THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN,

OR

SPECIMENS OF WAR AMONG NOMINAL CHRISTIANS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

NAPOLEON'S career was a pretty fair illustration of war among civilized, nominally Christian men; and from his last great campaign (1812) in Russia, we may learn what war ever has been, and ever must be a mass of evils, a tissue of suffering and wo to nearly all concerned, to the victors as well as the vanquished. The events of that campaign were recorded on the spot by many eye-witnesses; and Labaume, from whose narrative most of the following statements are taken, himself one of the actors in that long and terrible tragedy, says, "it was by the light of burning Moscow that I described the pillage of that city; it was on the banks of the Berezina that I traced the narrative of that fatal passage. It is scarcely possible to conceive the difficulties I had to surmount, in making my memoranda. Compelled to struggle with the most imperious necessity, benumbed with cold, and tormented with hunger, I was a prey to every kind of suffering. Uncertain, at the rising of the sun, whether I should see his setting rays, and in the evening doubtful of witnessing another day, every thought was absorbed in the desire of living to preserve the remembrance of what I had seen. Animated by this feeling, I wrote the events of the day every evening, before a bad fire, under a temperature twenty degrees below the freezing point, and surrounded by the dying and the dead. I made my pens from the quills of the raven, with the same knife that I used in cutting up horse-flesh for my food; and a little gunpowder, mixed up in the hollow of my hand with melted snow, supplied the place of ink and inkstand."

For this grand enterprize, designed to be the crowning one of his life, Napoleon had mustered full half a million of men, no less, according to some writers of credit, than 494,000 effective troops; nor is it a high estimate to suppose, that a million, if not more, were engaged on both sides as combatants in that desperate and disastrous struggle. On the 22d of June, he issued from Wilkowiski his proclamation of war; but, passing over the two first months of the campaign, we will quote a few specimens of its subsequent progress:

SMOLENSK.-After an obstinate battle, (Aug. 19,) the Russians set fire to the city, and retreated, leaving the streets and squares covered with their dead and wounded. "The next day," says Labaume, "we entered Smolensk by the suburb on the bank of the river, marching in every direction over ruins and dead bodies. The palaces still burning, presented to our view only walls half

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destroyed by the flames; and thick among the smoking fragments lay the blackened carcasses of the inhabitants who had perished in the fire. The soldiers had taken possession of the few remaining houses, whilst the proprietor, bereft of an asylum, stood at his door, weeping the death of his children, and the loss of his fortune. The churches alone afforded some consolation to the wretched beings who had no longer a shelter. The cathedral, celebrated throughout Europe, and highly venerated by the Russians, became the refuge of those who had escaped the conflagration. In this church, and around its altars, lay whole families stretched upon rags. Here we saw an old man in the agonies of death, casting his last look towards the image of the saint whom he had all his life invoked; and there, an infant whose cries the mother, worn down with grief, was endeavoring to hush, and, as she gave it the breast, bathed it in her tears."

BORODINO." Before day-break, (Sept. 7,) the two armies were drawn up in order of battle. Two hundred and sixty thousand men waited, in awful suspense, the signal to engage. At six o'clock, the thunder of the artillery broke the dreadful silence. The battle soon became general, and raged with tremendous fury. The fire of two hundred pieces of cannon enveloped the two armies in smoke, and, mowing down whole battalions, strewed the field with the dead and wounded. The latter fell to expose themselves to a fate still more terrible. How agonizing their situation! Forty thousand dragoons crossing the field in every direction, trampled them under foot, and dyed the horses' hoofs in their blood. The flying artillery, in rapid and alternate advance and retreat, put a period to the anguish of some, and inflicted new torments on others who were mangled by their wheels. A redoubt in the centre of the Russian army was several times taken and retaken with desperate slaughter, but finally remained in possession of the French. The interior of the redoubt presented a frightful scene; the dead were heaped on each other, and among them were many wounded whose cries could not be heard. Night separated the combatants, but left EIGHTY THOUSAND MEN dead on the field!

