Footnotes
Series O
1811
“Nun steht das Reich gesichert, wie gegruendet, Nun fuehlt er froh im Sohne sich gegruendet.
Und sei durch Sie dies letzte Glueck beschieden— Der alles wollen kann, will auch den Frieden.”
—GOETHE (Ihro der Kaiserin von Frankreich Majestaet).
Series O
(For subjoined Notes to this Series see pages 311–312.)
Letter Page
| No. 1. The New Year | 311 |
| More women than men | 311 |
| Keep well | 311 |
No. 2. Birth of the King of Rome 311 Eugene 311
No. 4. As fat as a good Normandy farmeress 312
No. 1.
To the Empress Josephine, at Navarre
Paris, January 8th, 1811.
I have your New Year’s letter. I thank you for its contents. I note with pleasure that you are well and happy. I hear that there are more women than men at Navarre.
My health is excellent, though I have not been out for a fortnight. Eugene appears to have no fears about his wife; he gives you a grandson.
Adieu, dear; keep well.
Napoleon
February 19th.—Soult defeats Spaniards at the Gebora, near Badajoz.
February 28th.—French occupy Duchy of Oldenburg, to complete the line of the North Sea blockade against England. This occupation embitters the Emperor of Russia and his family.
March 10th.—Mortier captures Badajoz after a siege of 54 days.
March 20th.—Birth of the King of Rome—“a pompous title buried in the tomb of the Ostrogoths.”
No. 2.
To the Empress Josephine, at Navarre
Paris, March 22nd, 1811.
My Dear,—I have your letter. I thank you for it.
My son is fat, and in excellent health. I trust he may continue to improve. He has my chest, my mouth, and my eyes. I hope he may fulfil his destiny. I am always well pleased with Eugene; he has never given me the least anxiety.
Napoleon
April 4th.—Battle of Fuentes d’Onoro. Massena attacks English, and is repulsed.
June 18th.—Wellington raises siege of Badajoz, and retires on Portugal.
June 29th.—French storm Tarragona, whereupon Suchet created Marshal.
No. 3.
To the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison
Trianon, August 25th, 1811.
I have your letter. I see with pleasure that you are in good health. I have been for some days at Trianon. I expect to go to Compiegne. My health is very good.
Put some order into your affairs. Spend only L60,000, and save as much every year; that will make a reserve of L600,000 in ten years for your grandchildren. It is pleasant to be able to give them something, and be helpful to them. Instead of that, I hear you have debts, which would be really too bad. Look after your affairs, and don’t give to every one who wants to help himself. If you wish to please me, let me hear that you have accumulated a large fortune. Consider how ill I must think of you, if I know that you, with L125,000 a year, are in debt.
Adieu, dear; keep well.
Napoleon
No. 4.
To the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison
Friday, 8 A.M., 1811.
I send to know how you are, for Hortense tells me you were in bed yesterday. I was annoyed with you about your debts. I do not wish you to have any; on the contrary, I wish you to put a million aside every year, to give to your grandchildren when they get married.
Nevertheless, never doubt my affection for you, and don’t worry any more about the present embarrassment.
Adieu, dear. Send me word that you are well. They say that you are as fat as a good Normandy farmeress.
Napoleon
October 25th-26th.—Battle of Murviedro and capture of Sagunto: Blake and O’Donnell heavily defeated by Suchet.
December 20th.—Senatus Consultus puts 120,000 conscripts (born in 1792) at disposal of Government for 1812.
December 26th.—Suchet defeats Spanish, and crosses Guadalaviar.
Series P
1812
—BYRON (Don Juan, canto x. stanza 58).
Series P
(For subjoined Notes to this Series see pages 312–315.)
Letter Page
No. 1. Konigsberg 312
No. 2. Gumbinnen 313
1812.
Montgaillard sums up his tirade against Napoleon for the Russian campaign by noting that it took the Romans ten years to conquer Gaul, while Napoleon “would not give two to the conquest of that vast desert of Scythia which forced Darius to flee, Alexander to draw back, Crassus to perish; where Julian terminated his career, where Valerian covered himself with shame, and which saw the disasters of Charles XII.”
