Thread by @2econd_crossing

#OTD 27 December, 1812, Eugene and his IV Corps-the farthest away from their homes next to the Spanish troops-began settling into their winter quarters in Marienwerder. Coming in terms with the reality, Napoleon’s stepson cherished hopes for the coming year.
#Voicesfrom1812

His army, consisting of the French, Italian, and Croats, had quickly left Königsberg for Marienwerder. These men were the southern European soldiers who amazed Larrey with their higher survival rate in the cold than their northern European counterparts.
(Larrey)

Before leaving Eylau on the 22nd, the Viceroy of Italy wrote to his beloved wife:
“My dear Auguste, I arrived here two hours ago, the King of Naples is going to establish his headquarters in Königsberg, I am going to Marienwerder;

I will pass by Friedland and Eylau personally to visit the memorable battlefields, I will very probably be on the 26th and 27th at Marienwerder, where my troops are going to winter. Adieu, my dear friend, I am well and I am covered with furs from head to foot to avoid the cold."

Bellisoni will bring you this letter, my dear Auguste, I am sending it to you because he needs a rest, and then he can tell you the whole campaign, because he has always been with me, and I have been extremely pleased with him.”
(Eugene, Memoire)

Like Napoleon and Caulaincourt, Eugene would not leave without a gift:
“…so I promised him my portrait on our return to Milan. I am sending you a little necklace through him.... It ended up in the bottom of a crate and was thought to be lost but was found this morning.”

The viceroy lamented how the army, even outside the Russian soil, was still chased by frost:
“Nothing new here, [but] cold and snow; the inhabitants console our suffering by telling us that it is the harshest winter they have had in thirty years. We have chosen well!”

Expecting not to receive another letter for 10 days, he was reluctant to leave his pen:
“Farewell , we are soon going to start a new year, I fervently hope that it will be happier than this one, that is to say that we can come together so that we never leave each other.”

As soon as he arrived at the Polish town, Eugene “immediately and tirelessly busied himself, with his usual zeal and activity, in bringing together all the scattered remnants of the regiments which had formed the IV Corps.”
(Eugene)

The result of the dreadful census, according to Labaume, showed “12,000 cripples, the miserable remains of 52,000 men, who had come all the way from Italy to perish in Russia, not from the arms of the enemy, but as victims of the fatal madness of a leader.”

He became dismayed to see how Napoleon’s absence has turned them into walking deaths “pushing straight ahead, almost without knowing where they were going, what they were doing.” Among them, so many “had their limbs crippled and were unable to carry a rifle.”
(Labaume)

1812 rendered Labaume permanently disillusioned with Napoleon who, “not satisfied with the conquest of the fairest part of Europe, next aspired to vanquish the elements as a preliminary to the invasion of deserts.” Deploring such hubris, he concluded his mournful journal:

“Such were the frightful calamities which destroyed a powerful army in attempting the most vainglorious and futile enterprise that history records…Thus were fulfilled the pompous prophecies uttered by Napoleon at the opening of the campaign, with this difference,

that it was not Russia but himself who, drawn on by Fate, was struck down by the inexorable decree of Providence, the results of which are seen in the restoration of the liberties of Europe and the happiness of France.”
(Labaume)

- The End-

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