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COLONNELLO GIUSEPPE MARIENI |
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CAPO BATTAGLIONE DEL GENIO NAPOLEONICO |
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NELLA CAMPAGNA DI RUSSIA |
+ The Bridges that Eblé built |
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LA BATTAGLIA DELLA BERESINA |
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THE 1812
CROSSING OF THE BEREZINA
by James
Burbeck
"Finally,
toward four o'clock in the evening, when it was almost dark, I came to the
bridge. Here I saw only one bridge, the second having been shot away. Now it
is with horror, but at that time it was with a dull, indifferent feeling, that
I looked at the masses of horses and people which lay dead, piled high upon
the bridge. Only "Straight ahead and in the middle!" must be the resolution.
"Here in the water is your grave; beyond the bridge is the continuation of a
wretched life. The decision will be made on the bridge!" Now I kept myself
constantly in the middle. The major and I could aid one another; and so amid a
hundred blows of sabers we came to the bridge, where not a plank was visible
because of the dead men and horses; and, although on reaching the bridge the
people fell in masses thirty paces to the right and to the left, we came
through to the firm land."
When the
retreating French Army and its allies reached the banks of the ice-filled
Berezina River on the 23rd of November, 1812, they discovered their sole means
of escape blocked by the smoldering ruins of the Borisov bridge. On the
opposite bank lay a Russian force under Admiral Pavel
Vasil'evich Chichagov,
who had been ordered there specifically to cut off the French Army's retreat
from Russia. But with ingenuity born of desperation, French General of
Engineers
Jean-Baptiste Éblé
and four hundred pontonniers managed to quietly
build two new bridges using materials taken from nearby villages. Only days
before the French Commander-in-Chief, Napoleon Bonaparte, had ordered all
sixty boats of the army bridging train to be burned along with all other gear
he had deemed nonessential. General Éblé protested the decision at the time
and discretely ordered two wagons of charcoal and six wagons of tools to be
spared. He also assigned each of his men to carry a tool and some cramp irons
(1).
The
Berezina bridges would be built using only these hand-tools, during the
winter, for an army on the verge of disintegration.
"This is what happens when one heaps one mistake upon another!"
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Even before reaching the Berezina River, there had been much debate among
the French command as to their next course of action. So when French
Marshal Nicolas Oudinot's men fought their way into Borisov on the 23rd
and were unable to prevent the Russians from burning its 600 yard long
bridge, the situation for the French turned darker than before. Repairing
the bridge was out of the question because Admiral Chichagov's Russian
troops overlooked the west river
bank. |
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assembling what would appear to be materials for a bridge. |
General Jean-Baptiste Éblé |
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The first French engineers – probably sappers – arrived at the Studianka ford
on November 24th and started assembling bridge trestles using timbers from the
nearby town of Studianka. It was important to work quietly because a force
under Russian
General Chaplits was bivouacked on the opposite bank. At one
point they even had a four man outpost staring right across the stream at the
French. At five o'clock in the evening of the 25th, General Éblé and his
pontonniers arrived on schedule with their wagons. It was then decided that
the trestles built so far were too weak, and that only two bridges could be
built instead of the three originally planned. The trestles already assembled
were apparently rebuilt, and at dawn on the 26th the first ones were placed.
This work continued until the first bridge, which was for infantry, was
completed at one o'clock in the afternoon. The second bridge, which was built
for wagons and cannon, was completed at four o'clock that afternoon, probably
by the second work crew described in Éblé's orders. "But, to complete our misfortune, the swollen waters had blotted out all traces of the ford. This necessitated herculean efforts on the parts of our poor engineers, who worked up to their mouths, struggling against the ice carried down by the current. Some of them died of the cold or were forced under by the great cakes of ice". According to Caulaincourt though; "the river had subsided through freezing, and so there was no great depth except for a stretch of twenty or thirty feet, across which the horses had to swim... On our side, the water only came up to the horses bellies." This contrast between the two accounts for the same day may be due to the fact that Caulaincourt was not one of those trying to lay a bridge out in that twenty or thirty foot stretch of freezing deep water! |
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This priceless drawing shows
the size and configuration of the Berezina bridge trestles, the tallest of
which had to remain above water level even after sinking several feet into
the mud bottom in the middle of the river channel. |
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An eyewitness sketch by Grenadier François Pils |
the mud, but the pontonniers apparently circumvented this problem by making the trestles tall |
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enough to be pounded all the way into the mud bottom without excessive settling. The fact that they did not have time to use pilings to further support the trestles may also have contributed to the later frequent collapse of the bridges. |
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The
planks which were laid down across the top of the bridges were certainly
not nailed down, and given the
shortage of nails and cramp irons it is unsure that even the supporting
stringers which ran between the trestles were secured. No wonder the
bridges proved treacherous after several thousand men, horses and wagons
had passed over them. The stronger wagon bridge
had a layer of moss and straw to help
insulate it from the stress of the passing
wagons, yet despite the efforts to keep this bridge
together, it eventually collapsed. |
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Computer simulation of foot bridge |
In many points on the bridge, horses were trapped in this manner, with their legs dangling between the shifted |
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planks. Eventually the bridge was so choked with bodies that people crossing it were no longer walking on wood.