January 9th.—Suchet captures Valencia, 18,000 Spanish troops, and 400 cannon. The marshal is made Duke of Albufera.
January 15th.—Imperial decree ordains 100,000 acres to be put under cultivation of beetroot, for the manufacture of indigenous sugar.
January 19th.—Taking of Ciudad Rodrigo by Wellington.
January 26th.—French, under General Friand, occupy Stralsund and Swedish Pomerania.
February 24th.—Treaty of alliance between France and Prussia; the latter to support France in case of a war with Russia.
March 13th.—Senatus Consultus divides the National Guards into three bans, to include all capable men not already in military service. They are not to serve outside France. A hundred cohorts, each 970 strong, of the first ban (men between 20 and 26), put at disposal of Government.
March 14th.—Treaty between France and Austria; reciprocal help, in need, of 30,000 men and 60 guns. The integrity of European Turkey mutually guaranteed.
March 26th.—Treaty between Russia and Sweden. Bernadotte is promised Norway by Alexander.
April 7th.—The English take Badajoz by assault. “The French General, Philippon, with but 3000 men, has been besieged thrice within thirteen months by armies of 50,000 men” (Montgaillard).
April 24th.—Alexander leaves St. Petersburg, to take command of his Grand Army.
May 9th.—Napoleon leaves Paris for Germany.
May 11th.—Assassination of English Prime Minister, Perceval.
May 17th-28th.—Napoleon at Dresden; joined there by the Emperor and Empress of Austria, and a fresh “parterre of kings”.
May 28th.—Treaty of Bucharest, between Turkey and Russia. The Pruth as boundary, and Servia restored to Turkey. This treaty, so fatal to Napoleon, and of which he only heard in October, was mainly the work of Stratford de Redcliffe, then aged twenty-five. Wellington, thinking the treaty his brother’s work, speaks of it as “the most important service that ever fell to the lot of any individual to perform.”
No. 1.
June 12th.—Suchet defeats an Anglo-Spanish army outside Tarragona.
To the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison
June 12th, 1812.
My Dear,—I shall always receive news from you with great interest.
The waters will, I hope, do you good, and I shall see you with much pleasure on your return.
Never doubt the interest I feel in you. I will arrange all the matters of which you speak.
Napoleon
June 16th.—Lord Liverpool Prime Minister of England.
June 18th.—United States declares war against England concerning rights of neutrals.
June 19th.—The captive Pope (Pius VII.) brought to Fontainebleau.
No. 2.
To the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison
Gumbinnen, June 20th, 1812.
I have your letter of June 10th. I see no obstacle to your going to Milan, to be near the Vice-Reine. You will do well to go incognito. You will find it very hot.
My health is very good. Eugene is well, and is doing good work. Never doubt the interest I have in you, and my friendship.
Napoleon
June 22nd.—Napoleon from his headquarters, Wilkowyszki, declares war against Russia. His army comprised 550,000 men and 1200 cannon, and he held sway at this epoch over 85,000,000 souls—half the then population of Europe.
June 24th.—French cross the Niemen, over 450,000 strong.40 Of these 20,000 are Italians, 80,000 from Confederation of the Rhine, 30,000 Poles, 30,000 Austrians, and 20,000 Prussians. The Russian army numbers 360,000.
June 28th.—French enter Wilna, the old capital of Lithuania. Napoleon remains here till July 16th, establishing a provisional government, and leaving his Foreign Minister, Maret, there.
July 12th.—Americans invade Canada.
July 18th.—Treaty of peace between England and Sweden; and between Russia and the Spanish Regency at Cadiz.
July 22nd.—Battle of Salamanca (Arapiles). Marmont defeated by Wellington, and badly wounded. French lose nearly 8000 men and 5000 prisoners; English loss, 5200. The Spanish Regency had decided to submit to Joseph Bonaparte, but this battle deters them. French retire behind the Douro.
July 23rd.—Combat of Mohilow, on the Dneiper. Davoust defeats Bagration.
July 28th.—French enter Witepsk.
August 9th.—Battle of Brownstown (near Toronto). Americans defeated; surrender August 16th with 2500 men and 33 guns to General Brock.
