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| Napoleon in burning Moscow Albrecht Adam |
"It is impossible, Sire. My horses have had no forage for a week, they are dying as we speak." Maréchal Murat spoke frankly, he couldn't hide the state of the French cavalry.
Maréchal Berthier shot a glance at Maréchal Ney, the hot-headed Alsatian was fit to burst, but he held his peace. Everyone in the army knew that Murat had damaged the cavalry in the summer's advance on Moscow. The man was a brilliant cavalryman but did not know how to keep his mounts healthy.
Napoléon turned to his chief of artillery, "De Lariboisière, my cannon, do you have the horses to draw them?"
The 53 year old general stirred himself, he yet mourned the death of his son at La Moscova. He stood, "Sire, my horses aren't fit, not really. It is as the Maréchal says," he nodded at Murat, "they've not been properly fed nor sheltered. I cannot guarantee that I can bring my guns to St. Petersburg. If we stay here, I cannot guarantee there will be any alive come spring. Men or horses."
The Emperor gave the general a hard glance, the man was correct, there was no point in getting angry with him.
"So, the Czar will not treat with me, my army cannot march on St. Petersburg to force the issue, and we cannot stay here in this ruined city until spring. Does that sum things up, gentlemen?"
Maréchal Ney stood up, no longer able to restrain himself.
"Sire, the army will go where you lead. We will die by your command, but ..."
Ney paused, his emotions were starting to get away from him.
"We must return to Prussia, or die here in this God-forsaken place."
"So we march. Now? Which direction?" Chef de Bataillon Lecerf was furious. They had idled here in Moscow for nearly a month, supplies of everything were dwindling. He'd had three men in his battalion die of exposure, the others were scarcely fit to mount sentry duty. Now this?
Général de Brigade Teste watched his subordinate for a moment before answering, "What is your ration strength right now, Hervé?"
"Perhaps 310 who can still stay with the Eagle, another 19 who will die within a fortnight without proper rations and medicines. We are withering away, mon Général."
Teste looked to the west, somewhere out there was sanctuary and comfort, but it wasn't here. Here was only death and privation.
"The Emperor says march, so we march. In the morning, we shall move to the southwest, that way is undisturbed and there is the possibility of fodder for the horses and food for the men."
Lecerf sighed, "So be it, we should have marched two weeks ago though, mark my words."
Teste chuckled, "It doesn't take a prophet to see that, Hervé. We are soldiers, we obey our orders. See you in the morning, I am going to fold 4th Battalion in with you, they have less than a hundred men fit for duty."
Lecerf looked up sharply at his brigade commander, "What of Chef de Bataillon Manoury?"
"Rémi killed himself last night. The senior man in the 4th is a captain, fellow named Chastain, Grégoire Chastain. A good man, but out of his depth."
"Very well." Lecerf wondered if any of them would ever see home again.
Lieutenant Marais had his men ready, they were filing into the street when Chef de Bataillon Lecerf showed up with a captain Marais didn't recognize.
"Marais!"
"Sir?"
"This is Capitaine Chastain, he commands what is left of 4th Battalion, he and his lads are with us now."
Marais nodded at the man as Lecerf continued, "Have your boys fall in behind Lieutenant Marais' 2nd Company. You're in luck, Pierre, 2nd Company will be in the middle of the column, the voltigeurs will lead the column, the grenadiers will provide our rear guard. Questions?"
"No, Sir. We're ready as we'll ever be, let's get this show on the road."
Lecerf nodded, then directed his horse towards the front of the column, it wasn't very long. Marais turned to his men when he felt a hand on his sleeve, it was Chastain.
"Lieutenant, you have the command, I shall watch over my men, but you must lead us. I am at my wit's end."
"Sir?"
"I was a staff man up until a month ago, when they sent me to this regiment. I'm not an infantryman by trade, I draw maps for God's sake."
Marais looked towards the stable, he saw Lieutenant Leavitt coming out with the last of the men, he called him over.
"Antoine, this is Gregoire Chastain, late of 4th Battalion, he and his lads will be with us on the road. Capitaine, this is André Leavitt, he and I lead 2nd Company."
Leavitt looked at the staff man, "Are you in command of 2nd now?"
Chastain shook his head, "No, no, no. As I was explaining to Marais, I was with the staff, now I'm apparently in the infantry."
Leavitt asked, "Are you any good with paperwork?"
Marais smiled.
"Why yes, of course, I was on the staff ..."
Leavitt grinned and said to Marais, "There, at least we won't have to worry about the company records for a while." Turning to Chastain, "They're all yours, mon Capitaine, and welcome to 2nd Company."
Before Chastain could speak, the drums rolled and the battalion set off.
Their path was to the southwest, but what lay at the end of that path, no man could foresee.
Let's hope 2nd and 4th Companies are closer to the head of the column, a starving army is like a swarm of locusts combing the countryside. Add in snow and cold.......
ReplyDeleteThe Imperial Guard was at the head of the column, with the Emperor. There was nothing to loot until they got to Smolensk (IIRC). The Guard lost all discipline and looted what was supposed to feed the entire army. As I recall, the Guard was never punished for that idiocy.
DeleteThings didn't quite work out like they hoped and it's a long walk back to Paris.... https://maps.app.goo.gl/zekayJKvKiAVGMXm8.
ReplyDeleteA very long walk indeed. But in truth, they only had to make it back to Prussia where there were depots and fresh troops.
DeleteNasty time. While Russian Generals Frost and Rasputitsa are big force multipliers against invaders, the invaders are all too often led by Generals Hubris and Fubar. In general Russians were better equipped for, and used to, the arctic conditions, they too were sometimes under Generals Hubris and Fubar when invading others - see the Winter War against Finland.
