Frederic Shoberl (1775 1853) - Frederic Shoberl Narrative of the Most Remarkable Events Which Occurred In and Near Leipzig
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Frederic Shoberl (1775 1853) >> Frederic Shoberl Narrative of the Most Remarkable Events Which Occurred In and Near Leipzig
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NARRATIVE
OF
THE MOST REMARKABLE EVENTS
WHICH OCCURRED
IN AND NEAR LEIPZIG,
IMMEDIATELY BEFORE, DURING, AND SUBSEQUENT TO, THE SANGUINARY SERIES
OF ENGAGEMENTS BETWEEN
THE ALLIED ARMIES OF THE FRENCH,
FROM THE
14th TO THE 19th OCTOBER, 1813
Illustrated with
MILITARY MAPS,
EXHIBITING THE MOVEMENTS OF THE RESPECTIVE ARMIES.
COMPILED AND TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY
FREDERIC SHOBERL.
"Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri
Per campos instructa, tua sine parte pericli."
LUCRET. Lib. ii. 5.
EIGHTH EDITION.
_LONDON:_
PRINTED FOR R. ACKERMANN, 101, STRAND,
_By W. CLOWES, Northumberland court, Strand._
1814.
[Price _Five Shillings_.]
PREFACE.
After a contest of twenty years' duration, Britain, thanks to her
insular position, her native energies, and the wisdom of her counsels,
knows scarcely any thing of the calamities of war but from report, and
from the comparatively easy pecuniary sacrifices required for its
prosecution. No invader's foot has polluted her shores, no hostile hand
has desolated her towns and villages, neither have fire and sword
transformed her smiling plains into dreary deserts. Enjoying a happy
exemption from these misfortunes, she hears the storm, which is destined
to fall with destructive violence upon others, pass harmlessly over her
head. Meanwhile the progress of her commerce and manufactures, and her
improvement in the arts, sciences, and letters, though liable, from
extraordinary circumstances, to temporary obstructions, are sure and
steady; the channels of her wealth are beyond the reach of foreign
malignity; and, after an unparalleled struggle, her vigour and her
resources seem but to increase with the urgency of the occasions that
call them forth.
Far different is the lot of other nations and of other countries. There
is scarcely a region of Continental Europe but has in its turn drunk
deep within these few years of the cup of horrors. Germany, the theatre
of unnumbered contests--the mountains of Switzerland, which for ages had
reverberated only the notes of rustic harmony--the fertile vales of the
Peninsula--the fields of Austria--the sands of Prussia--the vast forests
of Poland, and the boundless plains of the Russian empire--have
successively rung with the din of battle, and been drenched with native
blood. To the inhabitants of several of these countries, impoverished by
the events of war, the boon of British benevolence has been nobly
extended; but the facts related in the following sheets will bear me out
in the assertion, that none of these cases appealed so forcibly to the
attention of the humane as that of Leipzig, and its immediate vicinity.
Their innocent inhabitants have in one short year been reduced, by the
infatuation of their sovereign, and by that greatest of all curses, the
friendship of France, from a state of comfort to absolute beggary; and
thousands of them, stripped of their all, are at this moment houseless
and unprotected wanderers, exposed to the horrors of famine, cold, and
disease.
That Leipzig, undoubtedly the first commercial city of Germany, and the
great Exchange of the Continent, must, in common with every other town
which derives its support from trade and commerce, have severely felt
the effects of what Napoleon chose to nickname _the Continental System_,
is too evident to need demonstration. The sentiments of its inhabitants
towards the author of that system could not of course be very
favourable; neither were they backward in shewing the spirit by which
they were animated, as the following facts will serve to evince:--When
the French, on their return from their disastrous Russian expedition,
had occupied Leipzig, and were beginning, as usual, to levy requisitions
of every kind, an express was sent to the Russian colonel Orloff, who
had pushed forward with his Cossacks to the distance of about 20 miles,
entreating him to release the place from its troublesome guests. He
complied with the invitation; and every Frenchman who had not been able
to escape, and fancied himself secure in the houses, was driven from his
hiding-place, and delivered up to the Cossacks, who were received with
unbounded demonstrations of joy.
