The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-02-24

EY SUSTAINING THE REAR-GUARD OF THE
of the storm, the Grand Army commenced
| its retreat.
! A hundred and fifty thousand men and
! $4,000 horses, with nearly six hundred
/ pieces of cannon, marchnd in separate
columns over the open country, while be-
hind III three separate fileS-Stretching
away till they were lost in the distance
! followed 40 600 stragglers, with an endless
, train OF carriages and wagons, loaded with
the rich booty Of the capital, and sur
mounted by countless standards and the
cross OF Ivan the Great.
MultitudeS OF women were mingled In
! this confused thrOng, and among them
Russian girls, who were willing captlves.
Thus this mighty caravan dragged it's slow
length along, gradually diminishing, day
| after day, under the fatiguing march and
| increasing cold, strewing the roads with
| the cOstiest furs, and stuffs of the East,
| together with wagons and carriages.
At length, fighting its way, the army
approached the field of Borodino, on which.
nearly two months before, that Battle of
Giants" had been fought. AS the column
slowly tOiled on, they came upon heaps OF
human skeletons, and corpseS hall de-
vOured.
Thirty thousand mutilated forms covered
the plain, and amid them deserted drums.
broken helmets, shattered wagons, gun
stocks, and fragments of uniform, and
torn and bloody standards sweeping the
ground over which they lately fiOated in
pride. The earth was all furrowed up, and
desolation and gloom reigned over the
scene.
The hight, on which stood the great
redoubt, where the heat of the conflict had
BEEN was white with skeletons that lay
unburied where they fell. The field seemed
great cemetery which an earthquake
had suddenly rent asunder-emptying all
lis inmates upon the surface.
1t was a melancholy spectacle-that sad
and disprited throng treading amid the
wreck and skeletons Of dead army.
AT Wanna Ney was appointed TO relieve
Davoust, and with his corps cover the
treat. In this act Napoleon utters more
distinctly his opinion OF that MarshaPS
generalship than language can do.
NEY's vALoR AND DISCRETION.
TIE whole history of Ney's conduct dur
ing that memorable retreat seems to belong
rather to some hero OF romance than an
actual man. The wonderful details APP
pear Incredible and would not be believed
if the evidence was not incontestable.
With a mere handful of men he placed
himself between the French and Russian
armies, and by his marvellous exertiOn,
desperate valor, and exhaustleSS inge-
nuity saved a portion of that host which
would otherwise have been totally ami
hiatcd
That retreat alone would make him inn
mortal. With all the fault found with his
generalship, there was not a commander
among either the French or allied forces
during the whole war, that ever did or ever
could accomplish what Ney performed in
that memorable fight. Had he fallen
Bonapdrte would probably have fallen
also, and the former really saved the
army, which the latter never could have
done.
Without provisions, almost without arms,
he battled the well-tried and countless
legions of Russia back from his Emperor
and over the wintry fields OF snow and
amid the driving storm, with heart I'M
tanned and a will unSubdued, he lowered
like a protecting spirit around the divided
and flying ranks OF his countrymen. The
soldiers, exhausted and deSpairing, threw
their muskets from them into the snow
drifts. and lay down by thousands to die.
Cold, benumbed, and famine struck, this
ghost OF an army struggled on through the
deep snow, with nothing but the tall pines
swaying and roaring mourntuily in the
tlast for landmarks to the glazing eye,
while an enraged and welldisciplined
army was pressing in the rear
Clouds OF ravens, whose duSky forms
glanced like spirits through the snow
filled air, crOaked over the falling columns,
army from Moscow, fell on the PROSTATE
forms before lie was wholly extinct.
The storm hOwled by as the soldiers
sank at night in the snow to rest, many to
rise no more, while the morning sun, if it
shone at all, looked cold and dimy down
through the flying clouds OF a northern
sky. There were long intervals when not
a drum or trumpet note broke the muffied
tread OF the staggering legiOnS.
On the rear of such an army, and in
sight of such horrors, did Ney combat
Nothing but a spirit unconquerable as
fate itself could have sustained him, or
kept alive the tagging courage of his |
troops. Stumbling every moment over the |
dead bodies of their comrades who had |
marched but few hours in advance of |
them thousands threw away their arms in |
despair, and wandered off into the wilder |
ness to die with cold, or be slain by the |
COSSacks.
Yet Ney kept Arm band around him
that all the power Of Russia could not |
Now ordering his march with |
the skill of a General, and now with mus
ket in hand fighting like common soldier,
the moral force Of his example accom- |
pliShed what authority alone never could |
have done. At length the brave and heroic
seemed to have reached the
escape from the doom that hung over him.
selves between the French army and that
sand.
Ignorant of his danger, Ney was leading
his columns through dense fog to the
banks of the LoSSmina, on which were !