Retreat From Moscow. Winter 1812 : French Grenadiers #1 (Muskets & Tomahawks) (North Star Military Figures)

on December 14, 2024

Hello friends!

Today I invite you to the first entry with a new mini project - Retreat From Moscow. Winter 1812.

On this occasion, I painted the first two Grenadiers from North Star Military Figures of the Grande Armée, decimated, hungry and retreating towards Paris...

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During the opening months of the invasion, Napoleon was forced to contend with a bitter Russian army in perpetual retreat.
Refusing to engage Napoleon’s superior army in a full-scale confrontation, the Russians under General Mikhail Kutuzov burned everything behind them as they retreated deeper and deeper into Russia.

On September 7, the indecisive Battle of Borodino was fought, in which both sides suffered terrible losses. On September 14, 1812 Napoleon arrived in Moscow intending to find supplies but instead found almost the entire population evacuated, and the Russian army retreated again.
Early the next morning, fires broke across the city set by Russian patriots, and the Grande Grande Armée’s winter quarters were destroyed.
After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving army out of Moscow.

During the disastrous retreat, Napoleon’s army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army.
Stalked by hunger and the deadly lances of the Cossacks, the decimated army reached the Berezina River late in November but found its route blocked by the Russians.
On November 26, Napoleon forced a way across at Studienka, and when the bulk of his army passed the river three days later, he was forced to burn his makeshift bridges behind him, stranding some 10,000 stragglers on the other side.
From there, the retreat became a rout, and on December 8 Napoleon left what remained of his army to return to Paris with a few cohorts.
Six days later, the Grande Armée finally escaped Russia, having suffered a loss of more than 400,000 men during the disastrous invasion...