1908, pp. 223–4. On Olsufev’s losses, see: Napoleon to Joseph, 10 Feb. 1814, in A. du Casse (ed.), Mé
moires et correspondance politique et militaire du Roi Joseph, Paris, 1854, p. 85.
56 The basic narrative is from Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 129–34, and Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 186–96. Sacken’s official report to Barclay, dated 3 Feb. 1814 (OS), is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Ed. Khr. 3403, fos. 37ii–39i. The description of Sacken the day after the battle is from Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 4i, p. 393. There is a good description of the retreat in the history of the Pskov Infantry Regiment: Captain Geniev, Istoriia Pskovskago pekhotnago general-fel’dmarshala kniazia Kutuzova-Smolenskago polka: 1700–1831, Moscow, 1883, pp. 233–6.
57 Koch, Mémoires, vol. 1, pp. 267–8. There is a good description of this retreat in Müffling, Memoirs, pp. 128–36.
58 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 206–8. Du Casse, Mémoires…du Roi Joseph, Napoleon to Joseph, 11 Feb. 1814, pp. 88 ff. Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 27, Paris, 1869, no. 21295, Napoleon to Eugéne, 18 Feb. 1814, pp. 192–3.
59 Fain, Manuscrit de Mil Huit Cent Quatorze, nos. 12 and 13, Bassano to Caulaincourt, 5 Feb. and Caulaincourt to Bassano, 6 Feb. 1814, pp. 253–7.
60 Ibid., no. 26, Napoleon to Caulaincourt, 17 Feb. 1814, pp. 284–5. Correspondance de Napoléon, vol. 27, no. 21344, Napoleon to Francis II, 21 Feb. 1814, pp. 224–7; no. 21295, Napoleon to Eugéne, 18 Feb. 1814, pp. 192–3. Du Casse, Mémoires…du Roi Joseph, Napoleon to Joseph, 18 Feb. 1814, pp. 133 ff.
61 For Alexander’s warning to Wittgenstein, see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 125ii, Alexander to Wittgenstein, 4 February 1814 (OS). On Pahlen and Wittgenstein, see M. Bogdanovich, ‘Graf Petr Petrovich fon der Pahlen i ego vremiia’, VS, 7/8, 1864, pp. 411–26, at pp. 418–19.
62 For Wittgenstein, see the previous note. On the Estland Regiment, see S. A. Gulevich, Istoriia 8go pekhotnago Estliandskago polka, SPB, 1911, p. 208.
63 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 281–8, for his comments about Blücher. Fournier, Congress, no. 14, pp. 277–8, for his letter to Francis II of 20 Feb. and no. 13, p. 277, for Francis’s instructions to remain south of the Seine until it was clear whether or not the peace negotiations would succeed. Count Münster’s letter to the Prince Regent of 23 Feb. describes allied suspicions of Austrian ‘bleeding’ tactics: Fournier, Congress, no. 9, p. 302.
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