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Order of battle of the French invasion of Russia

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The IV corps under Eugène at Halšany on 11 July 1812. The cavalry, the artillery, the generals, and the drummers, followed by the infantry by Albrecht Adam.

This is the order of battle of the French invasion of Russia.

Grande Armée

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The Grande Armée crossing the Niemen by Waterloo Clark
Napoleon's Hill or Jiesia mound from the other bank of the Niemen river
Anonymous, the Grande Armée crossing the river
Napoleon's army crossing the Niemen river, starting on 24 June  [O.S. 12 June (Julian Calendar)] 1812[1]
French Army crossing Nieman River 1812 by Auguste Raffet
Italian corps of Eugène de Beauharnais crossing the Niemen on 30 June 1812. Oil and gouache on paper by Albrecht Adam. In: Hermitage Museum.

Napoleon organized the Grande Armée the largest army assembled up to that point in European history. After a whole day of preparation by Morand and Eblé, the invasion commenced on Midsummer, 24 June 1812 with Napoleon's army crossing the river. Half of them were foreigners; Polish legions formed the largest foreign contingent); 120,000 were conscripts.[2] Within a few days, almost half a million men from this multinational army - split up into five columns - crossed the river Neman and entered the Russian Empire. The numbers mentioned below are based on estimates made by Clausewitz, in his book "On War" and not on the estimates in "History of the Consulate and the Empire" by Adolphe Thiers, who wrote that 600,000 men in total were moved but not all of them crossed the Neman.[3]

Commander-in-Chief: Napoleon Bonaparte; Chief of Staff: Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier

Northern flank

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  • X Corps (with the Prussian Corps) (30,000) commanded by Marshal Jacques MacDonald. They crossed the Niemen at Tilsit, now Sovetsk on the 24th.[4] He moved north in Courland but did not succeed in occupying Riga. Early August he occupied Dunaburg; early September he returned to Riga with his entire force.[5] A few days after the French left Lithuania, he drew back to Königsberg, followed by Pyotr Wittgenstein. On 25 December Yorck (von Wartenburg) found himself isolated when the Russian army blocked the road during the retreat. After five days he was urged by his officers (and in the presence of Clausewitz) at least to neutralization of his troops and an armistice. According to Minard, about 6,000 men returned to Poland, according to Clausewitz 5,000 men, but Yorck's resolution had enormous consequences.[6]

First Central force

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Under the Emperor's personal command it crossed the Niemen early in the morning of the 24th on three pontoon bridges (one for the 80,000 horses) nearby Napoleon's Hill.[7] Afterwards, six corps destined for Vilnius or Polotsk hunted after Barclay de Toll's First Army of the West.[8]

  • Imperial Guard (33,000-56,169[9]) commanded by Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières (Guard Cavalry); Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre (Old Guard); Marshal Edouard Mortier (Young Guard). The Guard did not take part in the fighting, but during the retreat, the Old Guard was the only unit that retained a semblance of order. The cavalry of the Guard was almost wiped out. About 7,000 Guards succeeded to arrive at the Berezina.[10]
    • Attached to the Young Guard were many multinational units e.g. the Polish Legion of the Vistula under Michel Claparède (7,000), Velites of Turin and Florence, and a Spanish pioneer battalion. Only about 1,500 returned.
    • Grand Quartier, Headquarter's guard, Equipages, Artillery General Park, engineers and other services 14,000 (French, Swiss, Polish, Portuguese) there were attached few multinational units e.g. Portuguese chasseur à cheval, Polish Vistula Uhlan, Neuchâtel (Swiss) battalion.
  • I Corps (72,000-96,000) commanded by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout. The strongest corps left Vilnius on 1 July, occupied Minsk, beat Bagration at Mogilev and with only 20,000 men left he went to Smolensk and joined the main army. Only 1,800 arrived at the Berezina.
  • II Corps (37,000-42,000) commanded by Marshal Nicolas Oudinot crossed the Niemen was sent to the other side of the Viliya and expected to join with McDonald to combat Wittgenstein, who protected the road to St Petersburg. This corps left mid-October after losing the Second Battle of Polotsk; it was joined by IX corps (reserve).[11] Arriving at the Berezina before Wittgenstein they played a key role in securing the crossing of the river; Nicolas Joseph Maison took over.[12] 300 were able to leave the country?
  • III Corps (40,000) commanded by Marshal Michel Ney. He defended downstream the 4th pontoon bridge at Aleksotas which could be used to escape; he then went to Polotsk. During the retreat his corps was in the rear. After being cut off from the main army in the Battle of Krasnoi Ney managed to escape in heavy fog and thin ice over the Dnieper River but without his artillery.[13]

