1816.]

Memoirs of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Elbe to the support of the Prussian general Kleist, but his destination was changed and he returned to Lusatia.

On the 19th of May the Prince marched to the support of General Barclay, but was recalled to assist on the 20th and 21st, in the battle of Bautzen. In this engagement he was employed in supporting the line on various points; and on the evening of the second day, he covered the retreat, amidst the hottest fire, with that serenity which is the property of genume courage. After the battle he retired to Silesia with the corps of cavalry to which he was attached.

During the armistice and the negocia tions at Prague, Prince Leopold repaired with the consent of the Emperor of Russia to that city, and was the only stranger who was there adinitted to several interviews with the Emperor Francis.

On the expiration of the armistice, the Prince proceeded with the army to Bohemia, and thence to the frontiers of Saxony. The main force of the allies was already before Dresden, while the cavalry reserve was engaged in the more difficult march across the mountains. On the 26th of August, Vandamme briskly attacked the corps posted near the fortress of Königstein to cover the rear of the grand army and the principal communications with Bohemia, and commanded by Prince Eugene of Wirtemberg. This general urgently solicited a reinforcement of cavalry, that he might be enabled to maintain his highly important position against a very superior enemy; and about noon Prince Leopold was in consequence detached with his cuirassiers to his assistance. Scarcely had the prince joined the corps, when the enemy commenced the attack. The infantry, on account of its weakness, was posted on the wings and supported upon two villages; while Prince Leopold and his cavalry formed the ceutre. This precarious position did Leopold maintain, during a contest of five hours against a foe three or four times as numerous, and after the two wings of the corps were almost completely surrounded, with such unshaken intrepidity, that night came on without the enemy having been able to gain any decisive advantage, or to force the position. Fugene paid that tribute to the prince which he amply deserved; for by his firmness he had not only saved the whole corps, but rendered it impossible for Vandamme to make an attack on the main army of the ailies, which, on the 27th of August, was engaged in the assault of Dresden, NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 30.

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either in flank or rear, which would necessarily have been attended with the most disastrous consequences.

On the 27th of August the corps took a position on the other side of Pirna. As the importance of the action of the 26th, and the possibility of a less fortunate result were sensibly felt at the head quarters, the first division of the Russian guards under the brave general Yermolof, and the regiment of hussars of the guard were sent to reinforce the corps posted at Pirna. The whole was placed under the orders of Count Ostermann, who gave to Prince Leopold the command of the cavalry of the combined corps.

The enemy stormed Pirna, and sought with his cavalry to extend himself upon the level ground near the Elbe, when Prince Leopold met and drove him back into the town, from which he did not again attempt to debouch: as the dreadful weather, which was one cause of the retreat of the grand army, prevented any thing more decisive than an incessant skirmishing.

The same night Count Ostermann's corps received information that the grand allied army was in full retreat to Bobemia, and that the road from Dresden along the Elbe was now open to the enemy. This corps was placed, by this event, in a very perilous situation; for, with its left wing on the Elbe, Dresden, whence the enemy was approaching, in its rear, and its left wing on the main road to Bohemia, which was already occupied by the French, it had but one road left for its retreat, and this was commanded by the fire of its adversary.

Count Ostermann now ordered Prince Leopold to proceed, if possible, with his cavalry through the defile upon which the the right wing was supported, and to occupy and maintain a plain near Great Cotta, which is traversed by the main road to the woody range of mountains. Leopold executed this movement with such rapidity, that the enemy had not time to occupy this plain in sufficient force; he drove him from it, and maintained his position there, till the main body of the corps, with the infantry and all the artillery had effected its retreat. The enemy had, meanwhile, reached by a shorter route, and occupied some of the heights and passes in the mountains, and thereby almost intercepted the prince and his cavalry ; but with great difficulty he forced his way through them; and on this occa sion rescued many wounded of the inVOL. V. 3 X

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fantry of the Russian guard, who had heroically stormed the passes.