August 12th.—Wellington enters Madrid.
August 17th-18th.—Battle and capture of Smolensk. Napoleon defeats Barclay de Tolly; Russians lose 12,000, French less than half.
August 18th.—Battle of Polotsk, fifty miles from Witepsk, down the Dwina. St. Cyr defeats Wittgenstein’s much larger army, and takes 20 guns. (St. Cyr made marshal for this battle, August 27th.)
August 19th.—Combat of Volontino-Cova, beyond Smolensk. Ney defeats Russians.
August 27th.—Norway guaranteed Sweden in lieu of Finland by Russia.
August 29th.—Viazma, burnt by Russians, entered by the French.
September 7th.—Battle of Borodino (La Moskowa). Nearly all the Russian generals are present: Barclay de Tolly, Beningsen, Bagration (who is killed), all under Kutusoff. Russians lose 30,000 men, French 20,000, including many generals who had survived all the campaigns of the Revolution. The French, hungry and soaked in rain, have no energy to pursue.
September 14th.—Occupation of Moscow; fired by emissaries of Rostopchin, its late governor. Of 4000 stone houses only 200 remain, of 8000 wooden ones 500. Over 20,000 sick and wounded burnt in their beds. Fire lasts till September 20th.
September 18th.—Russian Army of the Danube under Admiral Tschitchagow joins the Army of Reserve.
September 26th.—Russian troops from Finland disembark at Riga.
September 30th.—Napoleon finds a copy of Treaty of Bucharest at Moscow.
October 17th-19th.—Second combat of Polotsk. Wittgenstein again defeated by St. Cyr, who is wounded.
October 18th.—Combat of Winkowo; Kutusoff defeats Murat. Americans defeated at Queenston Heights, on the Niagara, and lose 900 men.
October 19th.—Commencement of the Retreat from Moscow.
October 22nd.—Burgos captured by Wellington.
October 23rd.—Conspiracy of Malet at Paris; Cambaceres to the rescue. Evacuation of Moscow by Mortier after forty days’ occupation. The French army now retreating has only half its original strength, and the best cavalry regiments boast only 100 horses.
October 24th.—Battle of Malo-Jaroslavitz. Eugene with 17,000 men defeats Kutusoff with 60,000; but Napoleon finds the enemy too strong and too tenacious to risk the fertile Kaluga route.
November 3rd.—Battle of Wiazma. Rearguard action, in which Ney and Eugene are distinguished.
November 9th.—Napoleon reaches Smolensk and hears of Malet conspiracy.
November 14th.—Evacuation of Smolensk.
November 16th.—Russian Army (of the Danube) takes Minsk, and cuts off the French from the Niemen.
November 16th-19th.—Combat of Krasnoi, twenty-five miles west of Smolensk. Kutusoff with 30,000 horse and 70,000 foot tries to stop the French, who have only 25,000 effective combatants. Magnificent fighting by Ney with his rearguard of 6000.
November 21st.—Russians seize at Borizow the bridges over the Beresina, which are
November 23rd.—Retaken by Oudinot.
November 26th-28th.—French cross the Beresina, but lose 20,000 prisoners and nearly all their cannon (150).
November 29th.—Napoleon writes Maret he has heard nothing of France or Spain for fifteen days.
December 3rd.—Twenty-ninth bulletin dated Malodeczna, fifty miles west of Borisow.
December 5th.—Napoleon reaches Smorgoni, and starts for France.
December 10th.—Murat, left in command, evacuates Wilna. French retreat in utter rout; “It is not General Kutusoff who routed the French, it is General Morosow” (the frost), said the Russians.
December 14th.—Napoleon reaches Dresden, and
December 18th.—Paris.
December 19th.—Evacuation of Kovno and passage of the Niemen.
December 20th.—Napoleon welcomed by the Senate in a speech by the naturalist Lacepede: “The absence of your Majesty, sire, is always a national calamity.”
1813.
January 5th.—Konigsberg occupied by the Russians.
January 13th.—Senatus Consultus calls up 250,000 conscripts.
January 22nd.—Americans defeated at Frenchtown, near Detroit, and lose 1200 men.