Reserve cavalry (vanguard)

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Marshal Joachim Murat, his brother-in-law, under King of Naples, followed with (21,000) Napoleon to Vilnius and Vitebsk

Second Central force

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It followed behind the central force and (81,000) crossed at Pilona and avoided Vilnius

Right flank force

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Battle of Smolensk on 18 August 1812, by Albracht Adam
Berezina. French troops in Studzenke (C. Faber du Faur, 27.11.1812).

Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte King of Westphalia (62,000) crossed the Niemen near Grodno on 1 July,[16] and moved towards Bagration's (second western) army. On the order of Napoleon Davout secretly took over the command on 6 July.[18] In the Battle of Mir Jerome let Platov escape by deploying too few of Poniatowki's troops.[19] Jérôme was sent to Slutsk but left the army after being criticised by Davout.[20] He went home at the end of July,[21] taking a battalion of guards with him.[22] Davout took over the command of Latour's cavalry, trying to prevent Bagration from moving north.

With French forces moving through different routes in the direction of Vitebsk, a first major engagement took place on 25 July at the Battle of Ostrowno.

The Bug near Drohiczyn, where the Austrian army and Reynier crossed the river

Southern flank

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  • VII Corps (17,000) commanded by General Jean Reynier. He stayed in the Grodno region to protect the Duchy of Warsaw against Tormasow; on 26 December between 5 and 11,000 arrived in Poland.[27]
  • XII Corps (with the Austrian Corps) (34,000) commanded by Field Marshal Karl von Schwarzenberg crossed the Bug on 2 July on a pontoon bridge to go after Bagration and Tormasow.[8][28] He was prevented from joining up with Davout. The VII corps came under his command when Reynier fell back. When Tormassov occupied Brest (Belarus) at the end of July, he was cut off from supplies.[29] On 18 September he withdrew when Pavel Chichagov arrived from the south.[30] Schwarzenberg won the Battle of Wolkowisk. He crossed the Polish border on 14 December 1812.[31] Many survived.

Reserve units in Poland and Prussia

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Ney at Kowno in December 1812, painting by Auguste Raffet in the Louvre
Night Quarters at Molodechna, December 3–4, 1812, Rijksmuseum

Several units marched to Russia in the late stage of the campaign. In November, the division of Durutte assisted Reynier. In December Loison was sent to help extricate the remnants of the Grand Army in its retreat.[32] Within a few days many of Loison's unexperienced soldiers died of the extreme cold. [33] Napoleon arrested him for not marching with his division to the front.

  • XI Corps (50,000) commanded by Marshal Pierre Augereau. This corps did not participate in military operations in Russia, and Augereau never left Berlin. Augereau also had at his disposal a division of 10,000 Danes under General Johann Ewald, which remained in Holstein for the duration of the campaign.[34][35]
  • IX Corps (30,000 French) commanded by Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin. Early August his corps was in Tilsit, at the end of September the majority arrived at Smolensk;[25] At the end of October he took over the command from St. Cyr, but lost the Battle of Chashniki and the Battle of Smoliani and unable to retake Polotsk.[11] He had orders to follow Oudinot; 3,500 arrived at the Berezina and fired the bridges behind them.

In addition, National Guard units had been conscripted for full military service defending the frontier of the Duchy of Warsaw. With these included total forces on the Russian border and in Russia came to around 685,000 men. This vast commitment of manpower severely strained the French Empire — especially considering that there were a further 220,000 French troops fighting in Iberia and over 100,000 more in Germany and Italy.

