The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-22
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SIR RoheYt Cil.onss pos, hmmoms W


| renccs-that Is. NAPOLEON himself The vilest
| lbelipr. the most abandoned of man kind, who
never sneak truth on any other occasions,
| ALWAYS sneak truth when they assait NAPo-
LRox Nobody that says A word IN his favor,
eon no ANYTHING else than a liar 1t II win
| some difIidepce therefore, that we qnote what
| N,rotvp< himself said with regard to two
| me,s- dramatic scenes that cut conspicuous
| esure in Sir RoBERTs book.
Sir RoBagT saws he was ut MILoRADowITCH :
| quarters on tho 4th October, when lie re-
| ceiyed a message from General BESSINGsES,
reques ting him TO return to headquarters He
found ;,n assembly of general officers awaiting
his return,
..Tkey afforded him proof that kutusof. In
or TO rrofGsition made by Lauristou on behalf
or Nhpoieou nsd agreed TO meet him this same
night al 4 station several miles from his most sd
vaueed videttes, on the road 10 Moscow, there TO
confer on the terms o: convention, for the i'm
III ediate retreat OF the whole invading army from
the territories Of Russia, which convention was
also to serve a. the pas P Ts 10 Thic b.
Napoleon himself might be expected at the in
tersiew, as l.auriston had stated that he wond he
accompanied by a friend They therefore
qured from the English General that he would
act a. commissi oner Of the Emperor under his del
Cgated authority, and AS an English commission
,r charged ith tho protection Of the British and
allied interests = adding tho resolve of the chiefs
which would be sustained by the army, not to al
i once he quilted il for this midnight interview
a the enemy camp They declared that they
wished to avoid extreme measures, but thar their
'nt @ete made up to dispo.sss The Marshal Of his
fhofy he should see5tiy Peyserere. ''HRson, 1873.
He then goes on TO say that krrrsoFf ad-
United, in private interview, that he knew
t5e propositions were Of pacific character,
sat he could not persuade him not to receive
l.. ;,#r ron, but at last persuaded him to re-
ceie ,;ln at headquarters, IN the mds OF
his Generals. Now hear what NAPOLEON saws
with regard 10 the object Of this mission. -
Some writer upon the Russian campaign had
made the same statement with regard to this
opposed proposition of an armistice, in a
FORK which the exiied Emperor reviewed at
st. Helena, debating to Gen. MoxTHoLox. The
words OF the writer in question are, General
LAURIsTox was sent TO Prince kurr sorF TO pro-
Jose an armisticc. The Prince received LAU-
EtsroN in the midst of his Generals" NAPo-
LEON comment is curt, and to the point
" This" says he ''s all false. 1t was not the
object of LArKI5ToS's mission to demand either
peace or an arnistice." Now, We are simple
enough to believe NAPOLEON in preference TO
Sir RosERT WILSON, notwithstanding the elab-
crate dramatic machinery which he has intro
duced into his narrative. The famous scene
of MuRAT with MILoRADowITCH is also pro-
nounced to be false See 5th volume of Ma
PoLEoY's own Memoirs, dictated at st. Helena
to GoURaAUp and MoHTHoLoN, page 232
Let us now turn TO the closing paragraph of
Black,cood, in its notice of Wilson's work:
at Is now ascertained beyond all doubt that the
frightful losses sustained by the French in Rus
sla were not owing to the cold. The following
facts, upon which all writers of all parties are
tie Niemen with III, 900 men left witcpsk with
I hal al ) - tll ma.
could only muster al Dorogobvuge, before the
BADLY cold set IN, 81 900 contestants in the ranks
Allowing for l2o. 900 detached during the advance
10 the tanks, this makes the loss of cunbatants
from the ranks amount to 255. 900 in the army uG-
The cold aggravated frightfuly the suferings OF
the %, 900 who remained but had nothing 10 do
with the destruction of the main body, Uhe $780,
causes. 1. The immensely Of tie dstdaces 10 be ira
rersed. From the Nielnen to Moscow is above six
of conveying provisions for ~, 900 men over such
"a distance. An English army almost persisted be-
Cause il could not procure land transport sufficient
tor six miles Of bad road daring Indictment cath
er, from BalakleYa to its camp before Se5astopol.