January 25th.—Concordat at Fontainebleau between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII., with advantageous terms for the Papacy. The Pope, however, soon breaks faith.
January 28th.—Murat deserts the French army for Naples, and leaves Posen. “Your husband is very brave on the battlefield, but he is weaker than a woman or a monk when he is not face to face with an enemy. He has no moral courage” (Napoleon to his sister Caroline, January 24, 1813. Brotonne, 1032). Replaced by Eugene (Napoleon’s letter dated January 22nd).
February 1st.—Proclamation of Louis XVIII. to the French people (dated London).
February 8th.—Warsaw surrenders to Russia.
February 10th.—Proclamation of Emperor Alexander calling on the people of Germany to shake off the yoke of “one man.”
February 28th.—Sixth Continental Coalition against France. Treaty signed between Russia and Prussia at Kalisch.
March 3rd.—New treaty between England and Sweden at Stockholm: Sweden to receive a subsidy of a million sterling and the island of Guadaloupe in return for supporting the Coalition with 30,000 men.
March 4th.—Cossacks occupy Berlin. Madison inaugurated President U.S.A.
March 9th.—Eugene removes his headquarters to Leipsic.
March 12th.—French evacuate Hamburg.
March 21st.—Russians and Prussians take new town of Dresden.
April 1st.—France declares war on Prussia.
April 10th.—Death of Lagrange, mathematician; greatly bemoaned by Napoleon, who considered his death as a “presentiment” (D’Abrantes).
April 14th.—Swedish army lands in Germany.
April 15th.—Napoleon leaves Paris; arrives Erfurt (April 25th). Americans take Mobile.
April 16th.—Thorn (garrisoned by 900 Bavarians) surrenders to the Russians. Fort York (now Toronto) and
April 27th.—Upper Canada taken by the Americans.
May 1st.—Death of the Abbe Delille, poet. Opening of campaign. French forces scattered in Germany, 166,000 men; Allies’ forces ready for action, 225,000 men. Marshal Bessieres killed by a cannon-ball at Poserna.
May 8th.—Napoleon and the French reoccupy Dresden.
May 18th.—Eugene reaches Milan, and enrols an Italian army 47,000 strong.
May 19th-21st.—Combats of Konigswartha, Bautzen, Hochkirch, Wuerschen. Napoleon defeats Prussians and Russians; French loss, 12,000; Allies, 20,000.
May 23rd.—Duroc (shot on May 22nd) dies. “Duroc,” said the Emperor, “there is another life. It is there you will go to await me, and there we shall meet again some day.”
May 27th.—Americans capture Fort George (Lake Ontario) and
May 29th.—Defeat English at Sackett’s Harbour.
May 30th.—French re-enter Hamburg and
June 1st.—Occupy Breslau. British frigate Shannon captures Chesapeake in fifteen minutes outside Boston harbour.
June 4th.—Armistice of Plesswitz, between Napoleon and the Allies.
June 6th.—Americans (3500) surprised at Burlington Heights by 700 British.
June 15th.—Siege of Tarragona raised by Suchet; English re-embark, leaving their artillery. “If I had had two marshals such as Suchet, I should not only have conquered Spain, but I should have kept it” (Napoleon in Campan’s Memoirs).
June 21st.—Battle of Vittoria; total rout of the French under Marshal Jourdan and King Joseph. In retreat the army is much more harassed by the guerillas than by the English.
June 23rd.—Admiral Cockburn defeated at Craney Island by Americans.
June 24th.—Five hundred Americans surrender to two hundred Canadians at Beaver’s Dams.
June 25th.—Combat of Tolosa. Foy stops the advance of the English right wing.
June 30th.—Convention at Dresden. Napoleon accepts the mediation of Austria; armistice prolonged to August 10th.
July 1st.—Soult sent to take chief command in Spain.
July 10th.—Alliance between France and Denmark.
July 12th.—Congress of Prague. Austria, Prussia, and Russia decide that Germany must be independent, and the French Empire bounded by the Rhine and the Alps; “but to reign over 36,000,000 men did not appear to Napoleon a sufficiently great destiny” (Montgaillard). Congress breaks up July 28th.