Nationalities

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The army is estimated to consist of:

  • 300,000 troops from the First French Empire[36]
    • 255,000 French
    • 15,000 Dutch from the annexed Kingdom of Holland
    • 10,000 Flemish and Walloon from the annexed Belgium territories
    • 10,000 Germans from annexed Northern Germany and the left bank of the Rhine
    • 10,000 Italians from annexed Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Parma and Rome
  • 108,000 Poles
    • 67,000 Polish from the Duchy of Warsaw
    • 12,000 Polish National Guard, depot companies and garrisons in defence of Duchy of Warsaw
    • 10,000 Polish in French service (Vistula Legion, 8th Chevauleger-Lancer, 1st and 3rd Guard Chevauleger-Lancer)
    • 19,000 newly formed regiments during the campaign in Lithuania
  • 111,500 Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine
  • 27,000 Italians[38] from the Kingdom of Italy
  • 8,000 Neapolitans the majority of whom never went to Russia, part were garrisoned in Danzig, and part was sent back to Naples
  • 9,000 Swiss[36] (German sources[39] mention 16,000)
  • 4,800 Spanish
  • 3,500 Croats
  • 2,000 Portuguese
  • 5,900 Illyrian, Dalmatian, and Mediterranean minorities
  • 20,000 Prussians.[36] There served Prussian German, but also some Polish from Silesia, West and East Prussia
  • 34,000 Austrians. This corps consisted of several nationalities:
    • 11,000 Hungarians, Slovaks, Serbs, Romanians, and Ruthenian-Ukrainians
    • 9,700 German speaking Austrians
    • 8,000 Polish and Ruthenian-Ukrainian from Galicia
    • 2,700 Bohemians and Moravian Czechs
    • 2,600 Croats

The total is 643,500 men, but at least 130,000 were auxiliary troops, involved in the supply of the army.

Anthony Joes in Journal of Conflict Studies wrote that:[40]

Figures on how many men Napoleon took into Russia and how many eventually came out vary rather widely.

  • Georges Lefebvre suggested that Napoleon crossed the Neman with over 600,000 soldiers, only half of whom were from France.
  • Felix Markham suggested that 450,000 crossed the Neman on 24/25 June 1812, of whom less than 40,000 recrossed in anything like a recognizable military formation.
  • James Marshall-Cornwall suggested 510,000 troops entered Russia.
  • Eugene Tarle suggested that 420,000 crossed with Napoleon and 150,000 eventually followed, for a grand total of 570,000.
  • Riehn provides the following figures: 685,000 men marched into Russia in 1812, of whom around 355,000 were French; 31,000 soldiers marched out again in some sort of military formation, with perhaps another 35,000 stragglers, for a total of less than 70,000 known survivors.

Whatever the accurate number, it is generally accepted that the overwhelming majority of this grand army, French and allied, remained, in one condition or another, inside Russia.

Minard's infographic (see below) depicts the march ingeniously by showing the size of the advancing army, overlaid on a rough map, as well as the retreating soldiers together with temperatures recorded (as much as 30 below zero on the Réaumur scale) on their return. The numbers on this chart have 422,000 crossing the Neman with Napoleon, 22,000 taking a side trip early on in the campaign, 100,000 surviving the battles en route to Moscow and returning from there; only 4,000 survive the march back, to be joined by 6,000 that survived that initial 22,000 in the feint attack northward; in the end, only 10,000 cross the Neman back out of the initial 422,000.[41]

Adam Zamoyski estimated that between 550,000 and 600,000 French and allied troops (including reinforcements) operated beyond the Niemen, of which as many as 400,000 troops died.[42]

Russian Imperial Army

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Main articles: Russian Army order of battle (1812) and List of Russian commanders in the Patriotic War of 1812
Michail Illarionovich Kutuzov (1745–1813) is sitting on the far left, with his generals (Council of War) deciding to save the army from another battle and surrender Moscow to Napoleon.
Monument to Kutuzov in front of the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. The Kazan Cathedral and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow were built to commemorate the Russian victory against Napoleon.
As irregular cavalry, the Cossack horsemen of the Russian steppes were best suited to reconnaissance, scouting, and harassing the enemy's flanks and supply lines. Seldom were they committed to execute a conventional charge in battle.
Babruysk fortress in 1811
Detaille - Cossacks Attacking a squad of the Gardes d'honneur from the Jeune Garde Imperiale

