THE RETREAT FROM LEIPSIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 129, 15 April 1862, Page 5

THE RETREAT FROM LEIPSIC.

(from the lives op lord castlereagh and sir; charles stewart. by sir archibald alison, bart., d.c.1., 11.d.) ' Till eight o'clock Napoleon remained in his position on the Thonberg, surrounded by his marshals. Little was said in the sad ancl melancholy circle. Ihe troops had fought with surprising heroism and devotion, but there was no concealing the fact that they had been overpowered, and that, if they remained where they were another day, total ruin might be anticipated. The position of the enemy threatening to surround them on either side; the dreadful circle of bivouac fires which bounded the horizon on the east, south, and north ; the dead and the dying who layaround them, told but too plainly at what a price the position bad been maintained during the day. But the statement of the engiueer and artillery officers was still more alaiming. They reported that above 200,000 cannon-shot had been expended m the two preceding battles; that only 16,000 remained; and that it was impossible to renew the contest without 30,000 additional troops, and some hundred caissons of aniunition. Neither could be obtained ; for the last sabre and bayonet had been brought up during the day, and the grand park of ammunition which had been deposited at Torgau, and had set out to join the grand army, had been unable to penetrate throrigli Bluchers army, and been obliged to retreat to that fortress. During this conference, big with the fate of Europe, Napoleon, overcome with fatigue, and having already taken his resolution, fell asleep m his chair, his bead sunk on his breast, his hands negligently hanging by his side. His generals kept a respectful silence, but after a quarter of an hour he awoke with a start, and said, "Am I awake, or is it a dream 1" Soon, however, recovering his recollection, he save directions for a retreat; and, leaving his position on the Thonberg, returned to Leipsic, where he spent the remainder of the night in dictating orders to- his dift'ent marshals, and the commanders of the fortresses, which were to be now abandoned to their own resources. Soon after daybreak he sent a message to the King of Saxony, who was inconsolable at these disasters, to the effect that he relinquished liis treaties, and left, him at full liberty to consult his own advantage in the course which he should pursue. But then appeared in the clearest manner the ruinous effects of the extraordinary omission of Napoleon in regard to his line ol retreat. " There was not a moment to lose, says Marshal Marmont, "in commencing our retreat, rendered difficult by the peculiar position of Leipsic, the embarrassment occasioned by the agglomeration of so many corps d'armee, and the defiles which they had to pass. Numerous bridges should have been thrown over the Elsterto give the infantry, the means of crossing at once in several columns abreast, while the chausee wasleftfree to the artillery, the cavalry, and the equipages; but not one had been made. The etat-major had not received any orders on the subject, and had not even thought of it. , One svould have thought that officers would have beea appointed to superintend, during the night, the passage rfthe artillery, and the regular march of that im-| mense material.' Nothing of the kind had been ordered. The carriages, placed in three or four parallel columns on the boulevard ofthe Leipsic, finding it impossible to advance from want of order, the soldiers with tbem lay down and slept all night beside their vehicles, and everything was in confusion on the morning of the 19th. Possession should have been taken of the suburbs of the town to retard as long asj possible the entrance of the enemy's columns, and leave time for the passage of the artillery and caissons: but no previous reconnaissance having been made, none of us knew the localities, the points to occupy, the issues to'guard. The gardens, too, which surrounded Leipsic rendered the defence difficult. The trcops being unable to circulate freely, and move from one point to another, the enemy in that labyrinth easily found places wherein to penetrate. Once any of the enemy's troops got in, terror and disorder took possession of our troops, and all defence become impossible." Napoleon had a melancholy interview with the King of Saxony early on the morning of tlie' 19th. He left him free to do a 6 he pleased ;rand on his expressing a wish ito icmain, he desired bim to make -what terms he could, but in an especial manner recommended the wounded to his care. He then caused a Saxon battalion, whicli bad formed part ofthe Imperial Guard, to be placed in front of the Kine's abode, to afford seme sort of protection during the first moments of the assault, and after taking leave of the Queen and Princesses, he mounted hislorse and rode off oh the road to Lindenau. He scon found the street impassable from the crowds of soldiers and confusion oi puns and carriages wliich blocked up the gates of the tc-wn, and he at length only made hisway through by turning to the left and traversing a garden almost alone. Ashe crossed the Elster en reaching Imder.au, he ordered the bridge to be mined, ready to be blown up when the last of the defenders .of Leipsic had crossed over. No sooner were the Allies aware, from what they learned was going ori inside the town,

