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Prince M.B.Barclay de Tolly came of a
very old Scottish noble family, his ancestors moved to Liflandia
(the modern Lithuania). He was born in the family of an retired
Lieutenant in 1761.
In 1776 he was enlisted to military service in the Pskov carabineer
regiment. (In Russia children of noble families were usually enlisted
to some regiments in a very young age). Two years after he was
promoted to the officer rank. He got ranks very slowly: in 1788
he was promoted to the rank of captain. From 1786 he was in the
Finland Chasseur Corps and was appointed an Aide-de-Camp of General-Lieutenant
Prince Angalt-Bernburg.
First time he took part in military operations in the Russian-Turkish
war of 1787-1791. He served under the command of Prince Potemkin
Tavrichesky in the rank of second-major, he took part in the siege
and assult of Ochakov in 1788 (December,6) and was rewarded with
the Order of St.Vladimir of the 4-th Class and the Golden Ochakov
Cross.
Next year (1789) Barclay distinguished himself in the actions
near fortress Kaushany (September,13) and in combats at Akkerman
and Bendery. In the end of October 1789 Barclay went to St.Petersburg.
In 1790 he was transferred to the Finland Army and participated
in the Finland campaign in the rank of major and for his merits
in the assault of Kerkinossky fortress (April,19) was promoted
to the rank of premier-major, then he arrived to the Tobolsk regiment.
In May,1791 Barclay was nominated to the St.Peterburg Grenadier
regiment and was occupied with forming this regiment. On September,2,1791
he had married Eleonora von Smitten.
In 1794 the battalion of Barclay took part in supressing the armed
revolt of Polish confederates and in the storm of Vilno. Barclay
was rewarded with the Order of St.George of the 4-th Class, he
also participated in the capture of Prague and Warsaw and got
the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On December,14,1794 he was appointed
the commander of the 1-st battalion of the Estland Chasseur Corps,
that was renamed to the 4-th Chasseur regiment in 1789, and Barclay
became its commander. Then he was promoted to the rank of Colonel
and next year (1799) he got the rank of General-Major. In 1801
the 4-th Chasseur regiment was renamed to the 3-th Chasseur regiment
and Barclay became its chief.
The epoch of wars between Napoleonic France and Russia that began
in 1805 brought to very big changes in the Russian Army and exposed
many talented generals.
Barclay took part in the Austerlitz battle in 1805 and next year,
1806, he commanded the advanced detachment in Plotsk and organized
pickets on the Western bank of Visla river in permanent affairs
with the enemy. In the battle of Pultusk (December,14,1806) Barclay
was on the right flank with three chasseur regiments, the Tenginsk
musketeer and the Polish Cavalry regiments. He stood the fierce
attacks of the French columns and made bayonet counter attacks.
For this battle he was rewarded with the Order of St.George of
the 3-rd Class.
In the beginning of 1807 Barclay was appointed the commander of
the left wing.
In combats at Yankovo and Landsberg (January,12-22,1807) Barclay
acting along stood the pressure of almost the whole Army of Napoleon
and could give an oppotunity for the main Russian Army of Bennigsen
to gather at Preysish-Eloy, thought his troops suffered terribly.
On January,26-27 Barclay defended this town with fortitude from
the desperate French attacks, he was seriously wounded in the
arm and then taken to a hospital in Memel. In the beginning of
April Emperor Alexander I visited Barclay in the hospital in Memel.
Barclay was rewarded with the Order of St.Anna of the 1-st Class
and the Order of St.Vladimir of the 2-nd Class.
In the end of April, 1807 Barclay was nominated the commander
of the 6-th Division and he was promoted to the rank of General-Lieutenant.
In summer of 1807 Barclay went for treatment to St.Petersburg.
In May, 1808 Barclay was appointed the commander of the Detached
Expeditionary Corps and sent to Finland to take part in the war
against Sweden. He fought actions very successfully and on July,7,
1808 took Kuopio town. In June-July Barclay with a big detachment
came to the aid to the Division of N.N.Raevsky.
But in the end of summer because of his ailment Barclay had to
leave his Corps and went to St.Petersburg again. Emperor Alexander
I appointed Barclay a member of the Military Council. And in March
of 1809 Barclay came back to Finland as the commander of the Vassk
Corps.
On March, 7 -9, 1809 the Russian Army in accordance with Barclay's
plan crossed the Gulf of Bothnia on the ice and came to Umeo town.
When the Russian vanguard was about 1 verst (3500 feet) far from
Umeo, an envoy arrived from the Sweden Commander-in-Chief with
the offer to begin parley. Barclay demanded that Swedish Commander-in-Chief
Count Cronstet himself would come to his Headquarters and ask
him to stop the military actions.
