79 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Dnevnik Aleksandra Chicherina, 1812–1813, Moscow, 1966, pp. 252 ff.; ‘Zapiski N. N. Murav’eva’, 24/1, 1885, p. 26.
80 This point is well documented by Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 90–92, and Ehnl, Kulm, pp. 112–18, so there is no reason why the fable still exists.
81 Bernhardi, Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 454.
82 Ehnl, Kulm, p. 132, writes that 41,000 allied infantry and 10,000 cavalry faced 39,000 French infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Given Vandamme’s casualties on 28 and 29 August, the figure for his infantry seems too high.
83 P. A. Kolzakov, ‘Vziatie v plen marshala Vandama 1813 g.’, RS, 1, 1870, pp. 137–44. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 704; SIM, no. 254, Alexander to Rostopchin, 22 Dec. 1813, p. 164.
84 Tartakovskii, Voennye dnevniki: Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky’s journal for 1813, p. 360.
85 This does not count members of the Romanov family or foreigners.
86 Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, p. 274: neutral in the sense that Hoen was an Austrian.
87 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 144–8; Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, ch. 7 and especially pp. 137–41.
88 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, fos. 213–4, Thuyl to Volkonsky, 21 Aug./2 Sept. 1813.
89 VPR, no. 141, Alexander’s instructions to Pozzo, 31 July/10 Aug. 1813, p. 345; Botzenhart, Stein, vol. 4, Stein to Munster, 7 and 10 Aug. 1813, pp. 390–92; Londonderry, Narrative, p. 179.
90 V. von Löwenstern, Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 2, pp. 136–7, 184–5; S. G. Volkonskii, Zapiski Sergeia Grigorovicha Volkonskago (dekabrista), SPB, 1902, pp. 264–5, 306–7.
91 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3911, Winzengerode to Alexander, 7/19 Aug. 1813, fos. 148–9; 22 Aug./3 Sept. 1813, fos. 289–91; RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/210, Sv. 53, Delo 18, fo. 7: Kankrin to Lotthum, 1/19 July 1813.
92 RGVIA, Fond 103, Opis 4/120, Sv. 18, Delo 57, fos. 5–6: Barclay to Lanskoy, 28 July 1813 (OS): Sv. 53, Delo 18, fo. 25, Barclay to Kankrin, 8 Aug. 1813 (OS).
93 Löwenstern, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 100, 146–78; Volkonskii, Zapiski, pp. 258–9; V. M. Bezotosnyi, Donskoi generalitet i ataman Platov v 1812 godu, Moscow, 1899, pp. 109–18.
94 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 139–73, provides an excellent analysis and description.
95 A recent full account in English of both the battle and some of the disputes that surrounded it is in Leggiere, Napoleon and Berlin, ch. 11. Leggiere is more hostile to Bernadotte than is Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, pp. 177–91.
96 V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812 god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 2, p. 28.
97 Major-General E. S. Kamenskii, Istoriia 2-go dragunskago S-Peterburgskago generalafel’dmarshala kniazia Menshikova polka 1707–1898, Moscow, 1900, pp. 225–37. Volkonskii, Zapiski, p. 266.
98 Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 275, 281.
Chapter 12: The Battle of Leipzig
1 The treaty is in F. Martens (ed.), Sobranie traktatov i konventsii, zakliuchennykh Rossiei s inostrannymi derzhavami, vol. 3: Traktaty s Avsrtieiu, SPB, 1876, no. 71, pp. 126–38. Kankrin’s comments are in Upravlenie General-Intendanta Kankrina: General’nyi sokrashchennyi otchet po armiiam…za pokhody protiv Frantsuzov, 1812, 1813 i 1814 godov, Warsaw, 1815, pp. 72–6.
2 L. G. Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod russkoi armii protiv Napoleona v 1813 g. i osvobozhdenie Germanii: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 1964, no. 214, Jomini to Alexander, 21 Aug./
2 Sept. 1813, pp. 241–2.
3 The letter to Knesebeck is quoted by Rudolph von Friederich, Die Befreiungskriege 1813– 1815, vol. 2: Der Herbstfeldzug 1813, Berlin, 1912, pp. 214–15; the letter to Alexander is printed in Beskrovnyi (ed.), Pokhod, no. 232, Blücher to Alexander, 30 Aug./11 Sept. 1813, pp. 268–9.
4 Rühle’s words are quoted by Friederich in Herbstfeldzug, p. 215: VPR, no. 162, Nesselrode to Pozzo, 21 Sept./3 Oct. 1813, pp. 393–4.
5 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, nos. 50 and 51, Volkonsky to Blücher, Volkonsky to Bennigsen, 1/13 Sept. 1813, fos. 21ii–22ii; Delo 3416, ‘Zhurnal voennykh deistvii Pol’skoi armii’, fos. 12i–14i.
6 M. I. Bogdanovich, Istoriia voiny 1813 g. za nezavisimost’ Germanii, 2 vols., SPB, 1863, vol. 2, pp. 336–41; RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Platov, 4 Sept. 1813 (OS), fos. 24ii–25i.
7 Chernyshev’s journal covers the raid in fos. 26–31 of RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3386. Bogdanovich, Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, pp. 342–55, provides a narrative, though my conclusions are very different from his.
8 A. Raevskii, Vospominaniia o pokhodakh 1813 i 1814 godov, Moscow, 1822, pp. 1–77.
9 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3416, fos. 16i–17ii.
10 The best and most detailed narrative is in Geschichte der Kämpfe Österreichs: Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz. Befreiungskrieg 1813 und 1814, vol. 5: M. von Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, Vienna, 1913; on Schwarzenberg’s fears see RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3399, Volkonsky to Oppermann, no. 97, 24 Sept. 1813 (OS), fos. 38i–39i; on victualling, see A. A. Eiler, ‘Zapiski A. A. Eilera’, RS, 1/11, 1880, p. 367 and Pokhod, no. 254, Barclay to Wittgenstein, 20 Sept./2 Oct. 1813, pp. 296–7.
11 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3385, Bernadotte to Winzengerode, 2 Oct. 1813, fo. 57i; I. Radozhitskii, Pokhodnyia zapiski artillerista s 1812 po 1816 god, 3 vols., Moscow, 1835, vol. 2, p. 246.
12 It is true that some of the 35,000 were sick, but the basic point remains valid: on Bennigsen’s deployment of troops at Dresden, see Feldzug der kaiserlichen Russischen Armee von Polen in den Jahren 1813 und 1814, Hamburg, 1843, pp. 33–6.
13 Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814, Paris, 1902, pp. 222, 298.
14 RGVIA, Fond 846, Opis 16, Delo 3403, fos. 27i–28ii, Sacken to Barclay, 1 Oct. 1813 (OS).
15 Langeron, Mémoires, pp. 299–300.
16 I visited the battlefield on two occasions, before major construction began on the motor-way which will provide a bypass for Leipzig and in the process ruin much of the southern battlefield.
17 Hon. George Cathcart, Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813, London, 1850, p. 298.
18 Friederich, Herbstfeldzug, p. 294.
19 Ibid., p. 295.
20 Bogdanovich cites Alexander’s words: Istoriia…1813, vol. 2, p. 439.
21 Hoen, Feldzug von Leipzig, pp. 402–10. The possibility of treason is raised by Digby Smith (1813 – Leipzig, Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations, London, 2001, p. 69) but no evidence is provided. My own explanation is partly drawn from Ludwig von Wolzogen, Mémoires d’un Général d’Infanterie au service de la Prusse et de la Russie (1792–1836), Paris, 2002, pp. 179–82.