USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -On September 14, 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 Armee’s winter quarters were destroyed.

Detailed explanation-2: -Cold, starvation, and disease, as well as constant harassment by Cossacks and Russian partisans, resulted in the Grande Armée’s utter destruction as a fighting force.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Russian army refused to engage with Napoleon’s Grande Armée of more than 500, 000 European troops. They simply retreated into the Russian interior. The Grande Armée did not have the supplies or the distribution networks required for such a long march.

Detailed explanation-4: -When the Grande Armée crossed the Niemen River into Russian Lithuania on June 24th, 1812, it numbered some 600 000 soldiers, a fighting force of unprecedented size, drawn from all over Europe. By November, 365 000 of these men were dead, mostly from disease, of which typhus claimed the lion’s share.

Detailed explanation-5: -He planned to confront the Russian army in a major battle, the kind of battle he usually won. Alexander knew this, however, and adopted a clever strategy: instead of facing Napoleon’s forces head on, the Russians simply kept retreating every time Napoleon’s forces tried to attack.