There are numerous books written mostly by officers of Napoleon’s campaign in Russia, but this one, told by an NCO of the Imperial Guard, is, in my opinion, one of the very best. Sergeant Bourgogne had campaigned with Napoleon for several years and he describes the retreat from Moscow in terms which are not sensational but rather in terms which brings the reader into the very action of which he writes. You can feel his hunger and his cold, the pain he feels for comrades left behind and the joy as others long thought of as dead, are found.
He was not privy to any grand strategy and yet he and those around him, despite their sufferings, remained loyal to their Emperor. To catch a glimpse of Napoleon seemed to buoy the men’s hopes as they believed that Napoleon would lead them onto victory no matter what. Bourgogne also mentions Marshal Ney, the Bravest of the Brave (although not necessarily the Smartest of the Smart) as he holds the read guard together against the attacks by the Cossacks and armed Russian peasants. Time after time, the half frozen, starving men of the rear guard (remember, whenever they reached a town or village, all of the food had already been taken by the retreating troops before them) would turn, adjust ranks and such an action would be enough to warn off the Cossacks who were known to be hugely brave against a broken and unarmed foe.
Bourgogne marched for weeks in the cold and mists, often stumbling upon a peasant’s hut and finding warmth and a bit of food which he claims he always paid. The kindest peasants for the Polish ones who saw in Napoleon and change for a free country and his action with the local Jews were always based on strict terms of commerce. He did not differentiate between the various nationalities within the army as he knew that each one had their own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the episodes he writes of are hard to image, such as when a tired soldier is laying in the snow and asks a passing comrade to give him a hand. The walking soldiers say “I have already given two” as he holds out his arms minus his hands which were lost due to frost bite. Later, in Vilnius, soldiers who have lost fingers, toes, even their noses are found and taken care of as best the army could. Regiments are reduced to seven men, battalions to a single individual, yet the belief in Napoleon continues.
An excellent book which tells of the suffering men can endure in war as well as the nobility of their sharing what they have when all seems lost.
