Napoleon at the Berezina

Gen. Jean-Baptiste Eble

by Robert Markham

Whatever success was achieved by the French at the crossing of the Berezina can be directly related to the actions of one man, General Jean-Baptiste Eble. Commanding the bridging train of the Grand Army in Russia, it was his actions that saved the army. The son of an artillery officer, Eble had started at age 15 as a gunner and by 27 in 1773 had been made an officer. Throughout the 1790's, he continued to distinguish himself at battles such as Kehl, Wattignies, and others. After Wattignies, he attained the rank of general de division. From there, Eble continued to be involved with many of the main campaigns and was rewarded in 1808 by being made a baron of the Empire and serving as Jerome Bonaparte's Minister of War until 1810. In 1810, he took part in the sieges of Cuidad Rodrigo and Almeida under the command of Massena.

In 1812, he was given command of the bridging train for the invasion of Russia. Eble's actions during the retreat come in the category of "above and beyond". First, when Napoleon ordered the bridging train destroyed, it was Eble who decided that such an order could not possibly mean the forges, chests of tools, and scrape-iron from the wheels of abandoned gun-carriages. By having his men carry these along with them, he would eventually save at least part of the French army.

The task at the Berezina was to create two bridges across a shallow river with one deep channel in the middle. The challenge was to build the bridges quickly with only a muddy bed to sink the bridge into and further to make at least one bridge strong enough to hold cavalry and vehicles. Eble chose to build two trestle bridges, 200 yards apart. To do this, he had his 400 men fashion 46 trestles out of wood he stripped from buildings in the two near-by towns. Each bridge would have 23 trestles. The metal crampons would be made from the metal Eble had salvaged from the gun carriages. His men were able to make the trestles in one night, while being mindful to keep noise to a minimum.

The next day, work on the bridges began. The trestles and their supports were driven into the riverbed with Eble's men working first in waist deep water and finally in neck deep water. Many of his men would not make it out of the water alive between enemy fire, the ice flows, and the ice cold water. The pedestrian bridge was finished in less than seven hours and the wagon bridge was finished 3 hours later. The bridges were needless to say not the sturdiest ever built. With no guide rails they were also not the safest to cross. The wagon bridge, in particular, was difficult to maintain in working order. The crush of vehicles and cavalry put too much weight on the bridge and twice it would have to be shut down and repaired. On each repair, casualties would mount as increasing enemy fire made the repair work incredibly hazardous. Eble also received the sad duty of burning the bridges and leaving thousands of stragglers behind.

In the end, only 40 of Eble's 400 men would survive the end of the campaign. Eble himself would die at Konigsberg of illness from the crossing. Posthumously, his letters would arrive making him a count.

Napoleon at the Berezina 1812

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