Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

XLV. NAPO

force was left iriumphant in the place of the constitution and the laws. A new constitution was soon formed, by which LEON FIRST the executive power was intrusted to three consuls, of CONSUL. whom Napoleon was the chief. The "First consul," as Napoleon was styled, was in everything but in name a monarch. Not only in Paris, but throughout all France, the feeling was in favor of the new government; for the people, weary of anarchy, rejoiced at the prospect of repose under the strong arm of power, and were as unanimous to terminate the Revolution as, in 1789, they had been to commence it. The Revolution had passed through all its changes; ―monarchical, republican, and democratic; it closed with the military character; while the liberty which it strove to establish was immolated by one of its own favorite heroes, on the altar of personal ambition

CHAPTER VI.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

SECTION I.

THE WARS OF NAPOLEON.

ANALYSIS. [EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1800.] 1. Napoleon's proposals for peace. Rejected by the British government.-2. Military force of Great Britain and Austria. Situation of France. Effect of Napoleon's government-3. Disposition of the French forces.-4. Successes of Moreau. [Engen. Moeskirch.] Massena is shut up in Genoa. Napoleon passes over the Great St. Bernard. [Great St. Bernard.]-5. Surprise of the Austrians. Napoleon's progress. Victory of Marengo. [Marengo.]-6. Efforts at negotiation. Malta surrenders to the British.-7. Operations of the French and Austrians in Bavaria. [Hohenlinden.] Passage of the Splugen by Macdonald. [Splugen.] Armistice. Peace of Luneville. [Luneville.]—8. Maritime confederacy against England. Its effect. Previous orders of the Danish and Russian governments. 9. [EVENTS OF 1801.] England sends a powerful fleet to the Baltic. Battle of Copenhagen. -10. The Russian emperor Paul is strangled, and succeeded by Alexander. Dissolution of the League of the North.-11. The French army in Egypt. Capitulation. General peace. [Amiens.] 12. [EVENTS OF 1802, THE YEAR OF PEACE.] Internal Affairs of France. Napoleon made consul for life.-13. Conduct of Napoleon in his relations with foreign States. Holland-the Italian republics-the Swiss cantons. Attempt to recover St. Domingo. [Historical account of St. Domingo.]-14. Circumstances leading to a RENEWAL OF THE WAR IN 1803. Hostile acts of England and France.

15. First military operations of the French, in the year 1803. [Hanover.] Preparations for the invasion of England.-16. Rebellion in Ireland. Conspiracy against Napoleon early in 1804. The affair of the Duke D'Enghien. [Baden.]-17. Hostile acts of England against Spain. The latter joins France.-18. Napoleon, emperor, May, 1804-crowned by the pope-anointed sovereign of Italy, May, 1805.

19. New coalition against France. Prussia remains neutral. Beginning of the war by Aus tria.-20. The French forces. Napoleon victorious at Ulm. [Ulm.] English naval victory of Trafalgar. [Trafalgar.] Additional victories of Napoleon, and treaty of Presburg, Dec. 1805. [Austerlitz.]

[1806.] 21. Conquests of the English. [Mahrattas. Buenos Ayres.] Napoleon rapidly extends his supremacy over the continent. The affairs of Naples, Holland, and Germany.-22. Circumstances which led Prussia to join the coalition against Napoleon.-23. Napoleon's victories over the Prussians. He enters Berlin. [Jena. Auerstadt.]-24. The Berlin decrees. Napoleon in Poland. Battle of Pultusk. Battle of Eylau, Feb. 1807. Fall of Dantzic. [Eylau. Dantzic.]-25. Battle of Friedland. [Friedland. Niemen.] The treaty of Tilsit. Losses suffered by Prussia. [Tilsit. Westphalia.]—26. Circumstances that led to the bombardment of Copenhagen, by the English fleet. Denmark joins France. Portuguese affairs. The French in Lisbon. [Rio Janeiro. Brazil.]—27. The designs of Napoleon against the Peninsular monarchs. Affairs of Spain, 1808. Godoy-abdication of the Spanish monarch, and his son Ferdinand. Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Spain, and Murat king of Naples.-28. Resistance of the Spaniards and beginning of the Peninsular war.-29. Successes of the Spaniards at Cadiz, Valencia, Saragossa, and Baylen. [Baylen. Ebro.]-30. War in Portugal, and evacuation of that country by the French forces. [Oporto. Vimiera. Cintra.]-31. Napoleon takes the field in person, and the British are rapidly driven from Spain. [Reynosa. Burgos. Tudela. Corunna.]