that the French were preparing for a retreat on the ' morning ofthe 19th, than the" most active preparas tions were made to press on.and capture all such, ai , least, as still remained in Leipsic. During the night I a considerable number had filed through ; the entirt • Guards and reserve cavalry, with the corps of Victor, - Augereau, Bertrand, and "part of that of Souham. , were already over the marches, and they brought with them 0,000 Austrian prisoners made in the ; battle of Dresden—a deplorable remnant of pride, foi ; they took the place of as many French soldiers win , might bave been preserved to'defend tlieir country. About SO.OOO men of all arms had in this manner got off; but in such confusion, and the regiments_ so in termingled, as amounted to entire disorganization. : But the entire corps of Marmont, Macdonald, Lauriston, Reynier, and half Souham's, with the artillery of the Young Guard, and the remains of Ponia- , towski's " Poles," now reduced to . 2,700, in ; all 3t>,000 men, with 100 guns, remained in the town, | whicli they had orders to defend to the last extremity. ; making use of it as a great bridge-head, to gain time , for the remainder* of the army with the artillery i and carriages to pass over. Marmont charged the 1 remains of Reynier's corps and Dombrowski's divi- j ?ion with the defence of the northern, suburb, called s that of Halle, which was threatened by Blueher, J while he took post with his own corps and part oi ; Souham's to guard the eastern suburb and Ilinter- | Thor, assailed by six Swedish battalions, which Ber- i nadotte had now for the first time brought into | action; and Macdonald, whose corps bad suffered i comparatively little, with the weak remnants of those I of Lauriston and Poniatowski, defended the southern i front of the town, and the barriers of Grinima, i Sand, Windmuhleu, and Pegau, against which the -, main body of Schwartzenbergs army was advancing. i About nine o'clock, at the very time when Napoleon i was taking leave of the King of Saxony, the Emperor Alexander and King of Persia, with their wholesuites, mounted their horses and rode forward towards ■ the the town. They soon came to Probstheyda, the 1 scene of so trmendous a conflict on the preceding day. ] "It would.be difficult," says an eye-witness, "to] describe the state in which we found that village as < we rode through it. Tbe heaps of dead and dying in \ the streets and lanes were evidence of a gallant de- s fence, and the burnt carcasses of men and horses oc- j casio'ned by the general conflagration, from wliich i their wounds had probably prevented their escape, 1 formed, indeed, a lamentable picture of the horrors * of war. The sovereigns did not remain long to con- 1 template so painful a scene, but, riding onward, the s Emperor arrived at the windmill hill that had been i Napoleon's station on the preceding day, and he 1 halted there some time, as it was not above a mile o From the suburb about to be attacked, and afforded c i panoramic view of the whole combined operation." l Imagination could conceive no more magnificent and a ieart-stirring scene than here presented itself. On t Ul sides the armies of the Allies, preceded or covered ] hy a tremendous artillery, were pressing forward to ] the assault of the devoted city. A thousand guns, | irranged in a vast semicircle about a mile from'the j walls, kept iip an. incessant fire on the buildings, i which were soon in flames in several places Under j :over of this tremendous discharge, the troops on all . sides rushed forward to the assault. • Sacken. was | swice repulsed by Reynier from the Halle suburb on . ;hePartna; but at length, by the aid of Langeron, ; ie forced his- way in, and, crossing the bridge in j lie face of': two guns discharging grape, his ( :olumns rushed down the main'street, spreading i ;error and dismay into the centre ofthe city. About; lie same time Bulow, supported by six. Swedish bat-. jalions, after two repulses, forced from Marmont the ;ateof Hinter Thor, and commenced a guerilla warfare with the French, who still occupied tbe windows ; if the houses on the side of the Grand Army. Ben-, lingsen penetrated the barrier of Grimma; Kleist end Wittgenstein stormed those of Sand and Wind- • nuhlen ; and Hesse Homburg won that of Pegau i ooking to the south. On all sides the Allied troops, i imidst a ceaseless roar of cannon and musketry, i frowned at times by the cheers of the men, came ■ .ushing with the irresistable force of a torrent which ; :iad burst its bands, into the town. At this moment i i series of explosions were heard near the Lindenau i ;ate, which spread alarm, through the city. They irose from the blowing up of a number of powder-; vaggons, which the drivers, despairing of effecting a passage through the throng, themselves sacrificed to jrevent their falling into the hands ofthe enemy. The Danic now became universal. On all sides the troops n the towu rushed towards the Lindenau gate, the lole exit left. Marshal Marmont found it impossible ;o get through the crowd, and he would have been ;rampledunder foot, or left behind and made prisoner, jut for some officers of his corps who, recognisinglim in the tumult, placed him in their midst, hewed i way through the throng with their sabres, and suc:eeded in forcing his horse into the living stream, by vhieh he was swept over to the other side ofthe bridge. What rendered the pressure at this point so extreme, vas that the north and south boulevards, and the great treet of a town, all of which were covered with roops, guns, and carriages, met there, and only one itreet led from