Diary of a Napoleonic Footsoldier (9 page)

9. A
BIVOUAC NEAR
L
IOZNA
(L
IASMA
), 4 A
UGUST
1812. G. K
ÜSTNER
,
PRINTER
. E
MMINGER
,
LITHOGRAPHER
. A
NOTHER FRUITFUL FORAGING EXPEDITION
.

These voices, however, raised my soul to God, and I often spoke in quietude, “God, Thou canst save me; but, if it is not Thy will, I hope that my sins will be forgiven because of my sufferings and pains and that my soul will ascend to Thee.” With such thoughts I went on trustingly to meet my fate.

On September 7, every corps was assigned its place,
and the signal to attack was given.
⁴
Like thunderbolts the firing began both against and from the enemy. The earth was trembling because of the cannon fire, and the rain of cannon balls crossed confusedly. Several entrenchments were stormed and taken with terrible sacrifices, but the enemy did not move from their place. The French Guard,
⁵
according to order, was placed behind the attacking corps to bring about the final decision. Now the two armies moved more vigorously against one another, and the death cries and shattering gunfire seemed a hell. Nine entrenchments were stormed, the French threatened to surround the enemy from the front, and finally the enemy gave way.

This beautiful grain region without woods and villages could now be compared to a cleared forest, a few trunks here and there looking gray and white [?]. Within a space an hour and a half long and wide, the ground was covered with people and animals. There were groans and whines on all sides. The stream separated the battlefield into two parts. On the left of the water stood a row of a few houses which looked as if transformed into a chapel for the dead. Over the river there was a wooden bridge that had been burned. On account of the congestion before and during the burning, the banks on both sides of the bridge were filled with dead piled three and four deep. Particularly the wounded who could still move hurried to the river to quench their thirst or to wash their wounds; but the suffering brothers had no help, no hope of rescue: hunger, thirst, and fire were their death.

Although this terrible sight looked like a kingdom of the dead, the people had, nevertheless, become so
indifferent to their feelings that they all ran numbly like shades of death away from the piteous crying. We moved forward and camped by a forest on a height facing Moscow; it was a wood of green trees. Here we not only had nothing to eat but also no water to drink, because of the high camp site; and the road through the fields was still covered with dead Russians. Now we traveled with somewhat higher hopes toward Moscow yet with the expectation that we should clash again with the Russians, but the Russians thought themselves too weak and went through the city setting fire to many parts, and the inhabitants were abandoned. Our troops came unexpectedly, something which the Russians before had believed impossible, because there never had been a foreign enemy who had reached and conquered the old city of the Tsar, the capital city. All the merchants and people of the city could not flee swiftly enough to save themselves, and many costly articles were left behind. Even though the French Guard occupied the city first and took possession of wine, bread, etc., for their army, there still remained a good deal for us, the allies. We marched in, too, and took quarters behind the Kremlin in the so-called German suburb, which ran from west to east behind the city proper.

10. B
ATTLE NEAR
S
MOLENSK
, 5 A
UGUST
1812. P
HOTOENGRAVED BY
I. G
OFFERT FROM A PAINTING BY
P.
VON
H
ESS
.

On the march into the city or rather on the march toward it, from a hill in a forest an hour and a half away, we saw the huge city lying before us. Clouds of fire, red smoke, great gilded crosses of the church towers glittered, shimmered, and billowed up toward us from the city. This holy city was like the description of the city of Jerusalem, over which our Saviour wept; it even resembled the horror and the wasting according to the Gospel. Farther inward toward the city was a wide plain; and in front of the city ran the stream Alia,
⁶
over which there was a wooden bridge. As we marched through, I observed as much as I could: there were broad streets, long straight alleys, tall buildings massively built of brick, church towers with burned roofs and half-melted bells, and copper roofs which had rolled from the buildings; everything was uninhabited and uninhabitable. After a few hours’ walking we went past the palace (Kremlin). Here was the stream Kremlin
⁷
in an open, walled canal which runs through the city. At the lower end of the palace a street led toward the right to a beautiful parade ground; and behind this was the German suburb, which the Württemberg corps occupied for three weeks.

Here one could find and buy provisions; for each soldier was now citizen, merchant, innkeeper, and baker
of Moscow. Everyone tried to dress as much as possible with silks and materials of all colors. Only tailors were lacking; silks, muslins, and red Morocco leather were all abundant. Things to eat were not wanting either. Whoever could find nothing could buy something and vegetables in sufficient quantity stood in the fields. Particularly was there an abundance of beets, which were as round and large as bowling balls and fiery red throughout. There were masses of cabbage three and four times as large in size as cabbage heads that we would consider large. The district called Muscovy is more favored in agriculture and climate, and more civilized than the regions toward St. Petersburg and those through which we had come. It was still good weather, and one could sleep warm enough under a coat at night.