ReplyDeleteThe movie "The Duelists" has a scene that gives a tiny glimpse of the winter retreat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QirFaOr46As
JL, just watched the clip. That seems to cover it in frightening detail.
DeleteJoe - It's a common misconception that the Russians were better equipped, etc., etc. That may have been the case in 1941 but wasn't in 1812. The Russians suffered almost as badly as the French but as they won, they got to define the narrative.
DeleteThe Duellists is a superb film, one of my favorites!
TB - I can't recommend that movie enough, it is superb. The scenes depicting the retreat are pretty good but aren't nearly explicit enough. Picture horses on their last legs being mobbed by starving soldiers cutting chunks of meat from them as they fall. Men around a fire at night, awakening in the morning to discover that their comrades furthest from the fire have frozen to death. It was a scene of horror almost beyond imagining.
DeleteI remember reading somewhere that men and horses literally froze to death while marching, frozen in place by severe arctic blasts. If true, must have been startling to people who found them before the corpses thawed out.
DeleteRetreat sucks, sucks even more when you're totally unprepared for it.
I've not heard of that. Based on personal experience though, one feels sleepy when the cold gets extreme, you just want to lie down and sleep. Then they find your frozen corpse in the spring.
DeleteThat being said, I don't know of any place on earth where the cold would freeze you while marching. No, the person/horse would collapse and die. Exposure kills you from your core temperature dropping below 95°. That's a medical emergency and if not treated, you die.
Sarge, I phrased that poorly. I'm having trouble with how to say it.....winter was an old and familiar enemy to them. Not quite as demoralizing as it was to the French. They just had to deal with the French and their feckless leaders.
DeleteThe French leadership was anything but feckless. That describes the Russian leadership more than anything.
DeleteThat's what I meant
DeleteAh, I misread your last.
DeleteSarge, owning up (again) to my complete lack of knowledge on this era. What convinced Napoleon this was even possible? Solid thinking? Believing his own press? Or simply that the Tsar "did not fight fair" when expected to?
ReplyDeleteWestern Europeans are often gobsmacked by the sheer size of Russia and the emptiness between major towns and cities. What works perfectly well in western Europe simply doesn't cut it in Russia.
DeleteNapoléon wanted to institute an economic structure to freeze the British out. The Czar agreed to this but eventually this system hurt Russian merchants, so they began to circumvent the system then ignore it altogether. So Napoléon invaded them to enforce it. Being from western Europe he had little concept of Russia's vastness.
Another factor, often ignored, is that 19th Century logistical systems (think horses and wagons) were simply inadequate to support an invasion of Russia. Heck, 20th Century logistical systems (motorized vehicles and trains) were barely adequate.
The Emperor felt that if anyone could do it, he could. He was wrong.
Re Logistics. In the 1874 Black Hills Expedition Custer led 1200 men. His supply train was 110 wagons. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/custer-timeline/
DeleteIn the war of 1861, in general, the federals had 7 supply wagons and 4 wagons of ammunition per 1000 men. That's a lot of horse flesh and manpower.
Here's a handy little book with an excellent section on rations from 1865. Scroll to page 71 for the breakdown of rations. Not going to be the same as in the Napoleonic army, but it should give an idea of what was needed. https://49thohio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Kautz_NCOs_guide.pdf
European armies weren't much different than that. Nice little PDF there, I shall devour it at some point!
Delete""I was a staff man up until a month ago, when they sent me to this regiment. I'm not an infantryman by trade, I draw maps for God's sake."
ReplyDeleteThe plight of many a military man. Some adapt brilliantly, others fail miserably, but most muddle through doing their best.
Americans seem to excel in such circumstances, at least in comparison to Europeans, due to our retaining some of the "frontier" mentality of self reliance, ingenuity, skepticism about being told what to do, and ability to function as a team where merit is recognized and rewarded more than class and rank. Much of that comes from our NCO ranks, and our widespread elevation of former enlisted to officer ranks.
A prime example being a fat Boston bookseller, Henry Knox, who impossibly fetched desperately needed artillery from Ft. Ticonderoga to Boston, then managed to keep revolutionary artillery mostly combat ready for the rest of the war.
John Blackshoe
General Knox is one of my personal heroes. Has nothing to do with my being an overweight, bookish sort of fellow. Okay, a little. Seriously though, Henry Knox was a stud.
DeleteYour story is bringing the disaster to life, just look at the infographic here: https://cdn8.openculture.com/2019/07/10194425/Minard.png
ReplyDelete422,000 went east. 10,000 came back.
Every student of Napoléon's Russian campaign should have this graphic. I've seen it before, it is mind-bending when you think of the scale of loss.
DeleteThat chart (or whatever you want to call it) convey an incredible amount of information in a visual format that is pretty easy to understand (after the first few minutes of puzzling it out). A year or two ago I saw someone display about a dozen of these on various 18th-19th century (mostly) military topics. Extremely enlightening. Enables good discussion over the cost/benefit analysis of something.
DeleteThanks for sharing that one. I just wish someone would do one with projected losses if we were to shove our face into a Chinese fist over Taiwan.
JB
Yeah, I'd second that motion. Does anyone in DC possess that level of forethought?
DeleteIf you are a data nerd go find a copy of "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward R. Tufte. He talks about the Minard infographic and the number of different data types displayed (Time, place, manpower, and temperature) in a comprehensible format.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really a data nerd.
DeleteMost of us aren't. After reading and absorbing Tufte you will look at Powerpoint charts and weep.
DeleteI do that now. 😄
Delete