Napoleon's Scouts of the Imperial Guard
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION • The Empirl'-s last
3
resoul"ce~
REORGANIZATION OF T...
425 downloads
1246 Views
6MB Size
Report
This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form
Napoleon's Scouts of the Imperial Guard
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION • The Empirl'-s last
3
resoul"ce~
REORGANIZATION OF THE GUARD CAVALRY
6
• Cre*
Bo,If'oNnI._........
,;'5 ...........
~
N,.
'6,.,
Uk
Pa~ Cou'QIIe. 33 ....... de ~ 1410 wata'too. BeIgun
TN
~
regret that they can.m. intO
upon 1M man•.
no ~
NAPOLEON'S SCOUTS OF THE IMPERIAL GUARD
INTRODUCTION ~ NO\'B18E::R 1813, Napoleon's Grande Annce - once !.he terror oran entire continent. who had carried their \ictory-bedecked banners through the conquered streelS of most of the capiLals of Europe dragged themselves westwards thl'Ough Genllany to the Rhine. seeking safety behind the borders of France herself. For the second time in twO rears, Napoleon had started a campaign with more than 400,000 Il"OOPS, and had ended it with fewer Llmll 70,000 men. In the winter of 1812/13 it had taken an exuaordinary effon to rebuild Napoleon's army after the Russian disaster. Now, defeated at Leip7ig by the converging armies of Austria, Russia, Prussia and Sweden, he faced the same task all over again: reim'enting his ann)' with raw conscripts, around an ever weaker skeleton of \'eteran officers and NCOs, while short of many military necessities - and above all, of cavalry to screen the threatened borders and report enem\ movements. Despite the ease with "..hich the French had smashed through the Ba'"3rian Cen von Wrede's inept auempt to block their retreat al Hanau on 30 October, there \'I'aS little doubt that the da}'S when the French eagles had S\'I'ept forward in glory \'I'ere gone for ~"er. Now, for the first time since the 17905, French soldiers faced the prospect of having to fight on their 0\'111 soil; yet e,"en now Napoleon might ha,"e a,"oided this, and kept his throne, if he had seized an opportunity for peace which was open to him for JUSt twO weeks. \\11ile mOSI of Europe was ranged against him, only the Russians and the Prussians were eager to aCllIally invade France, LO avenge the ruin and humiliation they themselves had suffered at French hands. Britain, although Napoleon's most consistent enemy, was concemed - as always - with preserving a balance between the Continental powers, and had no wish 10 see France lInedy destroyed. The Ausmans' main war aim was tlle recapture of northern Italy, and after all, Napoleon's Empress Marie-Louise was the daughter of tlle Ausman emperor. Spain and Portugal ""ere exhausted b}' the long Peninsular War, and their annies were for all practical purposes dependent lIpon Brir.ain. In conference at Frankfurt on 16 No\ember 1813, the Allies agreed to offer terms to the French based on recognition of France's llaLUral geographic borders on the Rhine, the Alps and
I
Don
eo....ck and Crlme.n Tatar.
