Worlds Best Histories France Vol 7 by M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

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That boundless vanity which always pervaded Napoleon's soul, in spite of
his protestations of thankfulness towards divine justice, did not prevent
him from clearly seeing beforehand the difficulties which surrounded him,
and the obstacles still to be overcome, even after reaching Vienna, and
gaining the victory in every battle. Success had again attended on all his
combinations, and the extreme extension of his forces. Prince Eugene after
recovering the advantage over Archduke John, was now coming nearer the
emperor as he pursued the enemy. Marshal Lefebvre at the head of the
Bavarians and French divisions, had commenced offensive operations against
General Chasteler and Jellachich, come to the assistance of Tyrol, and
after beating their forces and those of the mountaineers combined at
Worgel, on the 13th May, advanced to Innspruck and took possession of it.
The peasants had retired to the mountains, and the Austrian forces fell
back upon Hungary. Prince Poniatowski defended victoriously the right bank
of the Vistula, and threatened Cracow, while Galicia was rising in favor
of Polish independence. The Archduke Charles's army, however, still
existed--large, powerful and eager to avenge its defeats. The Archduke
Louis had brought him the remainder of the troops, and the Archduke John
was advancing to the assistance of his brothers. In order to prevent this
junction, and conquer his enemy before he had been reinforced by the army
of Italy, Napoleon decided upon crossing the Danube in the very suburbs of
the capital, by making use of the numerous islets there. At the island of
Lobau, which was the point chosen for the passage, the bed of the Danube
was broad and deep; and the island not being in the middle of the stream,
the branch separating it from the bank was comparatively narrow. The
emperor gave orders to construct bridges.

The attempt was a bold one at any time; it was rash, at the moment when
the waters of the Danube, swollen by the melting of the snow, threatened
to sweep away the bridges, prepared with difficulty, on which depended the
success of the operation. On the 20th May, Marshal Massena's troops
crossed the river entirely, and took up position in the villages of
Aspern, and Essling; a ditch full of water joined the two villages, and
its banks were immediately covered with troops. The archduke's advance-
guard had alone appeared, till at three o'clock in the afternoon of the
21st May, the Austrian army, 70,000 to 80,000 men strong, at last poured
on the plain of Marchfeld. The large bridge thrown from the right bank to
the island of Lobau had been broken for the second time during the night,
and therefore only 35,000 or 40,000 Frenchmen were there to meet the
enemy. The emperor, however, was there, the bridge was about to be
repaired, and the generals were opposed to every thought of retreat.
Marshal Lannes had gone forward to occupy Essling, while General Molitor
had fortified himself in Aspern. The struggle began with the passionate
ardor of men playing the great game in which their glory or their
country's liberty is at stake. The position at Aspern, covering the bridge
to the island of Lobau, was several times taken and retaken, till at last
Molitor barricaded the houses of the village, and drove back the Austrian
attack with the bayonet. No assault, however fierce, was able to dislodge
Massena from the burying-ground, nor Lannes from the village of Essling.
At one time the Prince of Hohenzollern's division was very nearly cutting
off our communication between the two villages, at sight of which Lannes,
turning towards Marshal Bessieres, ordered him, in a voice of thunder, and
without regard for his rank or age, to put himself at the head of the
cuirassiers for a "thorough" charge. Deeply hurt by this order, and the
tone in which it was given, Bessieres deferred demanding an explanation,
and made a dash upon the Austrian lines. He had to meet in succession the
artillery, the infantry, and the cavalry; General Espagne, who was in
charge of the heavy horse, was killed by his side; then General Lasalle
made a charge in his turn, bringing to the marshal assistance of which he
stood in great need, and Prince Hohenzollern's division was stopped. In
the evening, when bivouacking, the emperor was obliged to interpose to
prevent Lannes and Bessieres from using against each other the swords
which they had so gallantly used during the fighting against the enemy.

The archduke having ordered retreat after nightfall, both armies camped in
their positions. Large forces had already crossed the Danube, including
the whole corps of General Lannes. The guard also arrived, which had not
yet shared in any engagement during the campaign. Seventy or seventy-five
thousand men having reached the left bank, they only waited for Marshal
Davout's corps, which had received orders to hasten its march, when the
large bridge broke for the third time. Part of the artillery and most of
the ammunition-wagons were still on the right bank. When communication was
again affected, the fighting was everywhere carried on with fresh fury.

