Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 12 | Page 7

to be called Hanseatic volunteers. A man named Hanft, who
had formerly been a butcher, raised at his own expense a company of
foot and one of lancers, of which he took the command. This
undertaking, which cost him 130,000 francs, may afford some idea of
the attachment of the people of Hamburg to the French Government!
But money, as well as men, was wanting, and a heavy contribution was
imposed to defray the expense of enrolling a number of workmen out
of employment and idlers, of various kinds. Voluntary donations were
solicited, and enthusiasm was so general that even servant-maids gave
their rings. The sums thus collected were paid into the chest of
Tettenborn's staff, and became a prey to dishonest appropriation. With

respect to this money a Sieur Oswald was accused of not having acted
with the scrupulous delicacy which Madame de Stael attributes to his
namesake in her romance of Corinne.
Between 8000 and 10,000 men were levied in the Hanse Towns and
their environs, the population of which had been so greatly reduced
within two years. These undisciplined troops, who had been for the
most part levied from the lowest classes of society, committed so many
outrages that they soon obtained the surname of the Cossacks of the
Elbe; and certainly they well deserved it.
Such was the hatred which the French Government had inspired in
Hamburg that the occupation of Tettenborn was looked upon as a
deliverance. On the colonel's departure the Senate, anxious to give high
a testimonial of gratitude, presented him with the freedom of the city,
accompanied by 5000 gold fredericks (105,000 francs), with which he
was doubtless much more gratified than with the honour of the
citizenship.
The restored Senate of Hamburg did not long survive. The people of
the Hanse Towns learned, with no small alarm, that the Emperor was
making immense preparations to fall upon Germany, where his
lieutenants could not fail to take cruel revenge on those who had
disavowed his authority. Before he quitted Paris on the 15th of April
Napoleon had recalled under the banners of the army 180,000 men,
exclusive of the guards of honour, and it was evident that with such a
force he might venture on a great game, and probably win it. Yet the
month of April passed away without the occurrence of any event
important to the Hanse Towns, the inhabitants of which vacillated
between hope and fear. Attacks daily took place between parties of
Russian and French troops on the territory between Lunenburg and
Bremen. In one of these encounters General Morand was mortally
wounded, and was conveyed to Lunenburg. His brother having been
taken prisoner in the same engagement, Tettenborn, into whose hands
he had fallen, gave him leave on parole to visit the General; but he
arrived in Lunenburg only in time to see him die.
The French having advanced as far as Haarburg took up their position

on the plateau of Schwartzenberg, which commands that little town and
the considerable islands situated in that part of the river between
Haarburg and Hamburg. Being masters of this elevated point they
began to threaten Hamburg and to attack Haarburg. These attacks were
directed by Vandamme, of all our generals the most redoubtable in
conquered countries. He was a native of Cassel, in Flanders, and had
acquired a high reputation for severity. At the very time when he was
attacking Hamburg Napoleon said of him at Dresden, "If I were to lose
Vandamme I know not what I would give to have him back again; but
if I had two such generals I should be obliged to shoot one of them." It
must be confessed that one was quite enough.
As soon as he arrived Vandamme sent to inform Tettenborn that if he
did not immediately liberate the brother and brother-in-law of Morand,
both of whom were his prisoners, he would burn Hamburg. Tettenborn
replied that if he resorted to that extremity he would hang them both on
the top of St. Michael's Tower, where he might have a view of them.
This energetic answer obliged Vandamme to restrain his fury, or at
least to direct it to other objects.
Meanwhile the French forces daily augmented at Haarburg. Vandamme,
profiting by the negligence of the new Hanseatic troops, who had the
defence of the great islands of the Elbe, attacked them one night in the
month of May. This happened to be the very night after the battle of
Lutzsn, where both sides claimed the victory; and Te Deum was sung
in the two hostile camps. The advance of the French turned the balance
of opinion in favour of Napoleon, who was in fact really the conqueror
on a field of battle celebrated nearly two centuries before by the victory
and death