‘Napoleon!’ Josephine suddenly called out. ‘Be careful, my love. Come back to me.’
Napoleon turned to her with a smile and waved his hand, then spurred his horse into a trot and rode away to lead the Grand Army to war.
Berthier and his staff proved their worth once more as the three columns of the French army followed their carefully planned marching orders. They passed swiftly through the Thuringer forest in an orderly manner and emerged into open countryside towards the end of the second day of the campaign. The reports from Murat’s scouts still provided no conclusive intelligence as to the location the Prussians had chosen to concentrate their forces.
Then, on the morning of the third day, a hurried despatch from Lannes informed the Emperor that he had encountered a Prussian corps blocking his advance through the town of Saalfeld. After a brief struggle the Prussians had been routed, leaving their commander, Prince Louis, dead on the battlefield. Napoleon read the report with a degree of satisfaction. Prince Louis had been one of Prussia’s finest generals and they could ill afford to lose him in such an insignificant battle.
Berthier had chosen an inn in a village ten miles from Saalfeld for the imperial headquarters.The rest of the houses and barns of the village had been occupied by the officers and orderlies attached to the staff. After a day visiting some of his marshals Napoleon returned to the inn and saw Berthier bent over a large table in the main room. Around him several other officers sat at smaller tables hunched over their paperwork. One of them looked up, and called out, ‘The Emperor is present!’
At once the room was filled with the sound of scraping chairs as the officers rose and stood at attention.
‘At ease!’ Napoleon waved them back to their desks as he crossed the room towards Berthier. He quickly related the details of Lannes’s victory at Saalfeld and then asked, ‘What are the latest reports on the main enemy force?’
Berthier reached to one side of the table and pulled a map over. He unrolled it and weighted the corners before leaning forward and tapping his pencil where the town of Plauen was marked.‘I’ve had word from Soult that he has beaten an enemy column here. They are now retreating towards Gera.’
‘Gera?’ Napoleon leaned over the map and traced a line from Plauen, through Gera and on towards Leipzig. ‘It’s as I thought.They are in this direction.’ He paused and frowned and thought aloud. ‘Then why send that column of Prince Louis’s so far to the west where it would be cut off and powerless to act on its own? It doesn’t make sense.What reports have we had from Murat?’
‘I’m still waiting for today’s reports, sire.’
‘Very well.’ Napoleon took a last look at the map before he straightened up. ‘I am going to rest. As soon as you hear anything about the enemy’s location wake me.’
‘Yes, sire.’
Napoleon took a seat by the inn’s fire and helping himself to a staff officer’s rolled-up coat to act as a pillow he eased himself down and closed his eyes. It seemed like only a moment before he was gently shaken by the shoulder.
‘Sire?’
Napoleon’s eyes snapped open and he saw Berthier looking down at him.
‘Sire, we have a report from Marshal Lannes, and news from Murat.’
Napoleon sat up, wincing at a stiffness in his neck. ‘What time is it?’
‘Five o’clock, sire.’
Little more than an hour and a half had passed, then. Napoleon stood up. ‘Well?’
‘Lannes’s prisoners say that the main Prussian army is situated towards Erfurt.That’s confirmed by Murat’s scouts.’
‘Let’s see.’ Napoleon yawned as he led the way back to Berthier’s table and examined the map. ‘Erfurt, eh? Seems that I was mistaken, Berthier.’
His chief of staff remained silent and Napoleon could not resist a small smile. ‘It happens, Berthier. So, our enemy is to the west of us. Well, once he receives word that Lannes is at Saalfeld, he will know that we have got between Berlin and the Prussian army. They will try to march round us to get back on to their lines of communication. So we must march faster than them and cut them off.’ Napoleon made a sweeping gesture across the map. ‘The Grand Army will turn west. Davout and Bernadotte can outflank the enemy to the right, at Auerstadt.The rest of the Grand Army will concentrate here.’ He thrust his finger on the map. ‘At Jena.That’s where we will humble Frederick William.That’s where we will crush Prussia and end the campaign.’
Chapter 22
Jena, 13 October 1806
‘I would say that there are perhaps forty, maybe fifty thousand Prussians to the west of us,’ said Marshal Lannes as he slowly scanned the enemy positions through his telescope.
Beside him Napoleon considered the estimate for a moment and nodded. ‘In which case, that should be the main body of the enemy. There will be other formations nearby, guarding their flanks, but that mustbe the main body.Very well then, we must concentrate the Grand Army at once. I want every available man here within twenty-four hours. Meanwhile, you and the Imperial Guard must hold this position.’ Napoleon gestured to the surrounding heights that rose up between the town of Jena to the east and the plateau to the west where the Prussian army was making camp for the night.‘What do the locals call this place, Berthier?’
‘The Landgrafenberg, sire.’
Napoleon shook his head. ‘These Germans come up with some incomprehensible place names.When the campaign is over, I will make it a priority to cut them down to size.’
His staff officers laughed, and Napoleon was grateful for their good humour.There were risks involved in choosing this ground for what he hoped would be the decisive action of the campaign. Given a full day he could summon nearly a hundred and fifty thousand men to the area around Jena. Until then, Lannes and the veterans of the Guard must hold the heights. If the Prussians decided to attack in the remaining hours of daylight, or even early the next morning, the French troops who had crossed the river Saale to occupy the Landgrafenberg would be hopelessly outnumbered. If they were forced down the heights into Jena there would be a bottleneck at the bridge and the Prussians would inflict heavy losses. Everything depended on holding the hill, Napoleon decided, looking up to the highest point half a mile away.
He turned to Berthier and indicated to the ridge.‘We have to fortify that position. I want as many guns up there as possible.Twelve-pounders would be best, so that we can command the approaches to the slopes.’
Berthier stared at the steep rise that led up to the ridge, then sucked in a sharp breath. ‘Twelve-pounders? That won’t be easy to do, sire.’
‘I didn’t say that it would be easy,’ Napoleon replied quietly. ‘I said that it will be done.’