X
AUGUSTE DE MARMONT, DUKE
OF RAGUSA
Marmont hurried back to Italy in time to join Bonaparte's staff an
hour before the battle of Arcola. The Austrians were making their last effort
to relieve the fortress of Mantua, and it seemed as if they would be
successful, as Alvinzi had concentrated forty thousand troops against
twenty-six thousand. The French attempted a surprise, but were discovered, and
for three days the fate of the campaign hung on the stubborn fight in the
marshes of Arcola. It was Marmont who helped to extricate Bonaparte when he was
flung off the embankment into the ditch, a service which Bonaparte never
forgot. Diplomatic missions to Venice and the Vatican slightly turned the young
soldier's head, and his chief had soon to give him a severe reprimand for
loitering among Josephine's beauties at Milan instead of hastening back to
headquarters. But to a man of Marmont's character one word of warning was
enough; his head governed his heart; glory was his loadstar. Ambitious though
he was, he was essentially a man of honour and fine feelings, and refused the
hand of Pauline Bonaparte for the simple reason that he did not truly love her.
A year later he made a love match with Mademoiselle Perrégaux, but
differences of temperament and the long separation which his military career
imposed caused the marriage to turn out unhappily, and this lack of domestic
felicity spoiled the Marshal's life and nearly embittered his whole character,
turning him for the time into a self-centred man with an eye solely to his own
glory and a sharp tongue which did not spare even his own friends. Yet in his
early days Marmont was a bright and cheerful companion and no one enjoyed more
a practical joke, getting up sham duels between cowards or sending bogus
instructions to officious commanders. But fond as he was of amusement, even
during his early career he could find delight in the society of men of science
and learning like Monge and Berthollet.
After the peace of Campo Formio he accompanied his chief to Paris,
where an incident occurred which illustrates well the character of the two men.
The Minister of War wanted detailed information regarding the English
preparations against invasion, and Bonaparte offered to send his aide-de-camp
as a spy. Marmont indignantly refused to go in such a capacity, and a permanent
estrangement nearly took place. Their standards had nothing in common; in the
one honour could conquer ambition, in the other ambition knew no rules of
honour.
However, their lust for glory brought them together again, and
Marmont sailed with the Egyptian expedition. He was despatched north to command
Alexandria after the battle of the Pyramids, where his guns had played so
important a part in shattering the Mamelukes. Later he was entrusted with the
control of the whole of the Mediterranean littoral. His task was a difficult
one, but a most useful training for a young commander. With a tiny garrison he
had to hold the important town of Alexandria and to keep in order a large
province; to organise small columns to repress local risings; to make his own
arrangements for raising money to pay his troops, and consequently to
reorganise the fiscal system of the country; to reconstruct canals and to
improvise flotillas of barges to supply Alexandria with provisions; to keep in
touch with the remnant of the French fleet and thus to try to establish
communications with Europe. He was responsible for resisting any attempt at
invasion by the Turks or the English, and it was mainly owing to his measures
that when the former landed at Aboukir they were destroyed before they could
march inland. While his comrades were gaining military glory in Syria, he was
fighting the plague at Alexandria, learning that patient attention to detail
and careful supervision of the health of his troops were as important
attributes of a commander as dash and courage in the field.
Marmont quitted Egypt with joy; he had learned many useful
lessons, but, like the rest of the army, he hated the country and the half
Oriental life, and above all, as he said, "seeing a campaign and not
taking part in it was a horrible punishment." On returning to Paris his
time was fully occupied in winning over the artillery to Bonaparte. He had no
false ideas on the subject, for, as he said to Junot before the Egyptian
expedition, "You will see, my friend, that on his return Bonaparte will
seize the crown." As his reward the First Consul gave him the choice of
the command of the artillery of the Guard or a seat as Councillor of State.
