The Sun.
London, England, 1814-04-05 00:00:00

successes.

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In the morning of the 2.3 d; the different corps
of this army were assembled in positions, from
whenc.!.." the whole were directed upon Vitry. The
lins:,ian light division of cavalry Of the guard,
nuder General Count Angcrowsky, advanced trOm
Netiercelin to Sommepuis, where they attacked
considerable body of infantry, killed and made
prisoners a great number of them, and took
twenty pieces of cannon. This attack was eon-
(lute?' with so much talent and rapidity, that the
loss on the part of the Russians was inconsider-
able, file enemy immediately after began to de-
file from all their positions near Arcis, directing
themselves upon Vitry. Count Wreck endea-
a:oured to intercept their march, hut was unable
to do so.. The Prince Royal of Wirtemberg fol-
lowed them, and did them considerable mischief.
1.337 a Prench Courier taken at the charge of the
riussian cavalry at Satutnepnis.,,.it ‘4scer tai ned,
that the 'corps of Marshals Ney and Macdonald
were in our front filing to join Buonaparte, ‘rho
was already at St. Mier. The Commandant of
Vitry had been summoned by Marshal Ney, and
threatened with the massacre of the whole gar-
rison, if be did not surrender ; he had, however,
refused ; Vitry was still in our possession.

ty an intercepted letter of Buonaparte's, Ibe
objects of his movements were discovered. Prince
Schwartzenberg, in consequence, halted his army
on the Marne during the night of the 23d, the
French having entirely passed to the other bank
of that river.

Bttonaparte having placed himself upon our line
of communication with the rear, and our junction
with the artny of Marshal Blucher being forracd
by the arrival of General Winzingetode ft om Cha-
lons at Vitry, •it was determined that the whole
of the two great Allied Armies should march upon
Paris. With this object the vaalle army broke
up yesterday, and had advanced in one column
upon this plane. The corps of Marshals Mar-
ildont and Mortier appear to have received orders
to join Buoilaparte ; they arrived within two
leagues of Vitry on the night of the 24th. The
advaneed guard of the Prince Royal of Wirtem•
berg fell in with them soon after he had corn-
,
menced his march in this direction. •
The enemy perceiving a considerable force ad-
vancing upon him, retired ; the cavalry of the
4th an't 6tht corps pursued. The light cavalry
division of Russian guards again distinguished
itself ; it 'charged first the enemy's cuirassiers,
Post his masses of infantry ; in both it succeeded;
e great number of killed and wounded were left
on the field of battle, ten pieces of cannon taken,
and near one thousand priSoners. Several other
charges were made by the AustPian cuirassiers
and the Wirteniberg cavalry; the enemy suffered
frOm them considerably,. and was pursued, with
the loss of above 30 pieces of cannon, to Sezanne.
The'results of these affairs are not yet completely
known ; I will transmit them to your Lordship
by the first opportunity. Upon the arrival of
Prince Schwartzenberg at Fero Champenoise, a
cannoneer_ was ofisetved Uport oor right; soon
after, a body of infantry were sata moving upon
the head7quarters.
The Emperor Alexander and the King of Prus-
sia immediately' oireeted a train of artillery,
which belonged to the fith corps, and which was
passing at the time, to 'place itself in position
:against this corps. Thi-Wialry, which was in
• •
recur of this body, was s'otint after discovered to
belong to' the -army of :Mtarshal Blucher, which
bad been pursuing it during the greater part of
the day 7 Prince Schwartzenberg immediately
brought up a considerable portion of cavalry from
the corps that Were- pursuing Marshals.Marmont
ancrmortier ; the Emperor of Russia directed the
adVane6.Of the Russian guns ; the whole body of
French infantry was surrounded ; they were
charged on all sides, under the irnmediate di-
vections.of the Emperor of Russia, the King of
Prussia, and 'PAnce Schwartzenhen ; after..re.;
sistance, which does hon.ottr to the enemy's troops,
the whole of his twa mastics., amounting to 4800'
antry, with t4elli-:P•44s of cannon, were
,

'en, 2ny Lord, the tritunplia' nt re-

!znits•ol:'yefit;.rclay. Ti troops IfC ali•":-.‘uly Ti(i:.
vAlldthis morning, tile cavalr: will arrive tO-day
at La Fette Gancliti.. Gen. IVlnzirigerodc, With
;0,000 cavalry', is in Observation of liuonaparte'3
ailty, on. the side of St. Di tier; its direction is
not as yet known.

It is with the greatest regret I have to ts7liltotinc,...
to your T_crdship, that. Cwupbeli- ‘vfis yestrr
(F most tevvrdy woundcd a Cosss.a.ck. Col.
cont.inoiog that gallant distinguished
course whicll has ever marked his nuilitary carcer,,
had cba'rg. ed with the first cavalry which pene-
trated the French masses ; the Cossacks who

came to support this cavalry mistook him for
French Officer, and struck I:im to the ground.•

From the appearaoces• th is morning, I am however
in considerable hope of his recovery. Col. Rapa-
tel, late :\ide-de-Camp of Gun. :Moreau, was also
unfortunately killed.

