On June 22, 1812, Napoleon's Grande Armée massed on the banks of the Niémen and prepared to cross the border river. To his officers and soldiers who view this new campaign with as much enthusiasm as apprehension, the Emperor promises the glory of Austerlitz and the peace of Tilsit.
March and battle under the sun
Like previous campaigns, Napoleon designed a resolutely offensive plan which was to result in victory within a few weeks. Once again, victory lies in the legs of the soldiers. Speed of movement is the key to success, and steps must be executed with dispatch. The first days are extremely trying for the Army of the Twenty Nations, tired by the marches of recent weeks, which led them from France, Germany, or Italy to the banks of the Niemen.
In Moscow, like Lieutenant Paradis of the 25th line who left Bremen in January, many have the impression of not having stopped walking for seven months. “We therefore expect to have traveled more than eight hundred leagues since that time. Consider the pain I must have experienced making such a journey on foot and in the heat of the day, being deprived of everything that could support me. » Many soldiers cannot sustain the frenetic pace of traveling under the blazing sun of the continental summer. The heat and dust of the first days are followed by violent storms that soak the roads that only have the name. For lack of sufficient stewardship, stragglers very quickly turn into looters who, despite the judgments, spread throughout the countryside. Weakened by the lack of fodder, these climatic conditions decimate the horses. Colonel Puiniet de Montfort follows the road “by the smell and sight of dead horses, killed by the storm”. Murat, who has orders to engage the Russians with his cavalry, only wears out his mounts and riders a little more because if the skirmishes end, the armies of Alexander refuse to fight the battle that Napoleon hoped for.
In August, the Russians abandoned their homes, burned their crops, and poisoned the water reserves. Brigadier Nottat writes that "we only found very mediocre food, which was rye or wheat cooked in water, and sometimes a little flour, of which we made porridge with milk and salt because fat was very rare.” The horse, from this summer campaign, often performed the usual soldier's duties. This bad food very quickly leads to health problems, as Doctor Roos notes: “I have always noticed that the residues left by men and animals behind the front proved that the Russians were in good health, while our men, and also our horses, were suffering from diarrhea. » Without any notable confrontation, these precarious living conditions are reducing the numbers. Of the 450,000 men who crossed the Niemen in June, only around 170,000 were still able to fight by mid-August. Napoleon hoped to catch the Russians at Smolensk but, after a day of fierce combat in the outskirts of the city, they retreated once again to stop not far from the village of Borodino.
Fought on September 7, the battle left a deep mark on the combatants. Not a letter from soldiers dated from Moscow that does not mention it, not a memoir that does not underline its violence and savagery. However, on the eve of the battle, “the whole army rejoiced at the prospect of the event” which was being prepared. Fighting is a difficult experience for both the seasoned soldier and the young conscript. The senses of the fighter are put to the test. Thunder of cannons, whistles of projectiles, cavalry charges, smoke from musketry discharges, screams of the wounded, etc. are all components that make the experience of battle difficult to overcome. Soldier Montfort admits: “We cannot see, from a single point, the whole and even less the details of an action. » This partial vision of the fighting is certainly further obscured by the massive use of artillery by both camps. With the Russian defensive positions, we find in this use of artillery one of the causes of the immense losses of both camps. Troops who sleep on the battlefield must build “shelters” with the remains of their companions. Even for men accustomed to being around death, once the legitimate relief of having survived has passed, the experience is significant.
occupied Moscow
The battle is bloody but not decisive. The Russians retreated beyond Moscow, leaving the field open to Napoleonic troops who entered a deserted city on September 15. Rostopchine, governor of Moscow, organized the evacuation of residents and firefighting resources. The gigantic burning can begin. In the evening, Russians who remained in the city lit the first fires which were brought under control. The next day there were too many fires and the fire spread. During the night, Napoleon is forced to leave the city. Several soldiers, like Montfort, followed him: he spent the night “watching the horrible and magnificent spectacle offered to us by the flames which devoured this immense capital. A mass of fire at least two leagues in extent surmounted by a mass of red smoke above which rose black clouds of thick smoke that obscured the entire sky, the mass of the flame varied little; but the swirls of red and black smoke changed shape every moment, pushed in all directions by an impetuous wind which increased or was produced by the fire itself; for the mass and intensity of the fire were strong enough to draw drafts from all points.”
