Bennigsen

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The rough draft of this article was made by Engels and enclosed in his letter to Marx of September 10, 1857. It was based largely on A. H. Jomini's book Vie politique et militaire de Napoléon (vols. 1-4, Paris, 1827). Marx edited this draft and supplemented it with data from Biographie universelle (Michaud) ancienne et moderne (Vol. 3, Paris, 1854), Napoleon's Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France (Paris, 1823), Fr. Chr. Schlosser's Zur Beurtheilung Napoleon's und seiner neusten Tadler und Lobredner (Frankfurt am Main, 1835) and other books. He sent off the final version to New York on September 22, 1857, as can be seen from an entry in his notebook.

Bennigsen, Levin August Theophile, count, a Russian general, born in Brunswick, Feb. 10, 1745, where his father served as colonel in the guards, died Oct. 3, 1826. As a page, he spent 5 years at the Hanoverian court of George II; entered the Hanoverian army, and having advanced to the rank of captain in the foot guards, participated in the last campaign of the 7 years’ war. His excessive passion for the fair sex at that time made more noise than his warlike exploits. In order to marry the daughter of the baron of Steinberg, the Hanoverian minister at the court of Vienna, he left the army, retired to his Hanoverian estate of Banteln, by dint of lavish expenditure got hopelessly in debt, and, on the death of his wife, resolved to restore his fortune by entering the Russian military service. Made a lieutenant-colonel by Catherine II, he served first under Romanzoff, against the Turks, and then under Suwaroff, against the rebel Pugatcheff. During a furlough granted to him he went to Hanover to carry off Mlle, von Schwiehelt, a lady renowned for her beauty. On his return to Russia, the protection of Romanzoff and Potemkin procured for him the command of a regiment. Having distinguished himself at the siege of Otchakov, in 1788, he was appointed brigadier-general. In the Polish campaign of l793-’94, he commanded a corps of light troops; was created general after the affairs of Oszmiana and Solli; decided the victory of Vilna, by breaking up, at the head of the horse, the centre of the Polish army, and, in consequence of some bold surprises, successfully executed on the banks of the lower Niémen, was rewarded by Catherine II with the order of St. Vladimir, a sabre of honor, and 200 serfs. During his Polish campaign he exhibited the qualities of a good cavalry officer—fire, audacity, and quickness—but not the higher attainments indispensable for the chief of an army. After the Polish campaign, he was despatched to the army in Persia, where, by means of a bombardment, lasting 10 days, he compelled Derbent, on the Caspian sea, to surrender. The cross of the order of St . George of the third class, was the last gift he received from Catherine II, after whose death he was recalled and disgraced by her successor.

Count Pahlen, military governor of St. Petersburg, was organizing at that time the conspiracy by which Paul lost his life. Pahlen, knowing the reckless character of Bennigsen, let him into the secret, and gave him the post of honor—that of leading the conspirators in the emperor’s bedchamber. It was Bennigsen who dragged Paul from the chimney, where he had secreted himself; and when the other conspirators hesitated, on Paul’s refusal to abdicate, Bennigsen exclaimed, “Enough talk,” untied his own sash, rushed on Paul, and after a struggle, in which he was aided by the others, succeeded in strangling the victim. To shorten the process, Bennigsen struck him on the head with a heavy silver snuff box. Immediately on the accession of Alexander I, Bennigsen received a military command in Lithuania. At the commencement of the campaign of 1806-’7, he commanded a corps in the first army under Kamenski—the second being commanded by Buxhövden—he tried in vain to cover Warsaw against the French, was forced to retreat to Pultusk on the Narev, and there, Dec. 26, 1806, proved able to repulse an attack of Lannes and Bernadotte, his forces being greatly superior, since Napoleon, with his main force, had marched upon the second Russian army. Bennigsen forwarded vain-glorious reports to the emperor Alexander, and, by dint of intrigues against Kamenski and Buxhövden, soon gained the supreme command of the army destined to operate against Napoleon. At the end of January, 1807, he made an offensive movement against Napoleon’s winter quarters, and escaped by mere chance the snare Napoleon had laid for him, and then fought the battle of Eylau. Eylau having fallen on the 7th, the main battle, which, in order to break Napoleon’s violent pursuit, Bennigsen was forced to accept, occurred on Feb. 8. The tenacity of the Russian troops, the arrival of the Prussians under L’Estocq, and the slowness with which the single French corps appeared on the scene of action, made the victory doubtful. Both parties claimed it, and at any rate, the field of Eylau—as Napoleon himself said—was the bloodiest among all his battles.Bennigsen had Te Deums sung, and received from the czar a Russian order, a pension of 12,000 rubles, and a letter of congratulation, praising him as “the vanquisher of the never vanquished captain.”

In the spring, he intrenched himself at Heilsberg, and neglected to attack Napoleon, while part of the French army was still occupied with the siege of Dantzic; but, after the fall of Dantzic, and the junction of the French army, thought the time for attack had arrived. First delayed by Napoleon’s vanguard, which mustered the third part only of his own numerical force, he was soon manoeuvred back by Napoleon into his intrenched camp. There Napoleon attacked him in vain June 10, with but two corps and some battalions of the guard, but on the next day induced him to abandon his camp and beat a retreat. Suddenly, however, and without waiting for a corps of 28,000 men, which had already reached Tilsit, he returned to the offensive, occupied Friedland, and there drew up his army, with the river Alle in his rear, and the bridge of Friedland as his only line of retreat. Instead of quickly advancing, before Napoleon was able to concentrate his troops, he allowed himself to be amused for 5 or 6 hours by Lannes and Mortier, until, toward 5 o’clock, Napoleon had his forces ready, and then commanded the attack. The Russians were thrown on the river, Friedland was taken, and the bridge destroyed by the Russians themselves, although their whole right wing stood still on the opposite side. Thus the battle of Friedland, June 14, costing the Russian army above 20,000 men, was lost. It was said that Bennigsen was at that time influenced by his wife, a Polish woman. During this whole campaign Bennigsen committed fault upon fault, his whole conduct exhibiting a strange compound of rash imprudence and weak irresolution.

During the campaign of 1812, his principal activity was displayed at the head-quarters of the emperor Alexander, where he intrigued against Barclay de Tolly, with a view to get his place. In the campaign of 1813, he commanded a Russian army of reserve, and was created count by Alexander, on the battle-field of Leipsic. Receiving afterward the order to dislodge Davout from Hamburg, he beleaguered it until Napoleon’s abdication of April, 1814, put an end to hostilities. For the peaceful occupation of Hamburg, then effected by him, he claimed and received new honors and emoluments. After having held the command of the army of the south, in Bessarabia, from 1814 to 1818, he finally retired to his Hanoverian estate, where he died, having squandered most of his fortune, and leaving his children poor in the Russian service.