Another attack was made on the villages of Aspern and Essling, which had
already been reduced to ruins. One after another, Massena recovered the
positions which Molitor was forced on the previous evening to abandon; he
also carried the church occupied by the Austrian general, Vacquant. Lannes
had received orders, while protecting Essling, to march into the plain,
and by a circular movement pierce the enemy's line and cut them in two.
This operation was about to be accomplished, and the marshal sent an aide-
de-camp to the emperor to ask him to have his rear protected by the guard
on his leaving Essling unprotected, when frightful news was brought to
Napoleon. The trunks of trees, stones, and rubbish of every kind, brought
down by the rapid current of the river, had again broken the cables which
held together the boats composing the great bridge, and both parts were
carried down the stream, taking with them a squadron of cuirassiers, who
were then defiling over. The passage of the troops being stopped, and the
ammunition running short, Napoleon ordered Lannes to fall back on the line
of the villages and abandon the pursuit of the Austrians, who were just
before that hardly pressed everywhere. Whilst the marshal, bitterly
disappointed, was effecting this backward movement, the archduke ordered
all his artillery to be directed upon him: General St. Hilaire was killed
at the head of his division, and whole files of General Oudinot's
regiments were shot down--unfortunate lads, so recently enrolled that
their officers durst not deploy them before the enemy. It was now midday;
Major-General Berthier had just written to Marshal Davout, retained on the
opposite bank of the Danube: "The interruption of the bridge has prevented
provision-supplies: at ten o'clock we were short of ammunition, and the
enemy, perceiving it, marched back upon us. Two hundred guns, to which we
cannot reply, have done us much harm. In these circumstances, it is
extremely important to repair the bridges and send ammunition and food.
Write to the Prince of Ponte Corvo (Bernadotte) not to open a campaign in
Bohemia, and to General Lauriston to be ready to join us. See that Daru
sends us ambulance-stores and provisions of every kind. As soon as the
bridge is ready, or during the night, come and have a consultation with
the emperor."

At the same moment the Austrians began a movement similar to that which
Lannes so recently was on the point of effecting. The Archduke Charles
combined his best troops, to overpower our centre and finally break our
lines. Marshal Lannes was immediately on the spot, bringing up in close
succession the already decimated divisions--the cuirassiers, the old
guard; and these were soon supported by the charges of the light cavalry.
The conflict was now frightful. The French artillery, placed on the bank
of the ditch connecting Aspern and Essling, fired slowly, with the
precaution and prudence due to their shortness of ammunition, while the
Austrian cannons thundered unceasingly. Lannes galloped in front of his
regiments, which were immovable before the enemy, whose advance had been
stopped; and when encouraging his soldiers by gesture and voice, one of
his aides-de-camp conjured him to dismount. When in the act of obeying, a
cannon-ball struck him, shattering both his knees. Marshal Bessieres
assisted his terrified officers in wrapping round him a cuirassier's cloak
and getting him carried to an ambulance; but, recollecting his irritation
of the evening before, he turned away his head as he grasped the hand of
his dying friend, lest the sight of him should cause any sorrow or
vexation.

Ominous news were now coming from all parts to Napoleon, who had not
quitted the angle formed by the line between Aspern and Essling. Marshal
Massena still kept in the midst of the smoking ruins which marked the spot
where stood so recently the pretty village of Aspern. The Austrians were
advancing in dense masses against the village of Essling. Marshal
Bessieres defended that post, indispensable to the safety of the army. The
emperor sent for the fusileers of the guard and placed them under General
Mouton's orders. "I give them to you," said he; "make another effort to
save the army; but let us put an end to this! After these, I have only the
grenadiers and chasseurs of the old guard; they must be reserved for a
disaster." General Mouton advanced, and his first effort was rewarded by
freeing General Baudet, who was hemmed in in a barn, which he defended
like a fortress. Five times did the enemy return to the charge, and now
they prepared for a new attack, when General Rapp, shouting, "The emperor
says we must put an end to this!" combined his forces with Mouton's, and
both rushed forward, followed by their soldiers, with their bayonets in
front and their heads held low. The Austrians at last recoiled, and
Essling remained in our hands. The battery which had been raised on the
island of Lobau had fired with effect upon the masses of the enemy when,
for a short time, they were near the river. The bridge was free, the only
way left us to effect our retreat, when night at last permitted us to
withdraw without disgrace or danger. The long summer's day was at its
close.

