Smolensk to
Borodino
The Emperor by now was fully aware of the
enormity of his undertaking. The farther he advanced, the greater it grew.
So long as he had encountered only kings, their defeat had been child's
play. But all the kings were beaten, and now he had to deal with the people.
This was another Spain, but a Spain remote, barren, endless, that he had
found at the opposite end of Europe. He hesitated, uncertain as how to
proceed, and came to a halt.
At this critical time the name of Charles XII,
the Swedish king and invader who had been vanquished on the vast Russian
plains a century before, was constantly on his lips.
--Philippe-Paul de Segur
At Smolensk Napoleon paused
to take stock of his situation. Sickness and desertion had thinned his
army's ranks to 185,000 men by the time he'd reached Smolensk; the heavy
marching and fighting of the last few days had cost him 25,000 more. It
seemed prudent to consolidate his forces here behind the river lines of
the Dvina and the Dnieper, to wait out the winter while he made ready for
a new campaign in 1813. He had by now outrun his supply depots, overextended
his lines, and 280 miles separated him from the next major town to the
east, which was Moscow.
Nonetheless, Napoleon decided
that Russia would not surrender and Alexander would not negotiate until
there had been a decisive battle. Smolensk was at the junction of the main
roads to St. Petersburg and Moscow--twenty-nine days' march from the first
of these capitals, fifteen from the second. On 25 August, 1812 the French
left Smolensk, following the Russian armies on their retreat along the
road to Moscow.
The Russian general Barclay's
tactics of strategic withdrawal had been intrinsically sound for the circumstances,
but the Russian aristocracy vehemently denounced him for "leading
the French straight to Moscow." Yielding to the outcry, Tsar Alexander
abruptly replaced him with the aged general Kutusov. Kutusov knew that
he would now be expected to stand and fight.
Retreat
Advance