The Battle of the Berezina took place from November 26 to 29, 1812 near of the Berezina River (in present-day Belarus), between the French army of Napoleon I and the Russian armies of Kutusov, Wittgenstein and Tchitchagov, after the failure of the Russian Campaign
Five months after crossing the Niemen on June 24, the Grande Armée retreated and found itself facing a wide marshy river:the Berezina. The Russian armies rely on this natural obstacle to block Napoleon's army and thus annihilate it.
The retreat from Russia took place in poor conditions:the winter was early and very harsh. Exposed on its flank by the army of Wittgenstein, pursued by that of Kutousov, and blocked by the Berezina whose Russian army of Tchitchagov had controlled the Borisov bridge since the day before, the Grande Armée found itself, on the morning of November 22, 1812 , in dire straits.
Procedure
On November 23, the Russians were waiting for the French at Borisov and Napoleon decided to organize a diversionary maneuver there to allow the crossing of the Berezina 15 km below, opposite the village of Stoudienka, where General Corbineau had identified a possible passage. .
The success of the operation depends on the very rapid construction of two bridges at Stoudienka. Working in icy water on November 26, 27 and 28, General Eblé's bridge builders built and maintained these two structures, which the Grande Armée crossed on the 26th, at 1 p.m., despite the opposition of the three Russian armies.
During the night, Tchitchagov realizes his mistake but cannot intervene immediately. Chichagov, Wittgenstein and Kutusov's vanguard took the offensive on the 28th around 8 a.m.
Faced with Wittgenstein's army, before the enemy forces which increased as time passed, Marshal Victor with 10,000 men defended the heights of Stoudienka all day, while 800 Fournier horsemen distinguished themselves by charging repeatedly Russian cavalry and infantry. As the crossing ends, the night interrupts the fighting and Victor takes the opportunity to pass in turn on the right bank.
Later, when the bulk of the army had already crossed the Berezina, many stragglers were still on the other side. Eblé sends several times to say around the bivouacs, that the bridges will be destroyed at dawn on the 29th to protect the retreat. Cars are set on fire to convince latecomers of the urgency to cross, but most of the stragglers, exhausted, preferring to wait for daylight, remain deaf to these injunctions.
After having postponed the deadline as much as possible, the two bridges were set on fire at 8:30 a.m. The left bank of the Berezina then offered the tragic spectacle of men, women and children rushing through the flames of the bridges. or attempting to swim across.
The Russian Cossacks, finding the passage cleared after Victor's departure, arrived at 9:30 a.m. They seized the spoils abandoned by the Grand Army and took many prisoners.
The combat formations, the General Staff and the artillery of the Grande Armée crossed the Berezina, but this undeniable military success has the bitter taste of the many losses suffered, which will be evaluated at around 30,000 men, dead or prisoners. /P>
One of the main sources for this episode of the wars of the Revolution and the Empire are the memoirs of General Rostopchine (father of the Comtesse de Ségur), Histoire de Napoléon et de la Grande Armée pour l'année 1812, published in 1824.
This passage has inspired many artists. We can cite in particular:
* Balzac, who wrote L'Adieu (1830), which portrays a woman separated from the French soldier whom she loved during the passage of the Bérézina, and who has since gone mad (Scenes from military life and Philosophical study);
* Tolstoy, who wrote War and Peace (1864), whose epic story of a Russian family in the 19th century is an opportunity to illustrate man's powerlessness in the face of the vagaries of History.
The word “berezina” has come into common parlance as a synonym for rout, bitter failure