Éblé is said to have saved the remains of the Grande Armée in Russia from complete annihilation. But this son of a simple artillery sergeant, born on December 21, 1758, owes it not only to his loyalty and his bravery to have been raised to the highest dignities.
At the age of nine, Jean-Baptiste Éblé entered the army and, thanks to the Revolution, experienced extraordinary advancement. Sent on a mission to Naples from 1787 to 1792, he returned to immediately become captain, then, a year later, battalion commander. On September 29, 1793, he became brigadier general, and on October 25 of the same year, major general!
First fights
When on October 25, 1793, General Bouchotte, Minister of War, wrote to him to announce his new promotion, he fixed, at the same time, his assignment: the Provisional Executive Council named him Commander-in-Chief of the Artillery of the Army of the North, replacing General Mérenvue and under the direct command of Jourdan. Éblé wasted no time in joining his new post: on October 27, he was in Maubeuge where he noticed that his predecessor had left him a large stock of ammunition. All the same, he immediately established a workshop for the manufacture of cartridges, under the control of the political commissioners. However, he does not need them to fight against disorder: "The muscadins do not come to smell my dirty skin pants, the only ones I have in fact, and the civic smell that I like to breathe around me should naturally keep them away. »
During the winter of 1793, and at the beginning of 1794, the Northern army was in great financial difficulties, with assignats depreciating rapidly. The general multiplies the requisitions, inviting individuals to deliver to him their old pots or their firebacks which, combined with anvils or lead “recovered” from the convents, allow him to make bullets and cannons. He also benefited from the protection of Pichegru, who succeeded Jourdan at the head of the Army of the North, until June 4, 1796, the date on which he was assigned to the Army of the Rhine-et-Moselle, still with the function of commander-in-chief of the artillery. It was with this army that he participated, at the end of 1796, in the defense of Kehl, which was strongly attacked by the Austrians under the command of Archduke Charles. On the French side, it is Moreau who is the head of the Army of Rhine-et-Moselle, with General Reynier as chief of staff.
The sieges of Kehl and Huningue
The French army captured Kehl on the night of 5 to 6 Messidor Year IV (June 23-24, 1796) and continued its advance into Swabia and Bavaria, while the fortifications had to be demolished to take over the place. Archduke Charles' tactic was to retake the city in such a way as to cut off the army of Sambre-et-Meuse from that of Rhine-et-Moselle. In this way, the troops who advanced into Germany will be forced to turn back. The French again fortified Kehl and command was entrusted to Desaix. Éblé played an important role in this work and helped make the square, built by Vauban, a formidable fortress. He also ensures the supply of weapons and ammunition.
On 2 Frimaire Year V (November 22, 1796), Archduke Charles came to lay siege to Kehl. Deadly battles took place throughout December, because, on both sides, possession of the city was considered essential. The Directory understood this well and asked Moreau to keep this position at all costs. But what the Minister of War, Petiet, did not understand is that to defend a place, you need a lot of men. However, at the same time, 30,000 infantrymen and 1,500 cavalry were taken from Moreau from his army for that of Italy, which, proved more lucrative! The Austrians took advantage of this and achieved success by seizing the first entrenchments. A short-lived success, however, because General Lecourbe did not take long to dislodge them. Likewise, on December 17, General Decaen chased them from the cemetery redoubt which they had to evacuate, leaving 2,000 men on the ground. French losses were also very high.
Éblé is obliged to watch night and day over the Kehl bridge which the enemies are trying to set alight by launching fireboats on the river. The French position quickly became untenable; reinforcements were slow to come and encountered great difficulties. So Desaix believes he must begin negotiations with a view to an armistice. Archduke Charles, who holds his victory and does not want to let it escape, asks him to send him two officers equipped with the necessary powers to deal with the capitulation of Kehl and that of the bridgehead of Huningue. On January 9, 1797, General Boisgérard signed the capitulation of Kehl. Emboldened, the Austrians did not despair of seizing the Huningue bridgehead. Éblé, consulted, is categorical; according to him, Huningue is indefensible! There are no solid structures and everything would collapse at the first cannon shot. We are preparing to undergo new attacks and, to do this, he is asking for money from the Minister of War, so that he can buy ammunition! He constantly discovers embezzlement, which he must repress as best he can. A total lack of coordination reigns between the two armies of Rhine-et-Moselle and Sambre-et-Meuse, united too late under the command of Moreau who does not yet have them in hand although he shows great force. Bernadotte, sent as reinforcement by Petiet on January 22, also arrived too late to rectify the situation.
