Ukrainian city demolishes monument to Russian general who beat Napoleon.

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15. Scortch Earth was NOT the Russian Policy Against Napoleon, he did that himself....

Last edited Tue Feb 25, 2014, 08:46 PM - Edit history (1)

You must understand the nature of Napoleon's army. In many ways it is the first "Modern" Army in the sense it is made up of Division and Corps. Each Corp had its own supply lines which ran to the divisions in that corp. In history the closest thing to the French Corps was the Roman Legion and the Mongol Tumen. The Division, the Tumen and the Legion ended up with roughly 10,000 men each. The Corps, under Napoleon 30-40,000 men.

This is important for any army maxis out at about 50,000 men. Armies larger then 50,000 is just to hard to supply. The three units above are ways to divide an army into smaller Armies that can be combined on the day of battle. This permit much larger armies for each Division, Legion or Tumen have their own supply lines. Thus Napoleon's army pf over 600,000 men was not one army but 16 Army Corps (in effective 16 armies marching as independent but interrelated Armies). Each of those armies were designed to live off the land. i.e loot the area for Food and fodder. This was often done by Light Cavalry units of such armies, which do to this function had a bad reputation among the peasants. So bad was reputation of Light Cavalry that when General Braddock n Pennsylvania had a problem getting horses for his plan attack on Fort Duquesne later Fort Pitt, today Pittsburgh, in 1754, Ben Franklin send out a letter to the German settlers of Pennsylvania that unless they agree to sell their horse, a Colonel (whose names I forget) "The Hussar" (A Polish Term for Light Cavalry that became a European wide term by the mid 1700s) would go out and get them himself. The term was used to put fear in those Germans, who came up with the horses. That is how bad Light Cavalry was held by the peasants not only of Europe but even the US.

Anyway, the Light Cavalry would spread out from their base units and steal anything not nailed down, including food and fodder, leaving whole areas barren. Wellington Notice this in his Spanish Campaign against Napoleon's troops and made sure he had food for his troops before he started any attack for the French Army would leave nothing (Wellington's grain supply ended up coming from New England, even after the War of 1812 has started,it was funny, American Ships full of Wheat would sail out New England, after war was declared and be intercepted by a British Frigate who would then escort it to Spain and Wellington. This was the main reason New England opposed the War of 1812, and why when England decided to blockage US Ports in that war, started with Georgia and worked they way up North.

Anyway, I bring up Wellington to show stripping land of everything was characteristic of the French Armies of the Napoleonic Wars. Wellington did not do it, for he had to depend on Spanish support, the French told the Spanish to lump it. When it came to the invasion of Russia, they was no way in 1812 for Napoleon to feed his army of over 600,000 men other then by raping the countryside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_of_the_French_invasion_of_Russia

AS to Moscow, the Russian abandoned the City, but left it intact. The subsequent burning of Moscow occurred as the French Troops, did what they had done in rural area, strip the place bare. In rural area an occasional fire would burn one building, but such a fire would burn much of the city if left uncontrolled. Thus it is after the French Took Moscow and as they troops look around for loot that the city caught on fire and was burned. Notice it was the FRENCH through their own greed that lead to the burning of Moscow. The Russians had just left and burned nothing (through it appears the Russian took all the food with them).

Thus once Napoleon had taken Moscow, he had two choices, stay the winter but that required him to send out his light Cavalry troops to get the food and fodder his men and horse needed and by the time he took Moscow, most crops were in and well hidden. Furthermore all the area between Moscow and Poland had been raped by his army, thus no food or fodder to be gathered. The second choice was to fight south and retreat through the Ukraine.

The Pinsk (Prepet) Marshes separate Russia from the Ukraine as to the Ukraine's northern border. Napoleon's Army had traveled north of the Pinsk Marshes and had stripped it bare. Thus this was Napoleon's first choice but while he won the Battle of Maloyaroslavets on October 24, 1812, that "Victory" told Napoleon he had not yet defeated the Russian Army and thus decided to retreat the way he came. The problem was not only was it Winter but his army on the way To Moscow had already stripped the country side bare. Less then 10% of his army made it back to Poland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinsk_Marshes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maloyaroslavets

I bring this up, for Russia did NOT adopt a Scorch Earth Policy against Napoleon, the Scorch earth policy was the policy of Napoleon's own army. It had been the key to his victory for with that policy Napoleon could field more troops then any other country in Europe. The downside is the peasants quickly turned against such an army. In the early years of the Wars, the peasants had been neutral as to French invasions, for to most peasants who was ruling them did not matter, they still had to pay whatever their "Masters" wanted them to pay. The problem starting with Spain, when Wellington refused to do what the French was doing, and thus was able to turn the Spanish peasants from Neutral to pro-British. Both the Prussians and Russians found this same problem after they had been defeated in the Battle of Jena in 1808, their peasants did not care who won or loss, for it did not affect them. Until what Napoleon was doing with his troops was shown to affect those peasants, those peasants were neutral. When it became clear the French Army was doing much more harm then even the Russian Army was capable of doing, the peasants turned against the French and ended up destroying Napoleon.

Thus it was the Scorch earth policy that came from French Army living off the land that did in Napoleon not any scotch earth policy of the Russians.