The Ru,,'a" army employed Co..acb In I• • numbe.... fighting •• vanguard, rNlllIu..rd -.Id rakllng tloops, they WeAl tN balM ot H.poIMn" annles. He Mel COft~'" raising Uml&8r unit. from t 80tII onward.. but It wa. only at the end 01 the '813 um~lg" ltMIt 1M put tws INn parUy Into prac:tke wttn
0'
tN erNtiorI the Scouts of tile Im~ O_rd. 10rig~' . .~ by L.uctMg Wotf; AnM I.K.Brown Llbl1lry, Prowfdence, AI, USAl
3
the Pyrenees. Napoleon, ever confident in his own genius, o\"crpla)'cd his hand. lie stallcd for timc; but by the end of November less generolls terms were all that was on ofTer, based on tile frontiers of 1792, with F'nlllce ceding imponant lCITitories in the Rhineland and the Low Countries. These conditions I\'ere probably ne\'er intended to be acceptable; and in December the three Allied armies of the Sixth Coalition be)'ond the Rhine prepared for renewed operations. 1
The Empire'. last resource. In the weeks foUO\"ing the bank of Banau, man} thousands of French stragglers had gr.ldually made their way east\'o'ards, until Napoleon had some 100.000 soldiers on the Rhine. Ho.....e...er. the mere numbers were decepthe: ncarl) half of them were wounded. sick from l}phoid. or otherwise unfit for active duty. Well over 100.000 others had been left behind. isolated in fortified cities across Gemlan) and the Low Countries. Most of these were well'lrnined troops, equipped \\;th some hundreds of guns, wagon tmills and ample arsenals of anllS and ammunition; but - \\;th the exception of Marshal Oa\"olll's corps, trapped around Ilamburg, and serving no dear purpose - most ofthcm ,,'ould soon be Corced to surrender. Other substantial forces were also unamilable to the Emperor, since the eastern fromiers were not the onh approach to France threatened by the Allies. In hal)', Napoleon's stepson and \icero) Eugene de Beauhal1lais. \\ith some 50.000 men, stood in the path of about the So.'lme number of Austrians under Cen Bellegarde; but the King of Naples. the faithless Marshal Murat. had long been negotiating secretl)' with the Allies in an attempt to save his mrone if he changed sides, and his defection in earl) January 1814 would tip the balance against Eugene. In the Pyrenees, Marshals Sault and Suchet, \\'ith 100,000 men, stood read) to try to stem the advance from Spain of the 125.()()().strong combined British. Spanish and POrtugucsc forces under \\'ellington. By earl)' January 1814. the whole of Cennany. Spain and the Illpian Isles were lost to the Emperor; IIoll3nd would soon follow, as would Italy. The Empire \\'3S cnllnbling, and as more and more of the Emperor's subjects and forced allies distanced themselves from his rebtime. so the Grande Armee was denied recmiting grounds where il had previollsly found cannon-fodder. Nevertheless, lhanks to his extraordinary qualities of Ol"branization and leadership, Napoleon would soon create a new army. His or'iginal target of9oo,000 men was wildly llnrealislic, however; the cOlHcription of 1813 had already taken almost all the available llnmarried young men. On 5 November his officials reported that an immediate le"y of 140,000 men was possible. but only by extending conscription to married men. Since many of these had married specifically to avoid the drafl, such a measure was liable to provoke widespread resistance and cvasion. Instead. the gmenuuent decided to conscript only the unmarricd, and to transfer 100,000 men (both single and married) from the National Guard to the regular ann). Retired E/npMlr, NIpoIeor'I '*l to tghl: ~ ~ c:o-'ilIDrw ~ Dy t. FoIovoVlg t. ......... on 1812. " - to"Id BrIIaon """'-l1l-.1YoldIuI becMlIII-. Silpers, and 12 for NCOs with mixed-
Collection, ChAteau de l'Emp6nl
22
Champauben was onl)' a minor \'ictory, bLlt aile \\'ith serious consequences for the Allies, since the Emperor had now cut lhe Army of Silesia in two. This success proved to be the prelude for tWO more French victories over the next few dars, at t.'lolllmirail and Vauchamps. Without taking any time 10 rest his men, Napoleon marched west from Champauben along the nonh bank of Le Petit ~lOlin at the head of his small but dete11l1ined army. to confront the dispersed corps of Cen &Icken, \\~th 19,000 Russians, and Cen Yorek. \\ith 12.000 Prussians. On 11 Febnl;lI)', after a night of sno\\fall mixed \\ith rain which reduced the fields to a sea of mud, the 14.500 French u'oops marched through t.lonunirail. Napoleon's force consisted basically of the Old Cuard and a fi.:w conscripts - the ·~'latie·Louiscs· - under Cen Ricard. together with 30 LO 36 guns. Finding the enemy. the Emperor sent in the laner against &Icken's corps, which was tlying to fight its wa)' eastwards to ~tolllmir