About this time a Prussian corps began to be formed in Silesia, under
the denomination of the Corps of Revenge. It was composed of volunteers,
who bound themselves by an oath not to lay down their arms till Germany
had recovered her independence. On the occupation of Leipzig by the
allies, this corps received a great accession of strength from that
place, where it joined by the greater number of the students at the
university, and by the most respectable young men of the city, and other
parts of Saxony. The people of Leipzig moreover availed themselves of
every opportunity to make subscriptions for the allied troops, and large
sums were raised on these occasions. Their mortification was
sufficiently obvious when the French, after the battle of Luetzen, again
entered the city. Those who had so lately welcomed the Russians and
Prussians with the loudest acclamations now turned their backs on their
pretended friends; nay, such was the general aversion, that many strove
to get out of the way, that they might not see them.
This antipathy was well known to Bonaparte by means of his spies, who
were concealed in the town, and he took care to resent it. When, among
others, the deputies of the city of Leipzig, M. Frege, aulic counsellor,
M. Dufour, and Dr. Gross, waited upon him after the battle of Luetzen, he
expressed himself in the following terms respecting the corps of
revenge: _Je sais bien que c'est chez vous qu'on a forme ce corps de
vengeance, mais qui enfin n'est qu'une policonnerie qui n'a ete bon a
rien._ It was on this occasion also that the deputies received from the
imperial ruffian one of those insults which are so common with him, and
which might indeed be naturally expected from such an upstart; for,
when they assured him of the submission of the city, he dismissed them
with these remarkable words: _Allez vous en!_ than which nothing more
contemptuous could be addressed to the meanest beggar.
It was merely to shew his displeasure at the Anti-Gallican sentiments of
the city, that Napoleon, after his entrance into Dresden, declared
Leipzig in a state of siege; in consequence of which the inhabitants
were obliged to furnish gratuitously all the requisitions that he
thought fit to demand. In this way the town, in a very short time, was
plundered of immense sums, exclusively of the expense of the hospitals,
the maintenance of which alone consumed upwards of 30,000 dollars per
week. During this state of things the French, from the highest to the
lowest, seemed to think themselves justified in wreaking upon the
inhabitants the displeasure of their emperor; each therefore, after the
example of his master, was a petty tyrant, whose licentiousness knew no
bounds.
By such means, and by the immense assemblage of troops which began to be
formed about the city at the conclusion of September 1813, its resources
were completely exhausted, when the series of sanguinary engagements
between the 14th and the 19th of the following month reduced it to the
very verge of destruction. In addition to the pathetic details of the
extreme hardships endured by the devoted inhabitants of the field of
battle, which extended to the distance of ten English miles round
Leipzig, contained in the following sheets, I shall beg leave to
introduce the following extract of a letter, written on the 22d
November, by a person of great commercial eminence in that city, who,
after giving a brief account of those memorable days of October, thus
proceeds:--
"By this five days' conflict our city was transformed into one
vast hospital, 56 edifices being devoted to that purpose alone.
The number of sick and wounded amounted to 36,000. Of these a
large proportion died, but their places were soon supplied by the
many wounded who had been left in the adjacent villages. Crowded
to excess, what could be the consequence but contagious diseases?
especially as there was such a scarcity of the necessaries of
life--and unfortunately a most destructive nervous fever is at
this moment making great ravages among us, so that from 150 to 180
deaths commonly occur in one week, in a city whose ordinary
proportion was between 30 and 40. In the military hospitals there
die at least 300 in a day, and frequently from 5 to 600. By this
extraordinary mortality the numbers there have been reduced to
from 14 to 10,000. Consider too the state of the circumjacent
villages, to the distance of 10 miles round, all completely
stripped; in scarcely any of them is there left a single horse,
cow, sheep, hog, fowl, or corn of any kind, either hay or
implements of agriculture. All the dwelling-houses have been
burned or demolished, and all the wood-work about them carried
off for fuel by the troops in bivouac. The roofs have shared the
same fate; the shells of the houses were converted into forts and
loop-holes made in the walls, as every village individually was
defended and stormed. Not a door or window is any where to be
seen, as those might be removed with the greatest ease, and,
together with the roofs, were all consumed. Winter is now at hand,
and its rigours begin already to be felt. These poor creatures are
thus prevented, not only by the season, from rebuilding their
habitations, but also by the absolute want of means; they have no
prospect before them but to die of hunger, for all Saxony,
together with the adjacent countries, has suffered far too
severely to be able to afford any relief to their miseries.
