[1807.] r from that: Schanze take the besiege but, on 2 hich circ the pres ith the b measures o attempt nd, therefor was con isports and om 12,000: ichselmun fely effectes lonel Buk sandy is and hinde attack reen the B ity to defe ia. Oud to Fürste the Vist hat the s ss, at 3 hram, co ; Lefebr iscomfit ght upt came up th Frea e forced: under ment, 's colum effectus hought dy that FALL OF DANTZIG AND STRALSUND. 31 the officers of the French staff were struck down by their fire. Kalkreuth, from the garrison, only seconded this brave attempt to relieve him by a cannonade; indeed, it is possible that he was now so hemmed in by the besiegers that he could no longer have recourse to a sortie. The defence now depended solely on the mines, which considerably impeded the descent into the ditch, and did much mischief to the besieging force, On the 20th a final attempt was made to stop or retard the works of the besiegers by a sortie, which had the effect of destroying a portion of their works; but, on the 21st, it became known that Marshal Mortier had arrived in the French camp, which nearly doubled their effective strength, and that now there could be no question of an effective assault, for which everything was ready. Lefebvre, however, determined to first try to move the resolute old governor by the offer of an honourable capitulation. To Colonel Lacoste, of the Engineers, was intrusted the negotiations with Kalkreuth, who could not at once accept the terms offered him, but referred it to the Czar. In the interval between that day and the 24th, the Emperor relaxed in his demands, terms were agreed upon, and the gallant old Field-Marshal marched out on the 27th, with all the honours of war, and was conducted to the Prussian outposts at Pillau with a force which had been gallantly diminished in the defence of Dantzig from 16,000 to 9000 men. They left in the fortress plenty of guns, but scarcely any gunpowder. Marshal Lefebvre entered Dantzig the same day at the head of his corps, his gallant brother-marshals, Lannes and Mortier, declining to share the triumph which he had so justly merited, and which gained for him the title of Duke of Dantzig. As soon as the Emperor heard that the city had surrendered, he repaired thither to inspect the defences, and brought with him the Persian Ambassador, who had come to him at his head-quarters at Finkenstein, and to whom, having already shown the might of his arms, he now gave audience of leave in the captured fortress. 10. SIEGE OF STRALSUND. The last strong place that now remained to the Allies on the western side of the Vistula was Stralsund. Marshal Mortier had been sent, towards the middle of February, to lay siege to the capital of Swedish Pomerania. Early in March, Napoleon, who saw that he had to deal with a crack-brained opponent in the King of Sweden, thought that he might, by a show of consideration, detach him from the Alliance, and, accordingly, desired Mortier to offer an armistice to the Governor of Stralsund. The Marshal, accordingly, drew off 7000 men from the investing forces, and proceeded with them to the blockade of Colberg, leaving the troops before Stralsund, under the command of General Granjeau, as above stated. In the beginning of April, Napoleon, already anticipating the stubborn defence of Dantzig by Marshal Kalkreuth, directed the investment of Stralsund to be altogether raised, and the 32 THE CONVENTION OF BARTENSTEIN. [A.D. blockading troops marched away to the Lower Vistula. The Swedish Governor-General, Van Essen, as soon as he perceived the withdrawal of the French, assembled his forces, and marching at the head of one column, while Lieut.-General Baron Arnfeldt headed another, came up with the French at Lussow, and completely overthrew them, driving them to Vogelshagen, where they entrenched themselves on the heights. Van Essen again attacked them, and drove them as far as Anclam, where he captured considerable magazines, together with the military chest containing 2000 Fredericks-d'or and 3000 crowns. During the progress of the French in the retreat, 20 officers and 1000 men were made prisoners. Against this advance of the Swedes, Marshal Mortier turned back, and on the 16th, at break of day, drove out the troops from Anclam, and made himself master of the bridge over the Peine, where a Swedish column, commanded by General Cardell, was cut off on the 17th. General Arnfeldt was wounded by a grape shot in this encounter, and, as soon as he found himself hors de combat, sent off to apprise Van Essen of his misfortune, who then despatched a flag of truce to the French Marshal to ask for time to remove the sick and wounded from the hospitals. Mortier, who knew how much his Emperor wished to detach the Swedes from the Alliance, readily granted the armistice. When the King heard of it, early in May, he repaired to Stralsund, and highly rewarded Van Essen, but disgraced Arnfeldt. The armistice was, by a supplementary convention, extended to the 29th, but on the 17th of June the King signed a treaty of alliance with England, and wrote to the King of Prussia that he still desired to abide by the Confederacy, which he also repeated in a conversation with Marshal Brune, who had succeeded Mortier. 