The Defeat Of Napoleon's Russian Campaign

Napoleon’s Russian Campaign

June of 1812, Napoleon began his fatal Russian campaign in a landmark in the history of the destructive potential of warfare. All of continental Europe was under his control the invasion of Russia was an attempt to force Tsar. Alexander I to submit once again to the terms of a treaty that Napoleon had imposed upon him four years earlier In June 24, 1812 when napoleon's grande armée crossed the neman river in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army.

The Neman River is where they attempted to engage the defeat of the russian armies. The Grand Amaree was a large force , they had 680,000 souldiers &300,000 french departments. Napoleon pushed the amaree through western russia & then tried to bring russians

Amaee to the battle & winning the minor battle in August
The russian army stop fighting to cossacks giving orders towns burn down villages . Towns & crops . when the russians stopped The actions forced the French to rely on a supply system that was incapable of feeding the large army in the field. Starvation and privation compelled French soldiers to leave their camps at night in search of food. These men were frequently confronted by parties of Cossacks, who captured or killed them This was intended to deny the invaders the option of living off the land .
The Russian army retreated into Russia for almost three months. The continual retreat and the loss of lands to the French upset the Russian nobility.They pressured Alexander I to relieve the commander of the Russian army, Field Marshal barclay Alexander I complied, appointing an old veteran, Prince Kikhail Kutuzov, to take over command of the army. However, for two more weeks Kutuzov continued to retreat as his predecessor had done .
The battle that followed was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 soldiers and resulting in 70,000 casualties. The French gained a tactical victory, but at the cost of 49 general officers and thousands of men. The Russian army was able to extricate itself and withdrew the following day, leaving the French without the decisive victory Napoleon sought