"Our commercial house, God be thanked I has not been plundered;
but every thing in my private house, situated in the suburb of
Grimma, was carried off or destroyed, as you may easily conceive,
when I inform you that a body of French troops broke open the door
on the 19th, and defended themselves in the house against the
Prussians. Luckily I had a few days before removed my most
valuable effects to a place of safety. I had in the house one
killed and two wounded; but, a few doors off, not fewer than 60
were left dead in one single house.--Almost all the houses in the
suburbs have been more or less damaged by the shower of balls on
the 19th."
That these pictures of the miseries occasioned by the sanguinary
conflict which sealed the emancipation of the Continent from Gallic
despotism are not overcharged is proved by the concurrent testimony of
all the other accounts which have arrived from that quarter. Among the
rest a letter received by the publisher, from the venerable count
Schoenfeld, a Saxon nobleman of high character, rank, and affluence, many
years ambassador both at the court of Versailles, before the revolution,
and till within a few years at Vienna, is so interesting, that I am
confident I shall need no excuse for introducing it entire. His
extensive and flourishing estates south-east of Leipzig have been the
bloody cradle of regenerated freedom. The short space of a few days has
converted them into a frightful desert, reduced opulent villages into
smoking ruins; and plunged his Miserable tenants as well as himself into
a state of extreme Want, until means can be found again to cultivate the
soil and to rebuild the dwellings. He writes as follows:--
"It is with a sensation truly peculiar and extraordinary that I
take up my pen to address you, to whom I had, some years since,
the pleasure of writing several times on subjects of a very
different kind: but it is that very difference between those times
and the present, and the most wonderful series of events which
have followed each other during that period in rapid succession,
the ever-memorable occurrences of the last years and months, the
astonishing success which rejoices all Europe, and has
nevertheless plunged many thousands into inexpressible misery; it
is all this that has long engaged my attention, and presses itself
upon me at the moment I am writing. In events like these, every
individual, however distant, must take some kind of interest,
either as a merchant or a man of letters, a soldier or an artist;
or, if none of these, at least as a man. How strongly the late
events must interest every benevolent and humane mind I have no
need to tell you, who must more feelingly sympathize in them from
the circumstance that it is your native country, where the
important question, whether the Continent of Europe should
continue to wear an ignominious yoke, and whether it deserved the
fetters of slavery, because it was not capable of bursting them,
has been decisively answered by the greatest and the most
sanguinary contest that has occurred for many ages. That same
Saxony, which three centuries ago released part of the world from
the no less galling yoke of religious bondage; which, according to
history, has been the theatre of fifteen great battles; that same
Saxony is now become the cradle of the political liberty of the
Continent. But a power so firmly rooted could not be overthrown
without the most energetic exertions; and, while millions are now
raising the shouts of triumph, there are, in Saxony alone, a
million of souls who are reduced to misery too severe to be
capable of taking any part in the general joy, and who are now
shedding the bitterest tears of abject wretchedness and want That
such is the fact is confirmed to me by the situation of my
acquaintance and neighbours, by that of my suffering tenants, and
finally by my own. The ever-memorable and eventful battles of the
16th to the 19th of October began exactly upon and between my two
estates of Stoermthal and Liebertwolkwitz. All that the oppressive
imposts, contributions, and quarterings, as well as the rapacity
of the yet unvanquished French, had spared, became on these
tremendous days a prey to the flames, or was plundered by those
who called themselves allies of our king, but whom the country
itself acknowledged as such only through compulsion. Whoever could
save his life with the clothes upon his back might boast of his
good fortune; for many, who were obliged, with broken hearts, to
leave their burning houses, lost their apparel also. Out of the
produce of a tolerably plentiful harvest, not a grain is left for
sowing; the little that was in the barns was consumed in
_bivouac_, or, next morning, in spite of the prayers and
entreaties of the owners, wantonly burned by the laughing fiends.
