Susan Johnson (38 page)

Napoleon and Josephine were married March 6, 1796, in a brief civil ceremony. She kept her own name and reduced her age by four years; Napoleon added two years to his—he was six years younger. Two days later Napoleon left for his command in Italy. From March 8 until July 13 Napoleon wrote his wife at least once a day, letters exploding with longing, frustration, and explicit sensuality, asking her to come immediately and join him in Italy.

Josephine replied occasionally, but she was busy with her host of friends in Paris and had just begun a new liaison that would become the most passionate love affair of her life.

By the end of June, Napoleon’s letters, including those sent to Barras, were so consumed with jealousy, talk of suicide, and threats of leaving his command in Italy and coming back to Paris if Josephine didn’t join him, that Barras literally dispatched Josephine across the Alps. After a last supper at the Luxembourg, Josephine was bundled, sobbing, into the first carriage in a convoy of six and sent south.

Massena, my inspiration for Duras, wasn’t the same style of man as Napoleon. He wouldn’t have sent pleading letters to his errant wife, but Napoleon was sexually inexperienced with women and Massena was not. Josephine was Napoleon’s first grand passion and perhaps his only one—a youthful, mad rush of ardent love and intense emotion not previously experienced. Josephine was a sophisticated woman of the world, innately sensual, feminine, comfortable in a society that required a woman to have an expertise in male flattery to survive, and Napoleon fell under her spell.

Keep in mind that at this time, Napoleon was thin, sickly-looking, with lank, greasy hair and a sallow complexion. His head was too big for his body, his legs were thin and spindly, and he had scabies sores all over his face. Hardly a physically appealing sight for a beautiful woman living in the society of the rich and powerful.

9.
While Napoleon was on campaign in Egypt, he learned of his wife’s affair with Hippolyte Charles and in his anger he decided on a divorce—a public and sensational divorce. The letter he wrote to his brother Joseph asking him to begin
making the necessary arrangements was intercepted by British cruisers in the Mediterranean. Josephine’s son Eugene, an aide to Napoleon in Egypt, had also written to his mother warning her of the events and his letter was captured as well. Both were published in full in the London newspapers in English and French.

When Napoleon heard of the publication in the British newspapers, he had his staff organize an evening of Egyptian dancers for him. But none of the women appealed to him. He complained they were too fat and he didn’t care for their perfume. But as soon as he saw pretty twenty-year-old Pauline Fourès, he knew how to take a very public revenge on Josephine. Pauline, a blond and rosy milliner’s apprentice, was still dressed in the uniform—blue coat and tight white breeches—of her husband’s regiment, which she had worn in order to embark for Egypt with him. Bonaparte issued orders for Lieutenant Fourès to take urgent dispatches to Paris. Only a day out from Alexandria, Fourès’s ship was captured. The English captain, familiar with Cairo gossip, made a point of returning the French lieutenant to Alexandria on parole as rapidly as possible. There Fourès was enraged to find his Pauline installed in the commander in chief’s palace and presiding over his dinner parties. He protested, but Napoleon had a rapid divorce pronounced and was said to have promised marriage to Pauline if she could produce a child.

Another instance of paramours in military dress: when Massena went to Spain in May 1810 to assume command of the Army of Portugal, he was accompanied by his seventeen-year-old son, Jacques-Prosper, his secretary, Vacherat, and a small entourage. They were escorted by two hundred horsemen through countryside thick with guerrilla bands.

On the morning of May 11 one of Massena’s aides arrived at the palace in Valladolid announcing that the general would arrive later in the day. Eager to impress his new commander, General Junot collected a delegation of some two hundred officers and chasseurs to ride out and welcome Massena and his staff. A league beyond the city they sighted an open carriage, trailed by a convoy of carriages and wagons, racing toward the city. After Junot formally greeted him, Massena’s calash was escorted to the palace through the streets of the city, which were lined by troops in brilliant uniforms. Apparently some embarrassment occurred when
Massena alighted from his carriage. His young traveling companion, dressed in the guise of a cavalry officer with the Legion of Honor, was none other than his current mistress, Henriette Leberton. According to the malicious Baron Marbot, “When Junot rushed in accompanied by the Duchesse, he fell into Massena’s arms; then before all the staff he kissed the hand of Mme. Leberton … and introduced his wife. Imagine the astonishment of the two ladies. They stood petrified and did not speak a single word. Massena had the wit to restrain himself, but he was deeply hurt when the Duchesse d’Abrantes, pleading indisposition, immediately departed.” Madame Junot refused to be in the same room with Madame Leberton during Massena’s stay in Valladolid. Since her own reputation was far from virtuous, her attitude annoyed Massena and problems arose.

