Thread by @2econd_crossing

#OTD 12 December, 1812, Kutuzov entered Vilna triumphant and arranged for his final actions.
Murat, following a council of war, decided to abandon Kovno and continue retreating all the way beyond the Neman, leaving his last outpost solely to Ney.
#Voicesfrom1812

At midnight, Murat, Eugene, and Berthier arrived at Kovno, “the last town of the Russian empire” before the River Neman. On their way, they had been joined by the remains of Loison’s division, reduced from 12,000 on the 5th to just 600. (Coignet, Wilson, Segur, Austin)

Lacking horses, Gratien (Loison’s successor) was forced to part with his 16 guns. To everyone’s relief, the garrison of Kovno turned out to be surprisingly well-fortified by 15,000 fresh reinforcements from Augereau’s Corps, equipped with 42 pieces of cannons. (Austin, Wilson)

These new conscripts from Germany were said to be in “excellent condition.” (Bourgogne)
The town also had, as Berthier would report to Ney at noon, “immense magazines” as well as about 2,500,000 francs in cash.
(Berthier to Ney, 12 Dec, Gourgaud, Wilson, Riehn)

Although largely unaware of the abundant supplies at Kovno, the army seemed to have undergone a revival of morale. Each man was keen on doing anything to reach the Neman alive, and came up with scintillating ideas to make up for whatever that was lost.

Almost no one, officers included, was mounted or had hands capable of holding tight a rein. Marbot, seeing that “in Russia a sledge can be found in the poorest house,” procured hundreds. Alongside Colonel Monginot, he obtained Castex’s permission to travel in them.
(Marbot)

In fact, Castex came to deem “this manner of travelling so convenient" and "authorized [Marbot] to put all the other troopers in sledges.”
Marbot looked back with pride how this “caravan,” drawn by all the remaining horses, "marched in perfect order.”
(Ibid)

He flaunted his logistical innovation: “You may think that travelling thus we destroyed our power for defense, but you must know that on the ice we were much stronger with the sledges—which could go anywhere, and in which the horses had the support of shaft…”

Right behind Murat was Major Vionnet’s regiment, ordered to march out at 1 a.m. They walked alongside Prince Emile’s Hessian brigade, the only unit to have kept their guns while mounting the Ponary on the 10th. It was also said that they had not lost a single standard. (Vionnet)

Vionnet could never praise him enough. “One could only admire the conduct of this young prince, a man who never quit his officers, shared their troubles, shared their privations and shared their dangers as though he was just the most junior among them,” he wrote.

Fezensac, in command of his regiment, “set out again at five in the morning.” At daybreak he received a false news that “Ney and the rearguard had passed through Zhizhmory during the night.” Later, he singled out that moment as “the most terrible of the entire campaign.”

Without Ney, all that was left of his ‘regiment’-“twenty enfeebled officers, the same number of soldiers, half of them without arm” would not outlive “so much devotion and so much great sacrifice” exacted from them for the past six months. (Fezensac)

The 28-year-old officer felt hopeless. His mind overflew with memories of the same road after the crossing of the Neman “in the most delightful season…filled with great numbers of troops, as admirable for their ardor and enthusiasm as for their magnificent appearance.” (Ibid)

“And now along the same road there passed a crowd of ragged, fleeing men, without strength and without courage, tottering with fatigue, trying to run away from an enemy they could no longer fight. This terrible contrast struck me deeply…” wrote Fezensac.

Far behind, in a half-burnt hut, a group of Young Guard soldiers uneasily watched their friend, whose colic pain has only worsened overnight. Grangier fetched Bourgogne, unable to rise up, a concoction of melted snow and some tea from Moscow. (Bourgogne)

As Bourgogne heard his friends whispering, “He will not be able to leave tomorrow,” he begged them to take what he had managed to bring from Moscow-“a watch, a cross in gold and silver, a little vase in Chinese porcelain.”

Grangier refused, saying he had seen him suffer worse. Rossi, lying beside Bourgogne, said emptily, “My friend, you will not be here alone tomorrow morning.”
When Bourgogne heard the drum roll, he closed his eyes in resignation, only to feel his friends dragging him away.

Meanwhile, Kutuzov’s army galloped down the Ochmiana road. The nearer they got to Vilna, the more visible the traces of carnage became.
Lowenstern described the landscape teeming with death:
“Thousands of corpses were lying in its streets and all the roads around it.

With almost every step forward, we had to walk over dead horses..Piles of horse manure mixed with saltpeter were burning all over, filling the air with smoke and massive stench..The view was a very peculiar final scene of the gruesome drama of war that we had seen since Borisov.”

The Field Marshal was coming from Radochkowiczi, which his army had occupied on the 6th. Despite his extraordinary tardiness, he entered Vilna in triumph. According to Lord Tyrconnell, the town became engulfed with “the joyous cheers of the local inhabitants.” (W, Mikaberidzez)

Welcomed as the liberator of Vilna from Napoleon, he gave a soirée to the local notables, including Countess Tisenhaus, whom he paid a personal visit to. Back in June, Napoleon noticed her wearing a “diamond coat of arms” of the Empresses of Russia, decorated with a blue ribbon.

As if to embarrass her, Napoleon asked another Polish ‘Lady of the Palace’ why she, unlike the Countess, did not put on the same. But she kept the crest on throughout the eight days of his stay; earning Napoleon’s praise “for the firmness [she] had shown on that occasion.”

According to the Countess, Kutuzov:
“praised my conduct...to Napoleon, and said he would take care to inform the Emperor of it. He told me also that my father had done very wrong to leave Vilna and thus show his want of confidence in the generous character of His Majesty.”