[1809.] 32. Austria suddenly renews the war. Victories of Napoleon, who enters Vienna in May; and peace with Austria in October. [Eckmubl. Aspern. Wagram.]-33. War with the Tyrolese. British expedition to Holland. Continuance of the war in the Spanish peninsula. Difficulties between Napoleon and the pope.-34. Napoleon's divorce from Josephine and marriage with Maria Louisa of Austria, 1810. Effects of this marriage upon Napoleon's future prospects. His conduct towards Holland. Sweden. His power in the central parts of Europe. Jealousy of the Russian emperor.-35. Continuance of the war in the Spanish peninsula. Wellington and Massena. [Ciudad Rodrigo. Busaco. Torres Vedras.]-36. The peninsula war during the year 1811. [Badajoz. Albuera.]

37. Events of the peninsular war from the beginning of 1812 to the retreat of the French across the Pyrenees. [Salamanca. Vittoria.]

38. NAPOLEON'S RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, 1812. Events that led to the opening of a war with Russia. The opposing nations in this war.-39. The "Grand Army" of Napoleon. The opposing Russian force.-40. Napoleon crosses the Niemen, June 1812. Retreat of the Russians. Early disasters of the French army. [Wilna.]-41. Onward march of the army. Battle of Smolensko. Entrance of the deserted city.-42. Napoleon pursues the retreating Russians, who make a stand at Borodino. [Borodino.] The evening before the battle.-43. Battle of Borodino, Sept. 7th.-44. Continued retreat of the Russians, who abandon Moscow. The city, on the entrance of the French. The burning of Moscow. Napoleon begins a retreat Oct. 19th. -45. The horrors of the retreat.-46. Napoleon at Smolensko. He renews the retreat Nov. 14th. Battles of Krasnoi, and passage of the Beresina. [Krasnoi. Beresina.] Marshal Ney. Napoleon abandons the army, and reaches Paris, Dec. 18th. His losses in the Russian campaign. 47. War between England and the United States of America. Mexico. The war in the Indian seas.

[1813.] 48. Napoleon's preparations for renewing the war. Prussia, Sweden, and Austria. Battles of Lutzen and Bautzen. Armistice, and congress of Prague. [Bautzen.]-49. War renewed Aug. 16th. Austria joins the allies. Battles. [Culm.Gross-Beren. Katsbach. Dennewitz.] Battles of Leipsic, and retreat of the French. Losses of the French. Revolts. Wellington, [1814.] 50. General invasion of France. Bernadotte and Murat. Energy and talents of Napoleon. The allies march upon Paris, which capitulates. Deposition, and abdication, of Napo leon. Treaty between him and the allies. [Elba.] Louis XVIII. Restricted limits of France. [1815.] 51. Congress of Vienna, and Napoleon's return from Elba. Marshal Ney. All France submits to Napoleon.-52. Napoleon in vain attempts negotiations. Forces of the allies; of Napoleon.-53. Napoleon's policy, and movements. Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, Wavre, and Waterloo. Second capitulation of Paris, Napoleon's abdication-attempted escape to America-exile-and death. 54. First objects of the allies. Return of Louis XVIII Execution of Ney, and Labedoyère. Fate of Murat.-55. Second treaty of Paris. Its terms. Restoration of the pillaged treasures of art.

To

1. As soon as Napoleon was seated on the consular throne of France he addressed to the British government an able [1800] L. EVENTS OF communication, making general proposals of peace. THE YEAR this a firm and dignified reply was given, ascribing the 1800. evils which afflicted Europe to French aggression and French ambition, and declining to enter into a general pacification until France should present, in her internal condition and foreign policy, firmer pledges than she had yet given, of stability in her own government, and security to others. The answer of the British gov ernment forms the beginning of the second period of the war-that in which it was waged with Napoleon himself, the skilful director of all the energies of the French nation.

2. War being resolved on, the most active measures were taken

on both sides to prosecute it with vigor. The land forces, equipped militia, and seamen of Great Britain, amounted to three hundred and seventy thousand men, and Austria furnished two hundred thou. sand. France seemed poorly prepared to meet the coming storm. Her armies had just been defeated in Germany and Italy; her treasury was empty, and her government had lost all credit; the af filiated Swiss and Dutch republics were discontented; and the French people were dissatisfied and disunited. But the establishment of a firm and powerful government soon arrested these disorders; the finances were established on a solid basis; the Vendean war was amicably terminated; Russia was detached from the British alliance; many of the banished nobility were recalled; confidence, energy, and hope, revived; and the prospects of France rapidly brightened under the auspices of Napoleon.

