C. Victor and G. St-Cyr's troops from Polotsk joined Napoleon in mid-November. They and the Imperial Guard remained the only effectives of the disintegrating Grand Armée.
Reaching the Berezina river near Borisov, Napoleon was trapped between Tshitshagov (Chitchagov), who had circled ahead of Napoleon, and Kutuzov's forces to Napoleon's rear, led by General Wittgenstein. The Russian forces numbered about 144,000, of whom between 60,000 to 64,000 became engaged, while Napoleon had about 25,000 to 33,000 effectives at his command. Tshitshagov held the bridge over the Berezina river near the village of Borisov and the western shore.
Marshal Oudinot and the French engineers in his II Corps managed to build two pontoon bridges across the river, which was not solidly iced over, at Studenka, eight miles north of the bridgehead held by Tshitshagov, thanks to diversionary tactics by Napoleon. Under attack by Tshitshagov's guns, the French crossing turned into a bloody panic with horses and carriages rolling over dead, injured and hapless troops on the bridge. The majority of French army was able to cross.
By the 27th, only Victor's IX Corps holding the rear guard, with 10,000 remaining troops, and a horde of disorganized stragglers remained on the east bank, the rest of the French having managed to cross over. Oudinot and Ney held the bridgehead open against the attack of Tshitshagov. Victor repulsed the attacks of 40,000 Russians to his rear, supported by French artillery on the west bank. Victor's corps disengaged and crossed the bridges through the night.
Thousands of stragglers and wounded remained on the east bank when the bridges were blown up at dawn. Most of the stranded French were captured, massacred by Cossacks, or drowned trying to cross the freezing river.
French: over 30,000; Russians: over 10,000
The Russians claimed to have retrieved 36,000 French bodies when the snow thawed in the spring.
French: 10,000; Russians:
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Last Updated Saturday, October 4, 1997.