Vitebsk to Smolensk
The necessity of organizing liberated Lithuania,
of setting up hospitals and supply depots, of establishing a central point
for recuperation, defense, and subsequent departure on a line of operation
which is growing longer and longer everyday--shouldn't all this make us
decide to stop here on the border of old Russia?
Do you think I have come all this way just to conquer
these huts?
--Napoleon Bonaparte, 28 July,1812
With the liberation of Lithuania the objective of the conflict had
been attained, yet it seemed the war had hardly begun. Places alone had
been overcome, and not men. The Russian army was still intact. We were
in the finest season of the year. Such was the situation when Napoleon
decided to halt at Vitebsk on the banks of the Dnieper and the Dvina--a
decision which he thought irrevocable. He was better able to deceive others
concerning his intentions since he was deceiving himself.
--Count Philippe-Paul de Segur
On the 10th of August Napoleon
gave the order to advance from Vitebsk where he had remained only fifteen
days. His plan was to move 185,000 men around the left flank and to the
rear of the Russian armies in a counter-clockwise sweep, engaging the Russian
armies separately and attacking Smolensk from the south.
Retreat
Advance