I have the honour to he, &Q.
BURGIMRSH, Lient.-Cnl. GA 1106
Viscount Castlereagh., &c. &c.

qead-clartersj Fere ChampenolAc, Nlarch 2G, 1814

My Loity—litic;naparte having failed in hiS'at-
tempt to debouche from Plancy and Arcis Across
the Aube, and having abandoned his idea of at-
tacking PrinceSchwartzenberg in his position at
Menil-la-Comiesse, seems to, have been guided in
Lis next operations by the desire of preventing
the jur.:tion of the of Prince Schwartzen-
berg and Mandial Blucher. Did he not succeed
to the utmost in this Object, it was evidently his
best policy to force their union, and their com-
munications as far to the rear, and to make. it as
circuitous as possible. It is further .manifest,. by
intercepted letters, that Buonaparte was of opi-
nion, that the movement Le deffrinirieit on, on

the right of Prince Schnartzenl4crg,. might in-
duce Litre to fall back t9wards the Rhine, for fear
of losing his communication ; that he thus would
be able to relieve his places, and be in a better
situation to cover Paris.

It generally occurs, that manoeuvres are made
with the fidme c or the head of an army; but
Buonaparte, in his present undertaking seems to.
have pushed his object so far, by the passage of
the Aube with his whole army near Vitry, as to
have left himself completely open to that bold
and magnificent decision which was immediately

adopted.
Duonaparte put his whole army in motion on
the evening of the 21st for Vary. That,cight ate
remained at Scinunepuis ; on the following day
the advanced corps of his army arrived at Vitry,
and summoned the place. It had been placed by
Colonel in a very tolerable state of de-
fence, mid it bad a garrison of between three and
four. thousand Prussians. Marshal Ney endea-
voured„.by every menace, to obtain a surrender;
but the brave Pruissian Colonel resolutelyrefused,
and held the town, which reduced the French
Commander to cross the Marne by bridges, con-
structed near Frignicourt. Buonaparte here pass-
ed his whole army on the 23d and 24!h, and was
immediately ascertained to taken the direc-
tionof St. Vizier.

Three objects might be now in his view, by the
movements round our right :—to force us back ;
if this failed, to operate upon our communica-
tions, and even proceed to form a junction with
:Marshal Augereati; or finally, by moving to his
fortresses of Nett, &c. prolong the war by resist-
ing on a new line, while he placed us in the cen-
tre of France, having taken the best precautions
is his power for the defence of the capital.

The Allies, on the 22d, having crossed to the
right of the Aubc, lost no time in adopting the
bold resolution of forming the junction of the
two armies to the westward,, thus placing them-
selves between the French army and Paris, and
proceeding with an united force of at least two
hundred thousand men to the capital of the French
empire. In order the better to mask this move-
ment, the march of the Allied army was made
from Pougy, Lesmont, and Arcis, on Vitry ; and
his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, by
two extraordinary marches of 18 and 12 leagues,
established his head-quarters with those of the
Field-Marshal At Vitry, on the 24th inst.

A very brilliant capture of several pieces of can-
non, fifteen hundred prisoners, and a large num-
ber of caissons, was made byGeneral Augerauski,
of the Cavalry of the Russian guard, on the 23d ;
and on this day and the preceding, several. ad-
.vanced guard 'affairs took place between Genera!
-Wreck's corps, the Prince of Wirteolh4g*, and
the enemy.

At 'scion -as the
,Marshal took this' decision, he
made his dispcisitions accordingry,.l by lOrming a
-corps on the Bar-surAnbe line, which he has
committed to the care of General Ducca, to pro-
tect the.head-quarters of the Emperor of Austria,
'his. supplies, 4c. and. carry, them, if.necessai-y,
,to-
wards the army of the south, and also,. by vigo-
rously pressing forward in his operations towards

tlio 'capita); to see'dre lids rear, lc iic piti-stv.':',l

his ohicct ins front.

VIC combined army marebCd in three columns
to Feh‘ Cliampenoise on the 25th. All the ca-
valry of the army forffied the advance, and *ere
to ;in,,11 forwahl to Sminne. The Gth and 4th
corps funned the advance of the centre colnmn ;
the ithwas on and the 3d corps, and
th re'elve:, and the Gnards, on the left.

Marshal Bluche'r was reported to have arrived
with a grzat part of his army'at Chalons. Gene-
ral XViti.ingerode and Gtooral Czernichetr, with
all their cavalry, entered stritry on the 23d, and
were immediately detached to follow up Buona-
parte's march to .'3 t. threatening his rear.
General Winzingerode's infantry had remained at
Chalons with -.711a1-shal Blucher, together with Ge-
neral \Voronzotl's and Zachen's corps. General
Bulow had marched to attack Soissons, and Ge-
nerals Yorck awl Kleist had moved on the line of
Montmirail.

By these general movements, your Lordship
will perceive, that had litionapai te even not
crossed the Aube, and passed between our two
armies, he probably would have found himself in
a similar position to that at Leipzig, and the re-
suit would have been, I have no doubt, of the