But who were these men? And how did so many come to rest in the same place?

These skeletons are the ghosts of Vilnius, the burial ground for more than 3000 infantrymen, cavalrymen, officers and hussars of the once mighty French Grande Armee. These are some of nearly 500 000 men who never made it back to France from Napoleon’s Russian Campaign of 1812.

Arguably the greatest General the world has ever seen, why then was Napoleon’s Russian campaign such a disaster?

There were several reasons for why Napoleon failed to conquer Russia in 1812: poor discipline, deficient logistics, disease, the unforgiving weather and Napoleon himself.

Napoleon’s method of warfare was based upon rapid concentration of his forces at a key place enabling him to destroy

Because the entire army was fundamentally following the same route, the first troops to pass by were able to get the food easily foraged. The second troops to go by were able to forage less and had to travel further to do so, so the troops toward the rear of the 600 000 strong army were left with little to nothing at times. The situation was just as bad for the horses. Grazing along the road or in a paddock was not adequate to maintain a healthy horse. Their food had to be supplemented with hay. The further the army went into Russia, the less hay was available. Even the grass began to be thinned out, and like the food, the first horses had the best grazing, and those bringing up the rear had it the worse.

When the campaign began in June 1812 Napoleon left France for Russia with The Army of Twenty Nations, comprising of around 600,000 men, 90,000 horses and 25 000 wagons and carts. Napoleon had planned to bring the war to an end within 20 days by forcing the Russians to fight a major battle: his army’s strength. Just in case his calculation was out Napoleon had allocated 30 days of supplies. The reality of the campaign however was different. Napoleon soon discovered that the road network in Russia was extremely poor and this forced his soldiers to advance along a very narrow front. Even though he had allowed for a larger supply train, food had to be supplemented by whatever the soldiers could forage along the way. In addition to the poor road network, the agriculture system was less than adequate and there was a bad drought causing a shortage of water. Compounding this problem the wells had been polluted when Russian soldiers had thrown in dead horses.

By the time the army crossed into Poland in early December, less than 90,000 exhausted, tattered soldiers remained of the 600,000 proud soldiers who crossed the Nieman five months before.

Some topics in this essay:
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