Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812

In the winter of 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte led the largest army Europe had ever seen into Russia. Six months later, fewer than thirty thousand men stumbled back across the border. Edward Foord's classic account traces this catastrophe in meticulous detail, from the political maneuvering between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I to the devastating battles of Smolensk, Borodino, and the infamous retreat from Moscow. Foord illuminates how hubris, logistics, and the Russian strategy ofscorched earth combined to destroy a military legend. Written in 1914, this account carries the weight of Edwardian scholarship: rigorous, literate, and free from the sentimentality that later historians would layer onto this tragedy. The campaign remains essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how climate, terrain, and human determination can humble even the greatest conqueror.