Dealing first with the invaders—
The Imperial Guard, Grand Head-quarters, the Cavalry Reserve, and the bulk of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Army Corps were encamped, under Napoleon’s personal command, in the environs of Moscow. About Mozhaïsk was the 8th Corps, under Junot, the total combatant strength of this, the original Grand or Central Army, including engineers, gendarmerie, etc., being nearly 125,000 men.
At Viasma was a column of drafts under General Evers, which with the garrisons at Gzhatsk and elsewhere may be estimated at about 5000 men.
About Smolensk there were the 129th and Illyrian regiments from Ney’s corps, three 3rd battalions of the Vistula Legion, and some of the Hesse-Darmstadt Guards belonging to the Imperial Guard, a Mecklenburg regiment and a battalion of the 33rd Léger (1st Corps); a Polish cavalry regiment (5th Corps); and about 8000 men in régiments de marche—say 16,000 in all, including 1500 cavalry under General Baraguay d’Hilliers.
In the neighbourhood of Smolensk also was cantoned the 9th Corps, under Victor, some 26,000 strong.
At Vitebsk and in its neighbourhood were a battalion of the 9th Corps and a few drafts—say 1000 men.
Between Smolensk and Orsha there were in garrison perhaps 3000 men—drafts, convalescents, engineers, and Polish levies.
At Mohilev were 1 infantry and 1 cavalry regiment of Dombrowski’s division, about 1500 men. The rest of the division, about 5500 men with 20 guns, was spread to the south-westward.
At Minsk and Borisov and scattered about the neighbourhood there were 2 weak French battalions, some depôt troops of various nations, a weak Württemberg infantry regiment, and 4 battalions and 4 squadrons of untrustworthy Lithuanian levies—less than 6000 in all, under General Bronikowski. At Slonim General Konopka was organising the new Lithuanian Lancer Regiment of the Guard, which with a few other levies may be estimated at 1000 men.
Between Minsk and Kovno there were various depôts, régiments de marche, and a number of Polish and Lithuanian levies, totalling perhaps 14,000 men, and Coutard’s brigade of the 9th Corps, 2500 strong.