The above map was created by Mary A. Pender from the orginal map produced by M. Charles Minard (1781-1870), a retired French civil engineer. The width of the line shows the strenght of the army at each location. You can follow the invasion (green line) from left to right - Poland to Moscow - and the retreat (solid line) back to the left (west). The latter is linked to the temperature scale below.(Austin, 1993)
In June of 1812, Napoleon began his campaign into Russia. The invasion was an attempt to force Tsar Alexander I to submit to French authority after the Tsar repeatly ignore the acts of Napoleon.. Napoleon gathered nearly half a million French soldiers, as well as all of the vassal states of Europe. The Russians did not hope to defeat him in a direct confrontation, but began a defensive campaign of strategic retreat and devastating the land as they fell back. As the summer wore on, Napoleon's massive supply lines were stretched and his force began to shrink. By September, the French Army had been reduced by more than two thirds from fatigue, hunger, desertion, and raids by Russian forces, without sinlge battle.
On September 7, with winter closing in and the French army only 70 miles from the moscow, the two armies met at Borodino Field. By the end of the day, 108,000 men had died--but neither side had gained a decisive victory. The Russian general Kutuzov realized that any further defense of the city would be senseless, and he withdrew his forces. The citizens of Moscow began a massive and panicked exodus. When Napoleon's army arrived on September 14, they found Moscow depopulated and short of supplies. The next night fire destroyed any chance of shelter for the French.
After waiting for Tsar Alexander to negotiate, Napoleon ordered his troops to begin the march home. Because the route south was blocked by Kutuzov's forces, theFrench were forced to retreat over the same route of the invasion. Having waited until mid-October to depart, the French army soon found itself in the midst of unusually early and cold winter. Ten thousand men survived.
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Last Updated Friday, September 26,1997.
Copyright © 1997 Sarah Barela.
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