Authors: Adam Zamoyski
3.
Constant, V/133.
4.
Lagneau, 234; Vionnet de Maringoné (77) claims that the mercury in his thermometer froze; Lejeune,
Mémoires, II
/286; Gardier, 91.
5.
Gardier, 91; Fezensac,
Journal
, 145; Paixhans, 43; Kurz, 194; Bourgeois, 167.
6.
Holzhausen, 266; Vossler, 92.
7.
Fredro, 44.
8.
Suckow, 269; Griois, II/192.
9.
For reported cannibalism, see: Maistre, I/246; Olenin, 1986–9; Dubrovin, 301; Nesselrode, IV/120. For evidence of prisoners eating their dead comrades: Roederer, 40; Holzhausen, 271; Cheron, 33; Roguet, III/526. For examples quoted: Golitsuin, 30; Wilson,
Diary
, I/215; Gosudarsvenno-Istoricheskii Muzei, 252; Shchukin, VIII/113.
10.
Soltyk, 415.
11.
Pastoret, 497.
12.
Uxküll, 105;; Voenskii,
Sviashchennoi Pamiati
, 107; Langeron, 93.
13.
Ségur, V/448; Marbot, III/215; Gourgaud, 480. For confirmation from the French side, see: Ségur, V/382; Kurz, 199, etc. For quotations: Bourgogne, 78; Vossler, 92; Pontier, 16.
14.
Mailly, 101; Fezensac,
Journal
, 139.
15.
Planat de la Faye, 108; Lejeune,
Mémoires, II
/272.
16.
Fezensac,
Journal
, 146–7; Vionnet de Maringoné, 83.
17.
Lyautey, 248.
18.
Wybranowski, II/17–21; Lejeune,
Memoires
, II/293.
19.
Planat de la Faye, 107; Castellane, I/206; Ségur, V/348–9.
20.
Tascher, 317,
21.
Bourgogne, 208; Larrey, IV/125; Planat de la Faye, 108; Muralt, 89, 97.
22.
Lejeune,
Mémoires, II/
294; Other examples of officers looking after their servants include: Mailly, 120–1; Chéron, 28.
23.
Chevalier, 238; Laugier,
Récits
, 181; Holzhausen, 284.
24.
Holzhausen, 201; Bourgoing,
Souvenirs
, 162–3.
25.
Fezensac,
Journal
, 146; La Flise, LXXIII/52.
26.
Bourgogne, 246; Wilson,
Invasion
, 260.
27.
Rumigny, 68; Chlapowski, 135.
28.
Bourgogne, 123; Holzhausen, 46.
29.
Napoleon,
Correspondance
, XXIV/322, 323.
30.
Ibid., 324; Montesquiou-Fezensac, 247 (he mistakenly dates his mission from Smolensk); Maistre, I/266.
31.
Zaluski, 254, 255.
32.
Chicherin, 54–6; Voenskii,
Sviashchennoi Pamiati
, 88ff, 144–6; Kutuzov,
Dokumenty
, 258, 262, 263–4.
33.
Chicherin, 63; Kallash, 222; A.H. Damas, I/127; Aglaimov, 78; Tarle,
Nashestvie
, 268; Dziewanowski, 10; W.H. Löwenstern, I/352; Radozhitskii, 284; Dokhturov, 1107; W.H. Löwenstern, I/356; Chicherin, 63; Aglaimov, 79; Langeron, 91–2, paints a more optimistic picture.
34.
Langeron, 104–5; Davidov, 155.
35.
Napoleon, Correspondance, XXIV/323, 325–7, 331–2.
36.
Ibid., 338–9; Beauharnais, VIII/104; Castellane, I/202.
37.
Lejeune,
Mémoires
, II/289. Griois (II/177) and Castellane (I/202) are among those who thought it a good thing. Those who thought it discouraged the men, who had seen in him a rallying point (whatever they may have thought of him) and now felt betrayed include: Deniée (168), Labaume (424), Lejeune
(Mémoires
, II/289), Laugier
(Récits
, 181), Bourgeois (171), Mailly (105–6), Francois (II/835), Dumonceau (II/231), Vionnet de Maringoné (76). Those who felt it made scant impression include: Griois (II/177), Muralt (108), Pelleport (II/58), Bourgoing
(Souvenirs
, 172), Castellane (I/202).
38.
Lagneau, 235. Larrey (IV/124) and Soltyk (454) recorded only minus 28 (Réaumur) at Miedniki. See also Paixhans, 57; Dumonceau, II/231.
39.
Griois, II/166; Soltyk, 454; Ségur, V/377.
40.
Lejeune,
Mémoires
, II/285; Planat de la Faye, 109–10; Bourgogne, 228.
41.
Brandt, 334.
42.
Roos, 178; Bourgeois, 190; Holzhausen, 213; Auvray, 80.
