The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1862-04-30
The Retreat from Moscow.

Moscow to Poland, through a thousand
miles Of snow and wilderness, of battle
and of blood, stands out in the worlds
history as the sublime of horror, of pas
sion and devotion. Not the slaughter of
the innocents, nor the massacre of st.
Bartholomew's, nor plague, nor earth
quake, nor ought, save the great flood
itself, so overwhelms the mind, with the
burden of grief, terror and desolation.--
The legends of that awful path come
down from mouth to mouth by the fire.
sides of Europe; and the direful tale
will still be told, whsn Xerxes and Alex.
ander, and Atilla and Charlemagne shall
have sunk out of the sarths remembrance.
As if rebuking the sagest calculations of
philosophy, snow fell twenty days earlier
than had been known iu twenty years
fell in vast quantities, and was attended
with most inclement gales, and biting
frosts. The French burned with the
sun in the sumner months, had thrown
their spare clothing away and now their
shoes were worn out with toilsome march
es, their provisions were exhausted,
naught save their horses, jaded and lean,
remained for them to eay. The Russians,
on the other hand, well clad, Injured to
the terrible climate. flush in all proVis-
ions and munitions of war, returned up
on their path like vultures, and lined
the passes in front and rear, and on every
side.
Such was even the beginning of their
retreat over a route on which the advance
had not left even the bones and husks Of
human sustenance. There was no mani
fest design on the part of the Russians
to give general battle, but rather TO har-
rass 1hem to death. The name of Napo-
leon hoVered over and protected the SOL
emn host
Thirty thousand men under the daunt-
less Ney, the palladium of Bonaparte,
and next to him, the hero of heroes
formed the rear guard of this dread re-
treat
There was battle every day, in front
and rear. The unsleeping eye of the
Emperor covered every point of strategy.
He could not be baffled he could not be
kept back. Calculation after calculation,
based upon the supposed positions of the
other divisions of the grand army, still
saved him, as at the last moment, from
destruction, and still the struggling army
made Its way, famishing, freezing. per-
ishing. But one in fourteen had been
able TO eUdure,-their bodies strewed The
wilderness. Aud squadron after squad
ron had been sent back to recruit the
toillng band of the fighting Ney. At
one time their came rumor that the
rear guard were being Overpowered in
a moment, Immortal honor to his gener-
Gus memory Napoleon reversed his
march with but 5000 guards to retrace
th9 wilderness, against ten times his odds,
and to save his friend or perish with him
There are S200,000,O00 in gold in the
vault of the Tuileries," said he, 'sand |
would give it all to know the safety of
Marshal Ney"-aud again the fiery valor
of the CHEEKY shout, olive the Emperor"
sluDg back the bitter and remorseless air
as Napoleon himself, on foot like the rest,
with beachen staff in his hand, back to
almost inevitable destruction, truGged
through the bloody snow.
What a wreck was here of all that glo-
rious host . Napoleon crossed the Dnie-
pers with 5000 guards, out of $4,000
Eugene with 1900 out of $4,000 aud
Davoust, stript even of his shirt, led A..
: 900 squalid aud dying followers-the re-
MAINS. from cold, famine, and the sword,
of over 10000 men.
But 10000 of the Grand Army re-
manned and not a single cannon.
Yet, in the wake of these, there came
a half naked, furnishing, ,murderous, ,throng
of 10000 wretches, without discipline.
and without remorse. No man has dared
and few have lived to tell of all the
horrors of that moving pandemonium.-
1T was forbidden to speak of it. The
more enduring stripped of the clothing
from the faint hearted, and the stropg
dashed out the brains of the weak for no
more inducement than the hoof of dead
horse There were moaning sufferers
who gnawed with desperation tie frag-
ments of old shoes, or cutched some flesh.
less bone like miser, who fears assassin
alton for his gold, yea, the meagre by the
meagre where devoured-cannibal fends,
who fain would see the bright eyes of
their loved ones once more concealed
under their shruDken arms the warm
and wasted flesh of the new fallen
corpse.
God forbid that such another tragedy
should blacken the annals of the world
But above in interest, and beyond all
these, stands the sublime devotion of
Marshal Ney. Like the star that keeps
its orbit, and we know not why, save for