526 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
mile-and-a-half and was more or less disorganised. Victory seemed 
within reach of the Allies, and their splendid force of cavalry prepared 
to sweep over the plain round the rear of their enemy, who had no 
adequate force of the arm with which to oppose them. Napoleon 
exposing himself in the most courageous manner, as he had done at 
Wagram, hastened to the menaced point, and made the most energetic 
personal efforts to retrieve the day. He collected the remnants of 
Ney’s corps behind the burning village, reinforced them with the divi¬ 
sion of Ricard, and launched them on a fresh attack. Reanimated by 
his presence, the French infantry succeeded in pressing their opponents 
back to Klein Gorschen, but then the combat surged indecisively to 
and fro, both sides lost enormously, but neither would give way. 
Time, however, which was what Napoleon chiefly needed, had been 
gained. While the fight raged between Kaia and Klein Gorschen, the 
other French corps were creeping nearer, and the formidable Imperial 
Guard was being massed behind the hills of Kaia by the Emperor for 
a decisive blow. Soon seventy thousand French were pressing the 
Allies, who had only forty thousand with which to oppose them. As a 
last effort Wittgenstein called the artillery of Winzingerode to his aid, 
and placed them so as to take the enemy in flank as they came on 
between the villages. Guns, thus opportunely thrown into the scale, 
could not but relieve the pressure, and in truth the Allies gathered 
heart with their support, and once more drove the French out of Klein 
Gorschen, and from round Kaia back to where Napoleon was mustering 
his guards. 
The Emperor saw that the moment for him to make his great effort 
was now ripe, and his blow fell as it had fallen at Wagram. Sixty 
guns of the incomparable Artillery of the Guard were formed into a 
great battery under Druofc, and were sent forward to prepare the way. 
Then when their fire, which was served with a rapidity and precision 
such as their opponents could not match, had produced an effect, sixteen 
battalions of the young guard moved to the attack, and the whole of 
the reserve cavalry, cherished carefully during the day with this 
object in view, supported the movement. As the great column swept 
on, the guns, manoeuvred with splendid skill, kept ahead of it, and 
their fire was irresistable. Kaia was soon passed, but round Klein 
Gorschen the fight remained again stationary. 
The effort of the Allies, however, had been in vain. They were 
beaten back, if not routed at the decisive point, and as night closed 
in they could not but realise that they had failed. Napoleon’s favourite 
manoeuvre had once more been successful, and the result was due 
principally to the manner in which, at the supreme moment, his guns 
dominated the fight at the spot where his effort was centred, and the 
honours of the day were with Druot, as at Friedland they had been 
with Senarmont. 
The next morning the Allies felt unequal to renewing the struggle 
and retreated. 1 
1 Taubert quotes the following instance of the great effect of canister on attacking troops from this 
battle :—“ A single 6-pr. which had been upset, and had to be righted before it could follow the 
battery, was aitacked by the French hussars. The non-commissioned officer in charge put a round 
of canister over the ball already in the piece, and fired with such effect as to completely dis¬ 
perse the hussars who had come up quite close to the gun. Nor did an infantry column which 
advanced on it at the same moment fare better, although they had looked on the piece, which was 
almost abandoned, as an easy prize. 