Barclay could win the brilliant victory very easy but he decided
to give up his own glory to achieve his object without much of
blood.
In according with terms of peace concluded with Count Cronstet,
Umeo town and a region of Sweden that formed near 1/3 of the whole
Swedish Kingdom were ceded to Russia.
For this campaign Barclay was appointed the Commander-in-Chief
of the Russian Army in Finland and the General-Governor of Finland
(May,29,1809).
In the beginning of July, 1809 Alexander I visited Finland and
met with the General-Governor.
In the end of December, 1809 Barclay was called to St.Petersburg,
and on January,20,1810 he was nominated the War Minister. On this
post he improved the fortifications of fortresses of Kiev and
Riga and began to built two new fortrsses in Bobruysk and Dinaburg.
For his very useful and active service he was rewarded with the
Order of St.Vladimir of the 1-st Class in September, 1811.
In 1812 Barclay returned to the Army again: he was appointed the
Commander-in-Chief of the 1-st Western Army, that had the main
Headquarters in Vilno and consisted of 6 infantry coprses.
Besides this in this Army was the mobile Cossak Corps of Ataman
General of Cavalry Platov. The whole number was 127000 men and
558 guns.
Uncertainty of the place where Napoleon
would enter into Russia made Russian Commanders-in-Chief dispose
their Armies almost along all Western border of the Russian Empire:
the 1-st Army was in Vilno Province, the 2-nd Army of Bagration
consisted of 48000 of men and 216 guns stayed at Volkovysk, Noviy
Dvor and Zelva and the 3-rd Army of General Tormasov in that were
43000 men and 168 guns was near Lutsk. Ataman Platov with 16 Cossak
regiments was in Grodno.
And on June,12 (24 - new style) 1812 Napoleon's Army crossed the
river Neman and entered into the Russian territory. In the time
of Napoleon's invasion the Russian troops were scattered on the
space of 800 versts (1verst=3500 feet). There is a supposition
that at first Barclay thought about a general battle, but he had
to go back on this idea because the number of Napoleon's Grande
Armee was much more bigger than it was supposed in the Russian
Headquarters and at court.
It had been decided to retreat. The 1-st Western Army of Barclay
retreated to Smolensk, and the 2-nd Army went there too to join
the troops of Barclay. Barclay used the tactics that gave good
results: he constantly imitated readiness to give a battle and
quickly went away from the enemy. On July,22 both Armies met in
Smolensk. Bargration, though he was in the more senior rank, had
come under the command of the War Minister.
Napoleon came to Smolensk and on August,5 ordered to attack it
from different sides. The heavy fighting lasted all the day but
Russian troops could hold the city.
Although the attacks of Napoleon's were repelled successfully
and Bargation tried to convince Barclay to continue the defence
of Smolensk persistently, the careful general decided to leave
the city. He had considered his plan: the french Emperor could
take the road to Moscow that the 2-nd Army was not able to protect.
On August, 6 -7 the Russian Army retreated form Smolensk. This
retreat provoked the violent dissatisfaction against Barclay in
the Army and society, they blamed him for indecision, cowardice
and even treason. Bagration hated Barclay and didn't believe him.
From the first days of the war he couldn't speak about Barclay
without fury and wrote the angry reports to the Tsar about Barclay's
activities. The same talks were among other generals too. And
all generals were worried about the constant hostility between
Bagration and Barclay. And on August,5 (17 - new style) Alexander
ordered to convoke a special committee, that proposed the Tsar
to dismiss Barclay and appoint Kutuzov the Commander-in-Chief.
But Alexander had made the final decision only 3 days after, on
August ,8.
So in that day Kutuzov was received by Alexander I and got a decree
about his nomination the Commander-in-Chief. And this day Barclay
was dismissed from the post of the War Minister.
Levenshtein (one of Barclay's aides-de-camp) in his memories wrote
about this
"People and the Army were displeased with our retreat for a long time. Crowd that is unable and must not be initiated into the secrets of the serious military operations, saw in this retreat ignorance or cowardice. The Army shared this opinion partly, and it was necessary to have the firm temper of Barclay to stand the plan of this campaign without any wavering. Only Alexander who saw in this plan the rescuing of Russia supported him. But Crowd always judges only by the first results and cannot wait.
The Emperor in the beginning of this war worried too about many Russian provinces had been given to the enemy. General Barclay had to calm the Emperor, and he entrusted me many times to write to His Majesty that the loss of some provinces will be compensated, and in summer when it was very hot, Barclay counted on winter frosts and prognosticated the terrible fate of the enemy if it would have courage and carelessness to invade into the territory of the Russian Empire further.