Jealous of Lannes, and flattered by the title, he chose the councillorship, in
which capacity he was employed on the War Committee and entrusted with the
reorganisation of the artillery. His first business was to provide a proper
train to ensure the quick and easy mobilisation of the artillery. After the Marengo
campaign he took in hand the reform of the matériel. Too many different types
of guns existed. Marmont reorganised both the field and the fortress artillery,
replacing the seven old types of guns by three—namely, six-pounders,
twelve-pounders and twenty-four pounders; he also reduced the different types
of wheels for gun carriages, limbers and wagons from twenty-four to eight, thus
greatly simplifying the provision of ammunition and the work of repair in the
field.
The Marengo campaign added to his prestige as an artillery
officer. It was owing to his ingenuity that the guns were unmounted and pulled
by hand in cradles up the steep side of the mountain and thus safely taken over
the St. Bernard Pass. It was his ingenious brain which suggested the paving of
the road with straw, whereby the much-needed artillery was forwarded to Lannes
by night, without any casualties, right under the batteries of the fortress of
Bard. It was owing to his foresight that the reserve battery of guns, captured
from the enemy, saved the day at Marengo by containing the Austrians while
Desaix's fresh troops were being deployed, and it was the tremendous effect of
his massed battery which gave Kellermann the opportunity for his celebrated
charge. The First Consul marked his approval by promoting Marmont a general of
division, and thus at the age of twenty-six the young artillery officer had
nearly reached the head of his profession. After Marengo he continued his work
of reorganisation, but before the end of the year he was once again in Italy,
this time as a divisional commander under Brune, who, being no great
strategist, was glad to avail himself of the brains of the First Consul's
favourite: it was thanks to Marmont's plans that the French army successfully
crossed the Mincio in the face of the enemy and, forced on him the armistice of
Treviso. When Moreau's victory of Hohenlinden induced Austria to make peace,
the general was sent to reorganise the Italian artillery on the same principles
he had laid down for the French. He established an immense foundry and arsenal
at Pavia, and the excellence of his plans was clearly proved in many a later
campaign. From Italy he was recalled to Paris in September, 1802, as
inspector-general of artillery. He threw himself heart and soul into his new duties, but found time to increase his
scientific knowledge and to keep himself up to date with everything in the
political and scientific world. He keenly supported Fulton's invention of the
steamboat, and pressed it on the First Consul, and to the day of his death he
was convinced that, if the Emperor had adopted the invention, the invasion of
England would have been successful.
The year 1804 brought him the delight of his first important
command. In February he was appointed chief of the corps of the Army of the
Ocean which was stationed in Holland. He entered on his task with his usual
fervour. His first step was to make friends with all the Dutch officials, and
thus to secure the smooth working of his commissariat and supply departments; then
he turned to the actual training of his troops. For this purpose he obtained
permission to hold a big camp of instruction, where all the divisions of his
corps were massed. So successful was this experiment that it became an annual
institution. But amid all the pleasure of this congenial work came the bitter
moment when he found the name of so mediocre a soldier as Bessières included in
the list of the new Marshals and his own omitted. It was a sore blow, and his
appointment as colonel-general of the horse chasseurs and Grand Eagle of the
Legion of Honour did little to mitigate it. The Emperor, careful as ever to
stimulate devotion, later explained to him that a dashing officer like himself
would have plenty of opportunities of gaining distinction, while this was
Bessières's only chance. But in spite of this the neglect rankled, and from
that day he was no longer the blindly devoted follower of Napoleon.
On the outbreak of the Austrian War Marmont's corps became the
second corps of the Grand Army. In the operations ending in Ulm the second
corps formed part of the left wing. After the capitulation it was detached to
cover the French communications from an attack from the direction of Styria. In
the summer of the following year Marmont was despatched as
commander-in-chief to Dalmatia, where he spent the next five years of his life.