11. THE CONVENTION OF BARTENSTEIN. The Emperor Alexander quitted St. Petersburg on the 28th of March to repair to his army, but, in the first instance, paid a visit to the King of Prussia, who resided with his family and a small court at Memel. The two Sovereigns afterwards established their head-quarters together at Bartenstein. At this place, in the month of April, Austria interposed its good offices to effect a peace, but Great Britain, under the influence of Mr. Canning, Foreign Secretary, instead of furthering this object, reverted in the most decided manner to the former policy of England, urging uncompromising hostility to the ambition of France. A treaty was accordingly signed at Bartenstein between Great Britain, Russia, and Prussia, by which the former bound herself to furnish succours in arms, ammunition, and money to the troops of the Allies, and, at the same time, undertook to disembark a strong auxiliary force at the mouth of the Elbe, to co-operate with the Swedes in Pomerania, while the combined Russian and Prussian armies should attack the French Emperor in their front. The bulk of the allied army was at this time cantoned round Heilsburg, where a formidable entrenched camp had been established. The cantonments, with the great commercial city of 1807.] THE ARMIES RESUME HOSTILITIES. 33 Königstein in their rear, abounded in all the usual comforts of military quarters, and important accessions to the strength of the army, by the return of the sick and wounded from the hospitals, were of continual recurrence. Towards the end of March, 30,000 fresh troops, including the remainder of the Russian guard, arrived to the army, under the Grand-Duke Constantine, with several batteries of light artillery. A powerful reserve, drawn from the depôts in the interior of the Empire, amounting to another reinforcement of 30,000, was also advancing under Prince Labanoff, but these were too distant to be expected to come into line before the end of June. The whole army under Benningsen at this period comprised 118,000 men, veterans inured to war, and animated by the spirit of the past campaign, and by the presence of the Emperor and King. Benningsen's head-quarters were at Arensdorff, where he had under his immediate command three divisions and the light cavalry. Two divisions, under Lieutenant-General Doctorow, lay at Neuhof; Gortschakow, with his corps, was at Kaphausen; and those of Platow and Knoving were in the vicinity of Bergfried. The guard under the Grand-Duke Constantine was advanced to Launau; Kamenskoi was in reserve; the Prussians were at Nehrung. The French army is said to have been increased at this juncture, from various causes, to 170,000 fighting men of all arms, excellently well supplied and fitted for the field; but this probably included the immense reinforcements which were in march to join it. Marshal Brune was coming up with 15,000 men, drawn from Holland and the Hanse Towns; there were 14,000 Spaniards marching towards the Elbe from the Pyrenees, and the divisions Bondet and Molitor had already entered Germany. Had it been necessary, there were, moreover, about 15,000 Würtemberg troops now idle in Silesia, and 10,000 could be well spared out of the German garrisons. The first corps was in the field, under the command of the Prince Marshal, at Braunsberg and Spanden, behind the Passargo; Soult's corps was in the neighbourhood of Liebstadt; Ney's corps at Guttstadt, with an advance beyond the Passargo at Wolfersdorff; Davoust's corps was at Allenstien; Lannes at Osterode; and Mortier was on march from the Lower Vistula to join the army. The head-quarters of Napoleon, with the Imperial guard, were at Finkenstein. The cavalry, under the Grand-Duke of Berg, were in cantonments between the rivers Passargo and Vistula. On the extreme right, upon the Narew, the corps under Marshal Massena observed General Tutschakow, who had succeeded Van Essen, with about an equal force. 12. RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES BY THE ARMIES. It might have been thought extraordinary that Benningsen should have refrained from any attack on the French army during the siege of Dantzig, and should have advanced for the purpose when his adversary had no other operation on his hands; but in a Council of War, held at Bartenstein, it was considered that, as the French line of cantonments extended considerably from Braunsberg to 34 THE RUSSIANS ADVANCE. [A.D. Guttstadt, it might be possible to fall with effect upon Ney, who was the most advanced, and, by driving a strong mass of troops across the Passargo into his rear, the two extreme wings of the French army would thus be separated. On the morning of the 5th of June, accordingly, the whole allied army was set in motion for the execution of this well-conceived enterprise. The Russian army was divided into seven divisions, and directed upon the same number of points of the French line. The two divisions under Doctorow moved upon Olbersdoff against the outposts of the French on the right bank of the Passargo. The second column, of three divisions with cavalry, commanded by Baron Sacken, marched against Ney's advanced post at Wolfersdorff. The third column, under Prince Bagration, advanced from Launau, with a view of diverting the attention of the enemy from the principal attack. The fourth column, under Prince Gortschakow; and the fifth, under the Hetman Platow, were to cross the Alle and fall upon the French troops at Guttstadt, Bergfried, and Allerstein. The sixth column, under the Grand-Duke