RETREAT FROM MOSCOW


During the night from October 18th. to October 19th., all soldiers were
busy loading vehicles with provisions and baggage. On October 19th., the
first day of the retreat, forever memorable on account of the misfortune
and heroism which characterized it, the grand army presented a strange
spectacle. The soldiers were in a fair condition, the horses lean and
exhausted. But, above all, the masses following the army were
extraordinary. After an immense train of artillery of 600 cannon, with all
its supplies, came a train of baggage the like of which had never been seen
since the centuries of migration when whole barbarous nations went in
search of new territories for settlement.

The fear that they might run short of rations had caused every regiment,
every battalion, to carry on country wagons all they had been able to
procure of bread and flour; but these wagons carrying provisions were not
the heaviest loaded, not loaded as much as those which were packed with
booty from the conflagration of Moscow; in addition, many soldiers
overtaxing their strength and endurance had filled their knapsacks with
provisions and booty. Most officers had secured light Russian country
wagons to carry provisions and warm clothing. The French, Italian,
and German families, who lived in Moscow and now feared the returning
Russians when again entering their capital, had asked to accompany the
retreating army and formed a kind of a colony among the soldiers; with
these families were also theatrical people and unfortunate women who had
lived in Moscow on prostitution.