The Campaign of 1814: Chapter 17, Part VII
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The Napoleon Series The Campaign of 1814: Chapter 17, Part VII By: Maurice Weil Translated by: Greg Gorsuch THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814 (after the documents of the imperial and royal archives of Vienna) _____________________ THE ALLIED CAVALRY DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814 ________________________ CHAPTER XVII. OPERATIONS OF THE ALLIED GREAT ARMY AGAINST THE MARSHELS UP TO THE MARCH OF THE EMPEROR ON ARCIS-SUR-AUBE. -- OPERATIONS AGAINST THE EMPEROR UP TO THE REUNION WITH THE ARMY OF SILESIA. -- OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY OF SILESIA FROM 18 TO 23 MARCH. -- OPERATIONS OF THE EMPEROR AND THE ALLIED ARMIES DURING THE DAY OF MARCH 24. _________ ARCIS-SUR-AUBE. Orders of the Emperor for the day of 20 March. --On 20 March, in the morning, he gave1 accordingly, to Ney, to Sebastiani, to Letort the order to march on Arcis by the left bank of the Aube; to Defrance, Mouriez (Mourier?)and Drouot to move on this point by the right bank, placing themselves, so as to leave on the 20th, at night, on the road to Vitry. He prescribed Oudinot to continue from Anglure on Arcis without too tiring his troops; Macdonald leave Souham to Nogent and Bray, and go on Arcis by the right bank of the Seine and Aube with his corps and that of Gérard, and even bring the National Guard. He urged Vincent to stay at Épernay, to Allix to stand on Sens, and finally to Marmont and Mortier to come and join the main body at Châlons. In all this, there is seen no question of arrangements for a battle, and the panegyrists for Schwarzenberg, like the German authors commit consequently, an error, perhaps voluntarily, when they say that the Emperor intended to deliver battle at Arcis. The movement he had prescribe only coincided with that of the Allies, and the resolution of Schwarzenberg, when the Emperor was least expected, brought only a meeting that Napoleon neither sought nor desired. 1Correspondance nos 21522, 21523. 21524 and 21525. --Records of Berthier; orders of Ney, 20 March, in the morning; Chief of Staff to Macdonald, Villenauxe, 20 March at noon, and Anglure, 7 o'clock at night; orders of Oudinot. (Archives of the War.) © 1995 – 2016 The Napoleon Series Concern and dissatisfaction of the Emperor of Russia. --The offensive disposition sent by Schwarzenberg, the 19th in evening, was so sudden, so unexpected, so little in keeping with his usual procedures and his earlier orders that he had sent, one they seemed assigned naturally by the spontaneous and personal decision of Generalissimo on the intervention of his ordinary councilors, particularly Radetzky. It was not the case however. The initiative and merit of this measure properly belong only to Schwarzenberg. Toll, who cannot be suspected of bias towards the Generalissimo, does not hesitate to acknowledge it. Sent by Schwarzenberg to Brienne in the presence of Barclay, having returned to the headquarters from Pougy in the evening after eight o'clock, he was not a little surprised to see the Generalissimo, who had begun to relate the reports of Kaisarov, charging him to address at Troyes, the sovereigns, with a summary of the new orders he had resolved to send his lieutenants. Against all odds, these orders failed to satisfy the uneasiness of the Emperor Alexander, and caused him a great disappointment, which he had not yet recovered from until the next day around noon, when accompanied by the King of Prussia, he joined Schwarzenberg and his general staff beside Mesnil-Lettre. 20 March. --Arcis-sur-Aube. --Positions of the Vth Corps on 20 March in the morning. --On 20 March in the morning, Wrede arrived in Nogent-sur-Aube, where he had spent the night, placing in position the Vth Corps, which came to form on the Mesnil-la-Comtesse-Chaudrey line. General Frimont who, with the divisions of Ignatz Hardegg and Spleny, had provided the outposts during the night of the 19th to 20th, covered the Vth Corps at a considerable distance ahead and was facing the Aube. Central to these outposts, two battalions of Székely (infantry of military borders) still occupied Arcis; to their right, a jäger battalion held Torcy-le-Grand, Torcy-le-Petit and Saint-Nabord. To the left, fourteen Austrian cavalry squadrons (eight from the hussars Archduke Joseph and six from the Székely Hussars) were in position west of Arcis, around Villette, making the front from the Barbuise and Pouan. First movements of the cavalry of the Vth Corps and the right wing of the Allies. --At 8 o'clock in the morning, Hardegg informed Frimont that a few scouts of the French cavalry, who had gone beyond Villette, retreated on Pouan, followed by his hussars. At this news, Frimont