630

TO HEAD OFF THE FRENCH.

send his wounded and sick to Mozhaisk, as it would encumber the road, which is already too much so; that it is better that he should carry them with him." Ney withdrew from the front of Miloradovich, who reported the fact to Kutusov. At midnight of October 22-23 Mortier left the Kremlin, having been able to blow up only the arsenal and part of the walls. The harm done was not irreparable.

When Kutusov at Tarutino heard of a French column near Fominskia, he dispatched Doctorov thither with twenty-five thousand men, believing it to be only a detachment which he might cut off. Doctorov soon ran across a heavy body, and a captured French officer revealed the truth. The Russian corps stopped at Aristovo and sent back a report that Moscow was evacuated; upon which Kutusov, hoping to head off the French, hurried a corps of Cossacks to Maloyaroslavez, and slowly followed with the entire Russian army, October 23. Doctorov clearly divined the facts and also pushed his column on Maloyaroslavez, the cross-roads of that section, and begged for reinforcements; but Kutusov was slow in movement, alleging that he must draw in his foraging parties. On the 23d Eugene, with his own and a cavalry corps, reached Borovsk, and Delzons hurried forward to Maloyaroslavez, drove out a few Cossacks, and began repairs on the Lusha bridge. Murat, Davout and the Guard followed on to Borovsk, Poniatowski was in Vereia, Ney was still in the rear. Napoleon in person reached Borovsk, believing Kutusov yet on the Nara, and that, instead of divining the retreat, he would look on the French march as a threat to turn his left; and that the Russian corps at Aristovo was sent out to fend off such an attack. Intending, as he notified Victor, October 23, to march to Kaluga and thence by way of Jelnia to Smolensk, he expected to reach this road first; should Kutusov attack, the army was to base on Vereia; but should Kutusov defend

MALOYAROSLAVEZ A KEY-POINT.

631

Kaluga, Napoleon would deliver battle. Hence Junot, who had reached Mozhaisk, was ordered to send all troops ready for the march to Vereia. By holding Maloyaroslavez, which Delzons was to take and there face the enemy, Napoleon deemed the road to Kaluga safe, and thought that on the 24th he would be able to fathom Kutusov's designs.

"It is necessary that Delzons, as soon as he is master of this little town, shall reconnoitre well on his left," the emperor wrote Eugene, October 23, in the evening: "You should reconnoitre on your left, and should render an account to-morrow early of all that you shall have seen. You are to this effect to send along your left strong reconnoissances, an hour before daylight. We here are making front to the enemy from Delzons to Fominskia."

From Maloyaroslavez there was a new road to Smolensk, via Juknov and Jelnia, of which Napoleon desired to take advantage; Victor had some time before been ordered to send to Jelnia the division of Baraguey d'Hilliers, ten thousand strong, as a reinforcement, and the government of Viasma was to clear up this route. Maloyaroslavez for the moment was markedly a key-point; and Doctorov, marching ahead of his orders, early on the 24th came up.

The Lusha River has here a deep channel and but one bridge, and the fords were not used. South of the town the ground, accentuated everywhere and partly wooded, rises sharply up to a plateau, to fall away again gently. Learning that the town was weakly held, Doctorov attacked and drove out the two French battalions, but the bridge was firmly held. Delzons on the other side essayed to regain the town; and when Broussier came up, a serious contest ensued, in which the French showed such tenacity against the constantly reinforced fighting line of the enemy that Doctorov made no progress. The town was set afire, and in desperate hand to hand struggles it was taken and retaken as many as seven times. Mean

632

KUTUSOV THROWN BACK.

while the main armies were approaching; Raevski, Kutusov's van, came up to aid Doctorov, and Napoleon arrived about noon, having near Borovsk heard the firing. Davout and the Guard were placed in reserve on the right and left of the road; and the leading Russian corps was put in to sustain the hard-pressed troops which still held Maloyaroslavez; while Eugene, sending in his last divisions, Pino and Lecchi, finally

secured the prize, but was unable to debouch into the open. Gérard and Compans also crossed, and came up on the right and left; and though at nightfall Kutusov made a last attempt to force an entrance, he was thrown back and retired to the heights, merely covering the town with artillery. Napoleon had maintained his ability to cross the river and file to the west through Medyni. Each side had put in twenty-five thousand men. The losses have been estimated at ten thousand

RETREAT ALONE ADVISABLE.

633

men on each side; they may have been six or seven thousand. Dorkov and Delzons were killed. The French won a tactical victory; but failing to utilize it, the real victory, so far as results go, remained with the Russians.

Maloyaroslavez has been called a decisive battle, as putting beyond Napoleon's power to operate his retreat after a victory. It has been called the turning-point of his career; but his decision at Smolensk to advance to Moscow appears to be more nearly that.

The entire Russian army gradually came up and bivouacked around Maloyaroslavez. At headquarters in Gorodnia, at daylight on October 25, it was reported from the outposts that there were signs of cavalry marching in the direction of Medyni. Napoleon called to his tent Murat, Bessières and Lobau, and on asking their opinions as to delivering battle, these officers agreed that retreat alone was advisable, the last suggesting Mozhaisk, the two former Smolensk; that the Grand Army should retire to the Niemen by the least opposed route. Napoleon rode out and spent some hours reconnoitring the enemy, but even then he seemed unable to make up his mind; he still hoped Kutusov would retire. This attitude of waiting on what the enemy would do is unlike anything we have so far seen in his career. Kutusov indeed had determined to retire to Kaluga, and the emperor may have noticed signs of it; but this fact emphasizes rather than lessens his indecision. He rode back to headquarters, and next morning renewed the reconnoissance under cover of his Guard. On this occasion he came near capture. Some Cossacks had been in hiding in a wood on the right; and had not the Guard galloped to the rescue, the Napoleonic scheme might have ended then and there. About nine o'clock the report came in that Kutusov was retiring, and that only a Russian rearguard was occupying the bivouac in the front.