3. At the opening of the campaign the French forces were disposed in the following manner. The army of Germany, one hundred and twenty-eight thousand strong, under the command of Moreau, was posted on the northern confines of Switzerland and north along the west bank of the Rhine: the army of Italy, thirty-six thousand strong, under the command of Massena, occupied the crest of the Alps in the neighborhood of Genoa; while an army of reserve, of fifty thousand men, of whom twenty thousand were veteran troops, awaited the orders of the first consul, ready to fly to the aid of either Moreau or Massena.

4. Moreau, victorious at Engen and Moeskirch,' drove the Austrians back from the Rhine, and, penetrating to Munich, laid Bavaria under contribution. Massena, after the most vigorous efforts against a greatly superior force, was shut up in Genoa with a part of his army, and finally compelled to capitulate. Napoleon, on hearing the reverses of Massena, resolved to cross the Swiss Alps and fall upon Piedmont. Taking the route by the Great St. Bernard, on the 17th

1. Engen and Moeskirch are in the south-eastern part of Baden, near the northern boundary of Switzerland. (Map No. XVII.)

2. Great St. Bernard is the name given to a famous pass of the Alps, leading over the mountains from the Swiss town of Martigny to the Italian town of Aosta. In its highest part it rises to an elevation of more than eight thousand feet, being almost impassable in winter and very dangerous in spring, from the avalanches. Near the summit of the pass is the famous hospital founded in 962 by Bernard de Menthon, and occupied by brethren of the order of St. Augustine, whose especial duty it is to assist and relieve travellers crossing the mountains. In the midst of the tempests and snow storms, the monks, accompanied by dogs of extraordinary size and sagacity, set out for the purpose of tracking those who have lost their way. If they find the body of a traveller who has perished, they carry it into the vault of the dead, where it remains lying on a table until another victim is brought to occupy the place. It is

of May his army began the ascent of the mountain. The artillery wagons were taken to pieces, and put on the backs of mules, while a hundred large pines, each hollowed out to receive a piece of artillery, were drawn up the mountain by the soldiers. To encourage the men, the music of each regiment played at its head; and where the ascent was most difficult the charge was sounded.

1

5. Great was the surprise of the Austrians at beholding this large army descending into the Italian plains. Before the end of the month Napoleon was at Turin, and on the 2d of June, after little opposition, he made his triumphant entry into Milan. On the 14th he was attacked by the Austrian general Melas, at the head of greatly superior forces, on the plains of Marengo. Here, after twelve hours of incessant fighting, victory was decided in favor of the French by the stubborn resistance of Desaix, and the happy charge of the gallant Kellerman. General Desaix, who had just arrived from Egypt, fell on the field of battle. The result of the victory gave Napoleon the entire command of Italy, and induced the Austrians to propose a suspension of arms, which, in anticipation of a treaty, was agreed to.

6. The efforts at negotiation were unsuccessful, as no satisfactory arrangements could be made between England and France, and in the latter part of November the armistice was terminated, and hostilities recommenced. In the meantime Malta, which, during more than two years, had been closely blockaded by the British forces, was compelled to surrender, and was permanently annexed to the British dominions.

7. On the renewal of the war, the Austrian army, eighty thousand strong, under the Archduke John, and the French army, somewhat less in number, under Moreau, were facing each other on the eastern confines of Bavaria. The Austrians advanced, and on the 3d of De

then set up against the wall, among the other dead bodies, which, on account of the cold, decay so slowly that they are often recognized by their friends after the lapse of years. It is impossible to bury the dead, as there is nothing about the hospital but naked rocks. Not a tree or bush is to be seen, but everlasting winter reigns in this dreary abode, the highest inhabited place ir. Europe.

When the army of Napoleon crossed the St. Bernard, every soldier received from the monks a large ration of bread and cheese, and a draught of wine at the gate of the hospital: a seasonable supply which exhausted the stores of the establishment, but was fully repaid by the First Consul before the close of the campaign.

The Little St. Bernard, over which Hannibal crossed, is farther west, separating Piedmont from Savoy. The undertaking of the Carthaginian was far more difficult than that of Napoleon. (Map No. XIV.)

1. Marengo is a small village of Northern Italy, in an extensive plain, forty-three miles scath west from Milan. (Map No. XII.)

« AnteriorContinuar »