Napoleonic Literature
The Memoirs of Baron de Marbot - Volume I
Chapter XXXII

IT was past eleven when the Emperor arrived on the field of battle, where several army corps had already joined Lannes and Mortier. The rest, with the guard, came up in due course. Napoleon rectified the lines. Ney commanded the right wing, which was placed in the wood of Sortlack, Lannes and Mortier the centre, between Posthenen and Heinrichsdorf, the left extended beyond the last-named village. It was oppressively hot; the Emperor allowed the troops an hour's rest, and settled that at a signal given by twenty-five guns firing simultaneously, a general attack should be made. Marshal Ney's corps had the roughest task. Concealed in the wood of Sortlack, it had to issue from it and make its way into Friedland, where the enemy's main force and reserves were massed, capture the bridges, and thus cut off the Russians' retreat entirely. It is difficult to understand how Bennigsen could have made up his mind to place his army in advance of the Friedland defile, where it had in rear the Alle, with its steep banks, and before it the French, who held the plain. To account for his action, the Russian general explained later on that, being a day's march ahead of Napoleon, and not being able to conceive that the French could cover in twelve hours a distance equal to that which his troops had taken twenty-four to traverse, he had supposed, when he found Lannes' corps at Friedland, that it was an isolated advanced guard of the French army, which he would have no difficulty in crushing, and that, when he discovered his error, it was too late to bring his army back to the other side of the Alle, because the Friedland defile would have caused him a certain loss, so that he preferred to fight with vigour.

About 1 P.M. the twenty-five cannons at Posthenen fired simultaneously by the Emperor's order, and battle was joined all along the line. Our left and our centre advanced at first very slowly, in order to give the right, under Ney, time to carry the town. The marshal, issuing from the wood at Sortlack, captured the village of that name and advanced very quickly on Friedland, clearing everything on his road. But in the passing from the wood and village of Sortlack to the first houses of Friedland, the troops had to march without cover, and found themselves exposed to a terrible fire from the Russian batteries, which, being placed in rear of the town on the high ground of the opposite bank, caused them immense loss. What made the fire more dangerous was that the enemy's gunners, having the river between us and them, could aim in security, since they saw that it was impossible for our infantry to attack them. This serious disadvantage might have prevented the capture of Friedland, but Napoleon remedied it by sending fifty guns, which were placed by-General Sénarmont and fired across the river at the Russian batteries, pouring upon them such a hail of shot as must soon have dismounted them. As soon as the fire of the enemy's guns was silenced, Ney continued his bold march, rolled back the Russians in Friedland, and entered pell-mell with them into the streets of the unlucky town, which the shells had already set on fire. There was a terrible bayonet fight, and the Russians, crowded one upon another and hardly able to move, lost very heavily. Ultimately they were obliged, in spite of their courage, to retire in disorder, and seek a refuge on the opposite bank, crossing the bridges again. But here a new danger awaited them. General Sénarmont's artillery, having drawn near the town, took the bridges in flank, and soon broke them, after killing a great number of the Russians who were crossing them in their hurried flight. All who still remained in Friedland were captured, killed, or drowned in crossing the river.

Up to this time Napoleon had, so to say, made his centre and left wing mark time. Now he pushed them rapidly forward. The Russian general, Gortschakoff, who commanded the enemy's centre and right wing, obeying merely his own courage, wished to recapture the town. This would have been of no use to him, since the bridges were broken, but that he did not know. So he dashed forwards at the head of his troops into Friedland, blazing as it was. But repulsed in front by Ney's troops, who occupied the town, and compelled to regain the open country, the enemy's general soon found himself surrounded by our centre, which pushed him back on the Alle, in front of Kloschenen. The Russians defended themselves with furious heroism, and though driven in on all sides refused to surrender. A large part fell under our bayonets, and the rest were rolled back from the top of the bank into the river, where nearly all were drowned.