43.
Henckens, 167; Lagneau, 238; François, II/825; Griois, II/179; Bourgogne, 252–3; Lejeune,
Mémoires
, II/286; Minod, 56–7; Roeder, 173; Castellane, I/203, 205.
44.
Hochberg, 181–2.
45.
Kurz, 203; Larrey, IV/128; Chevalier, 221.
46.
Brandt, 234–5.
47.
Larrey, IV/107; Bourgeois, 165; Soltyk, 440; Fezensac,
Journal
, 145; Vossler, 93.
48.
Langeron, 90; Chicherin, 67.
49.
Ducor, II/20.
50.
Caulaincourt, II/192.
1.
Jaquemont du Donjon, 106, 107; Hogendorp, 330–1; Bignon, Souvenirs, 246–7; Butkevicius, 907.
2.
Hogendorp, 332, 338. The military governor of Vilna, Baron Roch Godart (183), writes that there was enough to feed 120,000 for 36 days; see also; Berthézène, II/180; Gourgaud, 484; Fain,
Manuscrit, II
/415; Ségur, V/386;
Dedem, 290. Yermolov, who was put in charge of the French stores when the Russians entered Vilna, confirms (131–5) that there were generous amounts of everything an army could wish for. See also Rochechouart; Czaplic, 521.
3.
Napoleon,
Correspondance
, XXIV/330.
4.
Hogendorp (336) states that he was acting on Napoleon’s orders.
5.
Suckow, 286.
6.
Hogendorp, 336; von Kurz (202) was struck by the youth of the soldiers; Hogendorp, 327; Choiseul-Gouffier, 129.
7.
Raza, 217–19.
8.
Bourgeois, 173–4.
9.
Lejeune,
Mémoires
, II/291; Hogendorp, 336.
10.
Pelet, 70; Chevalier, 242–3; Fezensac,
Journal
, 147; Griois, II/183.
11.
Laugier,
Récits
, 182.
12.
Hogendorp, 338; Chambray, II/124–5, 126.
13.
Labaume, 415; see also Fezensac, J
ournal
, 142–3.
14.
Hogendorp, 335; Hochberg, 187; Hogendorp himself claims not to have left until instructed to on the following afternoon.
15.
Ségur, V/372; Berthézène, II/176.
16.
Jacquemont du Donjon, 109; Griois, II/182.
17.
Holzhausen, 285; Roeder, 190.
18.
Thirion, 267.
19.
Brandt, 336; Vionnet de Maringoné, 81; Lagneau, 240; Le Roy, 265; Griois, II/184; Lignières, 130.
20.
Chlapowski, 137–8; Berthézène, II/179; Rapp, 218.
21.
Bertrand, 165; see also Laugier,
Récits
, 183.
22.
Hochberg, 190; Fredro, 45; Lignières, 130; Laugier,
Récits
, 183; Mailly, 123–4.
23.
Planat de la Faye, 112; Choiseul-Gouffier, 140; Paixhans, 59.
24.
Mailly, 137.
25.
Noel, 174–6.
26.
Holzhausen, 307.
27.
Boulart, 278; Peyrusse, L
ettres, Inédites
, 116–18; Peyrusse,
Mémorial
, 118, 136; Duverger, 25; Chuquet,
Lettres de 1812
, 305; Noel, 177; Denniée, 172.
28.
Bellot de Kergorre, 103; Jacquemont du Donjon (112) claims to have seen the great cross of St Ivan lying on the ground; Planat de la Faye, 115; Combe, 168–9; Lyautey, 251.
29.
Fredro, 45.
30.
Bourgeois (180), François (II/837), Vaudoncourt (
Quinze Années
, 155), Kurz (216, 220), Roeder (194), a number of sources in Holzhausen (291–2, 298, 347), Lagneau (240), Chevalier (249), Grabowski (9), Choiseul-Gouffier (138) and many others blame the (admittedly very considerable) Jewish
population of the city. On conditions in the city and the hospitals see: Holzhausen, 300, 302;Rochechouart, 202; Pontier, 17. Bourgeois (190) states that typhus had already broken out in the last stages of the retreat.
31.
Bourgoing, Souvenirs, 228; Vionnet de Maringoné, 79.
32.
Bertrand, 169; Lignières, 131.
33.
Bourgogne, 262, 246.
34.
Beaulieu, 45; Ginisty, 113–14; Brandt (339–41) tells an almost identical story concerning himself and a soldier he had had flogged for looting in Moscow.
35.
Planat de la Faye, 116–17.
36.
Bertin, 309.
37.
Holzhausen, 319–20; Rumingy, 67; Noel, 180.
38.
Dumas, III/485.
1.
Caulaincourt, II/212.
2.
Ibid., 230ff.
3.
Ibid., 263.
4.
