Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-02-11
VOL. 80 NO. 80.
The Retreat from MOSCOW.

The retreat of the French army from
Moscow to Poland, thro' thousand miles
Of snow and wilderness, Of battle and Of
blond, stands out in the worlds history as
the sublime Of horror, Of passion and de-
votion. Not the slaughter Of the innocents
nor the massacre of ST. Bartholomew's nor
plague. nor earthquake, nor aught, save the
great food itself, so overwhelms the mind,
with the burden of grief, terror and desola
ton. The legends of that awful path come
down from mouth to mouth by the firesides
of Europe and the direfui tale will still be
told, when Xerxes and Alexander, and Atil
la and Charlemagne shall have sunk out of
the earth's remembrance.
As if rebuking the sadest calculations of
philosophy, snow fell twenty days earlier
than had been known for many years-fel
In vast quantities, and was attended with
most inc cement gales and biting frost. The
French, burned with the sun in the summer
months had thrown their spare clothing
away; and now their shoes were worn ont
wIth tolisome marches their provisions
were exhausted, nsught save their horses.
laded and lean, remained Tor them to cat
1 he Russians, on the other hand we'll clad.
Injured to the terrible climate. flush in all
provisions aud munitions oF war, returned
upon their path like vultures. and lined the
passes IN front and in the rear and On every
side
Such was even the beginning IF their
retreat over a route on which the advance
had not left even the bones and hu.ks of
human sustenance There was no mani
fest design on the part of the Russians 10
give general battle, but rather II hnrrass
them to death. The name of Napoleon
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host.
10000 men under the dauntless New, the
palladium of Bonaparte, and next to him,
the hero of heroes formed the rear guard
of this dread retreat.
There was battle every day, in front and
rear. The unsleeping eye of the Emperor
covered every point Of strategy. lie couli
not be baffieG; he could not be kept back
Calculation after calculation, based upon
the supposed positions Of the other divis-
ions Of the grand army, still saved him, as
at the last moment, from destruction, and
still the struggling army made it's way.
/ furnishing, freezing, perishing. But one
| in fourteen had been able to endure-tIeir
| bodies strewed the wilderness And SQUAD
/ ron after squadron had been sent back TO
/ recruit the toiliug band of the fighting Ney
! At one time there cam e o rumor that the
/ rear guard were being oyerpOwered in
moment, immortal honor to his generous
memory NaDole3n reversed his march
| with but 1000 guards 70 retrace the wills
/ dernes5, against ten times his odds, and to
! save his friends or perish with them
/ There are 100000, 900 in gold in the
vaults of the Tuilleries," said he, "and /
/ would give it all TO know the safety of Mar
| shall Ney"-and again the fiery valor Of the
| cheery shout, Live the Emperor !" slung
| back the bitter, and remorseless air. as
! Napoleon himself, on foot like the rest, with
beechen staff IN his hand, back to most
inevitable destruction, trudged through the
bloody snow.
What a wreck was here Of all that glor-
ious host Napoleon crossed the Dnieper
with 5000 guards, out Of IS 600; Eugene
with 1,S00 out OF $1,000; and Davoust.
| stript even to his shirt, led 4 600 squalid
and dying followers-the remains. from
cold, famine, and the sword, of over 20, 600
| men.
But 10, 900 Of the Grand Army, remained
and not a single cannon
Yet in the wake of these, there came a
half naked, furnishing, murderous throng
Of 10000 wTetches, without discipline. an
! without remorse. No man has dared
] nGTTOTS
of that moving pan9emOnium. 1t was
forbidden to speak Of it. The more endur-
ing stripped eff the clothing from the faint
hearted, and the strong dashed out the
brains of the weak for no more inGuce-
ment than the hoof Of dead horse There
were moaning sufferers who enawe1 with
desperation the fragments of old shoes, OF
clutched some heshless bone like niser
who fears assassination for bis gold, yea,
the meagre by the meagre were deyoured
-cannibal fisnds, who fain would see the
firesides Of France, and the bright eyes 81
their loved ones cnce more, concealed under
their shrunken arms the warm and wasted
flesh of the new fallen corpse.
God forbid that another such tragedy
should blacken the annals Of the world
But above in interest, and beyond al
these, stands the sublime devotion Of Jar,
shal Ney. Like g star that keeps iis urbi;
and we knox not why, save for The deer
integrity GF its nature, he could not qui
lHs pest. With meaGre band Of zoo mer
and mUs6ct ia lis haLd, he held tn
bridge Of kpnyw, until the last Of TIA,
grand army had gone over in safety, and
the last grenadier fell corpse at his fee;
Scoring 70 fly, or even to turn bis face
from the enemy, he retreated backward
over the bridge, while the bullets wh:stlec
al around him,-and firing the last eho
into the Russian ranks, be threw the empty
piece into the riverl
On the night of the 18th Of December, al
General Dumas was seated in consultation
with a physician on the German side e
the river, quaint, hairy, spectral looking
man, in tattered military coat, entered
the apartment, and said. with a sepulchra
voice, AT last l am here !" And VIII,
are you % said Dumas, rising hastily, anc
with suspicion. "Do you not know me
General? ?" Mop Folding his rags upor
his martial breast, the apparition ans~ cred
81 am the rear guard Of the grand army
and my name is Marshal Ney have free
the last shot, ard the last musket sleeps il
the mud of the riverv'
Well might the youth. snd blood, anC
chivalry Of France, Of all that fought il
Egypt, Syria, or Italy, bnw their conseutin.
eyes, as Napoleon himself unbOunet:ed hi
royal head, and hailed him as the Braves
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