The Russian army held, and Kutuzov mustered it to continue its retreat that night. Napoleon, chastened by his experience at Smolensk and desperate for a decisive battle, refused the advice of his subordinates to envelop the Russian position at Borodino and on September 7 launched a bloody frontal assault instead. As he neared Moscow, he recognized that he would have to give battle before abandoning Russia's ancient capital, and so he selected the field near Borodino, which he prepared with field fortifications. Despite Alexander's continued prodding, Kutuzov continued the retreat. Kutuzov as overall commander of what was now effectively an army group comprising two armies marching together. As Barclay de Tolly became aware of this movement, he decided once again that discretion was the better part of valor and withdrew from Smolensk rather than risk losing his army.ДЇrustrated by this continued retreating and also by the bickering between Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, neither of whom was prepared to take orders from the other, Alexander appointed Mikhail I. Napoleon, however, attempted to envelop the Russian position rather than attack head-on. Facing ever-increasing pressure from Tsar Alexander to fight, Barclay de Tolly prepared to accept battle supported by Smolensk's impressive walls. Barclay de Tolly and Bagration naturally wished to link up before they accepted battle, but were unable to do so before reaching Smolensk in mid-August. The Russian armies had been drawn up with a considerable gap between them, and Napoleon drove right through it, intending to keep them separated. The plan was abandoned and the retreat began when the Russians realized that Napoleon's force was more than twice as large as they had believed.

Bagration's Second Army was to fall on the French rear, destroying the invading army. While Napoleon attacked the camp, Peter I. When Napoleon crossed the frontier, Barclay de Tolly intended to have his First Army withdraw to a fortified camp at Drissa, luring Napoleon's main body behind it. Barclay de Tolly, quickly changed the plan. Originally Russia had contemplated an invasion of French-held Poland, but the Russian commander, Mikhail B. Napoleon contributed to his own disaster by failing to provide adequately for an extended campaign in terms both of supplies and of reinforcements.

Although winter played a role in the deaths of tens of thousands of French soldiers during the retreat, Russia won the campaign through a skillful withdrawal and the careful selection of battlefields. Napoleon crossed the Russian frontier on June 24, 1812, with more than 650,000 troops, and just a few months later recrossed the frontier, defeated, with less than one-tenth of that number. Specially those electrical ones.The French war of 1812 was one of the most decisive conflicts of modern times. So don't be so proud and blind to say you won with Napoleon by yourselves.Napoleon errors, harsh winter, to large area of war operations for these times, support from England(every war you waged with France at that time was financed by London), persistent guerilla war in Spain, treacherous Talleyrand(and other russian agents), all of them contributed to a very sad end of Napoleons and in particular ours(polish) ambitions(freedom).ДЄs for lice and other bugs I've heard you have a major problem with them in Russia. It is also worth noting that the fiercest and most experienced French soldiers were in the mean time involved in Spain. 100k Poles and 270k French, the rest was not so faithful Italians, Belgians, Germans, etc. And taking numbers from my memory Napoleonic Army(Grand Army) counted something over half a million of soldiers. Only faithful and organized soldiers were French(because they loved Napoleon) and Poles(because we fought for regaining our country). The army he took with himself was a conglomeration of nations without interest in Napoleon triumph. Also he should have ended his campaign in Spain before venturing into Russia. Also I came to believe that he made a mistake in taking such a large army. Should he have decided to plan the campaign for few years he would have won. Napoleon lost because he didn't decide to lay off his plans of conquering Russia in one year. Not only winter was a major factor in Napoleon defeat, but also you won only because your strategy was planned by Scotsman not a native Russian.

War of 1812 mod napoleon total war