The forces immediately facing Napoleon consisted of three armies,[43] operating around the Western Dvina, the Dnieper and the Bug (river), comprising 175-250,000 Russians and 15,000 Cossacks, with 938 guns as follows:

Minister of War Mikhail Barclay de Tolly served as the Commander in Chief of the Russian Armies until early October. He was field commander of the First Western Army and replaced by Mikhail Kutuzov who was appointed Commander-in-chief on 17th and arrived on the 29th of August. After the Battle at Borodino Kutuzov was appointed General Field Marshall, the highest military rank.

There also were forces gathered in several places:

These forces, however, could count on reinforcements from the second line, which totalled 129,000 men and 8,000 Cossacks, with 434 guns and 433 rounds of ammo.

Of these, about 105,000 men were actually available for the defence against the invasion. In the third line were the 36 recruit depots and militias, which came to the total of approximately 161,000 men of various and highly disparate military values, of which about 133,000 actually took part in the defence.

Thus, the grand total of all Russian forces was 488,000 men, of which about 428,000 gradually came into action against the Grande Armée. This bottom line, however, includes more than 80,000 Cossacks and militiamen, as well as about 20,000 men who garrisoned the fortresses in the operational area.[b]

Sweden, Russia's only ally besides England, did not send supporting troops. But the alliance made it possible to withdraw part troops from the 45,000 men Russian corps Steinheil from Finland and use it in the later battles (20,000 men were sent to Riga and Polotsk).[48]

Notes

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  1. ^ The appointment of Wittgenstein as commander-in-chief of the united Russian and Prussian armies provoked open hostility from his new subordinates and, at the same time, from his seniors: Miloradovich, Barclay de Tolly, Langeron, Platov and Tormasov. Tormasov refused to obey Wittgenstein altogether and left the army, while Miloradovich stayed and became the "official speaker" for the opposition.[45]
  2. ^ This section does not mention: Levin August von Bennigsen, who was sent back on 15 November 1812; Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov; Dmitry Buturlin, George Carpenter, Ilya Duka, Adam Ozharovsky, Denis Davydov and Vasily Orlov-Denisov, all involved in the Battle of Krasnoi.