Having for a long time understood the necessity of this backward movement,
the emperor longed only for its execution, and wished to inspect himself
the resources of defence afforded by the island of Lobau. He would not
hear of leaving the battlefield without being certain of the position of
Aspern, and sent to ask Massena if he could undertake to hold the village,
as he had constantly done for the two previous days. The old soldier was
sitting on a heap of ruins, in the midst of the smoking remains of the
place, and, rising at the first words of the aide-de-camp, he stretched
out his arm towards the Danube, as if to hasten the messenger's return:
"Go and tell the emperor that I shall keep here two hours, six, twenty-
four, if need be--so long as the safety of the army requires it."

The Archduke Charles, however, was himself tired of a struggle that led to
no decision--cruel and bloody beyond all that he had seen in his long
military career. He had brought together all his forces, and placed all
his artillery in a line, in order to crush once more with his cannon-shot
the invincible battalions which separated him from the river and still
forbade his passage. General Mouton brought to this threatened point the
fusileers of the guard who had just freed Essling; our dismounted guns
replied at rare intervals to the continued fire of the enemy; the bodies
of infantry, slightly protected by the inequalities of the ground, were
massed behind useless cannon, and supported by the cavalry, which covered
at one part the road from Essling to Aspern, and at another the
unprotected space between Essling and the Danube. Parallel to them were
arranged the guard in order. All these glorious remnants of a two days'
unexampled struggle, motionless under the cannon-balls, looked in silence
upon their officers moving about in front of the lines between the cannon
of the enemy and the men whom they commanded. "Only one word escaped our
lips," said General Mouton, afterwards Count Lobau, when telling the story
of that day; "we had only one thing to say, 'close up the ranks!' whenever
the soldiers fell under the fire of the archduke's 200 guns."

On crossing to the entrance of the bridge on the river's bank, where there
were confused heaps of wounded men, transport carts, empty artillery-
wagons, and dismounted guns, Napoleon went to see Marshal Lannes, who had
just undergone amputation, and showed more emotion than he usually showed
at the tragical end of his lieutenants. The dying farewell of the
illustrious officer to his chief, still unsated with glory and conquest,
has been told in various ways. The emperor himself reported the words as
he wished them to be known, full of kindness and sadness on the part of
Lannes. Some of those who stood by reported that the instinct of the dying
soldier awoke with the bluntness frequently characterizing it, and that
Lannes cursed the cruel ambition which strewed Napoleon's brilliant route
with the corpses of his friends. He only survived that scene two days, and
was praised as he deserved by Napoleon. On again mounting his horse, the
emperor inspected the island of Lobau in detail, and satisfied himself
that the position could be easily defended by a large body of troops well
equipped and well commanded. He resolved to leave Massena there--the
natural leader in all cases of supreme resistance--while he made
preparations at Vienna and on the right bank of the Danube for
definitively crossing the river and bringing the campaign to a close. His
project thus conceived, and combinations decided on in his mind, the
emperor repassed the small arm of the river, and, stopping at the head of
the bridge, called his generals around him. It was nightfall; the battle
had finished; on both sides they were still occupied in removing the
wounded; the dead everywhere strewed the plain, the border of the ditch,
and the ruins of the villages. Napoleon held a council of war on the
field, on that bank of the Danube defended during two days with so much
obstinacy.

The emperor was not accustomed to consult his generals, his thought was
spontaneous as his will was imperious. On the evening of the 22nd of May,
he listened patiently to the ideas, the objections, even the complaints of
the generals who surrounded him. Nearly all were discouraged, and
conceived the necessity of a complete and long retreat; they weighed,
however, all the inconveniences of this, and felt beforehand all the
humiliation; their perplexity was extreme. Napoleon at last spoke; his
plan was decided. By abandoning the island of Lobau, and repassing the
great arm of the Danube with the entire army, it would be necessary to
leave behind 10,000 wounded, the whole of the artillery, to be covered
with disgrace, and consequently to bring about at once a rising in
Germany, which was ready to fall eagerly upon an enemy she believed
vanquished. It was not the retreat on Vienna, which would be thus
prepared; it was the retreat upon Strasburg. What they must do was to
occupy the island of Lobau with 40,000 men, under the orders of Massena;
to appoint Davout to protect Vienna and the right bank of the Danube
against the attacks of the Archduke Charles, and prevent him from
effecting his junction with the Archduke John; while all the personal
efforts of Napoleon would be directed to repairing the great bridge,
preparing provisions and transports, concentrating his troops until the
day when, rejoined by Prince Eugene, and sure of traversing the Danube
victoriously, he would again unite the entire army to crush his enemies by
a decisive blow, thus terminating the campaign gloriously on a field of
battle already chosen in the conqueror's mind.