While the fire ravages the city, everything that does not burn is pillaged by the Grande Armée, seized by a sort of collective hysteria. Due to a lack of fuel and heavy rain, the fire was brought under control on September 19. From that day on, the soldiers bivouacked in the heart of a city devastated by fire and set up markets used to barter the fruits of the plunder. When calm returns, we realize that the army is full of everything except the necessities. “If life was ensured by provisions of flour, wine, and liquor, we lacked meat, vegetables, and milk. Everyone organized their marauding to provide themselves with these various objects, and the organized marauders spread out into the countryside four and five leagues from the town, at the risk of being killed by wandering Cossacks or by a few peasants who remained in their village. Montfort.
For the soldiers, the thirty-five days in Moscow (1) are also an opportunity for a break. Despite the Cossacks disrupting communications with France, many tried to write to their families to tell them about this first phase of the campaign. Some become tourists: they find that Moscow is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and, as for Lieutenant Delaplace, what stands out are "the two most monstrous pieces, that is to say, a bell and a piece of cannon. I had heard of the big bell in Moscow, but you have to see it; it has crushed the tower, it is sunk into [the] earth in such a way that we can only see the top which is not covered. » Lieutenant Chevalier moved into a palace: “In a beautiful living room, our chandelier lit with candles, in beautiful crystal glasses, we tasted the sweets of Madeira or Malaga or frothed the champagne and, the glass to hand, we forget the horrors and the fatigue of war. » For everyone, Moscow is a stopover in the countryside. In their letters, many hope for peace but, like Second Lieutenant Cointin, rely entirely on the “great man” who leads them.
The terrible retreat
Tired of waiting for a truce that the Tsar refused him, Napoleon decided to leave Moscow on October 19, 1812. The Grande Armée then no longer had the beautiful uniformity known to it, witnesses describing the soldiers as a horde of Tartars after a raid such as the variegation of the outfits is great. After the battle of Maloïaroslavets five days later, the Emperor was forced to turn back towards the route taken during the summer. Begins the ordeal of the men who, even before the arrival of the cold, lose the morale which makes them cohesive, and the units become disorganized. Another stage in this disintegration: is the crossing of the battlefield of September 7 where “still lay unburied the corpses of several soldiers and the carcasses of the horses killed in this battle”. Seeing their brothers in arms still lying where they fell, their bones gnawed by the wolves – with the anecdote of the wounded soldier having survived among the corpses – shocks the soldiers and increases their disappointment.
In this context, the climatic factor is aggravating. Many Russian accounts note that if the month of October was exceptionally mild to the point of deceiving Napoleon, November was colder than usual. It’s after Smolensk that the temperature sets in and “the wine was starting to freeze.” The memoirists say that in the evening, at the bivouac, we heat up in front but freeze behind, and that it is then imperative to turn frequently to avoid colds. During this campaign, many soldiers who stopped in the evening around a fire did not get up in the morning when the remains of the Grande Armée set out again. Fires that warm the body and provide relief from strenuous walking also have perverse effects. In addition to the smoke that irritates the eyes, the extremities (fingers, toes, nose, ears, etc.) freeze during the day and defrost in the evening around the bivouacs. This succession leads to gangrene, therefore amputations, and, by extension, dooms the soldier. After weeks without being able to wash, the men shelter a “fauna” which is only waiting for the heat of the fires to wake up. Fleas and lice then inflict "intolerable torture", causing typhoid fever which, combined with the cold and deprivation, causes havoc in the ranks. The brotherhood of arms, the cement of military society, disappears in the snow of Russia.
With supplies exhausted, horse meat this time became the daily life of the soldiers, which they consumed to the point of disgust. First grilled, it is eaten raw when there is no time to light a fire, or when hunger becomes too pressing. Brawls are frequently over-sharing leftovers on the side of the road, or over-keeping a place around the bivouac fires where an army of ghosts is massing.