the point of their junction to tbe iridge of Lindenau, which, as already mentioned, had leen mined by Napoleon's orders with a view to its jeing blown up when the troops had all passed. The jassage, however, was entirely stopped by the desperate struggle which was going on behind to get across. Xt this instant Colonel Montfort, the engineer officer jbarged with the destruction of the bridge, came up :o Marmont and asked him which was the last corps tliat was to pass over. • Marmont answered, as well lie night, that the confusion was such that chance only would determine that point. Just then a tremendous; ;xplosion was heard towards the bridge, and its fragments were seen hurled into the air. It was occasioned by the corporal left in charge of the mine, who, when Montford went forward to speak to Marmont, seeing some Cossacks streaming down into the meadow on the eastern side of the Elster, con3luded that the last was passing, that the enemy was it hand, and that there was no time to be lost in firing the train. He did so accordingly; the explosion tookplace, and all hope of escape was at once destrosed to the troops which remained behind, and the immense multitude of sick and wounded which encumbered the hospitals and private houses. A yell of horror burst from the dense multitude thus cut off. All order or command was immediately lost; ami the whole alike, marshalls, generals, and private soldiers, each for himself, sought safety, as best they could. Some threw themselves into the Ulster, and succeeded by swimming in reaching the opposite shore ; but the great majority were either drowned in the attempt, or in depair gave it up and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Among those who plunged in and were drowned was Prince Poniatowski, the- heroic Polish General, who had just been made a marshal of France. His horse stemmed the flood, but fell back on the rider as it was scrambling up the opposite bank, and he perished. More fortunate, Macdonald, by great exertion, succeeded in swimming his horse across, and escaped. But Lauriston, Revnier, and twenty other generals, with 20,000 unhurt officers, and private Eoldiers, were made prisoners ; while, either in the battle or the town, 250 pieces of cannon and 900 baggage-waggons and caissons were taken. The King of Saxony and all his family remained in the power of the victors. The total loss of the French in the three days was not less than 65,000 men, of whom 30,000 were prisoners; and this, independent of the sick and wounded (22,000 in number) taken in Leipsic; and by the desertion and dispersion after the battle, they were weakened in all by at least 100,000 men. That of the Allies killed and wounded was at least as I great; it amounted, even on the showing of their] official accounts, which were probably under the truth, to 1,800 generals and officers, and 45,000 private soldiers. At such and so terrible a sacrifice ofdife and happiness was the deliverance of Europe effected ! According to his usual system of laying the blame everywhere but on himself, Napoleon, in the bulletin of the battle, ascribed the whole disaster to the coporal who blew up the bridge; but it is evident, that when the throng was such that Marshal Marmont and his horse were carried along by it without touching the ground, and 20,000 men, with 200 guns and 900 carriages, remained still to pass over, with the enemy's advanced posts thundering in close pursuit, that sinister event only accelerated.the final catastrophe by a few minutes, without in any sensible degree, augmenting it. At two o'clock, the firing baling ceased at all points, and the whole troops m the town laid down their arms, the allied sovereigns and generals made their triumphant entry into Leipsic, and met in the great square of that city, me Emperor Alexander and King of Prussia entered from the south, accompanied by Lord Cathcart, bu Georce Cathcart, Sir R. Wilson, and the whole suite of both sovereigns. Marshal Blucher came up from the north, accompanied by Sir Charles Stewart, who had rendered such essential service during the last few days; the Crown Prince was followed by six Swedish regiments, whom he had, by forced marches, brought up onthelastdayfor.the triumph, though be bad kept them back during the desperate struggles which preceded it. No words can describe the heart-stirring scene which ensued, when the sovereigns and marshals met after so desperate a contest and mutually saluted each other as victors. It! realized " all the magnificence which Eastern imagination had conceived/and all the visions of chivalrous, glory whicli Western genius had portrayed. iJie city resounded with acclamations; handkerchiefs, waved from every window, and merry chimes rang from every steeple; while tears, more eloquent than words, rolling all over most every cheek to ML that the tyrant was struck down, and Oaiamy^na^. No deeds of cruelty, and surprisingly littleof disorder, sullied the triumph of the. victors. Alexander received the. captive, princes and generals w>th Ins wonted courtesy;.to Marshal Lauriston, m parti-! cular, with, whom he had been intimate durum.his embassy at St. Petersburg, he evinced marked at-

tention. Though well aware of the more than dubious conduct ofthe Crown Prince during the war, he wastoo practised a dissembler to let it apnear hi his manner. To the King of Saxony alone he showed a cold and repulsive demeanor : he considered him as having been guilty, not only of political change, but personal 'breach of faith.