Correspondence of
Marshal Davout
15 September, 1806 - 14 October, 1806 (170 - 179)
170 - To General Friant
Paris, 15 September 1806
I have arrived from Saint Cloud, my dear General; His
Majesty received me with his usual good will. He spoke to me of departing
within a few days in order to rejoin you. This news is for you alone and my
Chief of Staff. Everything is war here; a detachment of the Guard left this
morning. Meanwhile, many persons believe that these preparations have no other
purpose than to bring about peace and, as a consequence, to render the Prussian
armaments ridiculous. But, in any case, we are prepared; my last inspection of
the troops convinced me of this. There is a very important item, however, which
we completely lack; this is that of canteens, pots, etc, I was assured here
that there was no means of delivering them to us. It is thus necessary to count
only on ourselves. Also, I beg you, on receiving this letter, to warn the
division commanders to charge the colonels with assuring themselves that, in
the event of the order to depart, each captain will procure from the local
inhabitants by private contract those pots of beaten sheet iron which are used
in Germany. This article is not very costly and will give the soldier the
ability to make his soup. It is necessary that each company procure these so as
to have one or two extra. It will be better to be rich in this respect, since
only too many will be lost. This order must be promptly executed and is for all
arms of the 3rd Corps.
It is probable that, when you receive this letter, I will be
en route to rejoin you.
Your wife is doing well and has been at Pontoise for some
days, where she had to look for her mother. My wife was surprised by my
arrival. She sends a thousand greetings to her excellent brother in law. I am
departing immediately for Savigny to make the acquaintance of my little one
there.
171 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, Etc.
Bamberg, 1 October 1806
My lord, I have just arrived at Bamberg in order to
cooperate with the Prince of Ponte Corvo, who communicated the orders of Your
Most Serene Highness to me the 29th, making known to me that the intention of
the Emperor is that I detach my cavalry on Cronach; that I have this fortress
occupied and that I immediately seek to have it put in good condition; and,
finally, that Marshal Bernadotte will make known to me the orders that you have
issued on this subject; the disparity in date and the movement which the Prince
of Ponte Corvo is making leads me to suppose that there are new dispositions of
which I have no knowledge. Be that as it may, as I had the honor of rendering
account to you this morning, having arrived from Forcheim only this evening, I
can. only move it between Bamberg and Staffelstein tomorrow; I will thus have
the time to receive the orders of Your Highness on the subsequent movements of
this cavalry; meanwhile, I will direct the entire 7th Hussars on Cronach in
conformance with the first orders of Your Most Serene Highness.
The First Division has arrived and is established between
Bamberg and Forcheim, its head at a league from the former village, where
tomorrow it will support its left,, its right extending to beside Staffelstein;
tomorrow, the 2nd, all the rest of the 3rd Corps will be between Bamberg and
Forcheim; Your Most Serene Highness can count on that.
I sent a battalion commander to Cronach on receiving your
letter of the 27th,
172 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, etc.
Bamberg, 2 October 1806
My lord, I have the honor of rendering an account to Your
Highness of the various positions occupied today by the 3rd Corps.
The 1st Division is established in column between
Staffelstein exclusively and Hallstadt; Bamberg will be occupied by a regiment
of this division.
The 2nd Division is likewise placed in column between
Bamberg and Hirscheid inclusively.
The 3rd Division in the same order between Hirscheid and
Forcheim.
The light cavalry reserve between Schesliz, Hallstadt and
Bamberg.
The materiel from the reserve park is near Forcheim, and the
personnel as well as the horses cantoned in the villages located on the left
bank of the Wisen.
I have the honor of recalling to Your Highness that the
object of my letter of yesterday was to know if your continuing intention was
that I send my light cavalry to Cronach: I ardently desire to receive the last
orders of Your Highness in order to rid myself of embarrassment in this regard.
P.S. The 7th Hussars is continuing its movement on Cronach,
in conformance with the first orders of Your Highness.
173 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, etc.
Bamberg, 5 October 1806
My lord, I have the honor of assuring Your Highness that the
3rd Corps is cantoned in such a way as to be able to be assembled at Bamberg in
five hours and prepared to put itself on the march at the first order that Your
Highness would be able to have issued to me.
174 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, etc.
Bamberg, 5 October 1806
My lord, I have the honor of rendering an account to Your
Highness of the result of the review of the Corps which I have held in
accordance with the order of the day of 3 October.
In general, all the troops have profited by the period of
rest in order to prepare themselves to enter upon a campaign, and I must add
that the solicitude of the generals and the officers has had the best
results.
