Battle of the Berezina (1812): Napoleon's Desperate Crossing

The Battle of the Berezina, fought from 26 to 29 November 1812, was the most dramatic episode of Napoleon’s retreat from Russia. Trapped between a swollen, ice-filled river and converging Russian armies, the remains of the Grande Armée escaped thanks to two bridges built by engineers working in freezing water. Napoleon and his best troops got across, but the scenes on the riverbank were so terrible that in French “Bérézina” became a word for utter disaster.

Background: the retreat from Moscow

The French invasion of Russia began in June 1812 with more than 400,000 men in the first wave. After the bloody Battle of Borodino Napoleon entered Moscow in September, but the city burned and Tsar Alexander I refused to negotiate. The army left Moscow on 19 October and began a long retreat westward.

Hunger, cold, disease and Cossack raids destroyed the army as it marched. By the time it neared the Berezina in late November, Napoleon commanded perhaps 40,000–50,000 effective soldiers, followed by a similar or larger crowd of stragglers, wounded men and civilians.

The trap closes

The Russian plan aimed to catch Napoleon at the Berezina. Admiral Pavel Chichagov’s army, coming up from the south, seized the town of Borisov on 21 November and destroyed its bridge. General Peter Wittgenstein approached from the north, while Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov’s main army followed the French from the east.

The French had a further problem. An unexpected thaw had broken up the ice, so the river could neither be walked across nor easily forded, and Napoleon had earlier ordered the army’s heavy pontoon train to be burned. General Jean-Baptiste Eblé, commander of the pontonniers (bridge-building engineers), had saved tools, forges and charcoal, which proved decisive.

Building the bridges

Cavalry scouts found a ford near the village of Studzianka, about 12 kilometres north of Borisov. To mislead the Russians, Marshal Nicolas Oudinot staged demonstrations south of Borisov, and Chichagov moved much of his force downstream.

On the morning of 26 November Eblé’s men, roughly 400 pontonniers, many of them Dutch, began building two trestle bridges with timber taken from the houses of Studzianka. They worked for hours up to their shoulders in icy water, in shifts. The first bridge, for infantry and cavalry, was ready around 1 pm; the second, stronger bridge for artillery and wagons followed later that afternoon. Both broke several times and had to be repaired under pressure.

The crossing and the fighting

Oudinot’s corps crossed first and secured the western bank. Napoleon and the Imperial Guard crossed on 27 November. On 28 November heavy fighting broke out on both banks: on the west, Oudinot and Marshal Michel Ney held off Chichagov’s attacks in the forests near Brili, while on the east, Marshal Claude Victor’s IX Corps fought a stubborn rearguard action against Wittgenstein. Oudinot was wounded during the day.

One French division under General Louis Partouneaux lost its way and surrendered to the Russians on the night of 27–28 November. As Russian artillery fired on the crossing, panic spread among the thousands of stragglers who had not used the quieter hours to cross. Men, horses and wagons jammed the approaches, and many people were crushed or pushed into the river.

Burning the bridges

Victor’s rearguard crossed during the night of 28–29 November. Eblé delayed as long as he dared and urged the stragglers to cross, but many refused to leave their campfires in the dark. On the morning of 29 November, with Russian troops approaching, he ordered the bridges set on fire. Thousands of people left on the eastern bank were killed or captured.

Key people

• Napoleon directed the operation and crossed with the Guard on 27 November.
• Jean-Baptiste Eblé saved the army with his bridges; worn out by the campaign, he died at Königsberg on 31 December 1812.
• Pavel Chichagov, commander of the Russian Army of the Danube, was widely blamed in Russia for letting Napoleon escape.
• Peter Wittgenstein pressed the French from the north and east.
• Nicolas Oudinot, Michel Ney and Claude Victor commanded the French forces that held the crossing.

By the numbers

Consequences and legacy

The Berezina did not destroy Napoleon, but it marked the effective end of the Grande Armée as a fighting force. On 5 December, at Smorgon, Napoleon left the army and hurried to Paris to raise new troops and secure his throne. Only a small fraction of the men who had entered Russia recrossed the Niemen in December.

Historians still argue whether the Berezina was a French success or a defeat. Militarily, Napoleon escaped a trap set by three armies. In human terms it was a catastrophe, and the phrase “c’est la Bérézina” passed into French as a byword for disaster. Within a year the armies that had survived Russia were defeated again at the Battle of Leipzig.

Timeline

• 1812, 19 October: Napoleon’s army leaves Moscow.
• 1812, 21 November: Chichagov’s Russians capture Borisov and destroy its bridge.
• 1812, 26 November: Eblé’s pontonniers build two bridges at Studzianka; Oudinot crosses.
• 1812, 27 November: Napoleon and the Imperial Guard cross the Berezina.
• 1812, 28 November: Heavy fighting on both banks; panic at the bridges.
• 1812, 29 November: Eblé orders the bridges burned.
• 1812, 5 December: Napoleon leaves the army at Smorgon for Paris.

Why it matters

The Berezina crossing showed both the skill and the cost of Napoleon’s war in Russia. The engineers’ feat let the Emperor escape to fight again, but the disaster on the riverbank symbolised the ruin of the largest army Europe had yet seen and opened the way to the collapse of French power in Germany.