Dalmatia had been ceded to France by the treaty of Pressburg. In Napoleon's
eyes the importance of the province lay in the harbour of Cattaro, which he
regarded as an outlet to the Balkan Peninsula. His intention was to get
possession of Montenegro, to come to an understanding with Ali Pacha of Janina
and the Sultan, and oppose the policy of Russia. But the Russians and
Montenegrins had seized Cattaro, and were threatening to besiege Ragusa. It was
to meet this situation that the Emperor in July, 1806, hastily sent his former
favourite to Dalmatia. The new commander-in-chief found himself, as in Egypt,
faced with the difficulty of supply. Half the army was in hospital from want of
proper nourishment and commonsense sanitation. Having, by his care of his men,
refilled his battalions, he advanced boldly on the enemy, and drove them out of
their positions. This punishment kept the Montenegrins quiet for the future,
and the Russians fell back on Cattaro. From there he was unable to drive them
owing to the guns of their fleet, and it was not till the treaty of Tilsit that
the French got possession of the coveted port. The French commander's chief
difficulty in administering his province was that which is felt in all
uncivilised countries, the difficulty of holding down a hostile population
where roads do not exist. Otherwise his just but stern rule admirably suited
the townsmen of the little cities on the coast, while order was kept among the
hill tribes by making their headmen responsible for their behaviour, and by
aiding them in attacking the Turks, who had seized certain tracts of territory
and maltreated the inhabitants. But it was not gratitude which kept the
hill-men quiet, so much as the miles of new roads on which the French commander
employed his army when not engaged on expeditions against restless marauders.
During his years in the Dalmatian provinces Marmont constructed more than two hundred miles of roads,
with the result that his small force was able with ease to hold down the long
narrow mountainous province by the speed with which he could mobilise his
punitive expeditions. Moreover, owing to the increased means of traffic the
peasants were able to find a market for their goods, and the prosperity of the
country increased beyond belief. With prosperity came contentment: manufactures
were established, and the mines and the other natural resources of the country
were exploited to advantage. As the Emperor of Austria said to Metternich in
1817, when visiting the province, "It is a great pity that Marshal Marmont
was not two or three years longer in Dalmatia."
The years spent at Ragusa were probably the happiest of Marmont's
life. His successful work was recognised in 1808, when the Emperor created him
Duke of Ragusa. Each day was full of interest. He was head of the civil
administration and of the judicial and fiscal departments. As
commander-in-chief he was responsible for the health, welfare, and discipline
of the troops, and for the military works which were being erected to protect
the province from Austrian aggression. He had his special hobby—the roads. Yet
in spite of all this business he found time to put himself in the hands of a
tutor and to work ten hours a day at history, chemistry, and anatomy. To aid
him in his studies he collected a travelling library of six hundred volumes
which accompanied him in all his later campaigns.
The Austrian campaign of 1809 called him from these congenial
labours to the even more congenial operations of war. The duty of the Army of
Dalmatia was to attempt to cut off the Archduke John on his retirement from
Italy; but the Duke of Ragusa had not sufficient troops to carry out this
operation successfully, although he effected a junction with the Army of Italy.
After a succession of small engagements the united armies found themselves on
the Danube in time to take part in the battle of Wagram.
In reserve during the greater part of the battle, Marmont's corps was entrusted
with the pursuit of the enemy. Unfortunately, either from lack of appreciation
of the situation or from jealousy, their commander refused to allow Davout to
co-operate with him, and consequently, although he overtook the Austrians, he
was not strong enough to hold them till other divisions of the army came up.
However, at the end of the operations Napoleon created him Marshal. But the
Duke of Ragusa's joy at receiving this gift was tempered by the way it was
given. For the Emperor, angry doubtless at the escape of the Austrians, told
him, "I have given you your nomination and I have great pleasure in
bestowing on you this proof of my affection, but I am afraid I have incurred
the reproach of listening rather to my affection than to your right to this
distinction. You have plenty of intelligence, but there are needed for war
qualities in which you are still lacking, and which you must work to acquire.
Between ourselves, you have not yet done enough to justify entirely my choice.
At the same time, I am confident that I shall have reason to congratulate
myself on having nominated you, and that you will justify me in the eyes of the
army." Unkind critics of the three new Marshals created after Wagram said
that Napoleon, having lost Lannes, wanted to get the small change for him, but
it is only fair to remember that though Macdonald, Marmont, and Oudinot were
all inferior to Lannes, they were quite as good soldiers as some of the
original Marshals.