As fate would have it, a softening occurs when the Bérézina passes. Jean Eymard crosses the river after two days of unsuccessful attempts. He discovered the site on the 27th where he saw “a bridge about 80 m long […]besieged by a crowd. […] Everyone wants to pass at once. We jostle, we help each other with our hands and elbows, and we hold on to others to move forward. Finally, they are engaged and the overloaded boards are cracking. Some managed to get through, the others fell into the river which carried them away amid ice cubes. » In his turn, He passes on the 29th. To reach the bridge, he must walk in the bed of the river, “sometimes placing his foot on the belly of a dead horse, sometimes on a cannon, sometimes on corpses. » On the other side, he finds himself alone, separated from his companions, and begins to cry. Like all those who were able to cross before the destruction of the bridges, the road to Vilnius is open. It is during these few days of December that the climatic conditions are the most extreme, and the most numerous deaths from cold and exhaustion.
A difficult assessment to establish
More than in any other campaign, the soldiers of the Grande Armée must live with death as their companion. Carrying out a human assessment is a challenge as the task is so arduous. In December, the corps of Davout and Eugène de Beauharnais, which formed the rearguard from Moscow, fielded only 5% of their initial strength, while the division of the Old Guard, at the head of the column, included another 1,471 men, or a little less than 20% of the force. It is true that at that time, many men were lost, or in the hands of the Russians. “Stayed back,” as states call it, often means “prisoners.” They are generally mistreated. The adversary's first move is to strip the person who has just been captured of his wealth. This is the case of Nicolas Nottat on December 16, in the vicinity of Kovno: the Cossacks look “right into their mouths” if there are not some valuables to steal.
200,000 to 210,000 men of the Grande Armée suffered the suffering of a long journey into the interior of Russia. Captured on September 27 not far from Moscow, Captain Devina's march towards Astrakhan, the place of his detention, lasted more than three months in "a flat and extremely deserted country" where he made "days of walking without finding a single village » and where the eyes “met only vast plains covered with snow and ice”. On the road, he must endure the hostility of populations who, without having experienced the conflict, have at least been marked by the propaganda. He also notes that in his column “contagious diseases soon spread among the prisoners. Mistreatment, lack of food and bivouac contribute to their spread. » The fate of the soldiers who arrived at their destination, like that of Devina, improved a little.
From 1814, those who survived could return to France but in Moscow, in 1837, the secret police still counted 3,229 French people, former prisoners, as well as their children born in Russia, or nearly 1% of the Moscow population of the moment.
In the history of the soldiers of the Grande Armée, the Russian campaign occupies a special place. Many actors in this campaign are aware of having experienced an exceptional moment and are keen to bear witness to the ordeals they have gone through. For some, it leaves deep trauma and, as for Nicolas Nottat, one must have “good courage and a good heart not to think about it” for a long time.
(1) Read Jacques Jourquin, Napoléon 1er, n°20 to 22, May-October 2003.
The workforce at La Moskowa
If, in the morning, the forces are in equal proportions (124,000 French and allies against approximately 125,000 Russians and 31,000 militia), in the evening, the losses are higher than in many other Napoleonic battles: 28,000 French and allies (approximately 22.5% of the force), and 44,000 Russians (approximately 35% of the force excluding militia).
A missing brotherhood
“They seek to steal from their comrades. When a soldier falls out of breath, they rush to look for the dying man's wallet. They want to live. They want to see theirs again. It is the fight for life. In these moments of great distress, man is no longer man. There is no more charity; more brotherly love. Everyone thinks of themselves and seeks to save their skin. We don't share anymore. If we are lucky enough to have something to eat, we eat it in secret because we are afraid of having to give. » Many recount the same horror scenes and “too bad if someone dies next to you. And he dies! Behind us, we leave corpses” (testimony of Jean Eymard, extract From Niémen to Bérézina, Letters, and testimonies of French soldiers on the Russian campaign, S.H.D., Vincennes-Paris, 2012).
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