References

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  1. ^ This photograph was used to illustrate the article "Kovna" in the 13th volume of the Military Encyclopedia in 1913.(Russian Wikisource)
  2. ^ Conscription Quotas for 1812
  3. ^ Thiers, Adolphe ( 1845-62) History of the consulate and the empire of France under Napoleon, Vol. VII, Book XLIII, p. 28. Translated by D.F. Campbell. Publisher: British Library]
  4. ^ "Narrative of Events during the Invasion of Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte (And the Retreat of the French Army, 1812) | Preliminary Remarks by Wilson, Robert Thomas, Randolph, Herbert, p. 27". Archived from the original on 2022-01-07. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
  5. ^ R.E. Parrish (2005) The Military and Diplomatic Career of Jacques Etienne Macdonald, p. 169-171
  6. ^ Clausewitz 1906, p. 87, 230-252.
  7. ^ Herinneringen uit den veldtogt van Rusland, in den jare 1812 by Willem Pieter D'Auzon de Boisminart, p. 64
  8. ^ a b Clausewitz 1906, p. 53.
  9. ^ Uffindell, A. (2007) Napoleon's Immortals. The Imperial Guard and its battles, 1804-1815. Spellmount Limited. 368pp.
  10. ^ GENERAL SIR ROBERT WILSON'S RUSSIAN JOURNAL, p. 326
  11. ^ a b Borodino 1812: Napoleon’s great gamble by Philip Haythornthwaite, p. 78
  12. ^ "Nicolas-Joseph Maison (1771-1840)".
  13. ^ David G. Chandler (1966) The Campaigns of Napoleon, p. 829-831
  14. ^ Adam (2005) [1990], Napoleon's Army in Russia translated by Jonathan North, plate 7.
  15. ^ Labaume (1817), p. 30.
  16. ^ a b Clausewitz (1843), p. 48
  17. ^ Mémoires et correspondence politique et militaire de Eugène de Beauharnais
  18. ^ Correspondance de Napoleon, Tome XXIV, 18911, p. 28
  19. ^ Chandler (1966), p. 776
  20. ^ Correspondance de Napoleon, Tome XXIV, 18984, p. 80
  21. ^ Experience of War: ‘I Have Never Seen As Much Suffering’ by Jonathan North
  22. ^ a b [1]Mustafa, S.A. (2017) Napoleon's Paper Kingdom: The Life and Death of Westphalia, 1807-1813, p. 252. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  23. ^ A.F.F. Seydlitz (1823) Tagebuch des königlich Preussischen Armeekorps, p. 113
  24. ^ M. De Fezensac - The Russian Campaign, 1812, p. 25.
  25. ^ a b Clausewitz 1906, p. 65.
  26. ^ The Dynamics of Defeat: French Army Leadership by F.C. Schneid, p. 21
  27. ^ The Saxon Army 1810 - 13
  28. ^ A.F.F. Seydlitz (1823) Tagebuch des königlich Preussischen Armeekorps, p. 120
  29. ^ Coloman Rupprecht von Virtsolog (1871) Geschichte des k.k. 60. Linien-Infanterie-Regimentes, p. 118
  30. ^ Clausewitz 1906, p. 68, 77.
  31. ^ Coloman Rupprecht von Virtsolog (1871) Geschichte des k.k. 60. Linien-Infanterie-Regimentes, p. 126
  32. ^ History of Europe: From the Commencement of the French Revolution, Volume 10 by Archibald Alison, p. 628
  33. ^ Zamoyski (2004), 504-505
  34. ^ "Correspondance de Napoleon, Tome XXIV, 18998, p. 92" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  35. ^ McIntyre, James R. (2021). Johann Ewald: Jäger Commander. Knox Press. ISBN 978-1682619414. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  36. ^ a b c d Riehn, Richard K, p. 81.
  37. ^ according to the Landesmuseum in Westphalias former capital Kassel
  38. ^ Grab, Alexander (2009). Conscription in the Napoleonic Era. p. 131.
  39. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888
  40. ^ Anthony James Joes. Continuity and Change in Guerrilla War: The Spanish and Afghan Cases, Journal of Conflict Studies Vol. XVI No. 2, Fall 1997. Footnote 27, cites
    • Georges Lefebvre, Napoleon from Tilsit to Waterloo (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), vol. II, pp. 311–12.
    • Felix Markham, Napoleon (New York: Mentor, 1963), pp. 190, 199.
    • James Marshall-Cornwall: Napoleon as Military Commander (London: Batsford, 1967), p. 220.
    • Eugene Tarle: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia 1812 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1942), p. 397.
    • Richard K. Riehn: 1812: Napoleon's Russian Campaign (New York: John Wiley, 1991), pp. 77 and 501
  41. ^ See a large copy of the chart here Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine, but discussed at length in Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (London: Graphics Press, 1992)
  42. ^ Zamoyski 2005, p. 536 — note this includes deaths of prisoners during captivity
  43. ^ a b c The Burning of Moscow: Napoleon's Trail By Fire, 1812 by Alexander Mikaberidze
  44. ^ a b c Riehn, Richard K, p. 88.
  45. ^ Bezotnosny, V.M. et al. (2004, in Russian). Otechestvennaya voina 1812 goda. Encyclopedia (Отечественная война 1812 года. Энциклопедия), p. 183. Moscow: Rosspan. ISBN 5-8243-0324-X.
  46. ^ Lieven, D (2010), p. 146
  47. ^ Lieven, D (2010), p. 147
  48. ^ Helmert/Usczek: Europäische Befreiungskriege 1808 bis 1814/15, Berlin 1986
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