She must have become exuberant, for she had always “wished that the Emperor Alexander might be informed of it some day” but “saw little chance of that desire being soon fulfilled.”
Kutuzov then introduced the brave lady to all the generals:

"This is the young countess who wore her decoration a la barbe of Napoleon!” (Tisenhaus)
Kutuzov himself was equally titillated by the glorious occasion. He wrote to his wife, comparing Providence to ‘a capricious woman’ choosing him over Napoleon by saying:
(More/See Replies)

“Here is an old man who adores and worships females, and who is always ready to please women. And so, to take a break from all the horrors of war, I have decided to join him, if only for just a little while.” (Mikaberidze)

It should be interesting to compare it with the same analogy made by Napoleon, during his conversation with Rapp on the eve of the Battle of Borodino:
“Fortune is a liberal mistress; I have often said so, and begin to experience it.”
(Rapp)

That morning, Murat summoned Berthier and Daru to discuss whether the army can sustain itself at Kovno. On the one hand, as Lieutenant Muraldt described, the town “had been provided all round with regular fortification…and furnished with numerous artillery.”

On the other hand, “the Neman was frozen over and the Cossacks had already crossed it at gallop,” leaving “no hope of defending Kovno.” Already, Ney’s rearguard was becoming grazed down on the roadside.
(Thiers, Wilson)

At noon, the decision was sealed, that all except Ney’s rearguard must continue retreating beyond the Neman.
Murat ordered “the dismounted cavalry, the whole of the Imperial Guard, both infantry and cavalry, and the I and IV Corps…to “cross to the left bank of the Neman."

It was imperative that Ney, with “all the troops belonging to the II and III Corps,” including “Loison's division, and the Vistula Legion, both forming part of the III corps,” defend “the approach to the tête de pont” at Kovno.
(Berthier to Ney, 12 Dec)

According to Segur, this was “the fourth rear-guard which had been worn out and melted in [Ney’s] hands,” mostly due to “winter and famine.”
In the afternoon, Fezensac came halfway to Kovno and “learned positively that Marshal Ney and the rearguard were still behind.”

At night, after “one of the longest and most tiring marches,” the army had “all the fragments of each corps…united” at last. (Labaume)
Fezensac, who had never been this exhausted, “collapsed against a curbstone” while the soldiers went to sack all the magazines. (Fezensac)

Neither billets nor food was distributed systematically, which triggered the “soldiers who had for so long been deprived of this luxury,” to submit themselves to every newfound excess.
Soon, the camp was “filled with broken barrels” and drunken soldiers.
(Labaume)

As witnessed by Fezensac, the wretches “accustomed to the miserable eau-de-vie of the country…thought they could drink rum in equally large quantities.”
In turn, as many as 12,000 stragglers got “dead drunk, falling senseless on the snow.” (Labaume)

It was with these wretches that Ney was expected to make his last stand. Late at night, Berthier had “the whole of the IV Corps ‘assembled in one room’ (highlighted)” and announced that they should be marching out at 5 a.m. on the morrow, toward Gumbinnen. (L., F.)

Napoleon, meanwhile, had been moving from Kutno since dawn, musing loudly:
"I make myself out to be worse than I really am…for I have observed that the French are always ready to eat out of one's hand. They lack seriousness; consequently…I am supposed to be severe, even hard!

…Believe me, Caulaincourt, I'm only human! Whatever some people may say, I have a tender heart—but it is the heart of a sovereign. The tears of a duchess move me to no pity whatsoever, but I am touched by the woes of peoples. I want to see them happy; and the French shall be so.

…Don't you suppose I enjoy giving pleasure? It does me good to see a happy face; but I am compelled to defend myself against this natural disposition, lest advantage be taken of it. I found that out more than once with Josephine, who was always begging me for things…”

The more he thought of France, the more he missed Marie-Louise and the King of Rome at home. His words moved Caulaincourt so much that he “lost not one syllable” transcribing, and “would gladly have prolonged indefinitely.”

“This good and natural manifestation of His Majesty's real feelings refreshed me more than I can say. I should have liked the ears of all Europe to hear his words, and every echo to repeat them,” wrote Caulaincourt.

His reflective mood must have become shattered when Napoleon digressed to rate each of his minister. He touched on the subject of Savary’s initiative in the execution of Duc d’Enghien-the Achilles’ Heel of Caulaincourt.

Their conversation was interrupted when they arrived at Poznan on the morning of the 12nd. Here, the line of communication with Paris was reestablished.
At a local postal station, Napoleon skimmed through numerous dispatches for him and had only two of them read aloud.

They were respectively from Marie Louise and Madame Montesquiou, mostly about his son. Their words instantly transformed the stern, grumbling, overworked Emperor into “a good husband, indeed the best of husbands, and the fondest of fathers.”

Such facet of himself, which Napoleon mostly refrained from revealing, electrified Caulaincourt:
“I cannot describe my pleasure in contemplating him at such moments. His joy, his happiness, glowing in every feature, went to my heart.”

In the evening, they stopped at Glognau to wait for Roustam's sledge to catch up. The Emperor, "half frozen in this modest vehicle," spent the sleepless night talking about the army he had left behind in Russia.

Caulaincourt was tremendously worried about the whereabouts of the Grande Armée, for, "owing to the rapidity of our movements, we could have no news." His only source of relief was that no enemy had attempted to intercept them.

Napoleon burst out into laughter as he imagined Caulaincourt "cut in an iron cage, in the main square of London."
Both of them had no idea that Murat was impatient to abandon Kovno to Ney, who only had sixty men to himself. (Segur)

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