The enemy's extreme right, consisting chiefly of cavalry, had attempted to carry or turn the village of Heinrichsdorf. But repulsed briskly by our troops, it had regained the banks of the Alle, under command of General Lambert. Seeing Friedland occupied by the French, and the Russian left and centre destroyed, he rallied as many regiments as he could of the right wing, and escaped from the field of battle by descending the Alle. Night prevented the French from pursuing, 1so that of all the enemy's corps this alone escaped utter rout. Our victory was most complete; all the Russian artillery fell into our hands. We had taken few prisoners during the action, but the numbers of the enemy killed and wounded amounted to more than 26,000. Our loss was only 3,000 killed and 4,000 to 5,000 wounded. Of all the battles fought by the Emperor, this was the only one 2in which his troops outnumbered those of the enemy. The French had 80,000 combatants, the Russians only 75,000. The remains of the enemy's army marched in disorder all night, and retired behind the Pregel, destroying the bridges.

Marshals Soult, Davout, and Murat had not been able to take part in the battle, but their appearance had decided the Prussians to abandon Königsberg, and our troops took possession of it, finding there immense stores of all kinds.

No accident befell me during the battle of Friedland, although I was exposed to very great dangers on this wise. You saw me starting in the morning from Posthenen by order of Marshal Lannes to go at full speed and warn the Emperor that the enemy was crossing the Alle at Friedland, and a battle appeared imminent. Napoleon was at Eylau and I had, therefore, nearly six leagues to go in order to meet him, which would have been a small matter for my excellent mare if the roads had been clear. But encumbered as they were by the troops of the various corps coming up with all haste to support Marshal Lannes, I found it absolutely impossible to gallop if I kept the road, so I went across country, with the result that Lisette, having had to jump fences, hedges, and ditches, was pretty well blown when I joined the Emperor, coming out of Eylau. But I had, without taking a moment's rest, to return with him to Friedland, and although this time the troops drew up to let us pass, my poor mare, who had galloped twelve leagues at a stretch, six of them across country, and on a very hot day, was completely beaten when I reached the field of battle and rejoined Marshal Lannes. I saw that Lisette could do no more service during the action, so I took advantage of the moment's rest which the Emperor allowed the troops to try to find my servant and change horses. But in the midst of an army of that size how was I to find my belongings ? It was impossible, so I returned to the staff, still mounted on the blown Lisette.

Marshal Lannes and my comrades, seeing the fix I was in, advised me to dismount, and let my mare rest for a few hours. At that moment I saw one of our hussars leading a horse which he had captured. I bought it, and entrusting Lisette to a trooper of the marshal's escort to take her to the rear and feed her, and hand her over to my servant whenever he saw him, I mounted my new horse, resumed my place among the aides-de-camp, and took my turns of duty. At first I was well satisfied with my mount, until Lannes sent me off to Ney, who was by that time in Friedland, to warn him of a movement which the enemy was making. Hardly was I in the town when my devil of a horse, who had behaved so well in the open country, finding himself in a little square with houses on fire all round, the pavement covered with burning furniture and timber, and many half-roasted corpses, was so terrified by the sight of the flames and the odour of burning flesh, that he refused to advance or retreat. Putting his four feet together, he stood stock still and snorted violently, without taking the slightest notice of the spur, which I vigorously applied. Meanwhile, the Russians, having gained a momentary advantage in a street close by, were pushing our troops back to the place where I was, and were pouring a hail of bullets from a church tower and the neighbouring houses all about me, at the same time plying the battalions by whom I was surrounded with grape from two guns which they had dragged up. Many men fell all round me, and I was reminded of the position in which I had found myself at Eylau. As I had no curiosity whatever to see what another wound felt like, and besides, so long as I stayed there I could not fulfil my errand, I just got off, and, leaving my infernal horse, slipped along the houses to go and join Ney, who was in another square which the officers pointed out to me. I remained a quarter of an hour with him; plenty of bullets were dropping there, but nothing like so many as in the place where I had left my horse. Finally, a bayonet charge drove back the Russians, and compelled them to retire on all sides towards the bridges. Ney bade me take the good news to Lannes. I returned by the same way which I taken in coming, and passed again the spot where I had left my horse. It had been the scene of a sanguinary fight; nothing was to be seen but dead and dying, and in the middle of them was the obstinate horse, his back broken by a cannon-ball, and his body riddled with bullets.

