Identifier: lifeofnapoleonbo00tarb (find matches)
Title: A life of Napoleon Boneparte:
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva), 1857-1944
Subjects: Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 Josephine, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1763-1814
Publisher: New York, McClure, Phillips & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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CHAPTER XIX

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN——THE BURNING OF MOSCOW——A
NEW ARMY

IF one draws a triangle, its base stretching along the Nie-
man from Tilsit to Grodno, its apex on the Elbe, he will
have a rough outline of the " army of twenty nations "
as it lay in June, 1812. Napoleon, some two hundred and
twenty-five thousand men around him, was at Kowno, hesi-
tating to advance, reluctant to believe that Alexander would
not make peace.
When he finally moved, it was not with the precision and
swiftness which had characterized his former campaigns.
When he began to fight, it was against new odds. He found
that his enemies had been studying the Spanish campaigns,
and that they had adopted the tactics which had so nearly
ruined his armies in the Peninsula: they refused to give
him a general battle retreating constantly before him;
they harassed his separate corps with indecisive contests;
they wasted the country as they went. The people aided
their soldiers as the Spaniards had done. Tell us only the
moment, and we will set fire to our buildings, said the
peasants.
By the 12th of August, Napoleon was at Smolensk, the
key of Moscow. At a cost of twelve thousand men killed
and wounded, he took the town, only to find, instead of the
well-victualled shelter he hoped, a smoking ruin. The
French army had suffered frightfully from sickness, from
scarcity of supplies, and from useless fighting on the march
241


Text Appearing After Image:


MARSHAL NEY ( " LE MARECHAL NEY, DUC d'ELCHINGEN, PRINCE DE LA MOSKOWA,
PAIR DE FRANCE ").
Engraved by Tardieu, after Gérard.

242

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 243

from the Nieman to Smolensk. They had not had the stim-
ulus of a great victory; they began to feel that this steady
retreat of the enemy was only a fatal trap into which they
were falling. Every consideration forbade them to march
into Russia so late in the year, yet on they went towards
Moscow, over ruined fields and through empty villages.
This terrible pursuit lasted until September 7th, when the
Russians, to content their soldiers, who were complaining
loudly because they were not allowed to engage the French,
gave battle at Borodino, the battle of the Moskova, as the
French call it. At two oclock in the morning of this engagement. Na-
poleon issued one of his stirring bulletins:
" Soldiers! Here is the battle which you have so long desired !
Henceforth the victory depends upon you; it is necessary for us. It will
give you abundance, good winter quarters, and a speedy return to
your country ! Behave as you did at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at Vitebsk,
at Smolensk, and the most remote posterity will quote with pride your
conduct on this day ; let it say of you : he zvas at the great battle under
the walls of Moscozv."

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