one to two days' march of each other. Every day Napoleon liked to ride
out on a tour of inspection, accompanied by his chief of staff Berthier,
Caulaincourt, his Master of Horse, and Bader d' Albe, the head of the
Topographic Unit. Others in the immediate entourage were the duty
marshal of the day, two aides, two orderly officers, an equerry, a page
(carrying the Emperor's telescope), and a soldier carrying the portfolio
containing maps and compasses. Also present were Roustam and an
interpreter. Slightly ahead of the main party rode two more orderlies and
an officer commanding a dozen cavalrymen. About a thousand yards
behind the retinue lurked the main escort: four squadrons of Guard
cavalry.
At first morale in his army was high, but it was dampened later when
the weather broke. Performing prodigies of marching - some twenty
miles a day - the Grand Army normally completed its day's trek by noon,
having started at 4-5 a.m.; the afternoon would be spent foraging before
the earliest of early nights. French staff work was brilliant and the enemy
was left confused, unable to work out from the movements of discrete
corps what was their likely ultimate objective. The speed and secrecy of
the advance were such that within twenty days the Army was at Mayence
and crossed the Danube without opposition. By travelling through the
valley of the Main and via Donauworth on the Danube, Napoleon cut off
Mack's retreat. Beaten at Elchingen on 14 October and falling back
generally after a few more sharp engagements, Mack realized too late that
he was in a trap and would not be relieved by the Russians. He
surrendered with so,ooo men at Ulm on 20 October, the day before
Trafalgar.
At a stroke Napoleon was able to restore morale and business
confidence in Paris. His bulletins, explaining and justifying the military
operations, turned the Grand Army into a thing of legend and its exploits
were read to spellbound audiences by actors, teachers, priests and town
officials. The myth of a national army was born, but the Grande Armee
was always the Emperor's personal instrument. Nor was the campaign as
streamlined as in the Bonapartist propaganda version. The supply line
held up well, there were ample boots and pay was prompt, but by
November there were 8,ooo soldiers on the sick list and large numbers of
horses had perished because of the pace of advance. The men were tired,
and Napoleon himself confessed to Josephine in a letter on 19 October
that he had never been so exhausted. More worrying was the widespread
theft and indiscipline in the army, which reached such proportions that
by 25 November the Emperor was forced to set up military commissions
with summary powers.
marcin
(Marcin)
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