"In traversing next day the elevated plain on which we had fought, we were enabled to form an estimate of the immense loss sustained by the Russians. A surface of about nine square miles in extent, was covered with the killed and wounded, with the wreck of arms, lances, helmets and cuirasses, and with balls as numerous as hail-stones after a violent storm. In many places the bursting of shells had overturned men and horses; and such was the havoc occasioned by repeated discharges, that mountains of dead bodies were raised. But the most dreadful spectacle was the interior of the ravines, where the wounded had instinctively crawled to avoid the shot. Here these unfortunate wretches, lying one upon another, destitute of assistance, and weltering in their blood, uttered the most horrid groans. Loudly invoking death, they besought us to put an end to their excruciating torments.

"As we drew near Rouza, two days after, we met a great number of carts brought back by the cavalry. It was afflicting to see them loaded with children, with the aged and the infirm; and we grieved to think how soon the horses and carts, which formed the whole fortune of those ruined families, would be divided among the troops. In our advance to the centre of the town, we saw a crowd of soldiers pillaging the houses, regardless of the cries of those to whom they belonged, or of the tears of mothers who, to soften the hearts of their conquerors, showed them their children on their knees; those innocents, with their hands clasped, and bathed in tears, asked only that their lives might be spared.

"We could judge of the consternation that reigned in the capital, by the terror with which we had inspired the peasantry. No sooner were they informed of our arrival at Rouza, and of the barbarous manner in which we had treated the inhabitants, than all the villages on the road to Moscow were instantly abandoned; many of the fugitives, driven to desperation, set fire to their houses, their country seats, and to the corn and hay just gathered in. Discouraged by the fatal and useless resistance of the militia of Rouza, the greater part of them threw down the pikes with which they had been armed, and hastened to conceal themselves, with their wives and children, in thick forests at a distance from our route."

Moscow." As we drew near the city, (Sept. 15,) we observed that it had no walls. We saw nothing to indicate that the capital was inhabited; and the road by which we arrived, was so deserted, that we did not see a single Muscovite, or even a French soldier. We found neither soldiers nor inhabitants in the part of the city we were to occupy; a death-like silence reigned in the forsaken quarters; the most intrepid were intimidated by the loneliness. We marched with timid steps through this dismal solitude, often stopping to look behind us; for our imaginations, overpowered by the magnitude of our conquest, made us every where apprehensive of treachery."

In conformity with the desolating plan of the campaign, the ruin of the ancient capital of the Czars had been determined. The criminals confined in the different prisons, received their liberty on condition of setting fire to the city as soon as it should be in the possession of the French army. In order to insure its destruction, the engines, and every means by which the fire might have been extinguished, were removed or destroyed. The Exchange was the first building that fell a prey to the flames. The stores contained an immense quantity of the most valuable commodities of Europe and Asia; and the cellars were filled with sugar, oils and resin, which burnt with great fury. The French endeavored to check the progress of the devouring element, but they soon discovered that their efforts were vain. The fire, breaking out in different quarters of the city, and increased by a high wind, spread with dreadful rapidity.

"A great part of the population had concealed themselves ir.

their houses, from the terror caused by our arrival; but they left them as the flames reached their asylums. Fear had rendered their grief dumb; and as they tremblingly quitted their retreats, they carried off their most valuable effects, while those of more sensibility, actuated by natural feelings, sought only to save the lives of their parents or their children. On one side we saw a son carrying a sick father; on the other, women who poured the torrent of their tears on the infants whom they clasped in their arms. They were followed by the rest of their children, who, fearful of being lost, ran crying after their mothers. Old men, overwhelmed more by grief than by the weight of years, were seldom able to follow their families; and many of them, weeping for the ruin of their country, lay down to die near the houses where they were born. The streets, the public squares, and especially the churches, were crowded with these unhappy persons, who mourned as they lay on the remains of their property, but showed no signs of despair. The victors and the vanquished were become equally brutish; the former by excess of fortune, the latter by excess of misery.