July 26th.—Moreau arrives from U.S., and lands at Gothenburg.
July 31st.—Soult attacks Anglo-Spanish army near Roncesvalles in order to succour Pampeluna. Is repulsed, with loss of 8000 men.
August 12th.—Austria notifies its adhesion to the Allies.
August 15th.—Jomini, the Swiss tactician, turns traitor and escapes to the Allies. He advises them of Napoleon’s plans to seize Berlin and relieve Dantzic [see letter to Ney, No. 19,714, 20,006, and especially 20,360 (August 12th) in Correspondence]. On August 16th Napoleon writes to Cambaceres: “Jomini, Ney’s chief of staff, has deserted. It is he who published some volumes on the campaigns and who has been in the pay of Russia for a long time. He has yielded to corruption. He is a soldier of little value, yet he is a writer who has grasped some of the sound principles of war.”
August 17th.—Renewal of hostilities in Germany. Napoleon’s army, 280,000, of whom half recruits who had never seen a battle; the Allies 520,000, excluding militia. In his counter-manifesto to Austria, dated Bautzen, Napoleon declares “Austria, the enemy of France, and cloaking her ambition under the mask of a mediation, complicated everything… But Austria, our avowed foe, is in a truer guise, and one perfectly obvious. Europe is therefore much nearer peace; there is one complication the less.”
August 18th.—Suchet, having blown up fortifications of Tarragona, evacuates Valentia.
August 21st.—Opening of the campaign in Italy. Eugene, with 50,000 men, commands the Franco-Italian army.
August 26th-27th.—Battle of Dresden.—Napoleon marches a hundred miles in seventy hours to the rescue. With less than 100,000 men he defeats the Allied Army of 180,000 under Schwartzenberg, Wittgenstein, and Kleist. Austrians lose 20,000 prisoners and 60 guns. Moreau is mortally wounded (dies September 1st). Combat of the Katzbach, in Silesia. Blucher defeats Macdonald with heavy loss, who loses 10,000 to 12,000 men in his retreat.
August 30th.—Combat of Kulm. Vandamme enveloped in Bohemia, and surrenders with 12,000 men.
August 31st.—Combat of Irun. Soult attacks Wellington to save San Sebastian, but is repulsed. Graham storms San Sebastian.
September 6th.—Combat of Dennewitz (near Berlin). Ney routed by Bulow and Bernadotte; loses his artillery, baggage, and 12,000 men.
September 10th—Americans capture the English flotilla on Lake Erie.
September 12th.—Combat of Villafranca (near Barcelona). Suchet defeats English General Bentinck.
October 7th.—Wellington crosses the Bidassoa into France. “It is on the frontier of France itself that ends the enterprise of Napoleon on Spain. The Spaniards have given the first conception of a people’s war versus a war of professionals. For it would be a mistake to think that the battles of Salamanca (July 22nd, 1812) and Vittoria (June 21st, 1813) forced the French to abandon the Peninsula… It was the daily losses, the destruction of man by man, the drops of French blood falling one by one, which in five years aggregated a death-roll of 150,000 men. As to the English, they appeared in this war only as they do in every world-crisis, to gather, in the midst of general desolation, the fruits of their policy, and to consolidate their plans of maritime despotism, of exclusive commerce” (Montgaillard).
October 15th.—Bavarian army secedes and joins the Austrians.
October 16th-19th.—Battles of Leipsic. Allied army 330,000 men (Schwartzenberg, Bernadotte, Blucher, Beningsen), Napoleon 175,000. Twenty-six battalions and ten squadrons of Saxon and Wurtemberg men leave Napoleon and turn their guns against the French. Napoleon is not defeated, but determines to retreat. The rearguard (20,000 men) and 200 cannon taken. Poniatowski drowned; Reynier and Lauriston captured.
October 20th.—Blucher made Field-Marshal.
October 23rd.—French army reach Erfurt.
October 30th.—Combat of Hanau. Napoleon defeats Wrede with heavy loss.
October 31st.—Combat and capture of Bassano by Eugene. English capture Pampeluna.
November 2nd.—Napoleon arrives at Mayence (where typhus carries off 40,000 French), and is
November 9th.—At St. Cloud.
