fresh meat and weakened by diarrhoea, the ravenous soldiers began to
drop in their tracks; desertion and even suicide were common and losses
ran at s-6,ooo a day. Even more seriously for the future of the campaign,
the horses died in thousands; and between 10 and zo,ooo perished on the
Vilna road.
Arriving in Vilna on 28 June, Napoleon made another of his
unaccountable long stopovers, apparently thinking he had penetrated far
enough into Russia to defeat the armies of Barclay and Bagration
piecemeal. As soon as he entered the city he sent Oudinot and Ney in
pursuit of Barclay and Davout and Jerome towards Minsk to intercept
Bagration in a pincer movement. But the lightning manoeuvres of yore
were not possible with exhausted men, exposed to huge variations of
temperature between day and night, scarce local supplies and tortoise-like
supply convoys. Davout did his best but Jerome's ineptitude and
slowness allowed Bagration to escape the forked trap being prepared for
him. Davout raged at the incompetence of his 'colleague' and an angry
Emperor wrote to his youngest brother on 4 July with a stiff reprimand
and an order to come under Davout's command in future. The absurd
and prima-donnaish King of Westphalia responded by throwing up his
command and returning in dudgeon to his realm. Davout meanwhile
dogged Bagration's heels through Minsk and Bobrusk but could not catch
up with him.
The Russians were adopting a scorched-earth policy, withdrawing in
face of the Grande Armee, but their later claims to have adopted this
Fabian approach deliberately were mere rationalization. The plain truth
was that they were afraid of meeting Napoleon in a pitched battle when
he had such a marked superiority in numbers. Against the 45o,ooo
Napoleon brought across the Niemen the Russians could initially pit only
16o,ooo men; this was yet another reason why Napoleon's vast host was
too big for the job. The Czar had at first wanted to stand and fight by an
entrenched camp at Drissa, but his advisers warned him that this would
be playing to Bonaparte's strength. For the time being Alexander left the
fighting to Barclay and Bagration.
While Napoleon remained in Vilna, his army staggered on towards the
next objective: Vitebsk. They were soon caught up in another marching
nightmare as the excessive heat of the day and the biting cold of night
united with violent summer hailstorms to harass and lash the benighted
French troopers. They trekked through dark pine forests or through
foetid marshes, up to their waists in foul-smelling water; discipline
collapsed and insubordination was rife. Another 8,ooo horses died on this
marcin
(Marcin)
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