Napoleons Russian Campaign

axony and Westphalia each sent 17,000 men and there were many additions from various other nations under Napoleon’s control. In all the army totaled to 600,000 men. While Napoleon had an enormous army he made though inadequate preparations for supplying the troops. The provisions that he arranged for were not intended to provide all that the troops would need as they fought their way to Moscow. This was because Napoleon visualized a short campaign ending in a decisive victory. In a speech to his troops on June 22 he announced that ‘In less than two months time the Russians will be asking for peace.’ His main striking force consisted of 235,000 men. Two smaller forces, each of 70,000 men and commanded by Eugene Beauharna and Jerome Bonaparte, were back on his right, and the wings were covered by Prussian and Austrian troops. The attacking force alone consisted of 375,000 men with more than 100,000 horses and would be advancing on a narrow front. Where after the first wave of men and horses had passed there would not be a blade of grass left to feed those who followed. In the space between the Klaipeda and the Pripet marshes lay two Russian armies. Barclay de Tolly's First Army of the West, which consisted of 110,000 strong men, was around Vilna and to their left was Prince Bagration’s Second Army of the West, which consisted of 60,000 men. The Third Army of the West under Tormasov consisted of 45,000 men that were mostly recruits. It was stationed to the south of the marshes, and had the task of keeping the Austrians under observation. There were also many other Russian armies being formed and larger armies from Finland and Romania were marching towards the Polish front. In the summer of 1812 though only the 215,00 men from the three Armies of the West were available to fight against the half million of the Grand Army. Napoleon's plan was to separate Barclay's army from Bagration and to defeat Barclay while Eugene and Jerome kept Bagration busy. The Czar had adopted a plan made by Ernst von Phull, a Prussian colonel. His plan was more of a defensive strategy. He planned that Barclay would fall back 150 miles to the town of Drissa on the East Bank of the Dvina River. There, Barclay’s army would remain in a camp fortified and entrenched and wait for Napoleon. The Czar gave Barclay the task of coordinating the movements of the First and Second Armies according to the plan. Bagration (commander of the Second Army) though was a higher-ranking officer than Barclay and did not want to listen to anything Barclay had to say. This produced some problems in the future. On June 24th the French crossed the Niemen River into Russian territory and were unopposed. After four days Napoleon reached Vilna and even though no battles had been fought yet he declared ‘My maneuvers have disconcerted the Russians, before a month has passed they will be on their knees to me.’ Already though there was a food shortage and 5,000 horses died from being fed green rye. 100 guns and 500 ammunition wagons had to be abandoned. Barclay fell back as planned but when he reached the camp in Drissa he found that it was too small and would be difficult to defend. Napoleon meanwhile was traveling through the gap between the two Russian armies and was marching toward Vitebsk. There Napoleon was 280 miles from his main camp but there was no decisive battle to be fought which was the basis of his plan and he was also already far beyond the reach of his supply train. He was faced with many problems at this time. The wagons carrying the supplies were built for hard roads and were not appropriate for traveling across the Russian terrain. Half of the horses the army began with were already sick or dead and the infantry were not in good condition. At this point Napoleon had two options. He could wait at Vitebsk for a battle or he could continue traveling seeking a battle. Napoleon himself wanted to go on looking for a fight but his many officers advised him not t

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