Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, 1812

Being an illustrated account of the ill-fated expedition of the Emperor Napoleon's Grand Armée into Czar Alexander's Russia in 1812.

Minard's Chart of the Advance and Retreat of the French, showing troop strength, position, and for the retreat, the date and temperature.

The map, based on the 1869 chart by Minard, graphically illustrates (both literally and figuratively) how the size of the French army dwindled during the march into Russia and was reduced to almost nothing on the wretched rout back into Poland. The map can be read in several ways. The size of the peach colored bar indicates the relative strength of the French army during the march on Moscow. The black bar shows the dwindling French army during the retreat. In the lower portion of the map, the temperature in degrees Celcius is shown, along with dates during the retreat.

The graphic is also a clickable map that will lead you to detailed articles about key events of the invasion.

Timetable of Events

All dates are in the modern calendar of the Common Era.

Date

Place

Event

June

Europe

Prelude

June 24

Kovno

Crossing the Nieman River into Russia

July 23

Mogilev

Davout's corps defeats Bagration

July 26-August 1

Polotsk I

Oudinot takes Polotsk

August 17

Smolensk I

Kutuzov abandons Smolensk under pressure

August 19

Valutino

Russians again retreat

September 7

Borodino

Battle of Borodino

September 14

Moscow

Napoleon enters the city

October 19

Moscow

Napoleon quits Moscow

October 20

Polotsk II

Wittgenstein drives French from Polotsk

October 24

Maloyaroslavets

The Grand Armée is turned back to the devastated Smolensk route

November 4

Smolensk II

Snow and cold debilitate the French

November 16-17

Krasnoi

Kutuzov bars the French retreat

November 26-28

Borisov

Crossing the Berezina River at great cost

January 1813

Europe

Denouement

The Major Players

French Army

Russian Army

Napoleon

Alexander

Davout

Bagration

Murat

Kutuzov

Ney

Barclay de Tolly

Oudinot

Saint-Cyr

Victor

Credits

James Rubarth-Lay <j.rubarth-lay@mail.utexas.edu>
LIS 385T.16 - Systems Interface Design, Fall 1997

Last Updated Saturday, October 4,1997.