Napoleon's Letters To Josephine Part 62

_November 26th-28th._--French cross the Beresina, but lose 20,000 prisoners and nearly all their cannon (150).

_November 29th.--Napoleon writes Maret he has heard nothing of France or Spain for fifteen days._

_December 3rd._--Twenty-ninth bulletin dated Malodeczna, fifty miles west of Borisow.

_December 5th.--Napoleon reaches Smorgoni, and starts for France._

_December 10th._--Murat, left in command, evacuates Wilna. French retreat in utter rout; "It is not General Kutusoff who routed the French, it is General Morosow" (the frost), said the Russians.

_December 14th.--Napoleon reaches Dresden, and_

_December 18th.--Paris._

_December 19th._--Evacuation of Kovno and pa.s.sage of the Niemen.

_December 20th.--Napoleon welcomed by the Senate in a speech by the naturalist Lacepede: "The absence of your Majesty, sire, is always a national calamity."_

_December 30th._--Defection of the Prussian General York and Convention of Taurogen, near Tilsit, between Russia and Prussia.

This defection is the signal for the uprising of Germany from the Oder to the Rhine, from the Baltic to the Julienne Alps.

1813.

_January 5th._--Konigsberg occupied by the Russians.

_January 13th._--Senatus Consultus calls up 250,000 conscripts.

_January 22nd._--Americans defeated at Frenchtown, near Detroit, and lose 1200 men.

_January 25th.--Concordat at Fontainebleau between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII., with advantageous terms for the Papacy. The Pope, however, soon breaks faith._

_January 28th.--Murat deserts the French army for Naples, and leaves Posen. "Your husband is very brave on the battlefield, but he is weaker than a woman or a monk when he is not face to face with an enemy. He has no moral courage"_ (_Napoleon to his sister Caroline, January 24, 1813._ Brotonne, 1032). _Replaced by Eugene (Napoleon's letter dated January 22nd)._

_February 1st._--Proclamation of Louis XVIII. to the French people (dated London).

_February 8th._--Warsaw surrenders to Russia.

_February 10th._--Proclamation of Emperor Alexander calling on the people of Germany to shake off the yoke of "one man."

_February 28th._--Sixth Continental Coalition against France.

Treaty signed between Russia and Prussia at Kalisch.

_March 3rd._--New treaty between England and Sweden at Stockholm: Sweden to receive a subsidy of a million sterling and the island of Guadaloupe in return for supporting the Coalition with 30,000 men.

_March 4th._--Cossacks occupy Berlin. Madison inaugurated President U.S.A.

_March 9th._--Eugene removes his headquarters to Leipsic.

_March 12th._--French evacuate Hamburg.

_March 21st._--Russians and Prussians take new town of Dresden.

_April 1st._--France declares war on Prussia.

_April 10th._--_Death of Lagrange, mathematician_; _greatly bemoaned by Napoleon, who considered his death as a "presentiment"_ (D'Abrantes).

_April 14th._--Swedish army lands in Germany.

_April 15th.--Napoleon leaves Paris; arrives Erfurt (April 25th)._ Americans take Mobile.

_April 16th._--Thorn (garrisoned by 900 Bavarians) surrenders to the Russians. Fort York (now Toronto) and

_April 27th._--Upper Canada taken by the Americans.

_May 1st._--Death of the Abbe Delille, poet. Opening of campaign.

French forces scattered in Germany, 166,000 men; Allies' forces ready for action, 225,000 men. Marshal Bessieres killed by a cannon-ball at Poserna.

_May 2nd.--Napoleon with 90,000 men defeats Prussians and Russians at Lutzen (Gross-Goerschen) with 110,000; French loss, 10,000.

Battle won_ _chiefly by French artillery. Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia present._

_May 8th.--Napoleon and the French reoccupy Dresden._

_May 18th._--Eugene reaches Milan, and enrols an Italian army 47,000 strong.

_May 19th-21st.--Combats of Konigswartha, Bautzen, Hochkirch, Wurschen. Napoleon defeats Prussians and Russians; French loss, 12,000; Allies, 20,000._

_May 23rd.--Duroc (shot on May 22nd) dies. "Duroc," said the Emperor, "there is another life. It is there you will go to await me, and there we shall meet again some day."_

_May 27th._--Americans capture Fort George (Lake Ontario) and

_May 29th._--Defeat English at Sackett's Harbour.

_May 30th._--French re-enter Hamburg and

_June 1st._--Occupy Breslau. British frigate _Shannon_ captures _Chesapeake_ in fifteen minutes outside Boston harbour.

_June 4th.--Armistice of Plesswitz, between Napoleon and the Allies._

_June 6th._--Americans (3500) surprised at Burlington Heights by 700 British.

_June 15th.--Siege of Tarragona raised by Suchet; English re-embark, leaving their artillery. "If I had had two marshals such as Suchet, I should not only have conquered Spain, but I should have kept it"_ (_Napoleon in_ Campan's Memoirs).

_June 21st._--Battle of Vittoria; total rout of the French under Marshal Jourdan and King Joseph. In retreat the army is much more hara.s.sed by the guerillas than by the English.

_June 23rd._--Admiral c.o.c.kburn defeated at Craney Island by Americans.

_June 24th._--Five hundred Americans surrender to two hundred Canadians at Beaver's Dams.

_June 25th._--Combat of Tolosa. Foy stops the advance of the English right wing.