As he spoke, developing his plan with that powerful and spontaneous
eloquence which he drew from the abundance and clearness of his thoughts,
his generals listened, and felt their trouble disappear, and the heroic
ardor of the combat take possession of their hearts. Massena rose, carried
away by his admiration, forgetful of his habitual ill-humor and the
discontent he so constantly manifested. He took several steps towards the
emperor. "Sire, you are a great man," cried he, "and worthy to command men
like myself. Leave me here, and I promise you to fling into the Danube all
the Austrian forces who may try to dislodge me." Marshal Davout undertook,
in the same way, to defend Vienna. Tranquillity had reappeared on every
face. Within the limits of that plain covered with dead, by the side of
the wagons ceaselessly defiling with wounded and dying, a great work
remained to be done, a great enterprise to be achieved, whatever obstacles
might present themselves. Hope had reappeared, together with the end to be
pursued. Napoleon crossed the island and embarked with Berthier and Savary
in a small boat, which brought him back safely to the right bank of the
river. Massena returned to Aspern, momentarily invested with the chief
command. The retreat commenced.

The cannonade was still heard in the plain, but faint, and separated by
long intervals; the artillerymen, worn out, stood to their guns with great
difficulty. The Austrians were overcome with fatigue; already several
corps had passed into the island under cover of the darkness, when the
Archduke Charles at length perceived that we were escaping from him. He at
once began to follow, but slowly, without spirit or eagerness. The troops
defiled in order over the little bridge which Marshal Massena protected in
person. He remained almost alone upon the bank, his entire army having
effected its retreat; and after collecting the arms and horses abandoned
by the soldiers, he at last resolved to follow his men and destroy the
bridge behind him, intrepid to the last moment in his retrograde movement,
as the captain of a shipwrecked vessel is the last to quit the remains of
his ship. Day was now dawning; the balls from the enemy's batteries
recommenced to rain around him, when the marshal at length gained the
centre of the island, beyond their range.

More than 40,000 French or Austrians, dead or wounded, had fallen in the
struggle of these two terrible days. In spite of the emphatic bulletins of
the Emperor Napoleon, Europe looked upon the battle of Essling as a
striking check to our arms. The warlike excitement of Germany increased;
the Tyroleans were again rising, and General Deroy found himself forced to
evacuate Innspruck; a corps of German refuges, under the orders of the
Duke of Brunswick-Oels, took the road to Dresden, the court immediately
taking refuge in Leipzic; a second detachment threatened King Jerome in
Westphalia. He was afraid for his crown, and the emperor wrote to him on
the 9th June: "The English are not to be feared; all their forces are in
Spain and Portugal. They will do nothing--they can do nothing, in Germany;
besides, time enough when they do. As to Schill, he is of little moment,
and has already put himself out of the question by retreating towards
Stralsund. General Gratien and the Danes will probably give an account of
him. The Duke of Brunswick has not 8000 men; the former Elector of Cassel
has not 600. Before making a movement it is well to see clearly.
Experience will show you the difference there is between the reports
spread by the enemy and the reality. Never, during sixteen years that I
have commanded, have I countermanded a regiment, because I always wait for
an affair to be ripe, and have thorough knowledge before commencing
operations. There is no need for anxiety; you have nothing to fear, all
this is nothing but rumor."

At Paris, where the most confident had become anxious, Napoleon severely
reprimanded the timid. He wrote, on the 19th May, to General Clarke, the
minister of war: "Sir, you have alarmed Paris too much about the affairs
of Prussia, even if it were true that she had attacked us. Prussia is of
very small importance, and I shall never want for means to enforce her
submission--all the more so when these reports are contradicted. You have
not used sufficient prudence on this occasion; it produces a bad effect
for any power to imagine that I am without resource. The minister of
police has taken his text from this to make a lot of foolish talk, which
is very much out of place."

