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_September 26th._--Russian troops from Finland disembark at Riga.
_September 30th.--Napoleon finds a copy of Treaty of Bucharest at
Moscow._
_October 11th._--Admiral Tschitchagow with 36,000 men reaches
Bresc, on the Bug, threatening the French communications with
Warsaw.
_October 17th-19th._--Second combat of Polotsk. Wittgenstein again
defeated by St. Cyr, who is wounded.
_October 18th._--Combat of Winkowo; Kutusoff defeats Murat.
Americans defeated at Queenston Heights, on the Niagara, and lose
900 men.
_October 19th._--Commencement of the Retreat from Moscow.
_October 22nd._--Burgos captured by Wellington.
_October 23rd._--Conspiracy of Malet at Paris; Cambaceres to the
rescue. Evacuation of Moscow by Mortier after forty days'
occupation. The French army now retreating has only half its
original strength, and the best cavalry regiments boast only 100
horses.
_October 24th.--Battle of Malo-Jaroslavitz. Eugene with 17,000_
_men defeats Kutusoff with 60,000; but Napoleon finds the enemy
too strong and too tenacious to risk the fertile Kaluga route._
_November 3rd._--Battle of Wiazma. Rearguard action, in which Ney
and Eugene are distinguished.
_November 9th.--Napoleon reaches Smolensk and hears of Malet
conspiracy._
_November 14th._--Evacuation of Smolensk.
_November 16th._--Russian Army (of the Danube) takes Minsk, and
cuts off the French from the Niemen.
_November 16th-19th._--Combat of Krasnoi, twenty-five miles west
of Smolensk. Kutusoff with 30,000 horse and 70,000 foot tries to
stop the French, who have only 25,000 effective combatants.
Magnificent fighting by Ney with his rearguard of 6000.
_November 21st._--Russians seize at Borizow the bridges over the
Beresina, which are
_November 23rd._--Retaken by Oudinot.
_November 26th-28th._--French cross the Beresina, but lose 20,000
prisoners and nearly all their cannon (150).
_November 29th.--Napoleon writes Maret he has heard nothing of
France or Spain for fifteen days._
_December 3rd._--Twenty-ninth bulletin dated Malodeczna, fifty
miles west of Borisow.
_December 5th.--Napoleon reaches Smorgoni, and starts for
France._
_December 10th._--Murat, left in command, evacuates Wilna. French
retreat in utter rout; "It is not General Kutusoff who routed the
French, it is General Morosow" (the frost), said the Russians.
_December 14th.--Napoleon reaches Dresden, and_
_December 18th.--Paris._
_December 19th._--Evacuation of Kovno and passage of the Niemen.
_December 20th.--Napoleon welcomed by the Senate in a speech by
the naturalist Lacepede: "The absence of your Majesty, sire, is
always a national calamity."_
_December 30th._--Defection of the Prussian General York and
Convention of Taurogen, near Tilsit, between Russia and Prussia.
This defection is the signal for the uprising of Germany from the
Oder to the Rhine, from the Baltic to the Julienne Alps.
1813.
_January 5th._--Konigsberg occupied by the Russians.
_January 13th._--Senatus Consultus calls up 250,000 conscripts.
_January 22nd._--Americans defeated at Frenchtown, near Detroit,
and lose 1200 men.
_January 25th.--Concordat at Fontainebleau between Napoleon and
Pope Pius VII., with advantageous terms for the Papacy. The Pope,
however, soon breaks faith._
_January 28th.--Murat deserts the French army for Naples, and
leaves Posen. "Your husband is very brave on the battlefield, but
he is weaker than a woman or a monk when he is not face to face
with an enemy. He has no moral courage"_ (_Napoleon to his sister
Caroline, January 24, 1813._ Brotonne, 1032). _Replaced by Eugene
(Napoleon's letter dated January 22nd)._
_February 1st._--Proclamation of Louis XVIII. to the French people
(dated London).
_February 8th._--Warsaw surrenders to Russia.
_February 10th._--Proclamation of Emperor Alexander calling on the
people of Germany to shake off the yoke of "one man."
_February 28th._--Sixth Continental Coalition against France.
Treaty signed between Russia and Prussia at Kalisch.
_March 3rd._--New treaty between England and Sweden at Stockholm:
Sweden to receive a subsidy of a million sterling and the island
of Guadaloupe in return for supporting the Coalition with 30,000
men.
_March 4th._--Cossacks occupy Berlin. Madison inaugurated
President U.S.A.
_March 9th._--Eugene removes his headquarters to Leipsic.
_March 12th._--French evacuate Hamburg.
_March 21st._--Russians and Prussians take new town of Dresden.
_April 1st._--France declares war on Prussia.
_April 10th._--_Death of Lagrange, mathematician_; _greatly bemoaned
by Napoleon, who considered his death as a "presentiment"_
(D'Abrantes).
_April 14th._--Swedish army lands in Germany.
_April 15th.--Napoleon leaves Paris; arrives Erfurt (April 25th)._
Americans take Mobile.
_April 16th._--Thorn (garrisoned by 900 Bavarians) surrenders to
the Russians. Fort York (now Toronto) and
_April 27th._--Upper Canada taken by the Americans.
_May 1st._--Death of the Abbe Delille, poet. Opening of campaign.
French forces scattered in Germany, 166,000 men; Allies' forces
ready for action, 225,000 men. Marshal Bessieres killed by a
cannon-ball at Poserna.
_May 2nd.--Napoleon with 90,000 men defeats Prussians and Russians
at Lutzen (Gross-Goerschen) with 110,000; French loss, 10,000.
Battle won_ _chiefly by French artillery. Emperor of Russia and
King of Prussia present._
_May 8th.--Napoleon and the French reoccupy Dresden._
_May 18th._--Eugene reaches Milan, and enrols an Italian army
47,000 strong.
_May 19th-21st.--Combats of Konigswartha, Bautzen, Hochkirch,
Wuerschen. Napoleon defeats Prussians and Russians; French loss,
12,000; Allies, 20,000._
_May 23rd.--Duroc (shot on May 22nd) dies. "Duroc," said the
Emperor, "there is another life. It is there you will go to await
me, and there we shall meet again some day."_
_May 27th._--Americans capture Fort George (Lake Ontario) and
_May 29th._--Defeat English at Sackett's Harbour.
_May 30th._--French re-enter Hamburg and
_June 1st._--Occupy Breslau. British frigate _Shannon_ captures
_Chesapeake_ in fifteen minutes outside Boston harbour.
_June 4th.--Armistice of Plesswitz, between Napoleon and the
Allies._
_June 6th._--Americans (3500) surprised at Burlington Heights by
700 British.
_June 15th.--Siege of Tarragona raised by Suchet; English
re-embark, leaving their artillery. "If I had had two marshals
such as Suchet, I should not only have conquered Spain, but I
should have kept it"_ (_Napoleon in_ Campan's Memoirs).
_June 21st._--Battle of Vittoria; total rout of the French under
Marshal Jourdan and King Joseph. In retreat the army is much more
harassed by the guerillas than by the English.
_June 23rd._--Admiral Cockburn defeated at Craney Island by
Americans.
_June 24th._--Five hundred Americans surrender to two hundred
Canadians at Beaver's Dams.
_June 25th._--Combat of Tolosa. Foy stops the Previous Next |