Barclay begged His Majesty to wait until November and he would answer for it with his life (in June!) that till November the French troops would have to leave Russia more hurriedly than they had come there."
After the appointment of Kutuzov the
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, on August,16 Barclay wrote
to his wife:
"And about the appointment of Prince Kutuzov, it was necessary because the Emperor doesn't command all the Armies, but is this the good choice, only God knows. As about me, my patriotism doesn't allow any sense of insult".
Kutuzov that was very popular among people
in St.Petersburg and in Moscow too was 67 years old then.
He was a very clever and talented general and he realized very
clearly that Barclay's tactics in this war was the single possible
in that situation, and he didn't hide it at all. Just after his
appointment he nominated Barclay the commander of that part of
the Russian Army he had commanded before Smolensk, and Bargation
was appointed the commander of his part of the Army.
In the Borodino battle on August, 26 (September, 7 - new style)
Barclay commanded the centre and the right wing of the Russian
Army and amazed all by his coyrage and coolness. He came to the
aid to Bagration when he was attacked by the troops of Marshals
Ney and Davoust, attacked with the Cavalry the left wing of the
French Army, and when Napoleon with his main forces rushed to
the attack to the centre of the Russian Army, he supported it
with his last reserves and led the troops by himself, he rode
in front of them in the full general uniform, and the French Cavalry
was coming. He led the cavalry mass into the attack by himself
and fought as a commom cavalryman
In this day five horses were killed under
him, two of his aides-de-camp and officers were killed and seven
were wounded, his hat and cloak were shot through. His uniform
was splashed with blood, two times he nearly was taken prisoner,
but he had beaten off.
And only the coming darkness had put an end to this terrible massacre.
On September,1 Barclay took part in the council in Fili village,
and he was the first who said about the retreat of the Russian
Army from Moscow, and next day, September,2 (14 - new style) ,
Barclay made arrangemets with Marshal Murat about a truce to give
the time to Moscow inhabitants to leave the city.
And on September,21 Barclay gave a report to Kutuzov about his
leaving the Army because of his illness, left the Army and went
to Vladimir.
On the way to Vladimir in many places a crowd ran after his coach,
threw stones at it and yelled insults. Sometimes police had to
step in to stop the excesses of the crowd. Maybe, crowd is and
was the same at all times and in all countries...
In the end of October Barclay sent to Alexander his "Explanations
of General of Infantry Barclay de Tolly about the actions of the
1-st and 2-nd Western Armies during the campaign of 1812 year"
with the request of his permission to publish it, but he received
a refusal.
Barclay lived in Vladimir till the end of November, then he decided
to go to Beckhof, and after it he went to St.Petersburg, where
in Alexander's birthday he came to the Winter Palace, but he met
a very cold welcome there. But in this day Barclay got a letter
from Alexander, in which he persuaded Barclay to return to the
Army. After receiving the letter, Barclay went to his estate in
Liflandia. There he had been ill for a month and then after some
recovering he went to Vilno.
In the beginning of 1813 year he with the Emperor Headquarters
officers came to Polotsk and asked Alexander for resignation again.
But on January,31 he received a message from Kutuzov that Alexander
had appointed General of Infantry Barclay de Tolly the commander
of the 3-rd Army instead of Admiral Chichagov, who had fallen
ill.
On April,17 Kutuzov had died and Count Vitgenstein was appointed
the Commander-in-Chief. In the end of April - beginning of May
there were bloody battles at Lutzen and Bautzen, that ended with
Napoleon's victory and the retreat of the Allied Forces.
After these unsuccessful battles at Lutzen and Bautzen Vitgenstein
was dismissed from the post of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied
Russian-Prussian troops and on May, 17 General of Infantry Barclay
de Tolly was appointed the Commander-in-Chief. Now near 90 thousands
of men were under his command.
After Austria had entried into the war the Allied Forces were
reorganized into three armies: the Bohemia Army, the Silesia Army
and the Northern Army.
Barclay was under the command of commander of the Bohemia Army
Prince Shwartzenberg, who was the Commander-in-Chief of all Allied
Armies. Barclay commanded the Army Reserve consisted of Russian
and Prussian Corpss (126 thousands of men).
In August the military action began again, but after the unsuccessful
battle at Dresden the Allies troops retreated to Teplitz.
Barclay, who commanded the vanguard of the Bohemia Army, informed
General Osterman-Tolstoy, who was in the South-East of Dresden,
that the French Corps of General Vandamme was coming to Teplitz
and they had an order to gain the rear of the Allies.
The first attack of Vandamme Corps was accepted by the Russian
Guards under the command of Osterman-Tolstoy near Kulm. Next morning
(August,18( Barclay came to Kulm who commanded the battle.