November 10th.—Wellington defeats Soult at St. Jean de Luz.
November 11th.—Surrender of Dresden by Gouvion St. Cyr; its French soldiers to return under parole to France. Austrians refuse to ratify the convention, and 1700 officers and 23,000 men remain prisoners of war.
November 14th.—Napoleon addresses the Senate: “All Europe marched with us a year ago; all Europe marches against us to-day. That is because the world’s opinion is directed either by France or England.”
November 15th.—Eugene defeats Austrians at Caldiero. Senatus-Consultus puts 300,000 conscripts at disposal of government.
November 24th.—Capture of Amsterdam by Prussian General Bulow.
December 1st.—Allies declare at Frankfort that they are at war with the Emperor and not with France.
December 2nd.—Bulow occupies Utrecht. Holland secedes from the French Empire.
December 5th.—Capture of Lubeck by the Swedes, and surrender of Stettin (7000 prisoners), Zamosk (December 22nd), Modlin (December 25th), and Torgau (December 26th, with 10,000 men).
December 8th-13th.—Soult defends the passage of the Nive—costly to both sides. Murat (now hostile to Napoleon) enters Ancona.
December 9th-10th.—French evacuate Breda.
December 11th.—Treaty of Valencay between Napoleon and his prisoner Ferdinand VII., who is to reign over Spain, but not to cede Minorca or Ceuta (now in their power} to the English.
December 15th.—Denmark secedes from French alliance.
December 21st.—Allies, 100,000 strong, cross the Rhine in ten divisions (Bale to Schaffhausen). Jomini is said to have contributed to this violation of Swiss territory.
December 24th.—Final evacuation of Holland by the French.
December 28th.—Austrians capture Ragusa.
December 31st.—Napoleon, having trouble with his Commons, dissolves the Corps Legislatif. Austrians capture Geneva. Blucher crosses the Rhine at Mannheim and Coblentz. Exclusive of Landwehr and levies en masse, there are now a million trained men in arms against Napoleon.
1814.
“The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of the Peace of Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of life itself, that he will not be ready to make for the sake of France.”—(Act of Abdication.)
January 1st.—Capitulation of Danzic, which General Rapp had defended for nearly a year, having lost 20,000 (out of 30,000) men by fever. Russians, who had promised to send the French home, break faith, following the example of Schwartzenberg at Dresden.
January 2nd.—Russians take Fort Louis (Lower Rhine); and
January 3rd.—Austrians Montbeliard; and Bavarians Colmar.
January 6th.—General York occupies Treves. Convention between Murat and England and (January 11th) with Austria. Murat is to join Allies with 30,000 men.
January 7th.—Austrians occupy Vesoul.
January 8th.—French Rentes 5 per cents. at 47.50. Wurtemberg troops occupy Epinal.
January 10th.—General York reaches Forbach (on the Moselle).
January 15th.—Cossacks occupy Cologne.
January 16th.—Russians occupy Nancy.
January 19th.—Austrians occupy Dijon; Bavarians, Neufchateau. Murat’s troops occupy Rome.
January 20th.—Capture of Toul by the Russians; and of Chambery by the Austrians.
January 21st.—Austrians occupy Chalons-sur-Saone. General York crosses the Meuse.
January 23rd.—Pope Pius VII. returns to Rome.
January 26th.—Reaches Chalons-sur-Marne; and
January 27th.—Retakes St. Dizier in person.
January 29th.—Combat of Brienne. Napoleon defeats Blucher.
February 1st.—Battle of La Rothiere, six miles north of Brienne. French, 40,000; Allies, 110,000. Drawn battle, but French retreat on Troyes; French evacuate Brussels.
February 4th.—Eugene retires upon the Mincio.
February 5th.—Cortes disavow Napoleon’s treaty of Valencay with Ferdinand VII. Opening of Congress of Chatillon. General York occupies Chalons-sur-Marne.
February 7th.—Allies seize Troyes.
February 8th.—Battle of the Mincio. Eugene with 30,000 conscripts defeats Austrians under Bellegarde with 50,000 veterans.
February 10th.—Combat of Champaubert. Napoleon defeats Russians.