10.
Although there was little affection between the two men, Napoleon’s assessment of Massena’s qualities as a commander is generally fair.

“He had a strong constitution and would ride tirelessly, night and day, over rocks and through the mountains; that was the kind of war that he specialized in and understood thoroughly. He was decided, tough, fearless, full of ambition and self-esteem; his outstanding quality was doggedness, he was never discouraged. He was slack about discipline, negligent in administration and he had no conversational powers. But at the first sound of a gun, in the midst of cannon-balls and danger, his thoughts acquired strength and clarity. If he was defeated, he would return to the charge as if he were the victor.”

11.
Archduke Charles (Carl Ludwig 1771–1847), third son of the Emperor Leopold II and younger brother of the Emperor Francis, was the youngest and ablest of the Austrian commanders. He suffered from mild epileptic attacks that would plague him all his life, often aggravated during times of stress and frustration.

12.
Archduke Charles, realizing the importance of Switzerland, had submitted a war plan early in December of 1798. His plan, however, was changed by the chancellor
Thugut who, with the support of the emperor and assisted by General Bellegarde, was working on his own plans. In this war more than ever before, interference from Vienna restricted the scope of field commanders and Thugut interjected his own ideas into strategy and even grand tactics. Although there was bad blood between Charles and Thugut, the primary cause of their disagreements was that for Thugut political considerations overrode military plans. He perceived Austrian political interests to lie primarily in southern Germany and northern Italy, not in Switzerland. Moreover, Bellegarde, acting as his chief military adviser, feared that the French held a clear tactical advantage in the mountains.

The archduke reacted strongly to Thugut’s plan and submitted his objections to his brother, the emperor. The emperor’s reply was angry. He accused the archduke of “insubordination” and “an eruption of an exaggerated sensitivity” and hinted at “unpleasant consequences” if Charles persisted. Taken aback, Charles answered in a long, abject letter, assuring the emperor of his complete devotion. Yet he was not reconciled to the situation, and from his headquarters, he complained to his old mentor, General Lindenau. “When I came here,” he wrote, “I had hoped to concentrate my main army—some 80–90,000—against the enemy, but I received no support and instead Bellegarde went to Vienna and I was ordered to detach 17 battalions and 8 squadrons to help form a reserve army of 56,000 under Bellegarde.” Charles explained that he had protested, only to be sharply reprimanded and that “in this manner I lost 30,000 foot soldiers which are doing nothing in the Tyrol and all this so that Bellegarde can cut a good figure without any risk.”

Charles recovered from his illness before Thugut’s plans to replace him could be realized, and the archduke requested he be allowed to retain his command. The emperor replied on May 4, “I have decided to keep you on as army commander.” But he ordered him to “abandon for reasons that you are aware of, all enterprises which might entangle you in Switzerland.” And to make sure the order was obeyed, Charles was to have his chief of staff make an “account of all events, troop movements, etc.” to be forwarded to Vienna daily. This bickering between the court and Charles was very useful to the French in Switzerland.

13.
Throughout history soldiers have seldom been celibate and camp followers represented a serious problem for all armies. The women did indeed suffer in the field, marching with the troops, sharing their privations and dangers. Sometimes they carried the packs for their men, nursed them when wounded or sick, and often a devoted wife would search a battlefield hoping to find her husband alive. During retreats women and children, the weakest, suffered the most. Women became, largely by necessity, expert foragers and looters.