After peace was declared the new Marshal returned to Dalmatia and
took up the threads of his old life. He had won the respect of the inhabitants
and the fear of their foes, the Turks, and save for an occasional expedition
against the brigands or friction with the fiscal officials, his time passed
peaceably and pleasantly. But in 1811 he was recalled to Paris to receive
orders before starting on a new sphere of duty. Masséna, "the spoiled
child of victory," had met his match at Torres Vedras,
and Napoleon, blaming the man instead of the system, had determined to try a
fresh leader for the army opposing Sir Arthur Wellesley. The Emperor did not
hide from himself the fact that in selecting Marmont he was making an
experiment, for he told St. Cyr that he had sent Marmont to Spain because he
had plenty of talent, but that he had not yet tested to the full his force of
character, and he added, "I shall soon be able to judge of that, for now
he is left to his own resources." The new commander of the Army of
Portugal set out with the full confidence that the task was not beyond his
powers, and with the promise of the viceroyalty of one of the five provinces
into which Spain was to be divided. He arrived at the front two days after the
battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, and found a very different state of affairs from
what he had expected. The country was a howling waste covered with fierce
guerillas. The French army, so long accustomed to success, was absolutely
demoralised by repeated disappointments and defeats. It was necessary to take
stringent measures to restore the morale of the troops before he could call on
them to face once more "the infantry whose fire was the most murderous of
all the armies of Europe."
Accordingly he withdrew from the Portuguese frontier, put his army
into cantonments round Salamanca, and set to work on the difficult task of
collecting supplies from a country which was already swept bare. Meanwhile he
split up his army into six divisions, established direct communications between
himself and the divisional officers, and, to get rid of the grumblers, gave
leave to all officers, who so desired, to return to France. At the same time he
distributed his weak battalions among the other corps so that each battalion
had a complement of seven hundred muskets. He also broke up the weak squadrons
and batteries and brought up the remainder to service strength. Scarcely was
this reorganisation completed when Soult, who
had been defeated at Albuera, called on Marmont to aid him in saving Badajoz.
In spite of his personal dislike for the Duke of Dalmatia, the Marshal hurried
to his aid and for the time the important fortress was saved. During the rest
of the summer the Army of Portugal lay in the valley of the Tagus, holding the
bridge of Almaraz, and thus ready at any moment to go to the relief of Badajoz
or Ciudad Rodrigo, the two keys of Portugal. When, in the autumn, Wellington
threatened Ciudad Rodrigo, the Marshal, calling to his aid Dorsenne, who
commanded in Northern Spain, at the successful engagement of El Bodin drove
back the advance guard of the Anglo-Portuguese and threw a large quantity of
provisions into the fortress.
The year 1812 was a disastrous one for the French arms all over
Europe. The Emperor attempted to direct the Spanish War from Paris. In his
desire to secure all Southern Spain, he stripped Marmont's army to reinforce
Suchet in his conquest of Valencia. Accordingly in January the Marshal was
powerless to stop Wellington's dash at Ciudad Rodrigo, and was unable later to
make a sufficient demonstration in Portugal to relieve the pressure on Badajoz;
so both the fortresses fell, and the Duke of Ragusa was blamed for the
Emperor's mistake. He was thereafter called upon to try to stem the victorious
advance of the English into Spain. Short of men, of horses, and of supplies, he
did wonders. Thanks to his strenuous efforts, supplies were massed at
Salamanca, good food and careful nursing emptied the hospitals and filled the
ranks, and the cavalry was supplied with remounts by dismounting the
"field officers" of the infantry. The month of July saw an interesting
duel round Salamanca between Marmont and Wellington. The two armies were very
nearly equal in numbers, the French having forty-seven thousand men and the
English forty-four thousand. ...
(прво изд. METHUEN & so. 1909; реизд. 2007 год. Kissinger legacy reprint)
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