Not a horse, not a cow, not a sheep, is now to be seen; nay,
several species of animals appear to be wholly exterminated in
Saxony. I have myself lost a flock of 2000 Spanish sheep, Tyrolese
and Swiss cattle, all my horses, waggons, and household utensils.
The very floors of my rooms were torn up; my plate, linen, and
important papers and documents, were carried away and destroyed.
Not a looking-glass, not a pane in the windows, or a chair, is
left. The same calamity befell my wretched tenants, over whose
misfortunes I would willingly forget my own. All is desolation and
despair, aggravated by the certain prospect of epidemic diseases
and famine. Who can relieve such misery, unless God should be
pleased to do it by means of those generous individuals, to whom,
in my own inability to help, I am now obliged to appeal?
"I apply, therefore, to you, Sir; and request you, out of love to
your wretched country, which is so inexpressibly devastated, to
solicit the aid of your opulent friends and acquaintance, who,
with the generosity peculiar to the whole nation, may feel for the
unmerited misery of others, in behalf of my wretched tenants in
Liebertwolkwitz and Stoermthal. These poor and truly helpless
unfortunates would, with tears, pay the tribute of their warmest
gratitude to their generous benefactors, if they needed that
gratitude in addition to the satisfaction resulting from so noble
an action. You will not, I am sure, misunderstand my request, as
it proceeds from a truly compassionate heart, but which, by its
own losses, is reduced so low as to be unable to afford any relief
to others. Should it ever be possible for me to serve you or any
of your friends here, depend upon my doing all that lies within my
poor ability. Meanwhile I remain, in expectation of your kind and
speedy fulfilment of my request,
"Sir,
"Your most obedient friend and servant,
"COUNT SCHONFELD."
_Leipzig, Nov. 22, 1813.
To Mr. Ackermann, London._
"P.S.--I have been obliged, by the weakness of my sight, to employ
another hand. I remember the friendly sentiments which you here
testified for me with the liveliest gratitude. My patriotic way of
thinking, which drew upon me also the hatred of the French
government, occasioned me, four years since, to resign the post of
ambassador, which I had held twenty-five years, and to retire from
service[1]."
From documents transmitted to the publisher by friends at Leipzig, have
been selected the narratives contained in the following sheets, which
were written by eye-witnesses of the facts there related. The principal
object of their publication is not so much to expose tine atrocities of
Gallic ruffians, as to awaken the sympathies and call forth the humanity
of the British nation. Like that glorious luminary, whose genial rays
vivify and invigorate all nature, Britain is looked up to by the whole
civilized world for support against injustice, and for solace in
distress. To her liberality the really unfortunate have never yet
appealed in vain; and, with this experience before his eyes, the
publisher confidently anticipates in behalf of his perishing countrymen
the wonted exercise of that godlike quality, which
"---- droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven?
And blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] R. ACKERMANN would not feel himself justified in printing this
letter, nor in presuming to make an appeal to the British public in
behalf of the writer, were he not personally acquainted with the
character of this unfortunate and patriotic nobleman, who is held in the
highest veneration and respect for his benevolence to his numerous
tenantry, his liberality to strangers, and his general philanthropy. To
relieve the distresses which he has so pathetically described, the
publisher solicits the contributions of the benevolent. A distinct book
has been opened for that charitable-purpose at No. 101, Strand, in which
even the smallest sums, with the names of the donors, may be entered,
and to which, as well as to the original letter, reference may be made
by those who feel disposed to peruse, them.
NARRATIVE, &c.