The position of Peterswalde was the last that Ostermann's corps could take in the mountains to afford time for the retreat of the main army; and it was therefore successfully maintained, though not without considerable effort. Here the assembled generals received intelligence that the main army was still in the mountains, and that the grand headquarters of the Allies were yet at Altenburg, in Saxony. It was therefore determined to cover the road to Töplitz, in order to gain the grand army as much time as possible for debouching.

On the 29th of August the troops were accordingly to have continued their march at a very early hour; but before they could break up, the French cavalry, supported by a very considerable division of infantry, attacked the village of Peterswalde, which was occupied as the advanced guard of the line of encampment with infantry, pushed forward through it, and was on the point of falling upon the columns that were about to march, when Prince Leopold came up with his cavalry, and drove back the enemy into the defile. He maintained the little plain near Peterswalde till the infantry and artillery had retired to the position of Nollendorf, and then caused his cavalry to fall back en echelons. He was himself nearly taken with the last division, but he cut his way through and rejoined the main body of the corps, which, but for this successful attack of the Prince, would probably have been totally intercepted. This action doubtless gave rise to the false report in one of Napoleon's bulletins, subsequent to the affairs near Dresden, that Prince Leopold had been made prisoner by the French.

Ostermann's corps, though considerably diminished, now proceeded in the best order down the declivity of the mountains into the plains of Bohemia. The left wing, which was supported upon the mountains, was formed by the infantry; in the centre, through which ran the high road, was stationed the greatest part of the artillery, and the right wing, composed of Prince Leopold's cavalry, occupied an open plain. As the chief object was to gain time, every advantageous spot of ground, which was capable of detaining the enemy ever so little, was defended with the utmost obstinacy. Prince Leopold, therefore, manoeuvred with his cavalry en echiquier, and never withdrew to a new position, which it was necessary to take every 60 or 100 paces, till the tirailleurs of the infantry

[July 1.

had fallen back into the intervals of his order of battle. The enemy, who re newed his attacks with increased impe tuosity, made an extraordinary effort t force the last position of the corps, near the village of Prisen, with a tremendousl superior artillery. The loss of this posi tion would have rendered the retreat of the main allied army from the mountains in a great measure impracticable; it was therefore imperatively necessary that it should be maintained to the very last man. As the French General Corbineau was advancing to attack Prince Leopold, with a corps of cavalry at least thrice as numerous, the Prince went to meet and repulsed him. The French general, staggered by the intrepidity of his opponents, though so inferior in number, lost the decisive moment of victory; and as the Prince received a considerable reinforcement of cavalry, and fresh troops continued to arrive from the mountains, he was enabled to maintain his position till night.

On the morning of the 30th of August, before the conflict was renewed, Prince Leopold received on the field of battle, from the Emperor of Russia, the cross of commander of the military order of St. George, for his conduct during the preceding days.

Soon afterwards commenced the attack upon Vandamme, who was surrounded by the allied army, now nearly concentrated. Prince Leopold, who was this day engaged upon the extreme wing, pursued the enemy to Peterswalde, and did not rejoin the main army till night. The victory over Vandamme was necessarily dependent on the operations of Ostermann's corps: for had this corps been broken on the 29th of August, the French would have been masters of all the debouchés, by which alone the grand allied army could retreat to Bohemia; and the greatest part of the army, and the whole of the artillery, which it would have been absolutely impossible to carry off, on account of the badness of the roads, must infallibly have been lost. What incalculable disasters, military and political, must have resulted from such an event, is sufficiently obvious to every reader. On the other hand, the results of this victory were most important: Vandamme was taken, together with almost all his generals, nearly the whole of his infantry, consisting of 52 battalions, and all his artillery, amounting to nearly 100 pieces of cannon; whilst but a small remnant of his corps, including the cavalry, effected its escape.

The other Allied Sovereigns, as well as

1816.]

Memoirs of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

the Emperor Alexander, acknowledged with the greatest satisfaction the important part which Prince Leopold had contributed to the success of the operations between the 26th and 30th of August; and for his conduct, during this interval, he was afterwards presented with the Austrian military order of Maria The resa.*

In the beginning of October the allied army returned to Saxony.