The arms are everywhere in very good condition, In the
entire Corps there were less than fifteen or twenty bayonets lacking, which
were replaced a few hours later.
The clothing has been received and issued by all the
regiments; the troops are in the dress in which they would have appeared, if
they had passed in review before His Majesty the Emperor in Paris.
The foot-gear fulfills the intentions of His Majesty; each
soldier has two pairs of shoes in his pack and one on his feet; some regiments
even have a fourth pair of them in reserve which they are having follow, some
ones more, all some spare pairs.
As to field utensils, these objects had been entirely
overlooked; but, since the march began, this has essentially been attended to;
the entire 1st Division can be considered as having that which is necessary to
it.
The 2nd is much less supplied; but, in less than twenty-four
hours, it will be on a level with the former. The 3rd is furthest behind;
however, there is only this reproach to make against it, for it is excellently
turned out.
There is nothing lacking to the artillery; the troops are
provided with 50 cartridges per man and 3 flints.
In addition to the provisioning of 1,200,000 cartridges,
contained in the caissons, there remain 200,000 of them arising from the last
shipment of 300,000 which I had requested in order to complete the 50 per man,
I will have the remaining 200,000 stored at Cronach; because I have no means of
transport in order to have them follow, and as it would be exposing them to
being completely spoiled to have them transported on local vehicles.
175 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, etc.
6 October 1806
My lord, the reports on the Prussians are very obscure; it
turns out only that they are on the march and extensively in motion.
Yesterday the 7th, everything led me to believe that he had
arrived at Cobourg about four o'clock in the evening, from whence they allowed
no one to enter or leave. Up to the present time, there had appeared at Cobourg
only 30 or 36 hussars who had been there for five days.
One was assured there that a detachment of the Prussian Army
should have arrived the same day at Saalfeld and had thrust an advance guard on
Grafenthal.
According to these reports, the large Prussian forces should
assemble on Jena and Saalfeld.
At Cobourg it is rumored that the King of Prussia should
have proceeded today to Bamberg in order to have a conference with our
sovereign.
I sent a detachment to Culenbach, in order to have news of
Marshal Soult; it has not yet returned.
All the army will be assembled today, quite early, in front
of Cronach, in accordance with the orders of Your Highness.
176 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel etc.
Posneck, 11 October 1806, at 2 o'clock in the
morning
My lord, as I had the honor of rendering an account to you
verbally by one of my aides de camp, I was obliged to have the head of the
infantry column stop at Posneck, as much to await news of the cavalry of
General Milhaud, whom I had had move forward, as in order to give time to the
infantry to assemble, the march, as long as rapid, having extremely elongated
its columns.
After the first reports from General Milhaud, I had a first
regiment move in front of Posneck, to the branching of the routes from Neustadt
and from Hummelsham; the remainder of the Dupont Division and the Morand
Division will proceed here at daybreak.
Some Cavalry parties have been sent on Neustadt and
Saalfeld.
A reconnaissance of the 13th Regiment of mounted chasseurs,
directed by Saalfeld, thrust out a small detachment on its right which fell on
a Prussian infantry and cavalry post and seized a hussar from Wolfrad and two
fusiliers from the 1st Battalion of Prussian chasseurs.
These prisoners report that there were, at the Saalfeld
affair carried on by the French, 7 Saxon battalions and 2 Prussian squadrons;
Prince Louis commanded in person; these troops came from Neustadt; they knew
nothing of the Grand Army, other than that it is spread about that it is
marching forward.
There have just arrived from the Schimmelfening Regiment of
hussars three prisoners gathered up by our reconnaissances; from what they say
and what is spread about, it appears that Marshal Lannes has completely beaten
the enemy.
I have received the dispatch from Your Highness, dated 8:30.
I am going to put myself on the march in order to rejoin personally the 3rd
Corps; I am transmitting orders to General Dupont and to General Milhaud which
are of concern to them for their marches of tomorrow.
I am having Your Highness's dispatch for Marshal Lannes sent
to his address.
177 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, etc.
Naumbourg, 12 October 1806
My lord, I have the honor of rendering account to Your
Highness that my light cavalry entered Naumbourg at 3:30; the advance guard
arrived there at eight o'clock in the evening. The day having been extremely
hard and having occasioned many stragglers, I had the 1st Division stop a
league or two from Naumbourg, the 2nd a little further and the 3rd at around
three leagues.
The dragoon division of General Sahuc was placed at the
forward most position of the 2nd Division; tomorrow at two o'clock in the
morning the entire army will be assembled here.
