Battle of Borodino

The Battle of Borodino, on Russian soil, took place on September 7, 1812.  Napoleon’s forces won, but at a cost.  Sir Walter Scott describes the situation in his “Life of Napoleon Buonaparte”:

‘In the road, the army passed Borodino, the scene of the grand battle which exhibited so many vestiges of the French prowess, and of the loss they had sustained. This, the most sanguinary conflict of modern times, had been entirely without adequate advantages to the victors. The momentary possession of Moscow had annihilated every chance of an essential result by the catastrophe which followed, and the army which had been victorious at Borodino, was now escaping from their conquests, surrounded by danger on every hand, and already disorganized on many points, by danger, pain, and privation. At the convent of Kolotskoi, which had been the grand hospital of the French after the battle, many of the wounded were found still alive, though thousands more had perished for want of materials necessary for surgical treatment, food of suitable quality, bandages, and the like. The survivors crawled to the door, and extended their supplicating hands to their countrymen as they passed onwards on their weary march. By Napoleon's orders, such of the patients as were able to bear being moved were placed on the suttlers' carts while the rest were left in the convent, together with some wounded Russian prisoners, whose presence, it was hoped, might be a protection to the French…’