Constantine, was to take up a position in reserve at Petersdorff, in front of Wolfersdorff; and the seventh, under General Rembow, was to attack the tête du pont which the Prince of Ponte-Corvo had established at Spanden. At the extreme right of the Russian line, General Lestocq, with the Prussian corps, was to make a false attack on Braunsberg; and on the extreme left, General Tutschakow established a chain of Cossacks from Ostrolenka, to cooperate with Platow's division in concealing the movement in advance as much as possible from Massena's observation, and to cut off his communications. Lestocq, from some mistake or other, made his false attack on Braunsberg on the 3rd of June, before the real attack could be organised, and alarmed Bernadotte, so as to make him suspect a forward movement of the enemy. The country between the Vistula and the Pregel is, however, so covered with forests and lakes, without any high roads, that the movements of hostile troops across it could not be well watched; but Napoleon, with that wonderful prescience which accompanied his command everywhere, had so echeloned his divisions in their cantonments, and had so imperatively enjoined that every division should protect their approach by épaulements of earth and by abattis, that the most ordinary vigilance was sufficient to protect them from surprise, and they could at any time be supported from one side or the other before it would be necessary for them to give way against any attack from the enemy. At 6 in the morning of the 5th, therefore, Doctorow, debouching from the forest of Wormditt, presented himself on the banks of the Passargo, before Lomitten, and commenced an attack, covered by Cossacks. The outposts having retired before the Russian advance, a bloody fight ensued with Soult's corps from behind their works and abattis in the forest. The Russians, however, attacked in force, and, during the fight, made several demonstrations to pass the Passargo. A strong body of cavalry, indeed, did cross it by a ford below the destroyed bridge of Spartinau. The Russians endeavoured to restore 1807.] THEIR ASSAULT VIGOROUSLY OPPOSED. 35 the bridge, but it was set on fire by the light infantry under General Viviez. They then endeavoured to force the bridge of Lomitten, but without success. Soult now opened 12 guns, which were so well served under Major Degennes, that they soon obtained a superiority of fire over the numerous artillery of Doctorow. The Russian General, knowing that his movement was secondary to the grand attack to be made upon Ney, and finding it impossible to force the bridges, now changed the direction of his offensive by an attack upon Kalchstein; but Soult observing his design, ordered General Carra St. Cry to withdraw his division from behind the abattis in the woods of Lomitten, and to resist every attempt to cross the river. The fight, nevertheless, lasted till near 8 at night, when Doctorow, finding himself unable to force a passage at any point, withdrew to Olbersdorff, sending two divisions to Guttstadt to support the right attack. This affair at Lomitten cost a great deal of blood on both sides, the aggregate of which was 1000 killed and 3000 wounded. It was near 9 o'clock when the attack was made upon the bridge across the Passargo, at Spanden, which General Frère defended. General Lestocq commenced with a two hours' cannonade, and then ordered the assault. The Prince Marshal directed General Lapisse and General Girard to move upon the rear of the enemy, and was in the act of making his dispositions for the repulse of the Prussians, when he was struck by a musket-ball, which made him reel in the saddle and quit the field, but not before he had directed his Chief of the Staff, General Maison, to advance General Villette to the support of Frère. This Russian assault was, therefore, vigorously opposed, and the movements ordered in flank and rear had the effect expected from them, for the assailants were obliged to fall back in great confusion, and with some 700 casualties. The But the principal point to which Benningsen directed his movement was upon the corps of Marshal Ney, at Guttstadt. Prince Bagration led his column upon Altkirch, where General Marchand received the attack with his division, who, however, retired before the Russian advance; but Baron Sacken's division, which was to have supported Bagration on the right, did not come up for two hours, during which Ney discovered that he was opposed to very superior numbers, and took advantage of the delay in the concentration of his antagonist's preparations to retire in perfect order upon Ankersdorff, although, in his retreat, his baggage, with General Roger, and two guns, fell into the hands of the enemy. Bagration continued his advance on the 6th, and came up with the French rear-guard at Heiligenthal, but Ney, with all his wonted courage and firmness, so imposed upon his adversary, that he obtained time for his whole force to defile along the bridge of Deppen, and took up his position behind it, on the left bank of the Passargo. The Prince Bagration now occupied the right bank of the stream, with his own division and that of Gortschakow, and here he was joined by the two divisions sent to him by Doctorow. Benningsen, however, had entirely missed his object; he had failed either to envelope or cut off any portion of the French army, and he now |