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Introduction
Having crossed the rubicon (or in this case the Niemen), the ‘Army of Twenty Nations’ set about bringing Alexander to heel. The Russian camp hastily built Drissa was soon abandoned, and Alexander’s forces began their celebrated ‘Fabian’ tactic, refusing to give battle and continuously retreating, even after making a courageous, but eventuatlly futile, defence of Smolensk. Only at the ‘gates of Moscow’ did the Russians finally stand and fight at the bloodbath of Borodino…
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Documents
– H. Randolph (ed.), Private Diary of Travels, Personal Services, and Public Events […] by General Sir Robert Wilson C.M.T.
– H. Randolph (ed.), Narrative of events during the invasion of Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte […] by General Sir Robert Wilson C.M.T.
– E. Rees (ed. trans.), Sketches of the Horrors of War: chiefly selected from Labaume’s narrative of the campaign in Russia in 1812 -
Commentary
– Janet Hartley, “Napoleon in Russia: Saviour or Anti-christ?”
– Marie-Pierre Rey: “Preface to volume 12 of the General Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte” -
Timeline
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Biographies
French and allies
– DE BEAUHARNAIS: Eugène
– BERNADOTTE: Jean-Baptiste-Jules
– BERTHIER: Louis-Alexandre
– BONAPARTE: Jerome
– DAVOUT: Louis Nicolas
– MACDONALD: Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre
– VON METTERNICH-WINNEBURG-ZU BEILSTEIN: Clemens Wenzel Lothar, graf
– MURAT: Joachim
– NEY: Michel
– OUDINOT: Nicolas-Charles
– PONIATOWSKI: Józef
– VON SCHWARZENBERG: Karl PhilipRussians
– BAGRATION: Piotr Ivanovitch
– BARCLAY DE TOLLY: Michael Andreas
– VON BENNIGSEN: Levin August
– VON BLÜCHER: Gebhardt Leberecht
– CHERNICHEV: Alexander
– CHICHAGOV: Pavel Vasilievich
– KUTUZOV: Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev
– DE LANGERON: Louis Alexandre Andrault
– VON OSTEN-SACKEN: Fabian Gottlieb
– PFÜHL: Karl Ludwig August
– TORMASOV: Alexander Petrovich
– WILSON: Robert Thomas
– WITTGENSTEIN: Peter Khristianovich
Napoleon’s Russian Campaign – 2 – from the Niemen to Moscow
Having crossed the rubicon (or in this case the Niemen), the ‘Army of Twenty Nations’ set about bringing Alexander to heel. The Russian camp hastily built Drissa was soon abandoned, and Alexander’s forces began their celebrated ‘Fabian’ tactic, refusing to give battle and continuously retreating, even after making a courageous, but eventuatlly futile, defence of Smolensk. Only at the ‘gates of Moscow’ did the Russians finally stand and fight at the bloodbath of Borodino…