Austria had in fact sent to Prussia an ambassador with instructions to
engage King Frederick William to break his chains, and take at last his
part in the resistance; but that monarch had refused. "Not yet," said he;
"it is too soon I am not ready; when I come, I will not come alone. Only
strike one other blow." The efforts of Major Schill had not been
supported, and that courageous partisan had failed under the walls of
Stralsund. The secret diplomacy of Austria appeared to have met with more
favor at St. Petersburg; the declaration of war by Russia against Austria
remained absolutely without result; the Russian troops which were in
Poland seemed more disposed to suppress the insurrection of Galicia than
to second the efforts of Prince Poniatowski.

It was one of the great characteristics of the genius of the Emperor
Napoleon to place no importance upon reports or appearances, although he
was not ignorant of their action on the public. In his public
proclamations he made an effort to disguise the check he had received at
Essling; but in practice, in his military operations he comprehended all
the gravity of it, without allowing himself to be troubled an instant by
bad fortune; he even derived original and powerful combinations from the
embarrassments of his situation. Prince Eugene had already joined him near
Vienna (26th May, 1809), driving back the Archduke John upon Hungary, and
overthrowing the corps of the Jellachich Ban, which had in vain tried to
stop his progress at Mount Saint-Michel, near Leoben. The army of Italy
was not to rest long, the emperor having immediately sent his adopted son
to follow the traces of the archduke. "To do the utmost harm to the
archduke; to drive him back to the Danube; to intercept his communications
with Chastelar and Giulay, who apparently intend to join him; to reduce
the fortress of Graetz by isolating it, and to maintain your
communications on the left with the duke of Auerstaedt, to construct the
bridges on the Raab--these should be your aims," wrote the emperor to
Prince Eugene, on the 13th June, and on the 15th: "It is probable that
Raab has not sufficient fortifications for the enemy to dare to place a
considerable garrison there of his best troops. If he only puts in bad
ones the town will surrender on being invested, which will give us the
advantage of taking his men, and of having a good post. If the archduke
flies before you, you will pursue him, so that he may not be able to pass
the Danube at Komorn, where there is, I think, no bridge, but he may be
obliged to take refuge at Bude: do not go farther from me. The line behind
the Raab is, I think, suitable for you, because my bridges over the Danube
will be completed, and I can recall you in four days, taking at least two
from the enemy, which will permit you to be present at the battle, while
the enemy will be unable to be there. Your aim, then, is to hinder him
from passing to Komorn, and then to oblige him to throw himself upon Bude,
which will take him away from Vienna."

On the 14th June, even before Napoleon had written these last lines,
Prince Eugene, after an obstinate combat, had taken from the Archduke
John, and his brother the Archduke Palatine, the important line of the
Raab. Generals Broussier and Marmont had effected their junction in the
environs of Graetz, repulsing the attacks of the Giulay Ban; General
Macdonald, whom the Viceroy of Italy had left behind at Papa, for the
purpose of facilitating this concentration of forces, arrived on the field
of battle when the day was gained; the archdukes were driven behind the
Danube, and the troops furnished by the Hungarian nobility, were
dispersed. "I compliment you on the battle of Raab," wrote the emperor to
Prince Eugene; "it is the grand-daughter of Marengo and Friedland."
General Lauriston immediately laid siege to the place, which capitulated
on the 23rd June. Marshal Davout had bombarded Presburg without effect for
several days, in the hope of succeeding in destroying the bridge; the
garrison defended itself heroically. Every means had been adopted to
rapidly concentrate the whole of the French forces upon Vienna, and to
frustrate everywhere the progress of the enemy. Large reinforcements had
arrived from France. The emperor himself directed the preparations on the
Danube, displaying in this work all the resources of his most inventive
genius, and that faculty of usefully employing the talent of others which
constitutes one of the most necessary elements of government. At the
commencement of July all was at length ready--men, provisions, ammunition,
and bridges. "With God's help," wrote Napoleon to King Jerome, on the 4th
July, "in spite of his redoubts and his entrenched camps, I hope to crush
the army of the Archduke Charles."