Napoleon's First Empire Army after the
Battle of Moscow, start their long retreat. Historical military prints of
Napoleon's Retreat shown in military art prints.
The retreat from Moscow began on the
19th October 1812, Forced by the Russians to take the Northern route, the
French grand army had to endure terrible hardship and to fight a retreat
on both flanks and the rear. the first Snow began on the 4th of November
in the bitter cold the army reached Smolensk on November 9th. on the 19th napoleon
and his army reach Orsha, with only 25,000 effective fighting force.
the Russian held the bridge crossing the Berezina at Borisov and on
November 26th Marshal Nicolas Oudinot with the French II corps. forced a
crossing at Studenka. teh French deceived the Russians until the
last minute of the crossing, The French managed to cross under attacks on
the 27th and 28th. The bridges were kept open until the 29th by Claude
Victor's IX corps. This corps. repulsed a Russian attack before, having to
burn the bridges on the 29th but a total of 10,000 French troops did
not manage to get to the bridge s in time and were abandoned. They
reached the Vilna on December 9th and the Niemen River on December 13th,
Here they crossed the frozen river and marshal Ney was the last French man
to cross. The Russians halted there pursuit of the French at the
Niemen River. The Russians had lost nearly as many men in the
pursuit of the French . A Total of 250,000 men as well as a unknown number
of Cossacks. Compared to the French loses of 400,000 men ,1,000
cannons and 175,000 horses.
