The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-09-27
RosToPCHIN's PAMPHLET.

4th extract from the bulletin:
sThe confession Of the incendiaries, taken,
tried and shot, &c"
Here we have a proof which has been pre-
scented as certain and convincing for 1t Is
clothed with the authority Of trial end con-
yiction. with the confession Of the condemned
and the execution of the incendiaries. Napo-
leon says in his Goth bulletin, that certain FIRE
raisers were taken, condemned and shot. That
all of those wretches had been detected in the
act-that they were provided with combustible
materials, and were firing the city by my or
ders.
The twentieth bulletin says that three hum
dred condemned criminals set fire to Moscow
in FIVE hundred different places at the same
time. This is sheer impossibili,y. But even
lift were possible, can it be supposed that
would have set at liberty criminals detained in
the prisons on condition of their setting fire to
the city, and that those persons would have
executed my orders after had gone away IN
the very midst of the enemy's army7 But
will convince all those who will listen to the
proof that no criminals were ever employed.
As fast as the army of Napoleon, on its
march to Moscow, approached Capital city
off province, the civil Governors cleared the
prisons, and forwarded the criminals to Mos
COW, under military escort. From this arose
the fact, that from the end of the month OF Au-
gust, the prisons of Moscow contained the
prisoners of the governments OF Witepsk, Mo-
hilow, Minsk and Smolensk. Their number,
added to those Of the government OF Moscow,
was eight hundred and ten persons, who, I'M
der the escort Of battalion, taken from regi-
ment in garrison. were sent to Nigeni-Now-
gorod two days before the French entered Mos
COW. They reached the place of their desti-
nation; and at the beginning of the year 1913,
the Senate, to avoid the inconvenience of send
ing all these criminals back to their respective
governments, gave orders to the civil courts of
Nigeni Nowgorod, to try and decide their
cases.
But the accusation against the incendlaries,
which was printed, and ofwhich have copy,
sets forth that thirty persons, each of whom is
named, were arraigned, and that thirteen OF
them having been convicted of setting fire TO
the city by my orders, were condemned to
death. Notwithstanding, according to the Doth
and 2lst bulletins, at first 100, and afterwards
three hundred of these same incendiaries were
shot. On my return to Moscow, l saw and
spoke with three of the unfortunate persons in
cluded in the accusation which have said
was made against thirty. One of them was a
domestic of a certain Prince Sbirsky, who
LoI loF, toI,o IF bic hnuco another
was an old scavenger of the kremlin; the Sd
was store keeper.
All three, questioned separately, told the
same tale in 1913, and two years after, that is
to say, that they were arrested during the first
days of September, Told style) one Of them in
the street, during the night, and the other two
at the Kremlin, in the day time. They re-
manned some time in the guard house at the
kremiin. At last, one morning, they We're
carried to the barracks of the quarter called
the "Ladies'Field." Seventeen other persons
were added to their number, and they were
carried under strong escort before the convent
Of Petrowsky, which is on the Boulevard
There they waited nearly an hour, at the end
OF which time several mounted officers arrived,
and dismounted. The thirtys Russians were
ranged upon line, and after thirteen of them
had been singled out, they were placed against
the wall the convent and shot. Their bodies
were suspendedito the lamp-posts, with bills at
tached, asserting that they were incendiaries,
and that they had been shot therefor. The
other seventeen were dismissed, and never dis.
tu,bed afterwards.
The narrative Of these people, if it be true,
renders il certain that no questions were asked
any OF them and that the thirteen who perish.
ed were shot by imperative orders from head
quarters.
5th extract from the bulletins
"The confession of man protesting to be
police soldier, who was found in the cellar Of
the kremin, and cut TO pieces by Napoleon's
guard"
That unfortunate person, whether police sol.
der, or merely protesting to be such, found in
the cellar, might have said that he remained by
order of his chief. But who was that chief?-
Was it [! Was he Master of Police An
officer Sergeant What Commission did he
hold None of these questions was it thought
soldiers of the guard.
9th extract: The engines carried off,"
sent off twenty-one hundred fremen, and
nnetyssix engness{for theree were thre for each
quarter) the day before the enemy entered
Moscow. There was corps of officers ats
tached to the service OF the engines, and did
not think proper to leave them for the service
of Napoleon, having Withdrawn from the civ
all the authorities civil and military.
However, it is quite natural that the world
should desire TO know who really applied the
torch, and produced the confagration Of Mos.
cow. Now, the following are the details which
shall give with regard TO tn at transaction, the
blame of which Napoleon throws upon me,
and the Russians upon Napoleon, but which
o.r a4tv;buto foxc n, aivevl neither IN the r ma