For their part, the Austrians took advantage of this break to recruit intensively and, when they had completed their numbers, they launched into the attack. On February 1, Huningue capitulated. Eblé takes the opportunity to denounce the abuses resulting in particular from contracts concluded with horse suppliers. He complains about the “anarchy” that reigns around him. Bad luck for him: on February 5, he was “authorized” to leave the chief command of the Rhine-et-Moselle artillery.
Minister in Westphalia
In 1803, after long months without service, the First Consul entrusted him with command of the artillery of the camp assembled in Batavia. He then received command of various German places which he was responsible for fortifying. This is how he successively commanded Mainz, Hanover, and Magdeburg. On January 26, 1808, he was replaced in command of the latter city by General Michaud, then returned to France. It was there that he received a letter from Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme, king of Westphalia for less than a year, who offered him the opportunity to become his Minister of War. He would be the third general to occupy this position, the other two having been dismissed by the king for incompatibility of mood or notorious incapacity. Éblé naturally refers this to Napoleon who gives the necessary authorization. However, as he cares about him, he warns him that he remains on the list of active general officers and that he continues to receive their salary. Added to the title of Baron of the Empire, this is enough to prove the esteem in which he is held.
The new minister arrived in Cassel, the capital of the kingdom of Westphalia, at the end of October 1808. His reputation preceded him. Norvins, who has just been appointed Secretary General of War, replacing M. de Brugnières (who spends most of his time writing operettas), is frightened at the prospect of working under his orders. Because, if Eblé stands out for his hard work, his sense of organization, and discipline, he is also said to not be tender towards his subordinates. Norvins will therefore find him as soon as he arrives to hand in his resignation. He then recounts in his Memoirs that Éblé does not accept him and thus explains the reason for his refusal: “It is necessary here,” he says, “to clean the stables [for the stables] of Augias. I can't do it alone: only you can help me and you know it well. »
How to resist? Norvins resumes his resignation and manages to bring order to the Westphalian administration. Éblé works up to fifteen hours a day, putting all his subordinates on the same regime. From the start, he got into the habit of keeping his general secretary over for dinner and then they both worked until late. Having taken the precaution of not swearing an oath to Jérôme (encouraged in this by Napoleon who found this formality perfectly ridiculous), he retained a certain freedom of action which was very profitable for the Westphalian army. He is, of course, very badly seen at the court of Cassel where he appears as a troublemaker. Jerome's courtiers, suppliers to the Westphalian army, were worried to see a real general directing the administration of the War with firmness and honesty. So they spread slander about him, taking advantage of the fact that the fifty-year-old fell in love with a twenty-year-old girl, Édeline-Louise-Henriette Fréteau, daughter of a former advisor to the Parliament of Paris! The union was, however, celebrated on April 5, 1809, by the French ambassador, Reinhard. After this matrimonial interlude, Éblé took advantage of a mission to Paris to abandon Westphalia to its sad fate without regret. In March 1810, he was in Paris and asked Napoleon for authorization to leave his brother's service, which he obtained to be named Inspector General of Artillery.
The Portuguese experience
The following April 21, the Emperor assigned him to the army of Portugal, with the title of commander-in-chief of the artillery. Éblé immediately leaves to join Masséna who then encounters the greatest difficulties. The English expeditionary force, under the command of the future Wellington, has landed on the Iberian Peninsula. But there can be no question of him openly confronting the French army, which is vastly superior in number. This is why the English decided to withdraw to the fortress of Torres Vedras, which commands this sort of peninsula formed by the Tagus to the east and the sea to the west. By destroying all points on the Tagus and establishing a line of defense, they could hope to stand up to the entire French army with 50,000 men (including 20,000 Portuguese) and 600 cannons. They can also count on the Portuguese partisans to harass the flanks of the French army and slow its progress.
The French army continued its painful march forward and finally arrived in October 1810, opposite Santarem. A break is necessary because, once again, we lack everything, especially bread. As the local mills were destroyed, it was no longer possible to grind wheat. Never mind: Éblé discovered among his artillerymen people who knew about milling and, thanks to them, the mills were repaired. All that remains is to cross the Tagus, with boats because all the bridges have been destroyed. Going in search of equipment and qualified labor, Éblé found demolition wood and iron, recovered here and there. To pay the soldiers capable of building pontoon bridges, he organized “a collection” among the officers and raised nearly 20,000 francs.
At the head of the pontoniers
In August 1811, Napoleon began the preparations which were to lead the Grande Armée to Moscow. Anticipating that he would find everything devastated in his path, he placed Éblé at the head of the corps of pontoon makers, who began to gather the material to be used in the construction of the two hundred barges on which two bridges would be thrown. In June 1812, everything was ready. It has 2,000 horses, dragging the frames and accessories of the barges that are built on-site, with no shortage of wood! On June 23, the army arrived at Kowno, on the banks of the Niemen. After carrying out a brief reconnaissance, the Emperor orders the construction of the bridges to begin immediately! Voltigeurs from Morand's division crossed the river by boat and occupied the other bank to prevent any attack during said construction. At daybreak, the three bridges are ready: this is a real tour de force!