Ultimately
the bridges were completed and men began passing onto the west bank. This
operation was made easier by the fact that General Chaplits, who was certain
that the French troops opposing him were up to something, had been ordered by
Chichagov to move south where it was believed the French would cross. This
bolt of luck assured the peaceful assembly of the bridges on the crucial
morning of May 26th. All through the construction phase of the bridges,
General Éblé regularly reported to Napoleon on their progress, each time
courteously doffing his hat in spite of the dreadful conditions. |
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Berezina Battle Map1
Berezina Battle Map2 |
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Now began
the final phase of the crossing. In the late morning of the 28th, Davout's
Corps and the Old Guard crossed the bridges to the west bank, an act which
galvanized the tens of thousands of stragglers crowding the approaches. Until
then, only active army units and some stragglers had been allowed to cross the
river, leaving the east bank increasingly populated by the growing balance of
stragglers. Now a howling mob descended to the river bank and tried to push
across the bridges. The press of men was so great that when Napoleon decided
to cross back to the west bank at two o'clock in the afternoon, his escort had
to use force to clear a path. The efforts by available senior officers to
restore order were useless. All during the rest of the day, the terror
stricken mob crowded the bridge crossing; wagons, horses, men, women,
children, all trying to push their way onto the bridges. On both banks, the
sound of battle could clearly be heard as Victor's Corps tried to fight off
the Russians to the east and the main army fought more Russians pushing up the
west bank from the south. "At the height of this ghastly scene the artillery bridge parted in the middle. The column that was crossing the narrow thoroughfare at the time tried in vain to turn back, but the stream of men in the rear, unaware of the disaster, heedless of the cries of those in front, kept pushing on and forced them over the edge; only to be themselves forced over a second later. Then everybody rushed towards the other bridge. An enormous number of heavy caissons, supply wagons, and pieces of artillery were also flowing in towards it from all sides. In spite of their driver's efforts to guide them, they dashed down the steep rough bank into the mob of human beings, crushing all who were unable to get out of their way, then colliding with each other and killing everybody around them as they overturned... In the unspeakable chaos, men who had been thrown down and were being smothered attacked with nails and teeth the legs of their comrades who were trampling on them, only to be pitilessly kicked aside, as if they were enemies." |
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Marechal Nicolas Charles Oudinot |
General Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov |
General Comte de Ségur |
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Throughout
this pandemonium, women were screaming for their husbands and children, young
girls stood on the bank watching their parents struggling for passage and the
strongest simply smashed their way through at the cost of those around them. It
was this press of humanity through which Jakob Walter pushed. By late afternoon,
the condition of the bridge had apparently worsened as it became clogged with
bodies . People continued to be crushed, trampled and pushed off the outer edges
of the bridge as more people packed in from behind. One eyewitness noted that he
moved only a few feet in an hour. This was made worse by the abandoned wagons
which had become stranded in the muddy exit to the bridge. Yet at nightfall the
mob returned to their fires on the east bank and again left the bridges empty,
free for any to cross who would brave the darkness and cold, which was indeed
severe. At nine o'clock that evening, Victor's surviving troops crossed to the
west bank.
______________________
From Chief of
Staff
Berthier to General Éblé, ordering the move to Borisov.
(French and
English)
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secondary
sources ____________________
FONTI e LINKS di approfondimento
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