After we had been citizens of Moscow for four weeks, we lost our burgher rights again. Napoleon refused the peace treaty proposed to him,
⁸
and the army which had advanced some thirty hours’ farther on had to retreat, because the Russian army stationed in Moldavia was approaching. Now it was October 17, and Napoleon held an army review and announced the departure for October 18, early in the morning at 3 o’clock, with the warning that whoever should delay one hour would fall into the hands of the enemies. All beer, brandy, etc., was abandoned and whatever was still intact was ordered to be burned. Napoleon himself had the Kremlin undermined and blown up.
⁹
The morning came, and each took his privilege of citizenship [
Bürgerrecht
] upon his shoulders and covered it with his coat cape of strong woolen cloth, and everybody had bread pouches of red Morocco leather at his side, all had an odd appearance as they set out; they filled, as far as it was possible, everything with sugar and the so-called Moscow tea in order to withstand the future misery. The sugar melted out of the merchant shops in the conflagration and, half-burnt, resembled a brownish gray glauber salt.
¹⁰

11. “T
HIS
F
IRE
W
ILL
I
LLUMINE FOR
G
ENERATIONS THE
F
EROCITY OF
N
APOLEON AND THE
G
LORY OF
R
USSIA
.” C
APTIONED WITH A QUOTE FROM A RESCRIPT
(1812)
FROM THE
E
MPEROR TO
C
OUNT
R
OSTOPCHIN
,
THIS WOODCUT SHOWS THE GATES AND TOWERS OF THE
K
REMLIN RINGED WITH FLAME AND BILLOWING SMOKE
.

When we assembled in the morning, my company was 25 privates strong, and all companies were more or less of this size. The march went forth to the right from behind the eastern side of the city, and we moved past the city on the south. There were two bridges thrown across the river below us, and the smoke from the flames surged up behind us. Up on the heights past the bridge to the left of the road stood a cloister in which there was a flour storeroom where everyone fetched as much as he could carry. Beyond the bridge there was a cabbage patch where millions of cabbage heads were still standing: it pained me not to be able to take along even one of these heads, since I fully expected the utmost famine.

From Moscow the road led south through Malo Jaroslavetz toward Kaluga. Near Jaroslavetz in the evening the Russian Moldavian army, which had come from Turkey, met us. In this city I was ordered on guard at the headquarters of the general staff while the army encamped in front of the city. Here the inhumanity of the commanders began to mount: the remaining troops’ weapons were inspected, and many who did not have their weapons fairly rust-free got 12 to 20 strokes with a club until they were near desperation. While I looked after my post, a comrade said to me that he had on a near-by wagon a little cask of wine brought along from Moscow and that
since everything would be destroyed that day anyhow we would drink it up. We drank and also let others drink from it, but all of us said, “How will this turn out?”

In the morning Major von Schaumberg saw me and noticed that I was still alert and spirited. He addressed me, saying that I ought to stay with him and take care of him along with his attendant. I consented and took over a horse and his equipage. Then everyone packed up, and the enemy attacked us. The decision was soon to the advantage of the Russians, and all ran in a crowded retreat, the army moving toward Kaluga with the Cossacks in front of and beside us. The enemy army behind us shattered all the army corps, leaving each of us then without his commanding officer. Those who were too weak to carry their weapons or knapsacks threw them away, and all looked like a crowd of gypsies.

I and my fellow attendant traveled with the major as best we could. At one time my fellow attendant said, “Walter, you look all yellow in the face. You have the jaundice!” I became frightened at this and believed that my end would soon have to come, too, though I actually felt nothing.

Then we came to a second city, Borovsk. Here the city was immediately ablaze; and, in order for us to get through, soldiers had to be used to quench the flames. Camp was pitched by this city, and it became dark. One no sooner thought of resting than the Russians fell upon our army and cut off many as captives. Everything was in confusion, and during almost the whole night the throng had to retreat to Moshaisk, everyone running so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy. Because of these
considerable losses, cannon, munition wagons, coaches, and baggage wagons by the hundreds had to be thrown into the water; and, where that was impossible, all wagons were burned, not one wheel being permitted to remain whole. The sutlers, even the cavalry, had to give up their horses so that these could be hitched to the cannon. The fighting, the shrieking, the firing of large and small guns, hunger and thirst, and all conceivable torments increased the never-ending confusion. Indeed, even the lice seemed to seek supremacy, for their number on both officers and privates was in the thousands.