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Dec 21

#OTD 21 December, 1812, Dr. Larrey, Sergeant-in-Chief of the Grande Armée, arrived at Königsberg and found 10,000 wounded and ill men.
Among them was General Lariboisière, Chief of the Artillery of the Imperial Guard, who had failed to outlive the day.
#Voicesfrom1812

The III Corps, except for Ney and Marchand, left for Marienberg on the day after their arrival.
“We were hardly outside the Königsberg gate when we all marched to the left again toward the Thorn highway," wrote Jakob Walter, a speck in the masses of French and German soldiers.

Because other generals had either gone ahead or died, Fezensac directed the five days’ march to Marienberg. Murat marked the Vistula as their westernmost point of retreat, and anyone who makes a crossing there would be “regarded as a deserter to the enemy.” (Fezensac)

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Dec 19

#OTD 19 December, 1812, Tsar Alexander left St. Petersburg to continue his campaign from Vilna, while Napoleon redirected his attention to strengthening his legitimacy in Paris.
Macdonald began his retreat when the main army finally found repose in Königsberg.
#Voicesfrom1812

Alexander could no longer tolerate Kutuzov, who, in his opinion, had wasted several precious opportunities to eradicate the Grande Armée and capture Napoleon alive.
He, thus, embarked on a long journey to Vilna, the town he had fled from during a ball at Bennigsen's mansion.

Before his departure, he enjoyed a very cordial conversation with Germaine de Staël.
"He did not disguise from me his regret for the admiration to which he had surrendered himself in his intercourse with Napoleon," she wrote.
(Staël, Palmer)

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Dec 18

#OTD 18 December, 1812, amidst the noises surrounding the 29th Bulletin, Napoleon returned to Paris after a fortnight's journey from Smorghoni.
On the samae day, Marshal Macdonald received a belated order to withdraw beyond the Neman.
#Voicesfrom1812

It was well after the dark when a modest-looking coach, stained with frozen mud, appeared in Paris. Had it shown up during the day, it would have spawned much hubbub, for it rolled right into the Arc de Triomphe-an imperial prerogative.
(Caulaincourt)

One of the sentinels, withered by fourteen sleepless days on "Que Vive?", kept dozing off and shaking in the saddle. Inside the carriage, a man in a knee-length overcoat came out to usher the poor man to the front, telling him that they were now in front of the Tuileries.

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Dec 17

#OTD 17 December, 1812, when Murat's army began to find quarters in Gumbinnen, the 29th Bulletin of the Russian Campaign was published in Le Moniteur. This virtual admission of defeat, previously unseen in Napoleon's bulletins, threw Paris into consternation.
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The bulletin from Molodechno, dated 3 December, began by describing a sudden, ominous drop in temperature on 7 November, two days before Napoleon reentered Smolensk:
"To the 6th of November the weather was fine, and the movement of the army executed with the greatest success."

The cold only worsened with increasing rapidity on the eve of the Battle of Krasny, the "14th, 15th, and 16th," when "the thermometer was sixteen and eighteen degrees below the freezing point."
Thenceforth was the beginning of the end.

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Dec 16

#OTD 16 December, 1812, the carriages of Napoleon and Caulaincourt crossed the Rhine and finally entered the French territory.
The retreating army, in the meantime, trickled into the Prussian soil, where they witnessed a nationwide resentment against the French.
#Voicesfrom1812

Following last night's scuffle at a postal station near Vigenov, the two travellers became "so glad to see daybreak" in safety.
"It was bitter cold. We travelled rapidly, despite the bad Westphalian roads," wrote Caulaincourt as the carriages set off again.

They made a brief stop at Hanau, where they breakfasted and met Franz von Albini ['d'Albini' as Caulaincourt referred to him], the Minister of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt.
He was "not a little surprised to see His Majesty, especially with such a modest suite."

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Dec 15

#OTD 15 December, 1812, Napoleon revisited Erfurt, where he conveyed his greetings to Goethe via the French ambassador to Saxony.
His army scattered along the road to Prussia, with some of them already full of excitement at leaving the battlefield altogether.
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By the morning, Napoleon's carriages had nearly flown through Dresden, Leiptzig, Lützen, and Weimar. In the last city, Caulaincourt was supposed to meet Baron St. Aignan, the French Ambassador to the Saxon court and his own brother-in-law. (Caulaincourt)

Because the homely procession moved at such a blistering pace, with Napoleon having his coffee "without alighting from the carriage," the poor minister only caught up with them at Erfurt.
At last, all three could stop to enjoy an hour-long breakfast.

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