Russia Against Napoleon

30 MVUA 1813, 1, Barclay to Alexander, 30 Nov., 1 and 22 Dec. 1813 (OS), pp. 258–60, 276; Barclay to Army Corps GOCs, 21 Dec. 1813 (OS), p. 275. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, p. 80. SIM, 4, no. 3, Alexander to Lobanov, 3 Jan. 1814 (OS), p. 3. On the general appearance of the line army in the 1814 campaign, see Il’ia Ul’ianov, ‘I eti nas pobedili’, Rodina, 8, 2002, pp. 74–8; Oleg Sheremet’ev, ‘Katat’ shineli, gospoda’, Rodina, 6, 2006, pp. 53–9.

31 Bogdanovich’s and Friederich’s histories of the 1814 campaign say something about this, but the key text is by Peter Graf von Kielmansegg, Stein und die Zentralverwaltung 1813/14, Stuttgart, 1964.

32 For Kutuzov’s comments, see Count de Puybusque, Lettres sur la Guerre de Russie en 1812, Paris, 1816, pp. 153 ff., 18 Dec. 1812. For the fortresses, see a recent work by Paddy Griffith, The Vauban Fortifications of France, Oxford, 2006.

33 See e.g. Barclay’s report to Alexander of 9 Nov. 1813 (VPR, 7, no. 172, pp. 431–3), but also his letter to Kankrin of 29 Jan. 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 18, Delo 17, fo. 128.

34 For the Austrian view on this, see Karl Fürst Schwarzenberg, Feldmarschall Fürst Schwarzenberg: Der Sieger von Leipzig, Vienna, 1964, pp. 268–71. Jomini’s line is inevitably different: see Jomini, Précis, vol. 2, pp. 224–5, 228–31. Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 9–15, gives a balanced account but argues that going through Switzerland was probably unnecessary. Alexander’s letter to Bernadotte is in VPR, 7, no. 174, pp. 434–6. His indignant letter to Schwarzenberg of 5 Jan. 1814 is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fo. 108.

35 Marquess of Londonderry, Narrative of the War in Germany and France in 1813 and 1814, London, 1830, pp. 254–5. Perhaps Stewart’s feelings at the time were not as clear-cut as this last sentence, written in 1830, implies.

36 Lord Burghersh, The Operations of the Allied Armies in 1813 and 1814, London, 1822, pp. 72–3.

37 Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 142–3. I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 3, pp. 36–9. ‘Iz zapisok pokoinago general-maiora N. P. Koval’skago’, Russkii vestnik, 91/1, 1871, pp. 106–7. RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 120i–ii, Alexander to Platov, 24 Jan. 1814 (OS).

38 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 99ii–100i, Alexander to Blücher, 14 Dec. 1813 (OS). For reasons of space this is an abbreviated account: for a fuller one, see Leggiere, Fall of Napoleon, chs. 10–16, and Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 60–72.

39 These points are covered by Leggiere, Fall of Napoleon, and Friederich, Feldzug, but on the running down of conscription see Isser Woloch, The New Regime: Transformations of the French Civil Order, 1789–1820s, London, 1994, ch. 13, pp. 380–426.

40 For accounts of the battle, see Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 89–95; Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, pp. 108–13; James Lawford, Napoleon: The Last Campaigns. 1813–15, London, 1976, pp. 68–101. Sacken’s own rather laconic report on the battle is in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 34ii–35ii, Sacken to Barclay, 17 Jan. 1814 (OS).

41 Quotation from Friederich, Feldzug, p. 103. See Sacken’s letter to Barclay de Tolly of 27 Jan. 1814 (OS), in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fo. 37i.

42 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 36i–ii, Sacken to Barclay, 21 Jan. 1814 (OS). Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1814, vol. 1, p. 128.

43 F. von Schubert, Unter dem Doppeladler, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 343, on Blücher and the wine cellar.

44 See Alexander’s letter to Blücher of 26 Jan. 1814 (OS) in RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, fos. 121ii–122i.

45 Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 276–300.

46 Friederich, Feldzug, pp. 81–2. Burghersh, Operations, pp. 91–103, 250–52.

47 Fournier, Congress, pp. 42–4, 58–63; see above all Francis II’s reply (p. 277) to Schwarzenberg’s letter of 8 Feb. (pp. 272–3). Schwarzenberg was clearly asking for instructions to stand still and these the emperor supplied. Schwarzenberg, Schwarzenberg, pp. 276–9, 293–9.

48 Fournier, Congress, pp. 105–14. The text of Metternich’s memorandum is in SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 349–55.

49 Alexander’s response to Metternich’s questions is in SIRIO, 31, 1881, pp. 355–60. A summary of the British, Austrian and Prussian views is in Fournier, Congress, pp. 285–9.