Immediately after crossing the River Niemen, Napoleon's troops began having problems finding enough food for the soldiers and horses. Conditions were hot and dusty and the villages they passed through were described as "dirty and filthy; swarms of flies filled the air; and the houses teamed with bugs and vermin of all kinds" Other villages had been burned by peasants, contributing to the lack of food available to the soldiers who had to resort to eating the dead horses. (Major 1958) (See Bibliography)
When Napoleon's troops left Vilna, they left 8000 men behind in the hospitals, many with typhus or spotted fever.
Submitted for LIS 385T by Kathy Scott, October 1996
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