Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-12-05
Gus house burners?


same road by which they had come,
and thus after ten days from Moscow
they reached once more the neighbor-
hood of Borodino. No need of sign
boards to this place. The vultures
quarreliing overhead, the howl of the
wolf in the forest-these indicated
many acres of unburied bodies slaugh-
tered in the cause of La Gloire Fif-
ty-two days had passed since the bat
tie, yet the fields were strewn with
bodies of horses and men, clothing,
boots, saddlery, equipment of all kinds.
The effects were depressing, and not
less so the gaunt creatures who hob
bled out from the churches and cabins
of the wayside, begging that they
might not be left behind to fall into
the hands of marauding Cossacks.
These were the wounded who had
not strength to join the triumphal
march to Moscow. They were now
helped on to artillery caissons and
provision carts, burdening still further
loads already too heavy for the poor
beasts of burden. For the French
army which left Moscow was very
badly supplied with horses, thanks to
the unanimity with which the peasants
everywhere secreted their property.
The first snow fell on November 4th,
fifteen days after leaving Moscow. In
two days more the thermometer sank
to below the freezing point, and the
snow was driven by cruel northeast
wind, which in Europe corresponds to
the American blizzard from the north
west. But the cold alone was a small
matter, for Napoleon had before this
won battles in winter weather. His
men were retreating on empty bellies;
his horses were dying for want Of for
age; not only were his troopers with
out horses, but the roads became lit
tered with pieces of artillery and bag
gage carts, whose horses died in the
traces. Men, too, died where they
lay down to rest, and each encamp-
ment bore next day the looks Of bat
tlefeld. 1t was a sad picture of need
less suffering, but the survivors bore
it with comparative cheerfulness, for
Smolensk was not far off, and there
they were promised comfortable win
ter quarters, warm clothing and plen-
ty of food.
Napoleon reached Smolensk on the
9th of November, having been three
weeks doing the three hundred inter-
vening miles, an average rate of speed
Of less than fifteen miles day. We
can readily assume that Napoleon
meant his army to march at It's high
est rate of speed, for he was flying for
his life, having good reason to fear IN
Perception and capture before reach
ing friendly territory.
Already, then, we have evidence Of
Napoleons wretched condition from
want of horses, want of food and want
of clothing. The Russians had as yet
done him little damage since leaving
Moscow, and the still greater enemy,
Jack Frost, had given him but sam
pie of what he could furnish at later
day. How was it possible, we ask,
that a man who had conducted cam
paigns with success under every eli
matte condition between the Baltic
and the Pyramids should have shown
such bad generalshipin this year 1872,
even if we stop at Molensk to discover
the matter? What had become of
this half a million? How is it that
he could never get enough Of his men
together to do the Russians serious
harm ? Where was his formerly famous
commissariat system and why must
his men crawl along so slowly when
in past years they had astonished
Europe by their forced marches.
Napoleon himself started the legend
that he was conquered only by the ell
ements-by the unprecedented win
ter's cold. But that was mere lie Of
expediency. Had there been no worse
weather after than before Smolensk
there is little reason to suppose that
the end of the campaign would have
been much different.
The French army of 1872 was no
longer that of 1899, and still less that
of Jena. The troops that crossed into
Russia were motley band, not half Of
whom spoke French. Little Portu-
guese from the banks of the Tagus,
brown-skinned Italians from the Cam
pagna, broad-belted Bavarians, semi
civilized Dalmatians, Prussians, Aus
TRANS, Dutch, Swiss, Wurtenbergers
and Saxons-these all followed the