You know, my dear friend, how often I have expressed the inconsiderate
wish to have some time or other an opportunity of witnessing a general
engagement. This wish has now been accomplished, and in such a way as
had well nigh proved fatal to myself; for my life had like to have been
forfeited to my curiosity. I may boast, however, with perfect truth,
that, during the four most tremendous days, I was wholly unaffected by
that alarm and terror which had seized all around me. On those four days
I was a near and undisturbed observer of a conflict which can scarcely
be paralleled In the annals of the world: a conflict distinguished by a
character which raises it far above your ordinary every-day battles. Its
consequences will extend not to Europe only, but to regions separated
from it by vast oceans. You must not expect from me a narrative that
will enter into military details, but merely a faithful historical
picture of what fell under my own observation; of what my own eyes,
assisted by an excellent telescope, could discover from one of the
highest buildings in the city, in the centre of operations, in the midst
of a circumference of more than eighteen leagues; and what I saw and
heard while venturing, at the hazard of my life, out of the city, not
indeed up to the mouths of the infernal volcanoes, but close in the
rear of the French lines, into the horrible bustle and tumult of the
baggage-waggons and bivouacs. We were here exactly in the middle of the
immense magic circle, where the incantations thundered forth from
upwards of fifteen hundred engines of destruction annihilated many
thousands, in order to produce a new creation. It was the conflict of
the Titans against Olympus. It is unparalleled in regard to the
commanders, great part of whom knew nothing of defeat but from the
discomfiture of their opponents, and among whom were three emperors, a
king, and the heir-apparent to a throne;--it is unparalleled in regard
to the form, for it was fought in a circle which embraced more than
fifteen miles;--it is unparalleled in regard to the prodigious armies
engaged, for almost half a million of warriors out of every region of
Europe and Asia, from the mouth of the Tajo to the Caucasus, with near
two thousand pieces of cannon, were arrayed against one another;--it is
unparalleled in regard to its duration, for it lasted almost one hundred
hours;--it is unparalleled in regard to the plan so profoundly combined
and so maturely digested by the allies, and characterized by an unity,
which, in a gigantic mass, composed of such, multifarious parts, would
have been previously deemed impossible;--it is unparalleled also in
regard to its consequences, the full extent of which time alone can
develop, and the first of which, the dissolution of the confederation of
the Rhine, the overthrow of the Continental system, and the deliverance
of Germany, are already before our eyes:--finally, it is unparalleled in
regard to single extraordinary events, the most remarkable of which is,
that the majority of the allies of the grand army, who had fought under
the banners of France in so many engagements with exemplary valour and
obstinacy, in the midst of this conflict, as if wakened by an electric
shock, went over in large bodies, with their drums beating and with all
their artillery, to the hostile legions, and immediately turned their
arms against their former associates. The annals of modern warfare
exhibit no examples of such a phenomenon, except upon the most
contracted scale. You may possibly object, that in all this there is
some exaggeration; and that, if I rate the battle of Leipzig so highly,
it is only because I happened to be an eye-witness of it myself; that
the French army is by no means annihilated; that in the uncommon talents
of its leader it possesses a sure pledge that it will regain from its
enemies those laurels which on various occasions they have ravished from
it for a moment. You may employ other arguments of a similar kind; but
to these I boldly reply, that neither do I consider the French army as
annihilated; that such a calamity could scarcely befall a force which in
the month of May, after ten engagements, numbered not less than 400,000
men, and was conducted by a general who had already won near fifty
battles: but this I maintain, that the mighty eagle, which proudly
aspired to encompass the whole globe in his flight, has had his wings
crippled at Leipzig to such a degree, that in future he will scarcely be
inclined to venture beyond the inaccessible crags which he has chosen
for his retreat. For my part, I cannot help considering the battle of
Leipzig as the same (only on an enlarged scale) as that gained near this
very spot 180 years ago, by the great Gustavus Adolphus. In this
conflict it was certainly decided that Napoleon, so far from being able
to sustain such another engagement in Germany, will not have it in his
power to make any stand on the right bank of the Rhine, nor recover
himself till secure with the relics of his dispirited army behind the
bulwarks of his own frontier.
Four times had the sun pursued his course over the immense field of
battle before the die of Fate decided its issue. The whole horizon was
enveloped in clouds of smoke and vapours; every moment fresh columns of
fire shot up from the circumjacent villages; in all points were seen the
incessant flashes of the guns, whose deep thunders, horribly
intermingled with continual volleys of small arms, which frequently
seemed quite close to the gates of the city, shook the very ground. Add
to this the importance of the question which was to be resolved in this
murderous contest, and you may form a faint conception of the anxiety,
the wishes, the hopes,--in a word, of the cruel suspense which pervaded
every bosom in this city.
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