Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Liveblogging Napoleon's Russian Invasion:
Napoleon Masses His Troops

On this day in 1812: Napoleon masses his troops for the invasion of Russia:
Meanwhile the army was advancing from the Vistula to the Niemen and was now not far from the Russian frontier. From the right, to left, or from south to north, the army was drawn up along the Niemen. At the extreme right, coming from Galicia, Prince Schwartzenberg with thirty-four thousand Austrians; on their left, coming from Warsaw and moving toward Bialystock and Grodno, the King of Westphalia at the head of seventy-nine thousand two hundred Westphalians, Saxons and Poles; farther to the left, the Viceroy of Italy who had effected the junction of his seventy-nine thousand five hundred Bavarians, Italians, and French near Marienpol; next, the Emperor with two hundred thousand men commanded by Murat, the Prince of Eckmuel, and the Dukes of Danzig, Istria, Reggio, and Elchingen. These troops had marched from Thorn, Marienwerder, and Ebling; and on June 23 were gathered in one compact body near Nogarisky, about a league above Kovno.

Everything was ready. From the Guadalquiver and the shores of Calabria to the banks of the Vistula, six hundred and seventeen thousand men (of whom four hundred and eighty thousand were already present), six companies of engineers, one siege train, several thousand wagons of provisions, innumerable droves of cattle, one thousand three hundred and seventy-two pieces of cannon, and thousands of artillery and hospital wagons, had been mustered and were now stationed a short distance from the Russian river.
--Philippe Paul, comte de Ségur, Defeat: Napoleon's s Russian Campaign 4-5
(NYRB Classics 2008)

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