In this battle the Corps of Vandamme (about 12 thousands of men)
was captured with 84 guns and its transport. The Kulm battle was
given on Barclay's initiative.
In the middle of September all Allies armies rushed to Leipzig,
and the main forces of Napoleon approached there too.
At October,4 in the morning the troops of Barclay stayed on the
right flank formed in three lines. In the first line was Vitgenstein's
Corps, in the second - the Corps of Raevsky and in the third line
was the reserve under the command of Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich.
Barclay's troops had to attack the main forces of Napoleon's troops
that stayed at Wahau village and to throw them back to Leipzig.
In the first stage of the battle the Russian-Prussian troops seized
Wahau and Cleberg. But Napoleon had concentrated about a hundred
of guns beyond Wahau and opened fire to Barclay's troops and in
the same time the French Infantry rushed to the attack. Barclay
moved Raevsky's Corps forward supporting the troops that were
attacking Wahau.
Napoleon flung the bigger part of his Cavalry on Raevsky's grenadiers,
but the grenadiers formed in square had stopped the French. Barclay
tried to help Raevsky and sent the Light Horse troops to him,
but the these troops were crushed by the French Cavalry before
they would be able to deploy. Then the Old Guards of Napoleon
rushed to the attack, Barclay set against them the Heavy Cavalry
and the Russian and Prussian Guards. The onslaught of the French
weakened but the Allies couldn't achieve the decisive results.
The next day the battle renewed. The main attack of Barclay's
troops were against the French Corpss of Victor and Loriston that
stayed at Probetgate village. The combat lasted almost all the
day but Barclay's troops couldn't seize this fortificated village.
At night on October , 7 Napoleon retreated to Leipzig and began
to prepare to leave the city. In the morning the Allies began
the assault of Leipzig but Barclay's troops didn't take part in
it.
In this battle that was called "The Battle of Nations"
Napoleon's losses were over 60 thousands of killed and wounded,
20 thousands of taken prisoners and 325 of guns.
For the Leipzig battle Barclay de Tolly was conferred a tittle
of a Count.
The Allies began to pursue the French troops. At October,24 Barclay's
troops entered into Frankfurt am Main, and at January,1,1814 they
crossed the Rhine and entered into Basel.
And here The Allied Forced were reformed again and Barclay became
the commander of the part of the Bohemia Army Reserve consisted
of Russian, Prussian and Baden Corpss.
In the beginning of February there was a war council in the Allies
Main Headquarters and Barclay declared for continuation of pursuit
of the enemy and the main part of generals agreed with him. But
when Alexander I suggested to go to Paris, all questions no longer
arised.
At March,19 in the morning the Allied
Forces entered into Paris. And that day Barclay de Tolly was given
a rank of general-Field-Marshal.
On April,2 he gave his post to Tsesarevixh Konstantin and took
the command of the Silesian Army replaced Blucher on this post.
Also those days he got the highets war award from his former enemy
that was now his ally, the Swedish Order of the Sword of the 1-st
Class.
In May Field-Marshal Barclay accompanied Alexander I in his trip
to England. In summer of 1814 year he became again the Commander-in-Chief
of the 1-st Army consisted of six infantry Ñorpsesþ
The Headquarters of this Army was located in Warsaw.
Barclay was in Warsaw when Napoleon returned to France from Elba
island in February, 1815.
In April, 1815 Barclay's Army (225 thousands of men) took the
field and went to France. When the Army had passed Galicia, Bohemia
and Germany they received a message about the Waterloo battle
and the victory of English-Prussian troops.
Using his rich military experience Barclay published "The
Rules of Loose Order Or Manual About Scattered Actions Of Infantry
For Chasseur Regiments". Afterwards these rules were widely
used in the Russian Army.
In the beginning of the next year Barclay came to St.Petersburg
and asked Alexander I for resignation for reasons of health or
to give him a leave for treatment of his disease - the arthritis.
The Emperor gave him a leave for two years and granted one hundred
of thousands of roubles to him for the treatment on "the
waters" in Chech. In the end of April Barclay's family left
Beckhof.
After a short rest in his new estate in Solben (60 versts far
from Riga) they continued the trip. But day by day the Field-Marshal
felf himself worse, the pains in his chest became stronger. This
made them to stop in Memel, Riga and Tilzit. On May, 13 just near
Instenburg (modern Chernyakhovsk) Barclay's doctor insisted to
stop in Shtilitzen.
That day Michail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly died.
The first who learnt about his death was Prussian King Frederick-William
III. He ordered at once to send a Guard of Honour to Shtilitzen,
and escorted by it the coffin with the body of the Field-Marshal
was conveyed to the Russian border.