I hurried on to the end of the suburbs, for burning houses were falling down on all sides, and I feared to be buried in the ruins. At last I got out of the town and reached the edge of the lake. The heat of the day, combined with that of the fire in the streets which I had passed through, had made me stream. I was half-suffocated and dropping with fatigue and hard work; for I had passed the night on horse-back coming from Eylau to Friedland; then I had galloped again to Eylau and back, and had eaten nothing since the previous day. I did not therefore enjoy the prospect of having to cross on foot under a burning sun and through tall corn the immense plain which lay between me and Posthenen, where I had left Marshal Lannes; but fortune stood my friend. Grouchy's division of dragoons, which had been briskly engaged with the enemy close by, though victorious, had lost a certain number of men, and the colonels had as usual ordered the horses of the killed to be collected and led by a detachment at a distance from the rest. I caught sight of this picket, every man of which was leading four or five horses, as it was making for the lake to water them. I spoke to the officer, who, finding so many led horses in the way, was only too glad to let me take one, which I promised to send back to the regiment in the evening. He even selected for me an excellent animal which had been ridden by a sergeant killed in the charge. I mounted, and returned quickly towards Posthenen. Hardly had I left the shore of the lake, when it became the scene of a most bloody fight, owing to the desperate attack made by General Gortschakoff in order to effect his retreat by the Friedland road, of which Marshal Ney was in occupation.

Caught between that marshal's troops and those of our advancing centre, Gortschakoff's Russians made a stout defence in the houses near the lake. If, therefore, I had, as I at first intended, stayed to rest a few moments in that spot, I should have found myself in the thick of a terrible mêlée. I rejoined Lannes just as he was starting to attack Gortschakoff's force in rear, while Ney from the town was repulsing it in front, and I was therefore able to give him some useful information as to the configuration of the ground on which we were fighting. If the French army had made few prisoners on the battle-field of Friedland, it was not so on the morrow and the following days, for the Russians, driven at the sword's point in an utter rout, fell out from their ranks and slept, wearied out, in the fields, where we captured a great number. We also gathered up a good deal of artillery. All of Bennigsen's army that could escape made haste to recross the Niemen, behind which the Emperor of Russia had remained. Remembering probably the dangers to which he had been exposed at Austerlitz, he had not thought it advisable to be present in person at the battle of Friedland, and lost no time, two days after our victory, in asking and obtaining an armistice.

Three days after the memorable battle of Friedland the French army came in sight of the town of Tilsit and the Niemen, which at this point is only a few leagues distant from the Russian frontier. After a battle it is all pain and grief in the rear of a victorious army, whose march is marked out by dead, dying, and wounded, while the surviving warriors, soon forgetting their fallen comrades, are rejoicing in their success and gaily marching on to new adventures. Great was the joy of our soldiers at seeing the Niemen, whose opposite bank was occupied by the remains of that Russian army which they had so often met and beaten. Our troops sang, while a gloomy silence reigned in the enemy's camp. 'The Emperor took up his quarters at Tilsit, while the troops encamped round the town. The Niemen lay between the two armies, the French being on the left bank, the Russians on the right. The Emperor Alexander requested an interview with Napoleon, and it took place on June 25 in a pavilion set up on a raft, which was anchored in mid-stream, in full view of the two armies. It was a most imposing spectacle. The two Emperors arrived from each side attended by five of the principal personages of their army. Marshal Lannes, who had flattered himself that he had this claim to accompany the Emperor, saw Marshal Bessières, Murat's intimate friend preferred to him, and never forgave those marshals for what he considered an unfair piece of favour.

