476

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

The principal commanders of this army of three hundredand thirty-six thousand men, were Marshals Davoust, Ney,Oudinot, Gouvion Saint Cyr, Junot , Macdonald, Le Fevre,Bessieres, Prince Poniatowski , Prince Schwartzenberg, andthe Prussian Generals de Wrede and de York.

Immediately attached to Murat were the generals ofcavalry, Nausouty, Montbrun, Grouchy, Latour Maubourg ,and some others, whose names I do not remember. Hispersonal staff was composed principally of Neapolitans,Prince Campana, a distinguished General of cavalry, PrinceCariati, Florestano Pepe , two Pignatelli’s, two Caracciolo’s,my friend Piccoluomini, Rambaud, as paymaster to theNeapolitan division. The Duke of Roccaromana as Masterof the Horse, and many others not requisite for my readersto be delayed in naming. I was not there, not being yetactually in the service, although I assisted at all the militarymanoeuvres, instructions, &c., en amateur. The details ofthis stupendous campaign, both of its progress and finale,have been too extensively published for me to enter uponthem any further than will prove absolutely necessary toshow the personal share that Murat took in them.

The reserve of cavalry, more immediately under the solecontrol of Murat, and which could act independently of theproportion of that arm attached to every division of thegrand army, amounted to twenty-eight thousand men,cuirassiers, dragoons, hussars, chasseurs, &c. The gen-darmerie a cheval was an excellent French application forkeeping the police of the army.

On the 22nd of June, 1812, the grand army arrived onthe river Niemur. The Russians had, for a long time,been fortifying Dunabourg and Drissa, apparently in theexpectation of Napoleon ’s directing his inarch towardsSt. Petersburg; and here I will just glance at theoccasion which caused him to alter that plan, (if ever he