ordered General Von Geramb to push the Archduke Joseph Hussars by Villette just up to Pouan and reconnoiter the position, to determine the strength and intentions of the enemy, however without engaging with it. But the French had already set in motion strong columns of cavalry and the Austrian general, forced to retreat almost immediately on Villette, could not collect any information. It was left to Frimont to comply with the strict orders that prohibited him from undertaking anything, even against a weaker opponent than him. As prescribed to him by the instructions, he had to resign himself to bring all the cavalry of the vanguard to Ortillon and return to Chaudrey his infantry. He sent in addition to Kaisarov the order to settle with his Cossacks at Voué and to stay in communication by Mesnil-la-Comtesse with the left of the division of Antoine Hardegg. At 9 o'clock, the Austrian infantry evacuated Arcis. Followed by the cavalry, they withdrew with the jäger from the vicinity around Torcy and Saint-Nabord on Ortillon and Chaudrey. There only remained ahead of the position where the Vth Corps had massed, the outposts of Spleny in Torcy-le-Petit, and two squadrons of the Székely Hussars in observation on the road from Arcis to Troyes and destined to give a hand to Kaisarov. Finally, while Wrede confided in Frimont the command of all the cavalry, the guards and reserves reached Onjon there forming the reserve of the right wing.2 First movements of the three corps of the left wing. --Immediately after receiving in Troyes, in the night of the 19th to 20th, the dispositions of Schwarzenberg, the Crown Prince of Württemberg had informed the Generalissimo3 that his column heads would likely arrive at Charmont about 10 o'clock in the morning. 2TAXIS, Tagebuch (K. K. Kriegs Archiv., XIII. 32); STÄRKE, Eintheilung und Tagesbegebenheiten der Haupt- Armee im Monate März (Ibid., III, 1). 3Crown Prince of Württemberg to Schwarzenberg, Troyes, 20 March, 3 o'clock in the morning. (Ibid.) © 1995 – 2016 The Napoleon Series The 20th at daybreak, the corps of the left wing resumed in fact their movement in three columns. The VIth Corps, forming the right, headed from Villechétif, by Creney on Charmont. Pahlen, with light cavalry, served as his advanced guard. The left column, composed of the IVth Corps and part of the IIIrd, debouched from Troyes, by Pont-Hubert, and caught up with the road from Feuges at Voué and Arcis. The Austrian cavalry division of Count Nostitz and the Württemberg cavalry of Prince Adam marched on the left flank of the second column. The troops of the left wing were so tired by the forced marches of the last days that the column heads were between 9 and 10 o'clock, still very far from Charmont. Later, when they were about to reach the level of this point, the Crown Prince, to whom the dispositions indicated Plancy as the overall objective of the offensive movement of the whole army, thought to do well by taking it upon himself to save his three corps the difficult crossing of the defile formed by the swampy Barbuise. He ordered, therefore, his three corps to take a left out of Feuges and head by Les Petit and Les Grand-Chapelles and Prémierfait, right on Plancy. Kaisarov, who he knew was posted in Voué, seemed able to ensure with his Cossacks the communication between his troops and the Vth Corps. This resolution of the Crown Prince of Württemberg joined with the French movement on Arcis, destroyed all the plans of Schwarzenberg. The march of the left wing in the direction of Prémierfait deprived, indeed, the Generalissimo of the contribution of three of his corps during the battle of the 20th, and the Allied army was, throughout the day, to consist of two wings insulated from each other, separated by the course of Barbuise and operating, one against Arcis, the other on Plancy. Much of the IIIrd Corps was still on the left bank of the Seine. One of its regiments provided, under the orders of General Pflüger, the garrison of Troyes; the Crenneville division was monitoring the roads from Sens, Traînel and Nogent, and a regiment of Württemberg horse jäger posted a Villacerf, kept the passages of the Seine and the Melda and maintained communications between the corps of the left wing and Troyes. Although Gyulay would have received marching orders at four in the morning, and although his troops were stationed two miles on average west of Troyes, the bulk of the IIIrd Corps had nevertheless managed to reach the entrance to the city at six o'clock in the morning. Stopped there by the equipment of the IVth and VIth corps, the divisions of the IIIrd Corps had to take a long enough break before defiling through town, crossing the bridge of Pont-Hubert and embark on the road of Feuges where Gyulay eventually reach the IVth Corps.