Search results
When Napoleon invaded Russia in June 1812, he led a multinational army of more than half a million soldiers. He needed a rapid and decisive victory, but although victorious at Smolensk, some 230 miles (370 km) west of Moscow and the first major battle of the invasion, he was unable to destroy Russian resistance.
Aug 24, 2023 · The Battle of Smolensk (16-18 August) was the first large-scale battle of the war. The city became engulfed in flames as the armies engaged in bloody hand-to-hand fighting in the suburbs. Although the Russians withstood several French assaults, they were eventually forced to retreat toward Moscow.
- Napoleon's invasion of Russia involved around 615,000 men, 200,000 horses, and 1,300 guns along with a supply train of 7,848 vehicles.
- Napoleon invaded Russia on 24 June 1812 but suffered heavy losses as the Russians engaged in a war of attrition. Napoleon won the Battle of Borodin...
- Of Napoleon's initial 615,000 men, less than 100,000 returned from Russia. Of the half-million losses, 380,000 had died, 120,000 were taken prisone...
- France invaded Russia in 1812 primarily to force it to rejoin the Continental System embargo against Britain.
The first skirmishes between the armies occurred on the 16th, but the main battle began the next day and brought about difficult street fighting in the suburbs of the city. By day's end the city was ablaze and some 10,000 French were killed or wounded.
- Entering Moscow
- Waiting For Peace
- The Battle of Tarutino
- Leaving Moscow
- Retreat
- News from Paris…
- Smolensk and Beyond
- Berezina
- The Incredible Ride
On the 15th September, a week after the bloody battle of Borodino, Napoleon entered Moscow. He had expected to enter with glory, met by a delegation of the city's highest officials assembled in recognition of his victory and ready to negotiate peace. But there was no delegation; in fact, there was hardly anyone left there at all. Of Moscow's 200,00...
On the 18th September, Major General Ivan Tutolmin was received at the Petroff Palace. The subsequent letter he wrote to the Tsar's mother Maria Feodorovna, on Napoleon's request, regarding the opening of peace talks received no reply. A similar attempt by Napoleon to open dialogue around peace came on the 22nd September, soon after the end of the ...
On the 18th October, the Battle of Tarutino (also known as Vinkovo) took place. The Russian army had arrived at Tarutino on 2-3 October, and began to make entrenchments to defend it immediately. Murat pursued (and indeed harried) the Russian rearguard as far as the outskirts of Tarutino, but was unable to capitalise on his superiority. Setting up o...
On the 19th October, the French evacuated Moscow and its surrounding area. As the Grande Armée was leaving the city, Mortier, governor of Moscow, set up explosives around the Kremlin to carry out Napoleon's (strategically irrelevant) orders to destroy it. Whilst light rain and some intervention by Muscovites prevented all the fuses from firing, nev...
The French retreat began on the following day, and on the 26th October, Napoleon informed Berthier of his intention to go on the route to Viazma (fatefully, the same road by which the Grande Armée had entered Russia); fighting ensued on the way there later that day. On the 28th October, Napoleon reached Vereya, while Davout and Prince Poniatowski b...
On the 6th November, in Mikhaïlovka, Napoleon received news of General Malet's coup d'état. A fortnight earlier, on the 23rd October, a radical army general with a history of opposition to the Napoleonic regime, Claude-François Malet, had attempted to bluff his way into power by announcing that the Emperor had been killed in Russia. His plot was fo...
On the 9th November, Napoleon arrived at Smolensk, where he remained for several days. There he learned of the setbacks affecting General Augereau and Eugène de Beauharnais, and reorganised the Grande Armée accordingly for retreat. On the 12th November, the advance guard of Napoleon's Grande Armée left Smolensk with the intention crossing the river...
On the 22nd November, Admiral Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov, in command of newly created Russian Third Western Army, moved his headquarters across the river Berezina and into the town of Borisov on his arrival there. However, some of his men were overwhelmed by Napoleon's advance guard, so he and his staff were forced to decamp back over the river, l...
On the 5th December, Napoleon left the army at Smorgon to return to Paris. Unsettled by Malet's attempted coup, he confided to Caulaincourt that ‘in the current state of affairs, I can command in Europe only from the Tuileries palace.' The journey was swift; Napoleon was accompanied by Caulaincourt in a series of vehicles (changed according to the ...
Mar 1, 2021 · Conventional wisdom would dictate that Napoleon rest, resupply and concentrate his forces, possibly even prepare for the battle against incoming Russians. Instead, troops arriving into Smolensk started looting supplies that could have saved them, and discipline could not be restored even in Old Guard.
The battle of Smolensk (16-17 August 1812) was the disappointing end to one of Napoleon's most impressive manoeuvres, an outflanking move that promised to bring him the decisive battle he desired but ended with a costly and unsuccessful attack on the walls of Smolensk.
People also ask
How did Napoleon win the Battle of Smolensk?
What happened at the Battle of Smolensk?
What happened at Smolensk in 1812?
Why did Napoleon leave Smolensk?
Oct 18, 2015 · When Napoleon planned his 1812 campaign against Russia, Smolensk was the farthest point that he expected to reach. He had hoped to force a decisive battle long before reaching that city, and had brought with him an enormous army of some half a million men.