Napoleon had six hundied miles of road to bring
This. 2 The barren nature Il The country through Mich
ihss had 10 pass. The rich low. LANDS of Italy or
Germany will afford susteasnee 20 aay number Of
men marching through them in an ordinary man
per All that is there required Is a store with the
army of six or seven days provisions, for the case
ofts concentrating to aght. But the vast Lithuan.
iau and Russian plains, thinly inhabited, covered
with pine forests where towns ale rare and emil
yaGn BIrsss could r for NO
their resources-the succeeding nes starved, J.
lie impease syesr0ri!y Of he sasay ia ght Aayr The
battle, are garivaled ,ior the light duties of d aa
palaG. Their immense numbers. and the patri-
otie devotion of the pessaatry, enabled theG 10
destroy AL the villages before The French reached
theia--to cut off al small parties sent cut to for
age-to capture all eonvoys, unless guarded by
immense escorts. The innnmeraole cavalry, ar
tltlpry. and baggage animals OF the French
speedily deyUured all fodder near the road: if
they went to distance IN search Of It, they We're
captured If they did not, they died of want
his frightfu}y aggravated the difficulty, already
overwhelming, Of transport, and soon destroyed
the efficiency of the allied horse. These three
causes, combined with the heroic devotion of the
Russian people. which led them to shrink from
their country, shiEerei to pieces the whole power
of banded Europe even W hen concentrated by the
iron will a nd directed by the unrivaed genius OF
We do not pretend to be yersed in the art of
campaigning, but we have read history TO
some extent Besides, here, We are armed with
the authority of NAPOLEON himself, who GER
tainiy was as good Il soldier any of Blnck-
ic"od's contributors. We do not, therefore,
fear to encounter this paragraph.
In the first place, then, it has not been as
certained beyond all doubt, that the frightful
losses sustained by the French was not owing
TO the cold. On the contrary, it is perfectly
plain, to our apprehension, that NAPoIgox
told the truth when he said SO, and that no
array OF figures, or fabrication Of events, can
ever gainsay the truth.
In the campaign of Russia, the magazines,
of the first line Were not on the Niemen-
Therefore, NAPOLEON was not compelled to
transport his provision six hundred miles,
The town of Smolensko, three huadreI miles
from Moscow TAKEN N IN Of A,,
gust, 1872. 1t was Immediately armed, pro
vsioned, and made the pivot upon which
turned the march upon Moscow. In the rear
of SmolenSlo, the second line had enormous
at Minsk and Wilma, only eight
marches Oft, third line occupied Gro.lno
Kowno and Bialystock fourth, Thorn,
Plock, Warsaw and Elbing fifth, Dantzic
Bamberg and Posen: Il sixth, Stattin, Gus
trim and Glogaw. His rear, then, from Smo-
iensxo to Stettin was closed up by six lines of
troops and magazines. Four hundred thou
sand men crossed the Niemen, Col. NArIER
saw the roll.) OF these, 2i0,09o remained in
reserve, in the country that lies between the
Borysthenes and the Niemen. The problem,
now TO be solved, was a march upon Moscow,
from Smolensko. The distance is only three
hundred miles Up to Smolensko the country
hcrses, men and provisions. without any diff
Guilty. Was this very rash enterprise, even
the intermediate space TO have been
Il desert. If 1t was, we shall take occa sion
hereafter to show the world has misjudged
ali those whom it has considered its greatest
Generals--such rs ALEXANDER, HANNIBAL, Jr-
LIrs CESAR, GUsTAvrs ADoLPHUs Marshal
TCREsSg, &c; for every one Of these Generals
nil ,a,f fhair ls hxra
unpromising.