1806-1807.
New system of war--Winter quarters--The Emperor's Proclamation--Necessity of marching to meet the Russians--Distress in the Hanse Towns--Order for 50,000 cloaks--Seizure of Russian corn and timber--Murat's entrance into Warsaw--Re-establishment of Poland--Duroc's accident- M. de Talleyrand's carriage stopped by the mud--Napoleon's power of rousing the spirit of his troops--His mode of dictating--The Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin--His visits to Hamburg--The Duke of Weimar--His letter and present--Journey of the Hereditary Prince of Denmark to Paris--Batter, the English spy--Traveling clerks--Louis Bonaparte and the Berlin decree--Creation of the Kingdom of Saxony--Veneration of Germany for the King of Saxony--The Emperor's uncertainty respecting Poland--Fetes and reviews at Warsaw--The French Government at the Emperor's head quarters--Ministerial portfolios sent to Warsaw.--Military preparations during the month of January--Difference of our situation daring the campaigns of Vienna and Prussia--News received and sent--Conduct of the Cabinet of Austria similar to that of the Cabinet of Berlin--Battle of Eylau--Unjust accusation against Bernadotte--Death of General d'Hautpoult--Te Deum chanted by the Russians--Gardanne's mission to Persia Bonaparte was not only beyond all comparison the greatest captain of modern times, but he may be said to have wrought a complete change in the art of war. Before his time the most able generals regulated the fighting season by the almanac. It was customary in Europe to brave the cannon's mouth only from the first fine days of spring to the last fine days of autumn; and the months of rain, snow, and frost were passed in what were called winter quarters. Pichegru, in Holland, had set the example of indifference to temperature. At Austerlitz, too, Bonaparte had braved the severity of winter; this answered his purpose well, and he adopted the same course in 1806. His military genius and activity seemed to increase, and, proud of his troops, he determined to commence a winter campaign in a climate more rigorous than any in which he had yet fought.
The men, chained to his destiny, were now required to brave the northern blast, as they had formerly braved the vertical sun of Egypt. Napoleon, who, above all generals, was remarkable for the choice of his fields of battle, did not wish to wait tranquilly until the Russian army, which was advancing towards Germany, should come to measure its strength with him in the plains of conquered Prussia; he resolved to march to meet it, and to reach it before it should arose the Vistula; but before he left Berlin to explore and conqueror, Poland and the confines of Russia; he addressed a proclamation to his troops, in which he stated all that had hitherto been achieved by the French army, and at the same time announced his future intentions. It was especially advisable that he should march forward, for, had he waited until the Russians had passed the Vistula, there could probably have been no winter campaign, and he would have been obliged either to take up miserable winter quarters between the Vistula and the Oder, or to recross the Oder to combat the enemy in Prussia.
Napoleon's military genius and indefatigable activity served him admirably on this occasion, and the proclamation just alluded to, which was dated from Berlin before his departure from Charlottenburg; proves that he did not act fortuitously, as he frequently did, but that his calculations were well-made.
--[Before leaving the capital of Prussia Bonaparte stole from the monument, of Frederick the Great his sword and military orders. He also plundered the galleries of Berlin and Potsdam of their best pictures and statues, thus continuing the system he had began is Italy. All those things he sent to Paris as trophies of victory and glory.--Editor of as 1836 edition.]
A rapid and immense impulse given to great masses of men by the, will of a single individual may produce transient lustre and dazzle the eyes of the multitude; but when, at a distance from the theatre of glory, we flee only the melancholy results which have been produced. The genius of conquest can only be regarded as the genius of destruction. What a sad picture was often presented to my eyes! I was continually doomed to hear complaints of the general distress, and to execute orders which augmented the immense sacrifices already made by the city of Hamburg. Thus, for example, the Emperor desired me to furnish him with 50,000 cloaks which I immediately did. I felt the importance of such an order with the approach of winter, and in a climate--the rigour of which our troops had not yet encountered. I also received orders to seize at Lubeck (Which town, as I have already stated, had been alternately taken and retaken try Blucher and Bernadotte) 400,000 lasts of corn,--[A last weighs 2000 kilogrammes]-- and to send them to Magdeburg. This corn belonged to Russia. Marshal Mortier, too, had seized some timber for building, which also belonged to Russia; and which was estimated at 1,400,000 francs.
Meanwhile our troops continued to advance with such rapidity that before the end of November Murat arrived at Warsaw, at the head of the advanced guard of the Grand Army, of which, he had the command. The Emperor's headquarters, were then at Posen, and, he received deputations from all parts soliciting the re-establishment and independence of the Kingdom of Poland.