February 11th.—Combat of Montmirail. Napoleon defeats Sacken. Russians occupy Nogent-sur-Seine; and
February 12th.—Laon.
February 14th.—Napoleon routs Blucher at Vauchamp. His losses, 10,000 men; French loss, 600 men. In five days Napoleon has wiped out the five corps of the Army of Silesia, inflicting a loss of 25,000 men.
February 17th.—Combat near Nangis. Napoleon defeats Austro-Russians with loss of 10,000 men and 12 cannon.
February 18th.—Combat of Montereau. Prince Royal of Wurtemberg defeated with loss of 7000.
February 21st.—Comte d’Artois arrives at Vesoul.
February 22nd.—Combat of Mery-sur-Seine. Sacken defeated by Boyer’s Division, who fight in masks—it being Shrove Tuesday.
February 24th.—French re-enter Troyes.
February 27th.—Bulow captures La Fere with large stores. Battle of Orthes (Pyrenees), Wellington with 70,000 defeats Soult entrenched with 38,000. Foy badly wounded.
February 27th-28th.—Combats of Bar and Ferte-sur-Aube. Marshals Oudinot and Macdonald forced to retire on the Seine.
March 1st.—Treaty of Chaumont—Allies against Napoleon.
March 2nd.—Bulow takes Soissons.
March 4th.—Macdonald evacuates Troyes.
March 7th.—Battle of Craonne between Napoleon (30,000 men) and Sacken (100,000). Indecisive.
March 9th.—English driven from Berg-op-Zoom.
March 9th-10th.—Combat under Laon: depot of Allied army. Napoleon fails to capture it.
March 12th.—Duc d’Angouleme arrives at Bordeaux. This town is the first to declare for the Bourbons, and to welcome him as Louis XVIII.
March 13th.—Ferdinand VII. set at liberty.
March 14th.—Napoleon retakes Rheims from the Russians.
March 19th.—Rupture of Treaty of Chatillon.
March 20th.—Battle of Tarbes. Wellington defeats French.
March 20th-21st.—Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. Indecisive.
March 25th.—Combat of Fere-Champenoise. Marmont and Mortier defeated with loss of 9000 men.
March 26th.—Combat of St. Dizier. Napoleon defeats Russians, and starts to save Paris.
March 29th.—Allies outside Paris. Napoleon at Troyes (125 miles off).
April 1st.—Senate, with Talleyrand as President, institute a Provisional Government.
April 2nd.—Provisional Government address the army: “You are no longer the soldiers of Napoleon; the Senate and the whole of France absolve you from your oaths.” They also declare Napoleon deposed from the throne, and his family from the succession.
April 4th.—Napoleon signs a declaration of abdication in favour of his son, but after two days’ deliberation, and Marmont’s defection, Alexander insists on an absolute abdication.
April 6th.—New Constitution decreed by the Senate. The National Guard ordered to wear the White Cockade in lieu of the Tricolor.
April 10th.—Battle of Toulouse. Hotly contested; almost a defeat for Wellington.
April 11th.—Treaty of Paris between Napoleon and Allies (Austria, Russia, and Prussia). Isle of Elba reserved for Napoleon and his family, with a revenue of L200,000; the Duchies of Parma and Placentia for Marie Louise and her son. England accedes to this Treaty. Act of Abdication of the Emperor Napoleon.
April 12th.—Count d’Artois enters Paris.
April 18th.—Armistice of Soult and Wellington.
April 20th.—Napoleon leaves Fontainebleau, and bids adieu to his Old Guard: “Do not mourn over my fate; if I have determined to survive, it is in order still to dedicate myself to your glory; I wish to write about the great things we have done together.”
April 24th.—Louis XVIII. lands at Calais, and
May 3rd.—Enters Paris.
May 4th.—Napoleon reaches Elba.
May 29th.—Death of Josephine, aged 51.
May 30th.—Peace of Paris.
Averaged from early historians of the campaigns. Marbot gives the numbers 155,400 French and 175,000 Allies. Allowing for the secession of the Austrian and Prussian contingents and for 30,000 prisoners, he gives the actual French death-roll by February 1813 at 65,000. This is a minimum estimate. ↩