The Retreat, Rambaud - B+

                   "In June 1812, with more than 500,000 men, Napoleon crossed the Niemen and entered Russia." After three months of 'scorched earth,' the Grand Armee arrived in Moscow. They'd already lost tens of thousands. The city was empty; so were the granaries. Napoleon had hoped to sit down with the Tsar and sign a peace treaty. All the French could do was take out their frustrations on the city. However, it is likely that the fires that destroyed the city were set  by the Russians. Napoleon believed he had the option of marching to St. Petersburg or staying the winter and obtaining supplies from Poland. Neither option was realistic as the city continued to burn, killing people and horses while wolves roamed Moscow's streets. Slowly, the Russians began a guerrilla warfare campaign in the city and along the supply lines. They ambushed and killed an increasing number of the invaders. 

                    After five weeks, the French left. They were encumbered by the loot that each and every one of them tried to cart back to Paris. "Overloaded fugitives began to be seen jettisoning their surplus booty, scattering bags of pearls, icons, weapons and rolls of cloth along the road..." Men, beasts, and entire carriages were sucked into the marshes as it began to snow and the Cossacks raided. "They were in no danger of losing their way: they just had to follow the trail of hundreds of naked, frozen corpses, male and female, lying on the ice, the burnt carriages and the mutilated horses that stained the pink snow." When Smolensk offered no respite, the emperor went ahead to Minsk. The remnants of the army were slowly destroyed by the weather and the lack of food.  When the Cossacks captured soldiers or civilians, they stripped them naked and forced them to march until they dropped. The hastily constructed pontoon bridges collapsed and thrust all into the freezing rivers. When he reached Poland, Napoleon commandeered a sleigh and left for Paris, which he reached on December 17. "Behind, far behind, the remnants of what was once an imposing army and now numbered a few thousand beggars at most were drawing near to the Niemen." 

                 This a tour de force - an historical novel at its very best, one that vividly depicts the hell on the earth the retreat was.