General Vialannes seized several vehicles of bread and
baggage, but a more important prize is that of a dozen perfectly harnessed
copper pontoons; this last prize was made between Naumbourg and Freybourg; I am
having them kept, as well as the harnesses, in order to hold them at your
disposition, having promised the 1st Regiment of chasseurs to have the horses
paid for in accordance with regulations.
Large stores of forage and grain are reputed to be here; I
will have an inventory of them taken, which I will have the honor of sending to
Your Highness.
Reconnaissances have been sent in the direction of Jena, but
they have not yet returned. Some cannon shots are being heard from this
direction; I have no news of the Prince of Ponte Corvo.
All the reports of the deserters, of the prisoners and of
the people of the country unite to proclaim that the Prussian Army is to be
found at Erfurt, Weimar and environs. It is certain that the King arrived at
Weimar yesterday; I am assured that there are no troops between Leipzig and
Naumbourg.
I have had all the packets in the post seized; I am
addressing them to Your Highness; perhaps you will find something of interest
there. Much boasting in the quarters of the Prussian officers is continually
reported.
A letter without signature, addressed to the Prince of
Saxe-Coburg, compares the defeat at Saalfeld to that of the Austrians in front
of Ulm, insofar as the discouragement which it diffused through the Army is
concerned, Around 200 deserters passed by this town yesterday and today.
I am sending a detachment to carry this dispatch to Your
Highness; tomorrow morning, when I shall have obtained new information, I will
have the honor to forward it to Your Highness.
P.S. - It appears to me established that the Prussian troops
are assembling in the neighborhood of Weimar. This campaign promises to be
still more miraculous than those of Ulm and Marengo.
178 - To the Major General of the Grand
Army
Prince of Neufchatel, etc.
Naumbourg, 13 October 1806
My lord, I have the honor of rendering account to Your
Highness that, since yesterday, my light cavalry has thrust some
reconnaissances on Jena; after having passed the bridge, they encountered the
enemy at a little distance on the left bank of the Saale.
The dragoon division under the orders of General Sahuc
likewise thrust some detachments on this point and also encountered the
enemy.
The first of these reconnaissances took place yesterday, at
six o'clock in the evening, the second at nine in the evening; today, a new
reconnaissance, made at ten o'clock in the morning, proved that the enemy
continued to occupy Jena and that he is assembling his forces at Eckartsberg. I
an sending you the copy of this reconnaissance I report; the reports confirm
it. Cannon was heard yesterday evening for four hours until five thirty. Today
it is heard; it is going strong on our left an hour after noon: there is a
fusillade.
I am sending some detachments on Eckartsberg by Freybourg,
which I am occupying in force, and by Kosen.
The entire army is at Naumbourg. The dragoon division is
occupying Pforte and Flemmingen.
179 - To The Emperor and King
At the Eckartsberg Bivouac, 14 October 1806
Sire, I have the honor of rendering account to Your Majesty
that in debouching from Kosen, at a quarter of a league, I found the enemy, who
was on the march in order to make himself master of this debouch. The battle
began immediately. It was very bloody and hard fought. The King of Prussia, the
Duke of Brunswick and Marshal Mollendorf and more than 60000 men disputed the
victory with the 3rd Corps; it remained with us as well as nearly all the enemy
artillery; the number of prisoners is not very considerable, the little cavalry
that I had, which served very well nevertheless, not having been sufficient to
be able to profit from the success of the infantry. The Grand Duke of Berg had
withdrawn the Sahuc Division of dragoons the day before.
Your Majesty lost many brave men, among whom I will cite
General Debilly, Colonels Verges, Higonnet, Viala, Nicolas and several others
wounded. Several regiments have lost the greater part of their officers. The
number of the wounded is very considerable.
The Duke of Brunswick was grievously wounded in the head;
his wound is regarded as mortal.
Some Prussian generals have been wounded. Among these last,
prince Auguste, uncle of the King is to be counted.
The two brothers of the King were to be found at this
battle; the horse and foot guards have many dead and wounded.
Cartridges are lacking. The Corps was very weakened; I took
position about seven o'clock in the evening. Tonight the cartridges will be
replaced; the arms will be put into condition and tomorrow we will be ready to
execute the orders of Your Majesty.
I must cite with greatest praise the conduct of Generals
Friant, Gudin and Morand. General Daultanne distinguished himself before the
entire army.
One of these days, I will have the honor of sending to Your
Majesty the necessary details in order to make the brilliant conduct of all
your officers and soldiers known to you.
The enemy appears to be withdrawing in the direction of
Weimar. |