On the 16th of October, the first day of the battle of Leipzig, when the enemy had made a general, and not unsuccessful, attack with cavalry upon the centre of the main army posted near the villages of Magdeborn and Cossa, the honourable service of covering not only this important point, but also the Russian batteries planted opposite to those of the French, was allotted to Prince Leopold, who, on this occasion, lost a great number of his men. On the 17th he continued in the same position, and had already received orders for the attack of the enemy's batteries, when it was deferred till the following day, on account of the non-arrival of several corps which were expected. On the 18th, the last and decisive day of this gigantic conflict, the Prince pushed on with his cavalry in the centre, to the environs of Leipzig. In the afternoon, when the left wing under Gen. Coloredo was very furiously attacked by the French, it was asked what cavalry would go to the support of this wing. Though a greater force was wanted than Leopold had with him, he nevertheless offered himself, as there was no Austrian cavalry at band, and went to the assistance of Coloredo. On the 19th, he marched to the support of Gen. Giulay, and followed the advanced guard and this corps to the vicinity of Erfurt.

The Prince proceeded to Frankfurt, where he remained during the residence of the Allied Sovereigns in that city, and then went through Swabia and Switzerland to France. Here he was detached, on the 30th of January, 1814, to the support of Field-Marshal Blücher and General Rajefsky to Rizaucourt, whence he returned on the 1st of February to the grand army. From a bivouac near Bar sur Aube he marched to the battle of Brienne, and assisted on the 2d to pursue the beaten enemy to Lesmont. The Prince then marched to * Besides the orders mentioned in these pages, the Prince possesses six or eight other honourable distinctions of the same kind, conferred by the Sovereigns of Russia, Prus sia, Bavaria, and other Princes.

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Bar sur Seine and Troyes, and afterwards to Nogent sur Seine, Trainel, and Braye, whence the army again retreated.

In the plains in advance of Troyes, the whole of the cavalry made some demonstrations against the enemy, but no affair. of any consequence ensued. On the 23d of February the Prince formed the rear guard at Troyes; the army had a position behind the Seine, and then fell back to Chaumont.

On the 12th of March the Prince, as well as the greater part of the Russian troops belonging to the main army, advanced upon the road to Vitry. After the French had recovered Rheims and occupied Chalons, the Prince formed the advanced guard toward the roads leading to those places. In this service, the troops, already extremely fatigued by the repeated night marches and incessant manœuvres in an exhausted and desolated country, and continually harassed moreover by the armed peasants, who were particularly troublesome in Champagne, had to endure extraordinary hardships and inconveniences.

Till the 20th of March the enemy was daily expected to make a general attack upon the right wing of the army, which therefore occupied all its positions prepared for battle. When. however, the enemy, on the 20th, suddenly retired from the Marne to the Aube, the allied troops of the right wing marched to the left upon Arcis, by which movement the main army effected its junction. The French now made a very impetuous attack, which the allied army repulsed with the greatest firmness, on which occasion the Prince had to support the right wing. On the morning of the 21st Leopold was sent forward with his cavalry, part of the Prussian guard, and a reinforcement of horse artillery, to form a communication with the corps of the Prince Royal of Wirtemberg, which had not come com pletely into line. The enemy, appa rently deterred from an attack upon the allies by their excellent position, occupied Arcis as a rear-guard position, and retired upon the road to Vitry. At night-fall the allied army also marched again to the left bank of the Aube, and then likewise directed its course towards the Marne, when the Prince formed the support of the advanced guard upon Vitry.

On the 24th of March the allied army took the road to Paris, and on the 25th its advanced guard attacked Marshal Marmont at la Fère Champenoise. The prince being sent with his cavalry to the

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support of this advanced guard, attacked the enemy at Connentrai, in the right flank, drove him from his position, and took five pieces of cannon. Being joined by the rest of the allied cavalry, he pursued the Marshal from position to position, and did not desist from the pursuit even when the greatest part of the allied cavalry was recalled against the corps of General Pactod. Marshals Marmont and Mortier, who had by this time formed a junction, profiting by the consequent weakness of the pursuers, sent their cavalry to attack the artillery of the Russian guard. Frince Leopold took this attack in flank, drove back the French cavalry to an elevated position which the marshals had taken, saved the Russian artillery, and in spite of a very brisk fire maintained his post till night.

