CHAP. XXV.] CAVALRY UNDER NAPOLEON. 



401 



suflFerings caused by this want. Baggage waggons were 

 abandoned at every step, the horses failing from starva- 

 tion. The troops soon began to scatter in search of 

 food, and horses, that were required for other purposes, 

 were slain in great numbers to feed the famishing 

 soldiers. 



At Wiasma a severe action took place on the 2nd 

 November, where the French rear-guard, being inter- 

 cepted by General WassilchikofF, onl}?- escaped with great 

 difficulty and with the loss of 6,000 men. The Cossacks 

 constantly hovered around the retreating masses, and 

 the troops, dying of starvation in their ranks, were 

 either massacred by the peasants or captured by the 

 Cossacks if they straggled in search of food. The in- 

 tense frost added to the horrors of the retreat, combining 

 to make it the most terrible disaster in the history of war. 



It is commonly supposed that it was the severity of 

 the weather that was the principal cause of the failure 

 of the expedition of Napoleon into Russia, but the more 

 the details of that extraordinary campaign are studied, 

 the more clearly will it appear that the real cause of the 

 destruction of the French army was the great superiority 

 of the Russians in light troops.* The immense distance 

 to which Napoleon had penetrated from his magazines 

 and base of supplies rendered it exceedingly difficult to 

 feed his troops, a difficulty that was greatly augmented 

 by the immense numbers that were massed under his 

 standard. 



As soon as the superiority of the Cossacks in outpost 

 and detached service was fully established, foraging was 

 put a stop to, and famine and want soon relaxed the 

 discipline ,and destroyed the energies of the French 

 troops. It was this more than the cold that ruined the 

 French army. Alison says that " the campaign would 

 have been equally fatal to them even though Moscow 

 had not been burned or the ^rosts of winter had never 

 set in." 



'* When an army rushes headlong into the middle of 

 the Scythian cavalry, without having the means from 



' Alison, iii. 599. 



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