So Marshal Lannes stayed with us on the quay at Tilsit, whence we saw the two Emperors meet and embrace amid loud cheers from both camps. Next day at another interview in the same pavilion the Emperor of Russia presented to Napoleon his unfortunate friend, the King of Prussia. This prince, who through the chances of war had lost a vast kingdom, of which only the little town of Memel and a few poor villages remained to him, preserved an attitude worthy of the descendant of the great Frederick. Napoleon received him politely but coldly, because he thought that he had reason to complain of him. Besides, he was planning the confiscation of a large part of his state.

In order to facilitate the intercourse of the two Emperors the town of Tilsit was declared neutral, and Napoleon ceded half of it to the Emperor of Russia, who took up his quarters there with his guard. The two sovereigns passed some twenty days together, during which they arranged the destiny of Europe. The King of Prussia meanwhile was relegated to the right bank, and was not even lodged in Tilsit, only coming there very rarely. One day Napoleon went to call on the unfortunate Queen of Prussia, who was said to be in great grief. He invited her to dinner on the following day, which she accepted, doubtless much against the grain. But at the moment of concluding peace, it was very necessary to appease the victor. Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia hated each other cordially. She had insulted him in many proclamations, and he had given it her back in his bulletins. Yet their interview showed no traces of their mutual hatred. Napoleon was respectful and attentive, the Queen gracious and disposed to captivate her former enemy. She had all the more need to do so, being well aware that the treaty of peace created under the title of Kingdom of Westphalia a new state, whose territory was to be contributed by electoral Hesse and Prussia.

The Queen could resign herself to the loss of several provinces, but she could not make up her mind to part with the strong place of Magdeburg, the retaining of which would be Prussia's safeguard. On his side, Napoleon, who proposed to make his brother Jerome King of Westphalia, wished to add Magdeburg to the new state. It is said that in order to retain this important town, the Queen of Prussia, during dinner, used all the methods of friendliness until Napoleon, to change the conversation, praised a superb rose that the Queen was wearing. The story goes that she said, Will your majesty have this rose in exchange for Magdeburg?' Perhaps it would have been chivalrous to accept, but the Emperor was too practical a man to let himself be caught by a pretty offer, and it is averred that while praising the beauty of the rose and of the hand which offered it, he did not take the flower. The Queen's eyes filled with tears, but the victor affected not to perceive it. He kept Magdeburg and escorted the Queen politely to the boat which was to take her across to the other side.

During our stay at Tilsit, Napoleon reviewed his guard and his army in presence of Alexander, who was struck by the martial air and bearing of the troops. The Emperor of Russia showed in his turn some fine battalions of his guards but the number of his troops of the line had been so reduced at Heilsberg and Friedland that he did not dare to display them. As for the King of Prussia, who only had some weak fragments of regiments remaining, he did not bring them out.

Napoleon concluded with Russia and Prussia a treaty of peace, in which the principal articles were, that a kingdom of Westphalia was created for the benefit of Jerome Bonaparte and the Elector of Saxony, who had become the ally and friend of France, was raised to the rank of king, receiving in addition the grand duchy of Warsaw, consisting of a large province of the old Poland which was taken back from the Prussians. I omit the less important articles of the treaty but its result was to restore peace between the Great Powers of the Continent.

In placing his brother Jerome on the throne of Westphalia, Napoleon added to the mistakes which he had already made when he gave the kingdom of Naples to Joseph and that of Holland to Louis. The people felt themselves humiliated by being compelled to obey strangers, who, so far from having done anything great themselves, were utter nullities, whose only merit was being Napoleon's brothers. The hatred and contempt which these new kings brought on themselves contributed very largely to the fall of the Emperor. The King of Westphalia was especially that one whose goings on made most enemies for Napoleon. Peace being concluded, the two Emperors parted with mutual assurances of attachment, which at that time appeared sincere.


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1. As a matter of fact, Suetonius. Return to paragraph text.

2. The italics are the author's. Napoleon's bulletins after the battles no doubt usually contained a statement to a similar effect, but subsequent investigation tends to show that the statement was not always strictly correct. Return to paragraph text.