The 200,000 French descend in long columns towards the river which they cross to regroup on the other side, in the plain. The bridges held perfectly and Éblé can be proud of his work. But after three weeks in Moscow, Napoleon ordered all the cars to be burned, except those of the artillery or engineers, or those transporting the wounded. Éblé rushed to headquarters and tried to persuade Napoleon, who remained intransigent: he did not want to have to feed the 1,500 horses needed and he barely tolerated enough to build a trestle bridge. Without saying anything, Éblé keeps some material and he takes it well! On November 25, we arrived at Bérézina. After some hesitation, it was decided to build the bridge at Studianka where the river bed is shallow, while Oudinot would make a diversion at Borisow to attract the Russians there.
The ultimate sacrifice
Napoleon then called Éblé and asked him to get to work immediately. But the conditions are no longer the same as at the start. The four hundred pontooners have just walked for two days and two nights without taking a moment's rest. Éblé gives them a very moving speech and they promise to do everything possible. We take out the equipment that we were able to save from destruction: tools, nails, iron, and even two field forges. The general also thought of taking two cars of coal for these forges. Construction of the trestles begins. The wood was taken from the houses of Studianka and, on the morning of the 26th, the pontonniers, who had worked all night, completed the trestles. The hardest part remains to be done: it involves planting them in the river. It was then that a hundred pontooners entered the icy water and began to stare at them. As they work, ice forms around them.
We constantly have to push aside the ice cubes that the river carries. Shivering from the cold, the bridge builders nevertheless continued their task and, at the beginning of the afternoon, the first bridge was completed. Located on the right, it should only allow the passage of troops on foot. The crossing begins. The one on the left, reserved for cars and horses, is completed at 4 p.m. The pontooners can finally get out of the water and throw themselves onto the straw prepared for them. But their rest is short-lived. The second bridge is made up of poorly squared logs between which straw or moss has been placed to smooth out the unevenness. The horses' hooves do their work and the cars begin to jolt more and more heavily, shaking the bridge. At 8 p.m., three trestles sank into the river. The pontoon makers must then plunge into the water again, to break the ice which is constantly reforming, and place new trestles. At 11 p.m., the bridge reopened. At 2 a.m., new incident: two trestles gave way, right in the middle of the river. The pontooners, galvanized by the example of Éblé who did not hesitate, despite his fifty-four years, to enter the water himself, returned to the river, and at 6 a.m. on November 27, the bridge is usable again.
At the same time, Eblé must take care of policing. The crowds around these two miserable bridges are appalling. The crowd thronged their entrance in indescribable disorder, which increased when the Russians began to fire from the heights. Their artillery engages in a real game of massacre until a charge from Victor reduces it momentarily to silence. Éblé must then clear the bridges of overturned cars and the corpses that clutter them, by having them thrown into the river. Nothing is spared! All day of the 27th and the next day again, the remains of the Grande Armée paraded on these logs which were their only lifeline.
Napoleon, fearing that the Russians would follow, decided to blow up the bridges on the 29th at 7 a.m. All night, Éblé tried to convince the thousands of stragglers camped nearby to hurry across before the pyrotechnicians carried out the plans. Many of them remain deaf to his calls, refusing to risk themselves at night on these rickety boards. At 7 a.m., the bridges have not yet been blown up. Éblé wants to give the stragglers one last chance and, at 8 a.m., the structures are still in place. From headquarters, Napoleon sends courier after courier to urge him to set it on fire. And it was only at 9 a.m. that Éblé decided to obey when he saw the Russians arriving. He followed the army to Königsberg, where he was made general commander of the artillery, replacing Lariboisière who had just died. But everything is over Éblé, who also fell ill, died two days later, on December 28, 1813, at the age of fifty-five. Of the hundred pontooners who had entered the Berezina with him, only twelve remained. And of the other three hundred, seventy-five were still alive. Above all, fifty thousand men owed him their lives! The Emperor will say to Saint Helena: “Éblé was a man of the greatest merit. »
Crossing the Niemen
The Emperor then launched his famous proclamation: “Soldiers, the second Polish war has begun. The first ended in Friedland and Tilsit! …In Tilsit, Russia swore an eternal alliance with France and war with England. She is now breaking her oaths. It places us between dishonor and war: our choice cannot be in doubt. Let us therefore march forward, cross the Niemen, and bring the war to its territory. The Second Polish War will be glorious for the French armies. But the peace that we conclude will carry with it its guarantee: it will put an end to the disastrous influence that Russia has exercised for fifty years on the affairs of Europe. »
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