EPILOGUE
OF the four hundred thousand men of the Grande Armee who took part in this campaign, three hundred thousand perished or were taken prisoner. This disaster marked the beginning of the decline of Napoleon’s reign. The Russians also lost more than three hundred thousand combatants (half of them because of the winter) but were able to recover from such a catastrophe.
Margont survived. He had great difficulty convincing Prince Eugene that Colonel Pirgnon was the man he had been looking for. The deranged Pole accused of Elisa Lasquenet’s murder was freed. A few days later, Margont was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, cheerfully leap-frogging the rank of major, for ‘his heroic action in the fighting at the Berezina’. He did not have time to go to Warsaw because the Emperor was already reorganising his forces in the knowledge that Prussia and a large part of Germany were going to take advantage of his weakened state to rise up against him.
Colonel Barguelot, who had proved himself a coward at the Moskva but a hero at the Berezina, was not relieved of his command and regained the confidence of his regiment.
Colonel Delarse also survived. Ironically, he attended a Mass held in memory of several deceased officers, some of whom had refused to put him in charge of a regiment because they thought his days were numbered. He was at last made a brigadier-general.
Saber was awarded the Legion d’Honneur for his action at the Berezina. The survivors of the 35th called him ‘honorary colonel of the 35th of the Line’. This rank was no more than a mark of affection but it enabled Saber to proclaim to all and sundry that, as he had always said he would, he had ended the campaign as a colonel.
Lefine, Piquebois and Fanselin also escaped death on Russian soil.
No one had time to rest because in April 1813 the Saxony campaign began.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The detective plot of this novel (characters and situations) is purely imaginary.
The 9th Infantry Regiment of the Line was in fact commanded by Colonel de Vautre; the 35th Infantry Regiment of the Line by Colonel Penant; and the 3rd Italian Infantry Regiment of the Line by Colonel Levie. General Huard had only one aide-de-camp, Captain Cogniard.
Any similarity between the fictional characters of this novel and people who really existed is entirely accidental.
APPENDIX 1
Composition of the French Army at the beginning of the
Russian Campaign
Emperor Napoleon I
Prince Murat is Lieutenant-General
Emperor’s Household
General Staff of the Grande Armee
General Administration of the Grande Armee
Imperial Guard (30,000 men)
I Corps (Marshal Davout) (70,000)
II Corps (Marshal Oudinot) (40,000)
III Corps (Marshal Ney) (35,000)
IV Corps (Prince Eugene) (45,000)
V Corps (General Poniatowski) (35,000)
VI Corps (General Gouvion-Saint-Cyr) (23,000)
VII Corps (General Reynier) (18,000)
VIII Corps (King Jerome Bonaparte) (16,000)
X Corps (Marshal Macdonald) (30,000)
Prussian Corps (von Grawert) (17,000)
Austrian Corps (Prince Swartzenberg) (30,000)
I Reserve Cavalry Corps (General Nansouty) (12,000)
II Reserve Cavalry Corps (General Montbrun) (11,000)
III Reserve Cavalry Corps (General Grouchy) (7,000)
IV Reserve Cavalry Corps (General de La Tour Maubourg) (6,000)
Grand Artillery and Engineering Park
IX Corps (Marshal Victor) (25,000) and XI Corps (Marshal Augereau) (45,000) were held in reserve in Germany and would not become involved until the end of the campaign.
In total about 400,000 soldiers and 1,200 cannon directly took part in the campaign.
(The numbers given are intended for guidance only and vary considerably according to sources but the overall figure of 400,000 men is accepted almost unanimously by historians.)
APPENDIX 2
Detailed Composition of IV Corps
(or Prince Eugene’s Army) (45,000 men)
Prince Eugene de Beauharnais
General Staff
13th Division (General Delzons)
1st Brigade (General Huard)
8th Light Regiment
84th Regiment of the Line
1st Croat Regiment
2nd Brigade (General Roussel)
92nd Regiment of the Line
106th Regiment of the Line
Artillery
