The above map is the creation of French cartographer Charles Joseph Minard, showing the routes of Napoleon's army as it first invaded, then withdrew from Russia in the year 1812. It is a complex document, showing the size of the advancing army, then the dwindling numbers who finally made it back across the Niemen River to safety. The chart below the routes connects the bitterly cold temperatures to the dates and locations of the retreating army. Both latitude and longitude appear in the original document, but are not addressed in this work. Approximate troop counts are given at intervals, corresponding with the widths of the invasion and retreat routes.

Rather than serve as a complete historical documentation of Napoleon's Russian Campaign, this document is intended as a brief showcase for the memoirs of a Sergeant in the Imperial Guard, Francois Bourgogne. Bourgogne, a survivor of the campaign, left a first-hand account of the events of 1812 from his personal perspective. Of the initial invasion he speaks little, but gives a strong account of the events of the retreat in the brutal Russian winter.

The Minard map serves as an interface, or access may be given from any of the links below:

Illustrations:

Napoleon Bonaparte

Czar Alexander I

General Kutuzov of Russia

Napoleon's Empire

All information and excerpts are taken from Retreat From Moscow: The Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne. Translated by J. W. Fortescue, London: The Folio Society, 1985. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all illustrations are also from Retreat From Moscow.

This is a research project for the University of Texas Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Fall of 1997. All material quoted or reproduced is for fair use; no infringement of copyright is intended.

Document last reviewed September 27, 1997.

Comments to: Lori Eichelberger