Pradt, 207–18; Caulaincourt, II/263–73 (he claims Napoleon said he had 150,000 men in Vilna); Potocka, 331–4; Niemcewicz, 383; Kozmian, II/311.
5.
Caulaincourt, II/ 315.
6.
Davidov, 172; Marchenko, 503; Alexander, Corr.
avec Bernadotte
, xxxii.
7.
Bloqueville, III/193; Compans, 239; Bausset, II/192.
8.
Caulaincourt, II/319.
9.
Napoleon, Correspondance, XXIV/341.
10.
Clausewitz, 214; Voenskii,
Sviashchennoi Pamiati
, 146.
11.
Wilson,
Invasion
, 356.
12.
Voenskii,
Sviashchennoi Pamiati
, 143; Kutuzov,
Dokumenty
, 263–4; Gosudarstvenno-Istoricheskii Muzei, 236.
13.
Beskrovny,
Polkovodets
, 272–3.
14.
Altshuller & Tartakovskii, 97, 98, 121, 124.
15.
Vitberg, 611; Shchukin, I/120; Alexander,
Corr avec sa soeur
, 103.
16.
Ley, 54.
17.
Garin, 133–4; Kutuzov,
Dokumenty
, 268–70; Shishkov, 168.
18.
Kraehe, I/152; W.H. Löwenstern, I/359; Choiseul-Gouffier, 166.
19.
Fredro, 46.
20.
Choiseul-Gouffier, 147.
21.
Ermolov, 134–5; Marchenko, 498; von Kurz, 220–1, 222–3; Minod, 50–2; recent excavations of mass graves in Vilnius have confirmed the cannibalism; Kurz, 223.
22.
Maillard, 66–8; Venturini, 227.
23.
Ducor, II/57–60; Chéron, 33.
24.
Roy, 87; Holzhausen, 83–90.
25.
Seruzier, 270ff,
26.
La Flise, LXXIII/57; Roos, 197–200; Mitarevskii, 172–3; Holzhausen, 348.
27.
Camp, 59.
28.
Benard, 145, 146.
29.
Holzhausen, 351.
30.
Bellot de Kergorre, 112; Lignières, 138; Holzhausen, 323; Bréaut des Marlots, 33–4; Jackowski, I/312; Faré, 269; Noel, 180.
31.
Bellot de Kergorre, 110; Bro, 126; Gardier, 96; Holzhausen, 323; Dumonceau, II/248; Bertrand, 179.
32.
Seydlitz, 129, 167;
Akty Dokumenty i Materialy
, CXXXIII/329ff; Macdonald, 182;
Akty, Dokumenty i Materialy
, CXXXIII/410.
33.
Seydlitz, 197ff; Macdonald, 184–8;
Akty, Dokumenty
i
Materialy
, CXXXIII/424.
34.
Kozmian, II/315.
35.
The figures given by early historians of the campaign and even those issued by official military sources on both sides are estimates based on the haziest of data. Meynier, for instance, reveals that most historians have been exaggerating wildly when talking about millions of dead during the Napoleonic wars. Labaume’s estimate (437) of 20,000 recrossing the Niemen at Kovno were repeated by Buturlin (II/413) and largely stand, although Buturlin (II/446) maintains that another 60,000, mainly Austrians and Prussians, got out; Gourgaud’s (494) fuller estimate errs on the high side, particularly in the case of the 36,000 who allegedly recrossed at Kovno, but his total of 127,000 is not far from present-day estimates. Original Russian figures for the number of prisoners taken varied from Buturlin’s 193,000 to Chuikievich’s 210,000, even though official Russian figures were only 136,000, and all recent studies have revealed this to be too high (see Sirotkin, in Otechestvennaia
Voina 1812 goda. Istochniki, etc
. (2000), 246ff). The only reliable figures on the deaths during this campaign are those of corpses buried by the Russian authorities on the one hand, and French census figures (Meynier, 21) on the other. Balashov reported that 430,707 human bodies were buried along the road in the spring of 1813. In December 1812 the Russian authorities counted 172,566 corpses and 128,739 animal carcases in the gubernia of Smolensk, 50,185 corpses and 17,050 carcases in the gubernia of Mogilev, 2,230 corpses and 7,355 carcases in the gubernia of Kaluga, a total of 224,981 corpses and 153,144 carcases (Hartley, Russia in 1812,197, 413). But these figures can tell us little, as they do not specify whether the dead were military or civilians, let alone of what nationality. There are also
detailed figures for some units, but to extrapolate from these would be a meaningless exercise, since they vary so wildly. My own estimate is based on the figures given by Vilatte de Prugnes (285–7) and Meynier, those computed by Kukiel, who seems to me the most conscientious of historians of this campaign, on the one hand, and the estimates put forward by more recent Russian historians such as Zhilin, Sirotkin, Shvedov and Sokolov on the other.