Marie Von Clausewitz by Bellinger Vanya Eftimova; Bellinger Vanya Eftimova;

Author:Bellinger, Vanya Eftimova; Bellinger, Vanya Eftimova;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2015-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 7.1 A newly found drawing of Carl von Clausewitz. For over a century and a half it had been in the possession of descendants of Carl’s siblings. Artist unknown. Private Collection Bernd Domsgen/Olaf Thiel.

Clausewitz’s decision to send the women back turned out to be the correct one. Napoleon was already on the move with an aggressive offense into Belgium aimed at attacking Blücher’s troops and Wellington’s Anglo-Dutch army separately before they could unite and overwhelm him. The first clash came on June 15 in Charleroi just seventy miles west of III Corps’ headquarters in Ciney, followed by the double victories of Napoleon in Ligny against Blücher and then Marshal Ney against Wellington near Quatre Bras. The emperor, with the bulk of the French army, now pursued the Anglo-allied army toward Brussels, while Marshal Grouchy with the right flank came after the Prussians. The ensuing battles on June 18 by the villages Waterloo and Wavre were simultaneously fought. At Wavre, despite a ferocious and ultimately successful French attack, the III Corps held long enough to enable Blücher to both gradually transfer 50,000 troops to support Wellington and prevent Grouchy from helping Napoleon.

Waterloo, of course, was the critical battle. Later Clausewitz wrote an exhausting analysis highlighting the crucial role the Prussian army had played at Waterloo. Wellington, commander of the Anglo-allied army, perceiving the text as an attack on his own glorious legacy, felt compelled to answer with an account as well.107 On June 18, by waiting to attack until midday Napoleon made an unforgivable mistake. Despite the repeated and ferocious French assaults, the Allied center held strong and broke only around six o’clock in the evening. By that time, the Prussian troops had already arrived on the battlefield and changed the balance. Wellington now could rally his men, repulse the French, and force them into a full-blown retreat. The Allies chased Napoleon and his troops mercilessly once more toward Paris.

“That the III Corps also played a prominent role by this unbelievably glorious clash, makes us very happy,” Marie wrote back to Carl after learning about the decisive victory of June 18, adding, “My head hurts from too much joy.”108 Bursting with pride about the performance of the Prussians in Waterloo and the III Corps’ desperate but crucial defense at Wavre, Gneisenau wrote letters describing the events in detail. One of them went to Marie with an explicit request to make it known to prominent people and the public. “I have read and reread aloud your letter so often that I know it almost by heart. … Despite this, [it] (of course with the required exceptions and how you asked, anonymously) will be published tomorrow in the local newspaper,” Marie reported back to Gneisenau.109

Completing his defeat and embarrassment, Napoleon also lost his carriage and luggage on the battlefield. The trophies, captured by the Prussian Major von Keller, arrived in Düsseldorf as a present for his wife, and Marie and Julie von Dohna rushed together with a huge crowd to see them. “It

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