On the 26th, while Kutuzov’s exasperated generals were ordering the retrograde march on Kaluga, Napoleon was commencing the fatal movement which was the beginning of his downfall. The 8th Corps about Mozhaïsk naturally formed the advance-guard; Ney was directed on Mozhaïsk from Borovsk, while the Guard moved back to that place. Mortier was to reach Vereia by the evening, and next day would be rejoined by Roguet’s and Claparède’s divisions. Eugène was to follow in the track of the Guard, while Davout with the 1st Corps and the relics of the 1st and 3rd Cavalry Corps covered the rear. Poniatowski was to move by cross-roads to Gzhatsk to cover the left flank. Finally, Evers, who had moved some way southward towards Yukhnov, was to return to Viasma, and there await the army.
While the French army lay about Maloyaroslavetz it had received repeated proofs of the activity and audacity of the Russian light troops. All the columns had in their turn been alarmed and harassed. On the 25th a body of Cossacks executed a hourra (alarm) upon Borovsk. On the same day Colonel Ilovaïski IX with three regiments of them surprised the advance-guard of the 5th Corps, consisting of a regiment of infantry and two of cavalry under General Tyskiewicz near Kreminskoië, between Vereia and Medyn. Tyskiewicz was captured, and of his force of about 1300 men, 500 were killed, wounded and captured. Ilovaïski also took 5 guns.
In the actual battle of Maloyaroslavetz the forces engaged were nearly equal in number. On the French side there were successively sent into line the 4th Corps and the 3rd and 5th Divisions of the 1st—about 35,000 men in all. The Russians successively engaged about the same numbers—Dokhturov’s force, Dorokhov’s detachment, the 7th Corps, the 3rd and 27th Divisions, and some regiments of Cossacks. The Russians admitted a loss of 4412 killed and wounded and 2753 missing. Very many of the latter, it is to be feared, perished in the burning town, and the actual total cannot be reckoned at less than 6000, quite five-sixths of which fell upon the 20,000 infantry of the 6th and 7th Corps. A heavy loss was that of General Dorokhov, who, being somewhat deaf, miscalculated the distance of musketry fire and was mortally wounded in consequence. Martinien’s lists show something over 300 officers killed and wounded on the French side, and the total of casualties, therefore, would also be about 6000—the vast majority falling upon the 4th Corps. Of its four infantry division commanders, Delzons was killed, and Broussier and Pino were wounded. Two generals of brigade were killed and three wounded. The losses in the various Cossack alarms were probably slight on both sides. The Russians, as aforesaid, captured 11 guns.
THE OPERATIONS IN NAPOLEON’S REAR DURING SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER
The result of the operations on the Düna and in Volhynia had been that by the end of August, Wittgenstein was standing on the defensive at Sivokhino faced by a considerably superior force under St. Cyr, while in Volhynia Tormazov had been driven to cover behind the Styr. He also was opposed by forces considerably larger than his own, but Admiral Chichagov was now advancing fast from Moldavia, and within a few weeks the scale would be turned heavily against the invaders. On August 28th the Tzar and the Crown Prince of Sweden met at Abo. The result was the treaty of Abo, which freed Count Steingell’s Russian army of Finland for service against Napoleon. Reinforcements to the number of about 15,000 men, of whom 10,000 were St. Petersburg militia, were ordered to join Wittgenstein.
To co-ordinate the movements of the widely scattered forces which from Finland to Moldavia were converging upon the theatre of war an elaborate plan of operations was worked out by Alexander and his council. It was far too detailed, required an impossible exactness of co-operation from the commanders, and assumed as complete the processes of reinforcement which had often hardly commenced. In its main lines it was as follows:—
