Where Napoleon Lost His Army in Russia, Day by Day (1812)

On 24 June 1812 Napoleon's army crossed the rvier Niemen into Russia. By 14 December about 4,000 men of the main army still under arms had come back over the same river at Kovno, with a crowd of unarmed stragglers. The video slows for the big moments: 1.5 s = 1 day on the July march, 4 s = 1 day at Smolensk, 2.5 s = 1 hour on the day of Borodino (7 Sep), 1.5 s = 1 day for the weeks in Moscow, 3.5 to 5 s = 1 day on the retreat, 9 s = 1 day at the Berezina. The badge gives the date and day (Day 1 = 24 June). 0:00 Across the Niemen 0:13 The summer march: Vilna to Vitebsk 1:14 Smolensk stormed 1:38 The Moscow road; Kutuzov takes command 1:56 Borodino, hour by hour 2:44 Moscow given up, Moscow burns 3:12 Kutuzov's flank march; five weeks in Moscow 3:56 Napoleon leaves Moscow 4:14 Maloyaroslavets: turned back 4:53 Vyazma and the first snow 5:16 Smolensk again, and Krasnoi 6:06 Ney cut off; the road to the Berezina 6:28 The Berezina 7:13 Napoleon leaves; the cold 8:01 The Niemen recrossed 8:16 What was left: Minard's chart and the cost SOURCES E. Foord, Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812 (1914); C. von Clausewitz, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia (1843); G. de Chambray (1823); C. J. Minard (1869); battle losses after Bodart (1908), Riehn (1990), Mikaberidze (2007). Quotes (public domain): Ségur, History of the Expedition to Russia (1825); Labaume, Circumstantial Narrative of the Campaign in Russia; Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne, ed. Cottin; Sir Robert Wilson, Narrative of Events during the Invasion of Russia (1860). Pages: see the pinned comment. Map: Natural Earth; rivers and places © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (openstreetmap.org/copyright); relief: Copernicus DEM, © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the EU and ESA. 1812 roads and borders drawn by hand, approximate. Chart: Minard 1869, Wikimedia Commons (public domain). MUSIC Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture (United States Marine Band, public domain): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6, I and IV (Musopen Symphony, public domain): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... SOUND EFFECTS (CC0) Musket volley, black-powder blasts and distant cannon by craigsmith, cannon by qubodup, wind by keirofinch (freesound.org); timpani by spt3125 (Wikimedia Commons).