Show great armies in retreat russia s army in the retreat north ward from mukden suffered hardships that are strikingly like those under gone by napoleon bonaparte soldiers in that terrible march from moscow in the fall and winter of the year 1812 the main facts of the french retreat from the ruins of the great russian city are as follows napoleon had en russia june 24 he found the country through which his route lay devastated and abandoned as he ad danced with no enemy to make a stand against him he bad to leave large bodies of troops along his line of march and to detach forces to threat en st petersburg and other cities at the battle of borodine borodino Bo sept 7 one of the bloodiest in history the losses probably aggregated on each side the loss to napoleon who could get no reinforcements was fatal but still he pressed on and entered moscow sept 14 to find himself robbed of the fruits of his victory by the terrible conflagration which broke out two days later yet napoleon lingered in moscow until oct ial then he marced southward to kaluga ho ping to make his way through a rich and unexhausted country but he was forced to follow the path he had blazed on the way to moscow at first the weather was fine and only moderately severe then came rain snow and cold the winter set in ear her than usual swarms of cossacks surrounded the frenchmen harassing them at every chance the invaders worn out were thrown into disorder the remainder ot the retreat of na I 1 s army has no parallel in his tory for the various sufferings and hor bors undergone in november by the time he had reached the berezina his army had dwindled to 12 men in the retreat from moscow alone 90 had been lost in the whole campaign some historians have estimated that had been slain died ot fatigue and hunger and cold and were made prisoners napoleon was now reinforced by men and he made his way across the bere zina thus escaping total ruin and cap it was a miserable throng which on the evening of dec 6 e a crowd ot beggars tottered into ellna the old of lithuania in all nearly BOO soldiers had perished from cold ind bullets and hardships or had dis speared |