Cantinières
, uniformed and attached to a particular regiment, were unique to the French army. The
cantinière
was appointed by the
conseil d’administration
, a body of officers and men presided over by the colonel, which ran the internal affairs of the regiment. Often married to a sergeant, the
cantinière
kept her wagon stocked with small luxuries and comforts—cognac, tobacco, and the like. The trade was profitable but also dangerous. The women often developed a strong attachment to their unit. During the Peninsula War, hearing that the well-liked Brigadier Simon had fallen wounded into British hands, the
cantinière
of the 26th declared that “we shall see if the English will kill a woman.” She crossed the lines, nursed Simon, and “though she was young and very pretty,” as Marbot records, returned unharmed to her regiment. And then there was Catherine Baland of the 95th, who encouraged men in battle and distributed her goods free in the firing line. She received the coveted
Légion d’honneur
in 1813.

14.
In answer to the Directory’s complaints about his inaction, Massena wrote to them on July 23. The letter proves that Massena had both the wisdom and courage to disobey orders issued by unqualified men.

15.
The telegraph lines to Zurich ran from Chappe to Huningue to Paris via Strasbourg. A telegraph line was also constructed to the Italian front.

16.
It was Thugut’s plan to avoid a large-scale Austrian involvement in Switzerland and leave operations to the two Russian corps. What Thugut forgot was that the Russians were neither equipped nor trained to operate in the mountains
and that success in Switzerland was vital to the successful prosecution of the war.

In a rare defiance of orders Archduke Charles had crossed the Rhine into Switzerland and fought the first Battle of Zurich on June 4. After having suffered 3,400 casualties against 1,600 French, he hesitated pressing on, having exceeded his orders and fearing that he would be blamed for heavy losses. The British agent Wickham reported that Charles had entered Switzerland “without any authority from Vienna” and that “HRH not only has never been able to obtain the slightest mark of approbation from his court” and “is, or affects to be, extremely uneasy on that account.”

In fact the emperor was annoyed and on July 10, Charles finally received a cool letter ordering him to remain passive until relieved by Suvorov’s corps from Italy and the Russian auxiliary corps from Germany. Three weeks later, formal instructions confirmed this arrangement. After the Russian arrival, Charles was to command the imperial army between the Neckar and Switzerland. He was to cross the Rhine near Mannheim, though only as a demonstration, while in reality he was to prepare going into winter quarters. Charles’s objections that this was the end of any prospect for taking Switzerland, the key position in Europe, were overruled.

17.
During the September Massacres of 1792, Talleyrand sailed to England ostensibly on a government mission, in reality to escape the massacres. When Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, England began to look less kindly on “representatives”—however ambiguous—of the revolutionary government and Talleyrand was expelled in May 1793. He went into exile in America. Through the sheer relentless persuasion of Germaine de Staël, who managed to get Boissy d’Anglas to make a speech in the Legislative Corps insisting that Talleyrand had been unjustly proscribed since he hadn’t emigrated in 1792 but had actually been dispatched on an official mission, he was exonerated. Marie-Joseph Chénier had also come to his aid, using what was left of his stagecraft to make an even more impassioned appeal for the wronged patriot. Talleyrand was allowed to return to France. He set sail from Manhattan in June 1796.

18.
It was essential that the Russian forces be split in two so Massena could concentrate on taking Zurich without worrying about having to face the combined Russian army. Dourasov was not only duped by the feint but remained at Brugg all day without moving or attempting contact with the Russian forces on his left. He made it possible for Massena to advance on Zurich without fighting a rear-guard action.

The Russian officer corps recruited from the gentry were poorly educated, often hardly literate, imprudent, negligent, and generally incapable of a quick decision in an emergency. The nobility entered the army through various cadet schools and later took up appointments in the Guards or in elite mounted regiments. They were cultured, though not well educated, and lacked competence in administration and staff work. Nonetheless, especially if well connected, they found their way into general headquarters where as Colonel Campbell scornfully commented, they “spent their time drinking, gambling or sleeping.” Napoleon is supposed to have said that a French private took more interest in the planning and conduct of a battle than senior Russian officers. Before Austerlitz, the young aristocratic officers were overconfident, brash, boastful, underestimating their opponents and blaming all previous setbacks on the alleged cowardice of their Austrian allies.