The troops of the grand army were not again engaged till the battle of Paris. On the 31st of March, Prince Leopold entered Paris with the reserve cavalry, and there remained in garrison. He accompanied the sovereigns to England, and sailed with them in the Impregnable from Boulogne to Dover. He continued here about a month after the sovereigns, and did not leave England till the end of July.

In the beginning of September he repaired to Vienna, to the Congress, to promote to the utmost of his power, the independence of his native land, and the interests of his family."

Leopold's politics, sound as his understanding and his heart, could not chime in with all the maxims which were broached there. He could not, above all, convince himself that it was just to sacrifice the right of one to the convenience and the power of another, and though he duly weighed the many clashing political interests, he found it impossible to admit the paramount cogency of those reasons upon which the partition of Saxony was decreed.

The Congress acknowledged the services which the princes of the house of Coburg had never ceased during the last ten years to render to the good cause, as well as the sacrifices that had been made by them, and therefore granted an indemnity, which though afterwards diminished by imperious political considerations, was nevertheless not inconsiderable. This business was exclusively managed by Prince Leopold during the last decisive months, and to him alone is to be ascribed its happy issue.

On the return of Buonaparte to France, Prince Leopold hastened from Vienna

[July 1,

to the grand allied army on the Rhine, which soon afterwards reached Paris. On the termination of the war, the affairs of his family detained him for some time in the French capital, atter which he procceded by way of Coburg to Berlin, and here it was that the invitation of the Prince Regent intimated to him the high destiny to which he was called.

Though the preceding biographical notices would, without any farther observations, furnish the attentive observer with a correct outline of Prince Lespold's character, yet the delineation of his moral qualities is wanting to complete a most attractive and interesting picture.

In his early youth, this prince manifested an excellent understanding and a tender and benevolent heart. As he advanced in years he displayed a strong attachment to literary and scientific pursuits, and even at that time all his actions were marked with dignified gravity and unusual moderation. His propensity to study was seconded by the efforts of an excellent instructor, and as he remained a stranger to all those dissipa tions with which persons of his age and rank are commonly indulged, his attainments, so early as his fifteenth year, were very extensive. His extraordinary ca pacity particularly unfolded itself in the study of the languages, history, mathematics, botany, music, and drawing, in which last he has made a proficiency that would be creditable to a professor.

The vicissitudes which he was so early destined to experience seem only to have contributed to preserve the purity of his morals, and they have certainly had a most powerful influence in the developement of that rare moderation, that ardent love of justice, and that manly firmness, which are the predominant traits in the character of this prince.

Necessitated in like manner at so early an age to attend to a variety of diplomatic business, he acquired partly in this school and partly in his extensive travels a thorough knowledge of men in all their bearings; and though his experience has not always been of the most agreeable species, still it has not been able to warp the kindness and benevolence of his nature.

In his campaigns, and in the field of battle, where all false greatness disappears, Leopold has given the most uudeniable proofs that courage, and a profound sense of religion and liberty, are innate in his soul; and that clear intelligence and unshaken fortitude are his

1816.] E. Edwards-Edmondson—J. Ellys-Duke of Bedford, &c. 521

heiress of the British throne, results equally conducive to the welfare of the nation at large, and to the happiness of that distinguished family, of which, by his auspicious union with the Princess Charlotte of Wales on the 2d of May last, he is become a member,

EXTRACTS

FROM THE PORTFOLIO OF AN AMATEUR.

In fact, anecdotes are small characteristic narratives, which, though long neglected or secreted, are always valuable; as being frequently more illustrative of the real dispositions of men than their actions of great publicity, and therefore particularly requisite in biography.-Supplement to NORTHCOTE'S Life of REYNOLDS.