"The hospitals, containing more than TWELVE THOUSAND WOUNDED, began at length to burn. The heart recoils at the disaster which ensued. Almost all those wretched victims perished! The few still living, were seen crawling, half-burnt, from the smoking ashes, or groaning under the heaps of dead bodies, and making ineffectual efforts to extricate themselves!

"It is impossible to depict the confusion and tumult that ensued, when the whole of this immense city was given up to pillage. Soldiers, sutlers, galley-slaves and prostitutes, ran through the streets, penetrated the deserted palaces, and carried off every thing that could gratify their insatiable desire. The generals received orders to quit Moscow; and the soldiers, no longer restrained by that awe which is always inspired by the presence of their chiefs, gave themselves up to every excess, and to the most unbridled licentiousness. No retreat was safe, no place sufficiently sacred, to secure it from their rapacious search. To all the excesses of lust, were added the highest depravity and debauchery. No respect was paid to the nobility of blood, the innocence of youth, or the tears of beauty.

"Dismayed by so many calamities, I hoped that the shades of night would veil the dreadful scene; but darkness, on the contrary, rendered the conflagration more terrible. The flames, which extended from north to south, burst forth with greater violence, and, agitated by the wind, seemed to reach the sky. Clouds of smoke marked the track of the rockets that were hurled by the incendiary criminals from the tops of the steeples, and which, at a distance, resembled falling stars. But nothing was so terrific as the dread that reigned in every mind, and which was heightened in the dead of the night by the shrieks of the unfortunate creatures who were massacred, or by the cries of young females who fled for refuge to the palpitating bosoms of their mothers, and whose

ineffectual struggles only served to inflame the passions of their violators. Many of our soldiers fell victims to their own rapacity, which induced them to brave every danger. Excited by the love of plunder, they rushed into the midst of the fire and smoke, wading in blood, and trampling on the dead bodies, while the ruins and pieces of burning wood fell upon their murderous hands. Perhaps all would have perished, had not the insupportable heat at length compelled them to take refuge in their camp."

"The French troops, as they poured into the devoted city," says Porter, "had spread themselves in every direction in search of plunder; and in their progress they committed outrages so horrid on the persons of all whom they discovered, that fathers, desperate to save their children from pollution, would set fire to their places of refuge, and find a surer asylum in the flames. The streets, the houses, the cellars, flowed with blood, and were filled with violation and carnage."

"Part of our troops," continues Labaume, "took up their quarters (Sept. 17) at the castle of Peterskoe; and on their march, they overtook crowds of inhabitants carrying off their infirm parents, with all they had rescued from their burning houses. Their horses having been taken from them by the troops, men, and even women, were harnessed to the carts which contained the wrecks of their property, and the dearest objects of their affection. Those interesting groups were accompanied by children who were nearly naked, and whose countenances were imprinted with a sorrow uncongenial to their age. If the soldiers approached them, they ran crying to throw themselves into their mothers' arms. Without assistance or shelter, they wandered in the fields, or took refuge in the woods.

"After the lapse of more than a month from our entrance into Moscow, the order for retreat was given; and on the 22d of October, Moscow was completely evacuated. On the 24th, the Russians attacked us at Malo Jaroslavetz; and the battle, which began at four o'clock in the morning, lasted till nine at night. The next day, the town was no longer standing, and we could discover the streets only by the heaps of dead bodies with which they were strewed. On all sides we saw human heads and scattered limbs crushed by the artillery that had passed over them. Many of the sick and wounded had quitted the fight to take refuge in the houses, which were now reduced to heaps of ruins, and under the burning ashes appeared their half-consumed remains. The few who had escaped the flames, having their faces blackened, and their clothes and hair burnt, presented themselves before us, and in an expiring tone uttered cries of the deepest anguish. On seeing them, the most ferocious were moved with compassion, and, turning away their eyes, could not refrain from tears.

"As we advanced, (Oct. 30,) the country appeared yet more desolate. The fields, trampled by thousands of horses, seemed as though they had never been cultivated; and the forests, thinned by the long residence of the troops, partook of the devastation.