Citizen Emperor (180 page)

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Authors: Philip Dwyer

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90
.
Obermann, ‘La situation de la Prusse sous l’occupation française’, pp. 257–86, here pp. 278–9.
91
.
Alexandre Bellot de Kergorre,
Journal d’un commissaire des guerres pendant le Premier Empire (1806–1821)
(Paris, 1997), p. 45; Roman Soltyk,
Napoléon en 1812: souvenirs du général Soltyk
(Paris, 2006), pp. 30–1.
92
.
Bourgeois,
Tableau de la campagne de Moscou
, p. 17.
93
.
Armand de Solignac,
La Bérézina. Souvenirs d’un soldat de la Grande Armée
(Limoges, 1881), p. 39 (30 May, 8 June 1812).
94
.
Caulaincourt,
Memoirs
, i. p. 30.
95
.
According to Agathon-Jean-François, baron Fain,
Manuscrit de mil huit cent douze
, 2 vols (Paris, 1827), p. 61.
96
.
Esdaile,
Napoleon’s Wars
, p. 452.
97
.
Fain,
Manuscrit de mil huit cent douze
, i. pp. 66–7.
98
.
Vandal,
Napoléon et Alexandre
, iii. pp. 402–55; Hermann Freiherrn von Egloffstein, ‘Zur Geschichte des Fürstentages in Dresden 1812: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen Carl Augusts’,
Historische Zeitschrift
, 121 (1919), 268–82.
99
.
Schulz,
Voyage en Pologne et en Allemagne
, ii. pp. 53–5.
 
100
. Castellane,
Journal
, i. p. 93 (19 May 1812); Müller,
Souvenirs
, p. 158.
 
101
. There were, for example, no bells or cannon fired on his entry into the city, as required by protocol. Stamm-Kuhlmann,
König in Preußens großer Zeit
, pp. 358–9.
 
102
. Caulaincourt,
Memoirs
, i. p. 155.
 
103
. Caulaincourt,
Memoirs
, i. p. 154; Rambuteau,
Mémoires
, pp. 86–7. Similar reports were passed to Napoleon by his intendant general, Comte Mathieu Dumas. See Michael Josselson and Diana Josselson,
The Commander: A Life of Barclay de Tolly
(Oxford, 1980), pp. 89–90.
 
104
. Castellane,
Journal
, i. p. 96 (26 May 1812); Villemain,
Souvenirs contemporains
, i. pp. 187–8; E. Cazalas, ‘La mission de Narbonne à Vilna’,
Feuilles d’histoire du XVIIe au XXe siècle
, 3 (1910), 216–30.
 
105
. Cited in Zamoyski,
1812
, p. 130.
 
106
. Zamoyski,
1812
, p. 132.
 
107
. Fain,
Manuscrit de mil huit cent douze
, i. p. 68.
 
108
. Villemain,
Souvenirs contemporains
, i. p. 174; Vandal,
Napoléon et Alexandre
, iii. p. 479.
 
109
. Berthier to Soult, 6 June 1812, cited in Gotteri,
Napoléon
, p. 149.
 
110
. Metternich,
Mémoires
, i. p. 122.
 
111
. Pradt,
Histoire de l’ambassade
, pp. 56–9; Fain,
Manuscrit de mil huit cent douze
, i. p. 75.
 
112
. Esdaile,
Napoleon’s Wars
, pp. 461–2.
 
113
. Pasquier,
Mémoires
, i. p. 525.
 
114
. Esdaile,
Napoleon’s Wars
, pp. 462, 463.
 
115
. Caulaincourt,
Memoirs
, i. pp. 161, 162.
 
116
. Pierrelongue (ed.),
Napoléon et Marie-Louise
, pp. 22, 24 and 26; Caulaincourt,
Memoirs
, i. p. 163.
 

HUBRIS, 1812

18: The Second Polish War

1
.
The simile is from Comeau de Charry,
Souvenirs des guerres
, p. 443. See also Denniée,
Itinéraire de l’empereur Napoléon
, pp. 14–15; Dupuy,
Souvenirs militaires
, p. 166; François,
Journal
, p. 644 (24 June 1812).
2
.
Gaspard Ducque,
Journal de marche du sous-lieutenant Ducque
(Paris, 2004), p. 3.
3
.
Lejeune,
Mémoires
, p. 372.
4
.
Fantin des Odoards,
Journal
, p. 297.
5
.
Constantin de Grünwald,
La campagne de Russie
(Paris, 1964), p. 21.
6
.
Dumas,
Souvenirs
, iii. pp. 417–19; Creveld,
Supplying War
, pp. 65–8.
7
.
Castellane,
Journal
, i. p. 111 (4 July 1812).
8
.
Sayve,
Souvenirs de Pologne
, pp. 30–1.
9
.
Jakob Walter,
The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier
(Moreton-in-Marsh, 1997), p. 38.
10
.
According to Ségur,
Histoire de Napoléon et de la grande-armée pendant l’année 1812
, i. pp. 169–70.
11
.
Pierre Berthezène,
Souvenirs militaires de la République et de l’Empire
, 2 vols (Paris, 1855), i. pp. 323–36; Dedem de Gelder,
Un général hollandais
, pp. 225–7.
12
.
Caulaincourt,
Memoirs
, i. pp. 202–3.
13
.
These figures are taken from Zamoyski,
1812
, pp. 142–3. The figures vary enormously from around 400,000 to even over one million men. Esdaile,
Napoleon’s Wars
, p. 452, has the army made up of 490,000 with another 121,000 following; Adams,
Napoleon and Russia
, p. 280, cites the figure of 600,000 but states that only 450,000 crossed the Niemen; Chandler,
Campaigns of Napoleon
, p. 756, estimates that 614,000 troops made up the Grande Armée de la Russie, of whom about half were French; Lefebvre,
Napoléon
(Paris, 1969), p. 529, gives 700,000; Albert Meynier, ‘Les armées française sous la Révolution et le Premier Empire: la Grande Armée en Russie’,
Revue d’études militaires
, 8 (1934), 7–19, cites a figure of 675,000 men, of whom 280,000 were French. Connelly,
Blundering to Glory
, p. 159, suggests there were 611,00 men of whom only one-third were classed as French; Lentz,
Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire
, ii. p. 259, cites the figure of 680,000 men, but adds that only between 400,000 and 450,000 actually crossed the Niemen, of whom about half were French. See also Jean Delmas (ed.),
Histoire militaire de la France
, 4 vols (Paris, 1992), ii. p. 357, who writes of 578,000 men, including 90,000 cavalry. One contemporary, a survivor of the campaign, cites what appears to be a realistic figure, 460,000 men, including cavalry – but not including the Austrian contingent – with around 1,200 cannon (Labaume,
Relation circonstanciée
, p. 15). For these figures see Claus Scharf, ‘Einführung’, in Anton Wilhelm Nordhof,
Die Geschichte der Zerstörung Moskaus im Jahre 1812
, Deutsche Geschichtsquellen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. with an introduction by Claus Scharf and Jürgen Kessel (Munich, 2000), p. 16.

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