the French soldiers there were 40,000 Italians, JO,ooo Portuguese and
Spanish, Swiss, Dutch, Illyrians, Croats, Lithuanians and, above all, vast
numbers of Germans. One corps was entirely Polish, another entirely
Saxon, another entirely Austrian; yet another was Westphalian and
Hessian, and still another largely Prussian. Morale in the polyglot army
was high, and desertion levels low, partly because of the draconian
punishments visited on those taking unauthorized furlough, but it was
the local population who paid the price. In Prussia and Poland the
French army exacted, commandeered and requisitioned without any
regard to the fragility of local economies, behaved arrogantly and refused
to pay for anything. Napoleon, exhibiting the insouciance with detail that
was to mark him throughout 1812, did nothing to check these excesses.
There was another fortnight's delay at Danzig before Napoleon crossed
the border into Russia. During these days the Emperor travelled for no
discernible reason to Marienburg and Konigsberg and on to Gumbinnen
and Witowski. This was the first of the many baffling delays he allowed
himself in 1812, and the reason has always puzzled Bonaparte students.
The most plausible conjecture is that he postponed the invasion until
June because, with uo,ooo horses and 90,000 draught oxen to feed, he
needed to wait until the steppes were lush with grass. Another view is
that he was concerned that the medical infrastructure was inadequate:
expecting heavy casualties, he was alarmed to find at Danzig that the
requisite surgeons, ambulances, medicines, bandages and stretchers were
all lacking.
During this period of 'phoney war' the Emperor's thoughts often went
back to Marie-Louise. It is curious how often this cynical man turned
uxorious when campaigning, for the tone of his letters to his wife
irresistibly recalls the correspondence with Josephine when he was
conquering Italy in 17 9 6---97. There was genuine regret in the letter he
sent to her when he discovered she was not pregnant again, as he had
hoped. And there was much more in the same sentimental vein. On 9
June he wrote to her from Danzig: 'My health is very good. Despite my
cares and exhaustion, I feel there is something missing ... the sweet habit
of seeing you several times a day.'
But now he had to think seriously about his Russian strategy. His main
aim was to prevent the junction of the army under Barclay in the north
with that under Prince Bagration in the south. The idea was to push hard
towards Moscow on the 'Orsha land-bridge' - the watershed between the
Dnieper and Dvina which ran straight to the heart of Russia, interrupted
only by the Beresina, one of the Dnieper's important tributaries. He
marcin
(Marcin)
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