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Updated: May 13, 2025
The first snow which had been falling after they had left Dorogobouge had seriously increased the general misery. Except among the soldiers of the rear guard which had been commanded with inflexible firmness by Davout, and which was now led by Ney, the sense of duty began to be lost by almost all soldiers.
"I have never made greater preparations," the Emperor wrote to Davout. IV, pp. 95-144. Forebodings Napoleon and Maria Louisa The Czar's Ultimatum and the Emperor's Choice Napoleon's Last Diplomatic Move The Imperial Court at Dresden Napoleon and Poland The Health of Napoleon His Strategic Powers Undiminished.
They hurriedly bound up the wounds of Marshal Davout, who was seriously hurt; and Rapp, wounded for the twenty-second time in his life, was carried before the emperor. "Always Rapp!" said Napoleon; "and what is going on over there?" "Sire, they want the guard, in order to put an end to it," replied the general's aide-de-camp. "No," retorted the emperor, "I won't have them destroyed.
The miller had given the best of educations to his son and also to his daughter, who married General Davout. While General Leclerc was preparing for his departure, the First Consul concentrated in Brittany those troops which he had earmarked for the expedition, and these troops naturally came under the command of the commander-in-chief of the area, which was Bernadotte.
The infantry of Marshal Davout, who commanded the rearguard, had to do the service of all arms, often being compelled to face the artillery of the enemy which had good horses, while their own was dragged along by exhausted animals scarcely able to move.
Of the old generals of Davout some had been killed, Friant was so severely wounded that he could not be about, Compans had been wounded in the arm, Moraud in the head, but these two, the former with one arm in a sling, the other with a bandaged head, were on horseback, surrounding the marshal commanding the first corps which had been reduced to 15 thousand from 20 thousand at Moshaisk, from 28 thousand in Moscow, and from 72 thousand crossing the Niemen.
In either case, I must abandon the capital, my only source of supplies." There was no reply, and it was determined to withdraw into the Lobau, and hold it until a stronger bridge could be constructed and Davout bring over his entire force.
There were a hundred and twenty thousand in all, of which about seventeen thousand were ununiformed peasantry. Opposite stood the French, Poniatowski on the right, Davout, with the guard, in the rear, then Eugène; behind Davout, to the left, Ney; and farther behind, in the same line, Junot.
Berthier now had a revenue of one million three hundred and fifty thousand eight hundred francs, and Davout was scarcely less regal with one of nine hundred and ten thousand; Ney had only seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand, and Masséna five hundred thousand; Soult was ambitious to increase his income of three hundred and five thousand by securing the Portuguese crown.
Having a fixed ill-will against Davout, he compelled him to place under Murat's orders one of his divisions which had been refused to the King of Naples. The emperor had shown more ill-temper than usual; and on one occasion he said to Berthier himself, the most devoted of his old friends "And you, too, are you one of those who wish to stop? As you are only an old woman, you may go back to Paris.
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