With Napoleon in Russia, 1812. The Diary of Lt H.A. Vossler, a soldier of the Grand Army, 1812-1813

1969

Special Collections DC235 VY86

London: Folio Society

Napoleon (1769-1821) and his allies fought the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) against ‘Coalitions’, usually led by Great Britain. In the summer of 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia. It was a disaster, and the beginning of the end for the Emperor and his Empire. On the march towards Russia, the French allied forces endured the stifling heat of summer with limited supplies of food and water. Despite victories in Smolensk (August) and Moscow (September), the troops suffered further in the oncoming Russian winter. This image, by Faber du Faur (1780-1857), a painter and French allied soldier from the German state of Württemberg, shows du Faur’s fellow troops, ‘famished and half frozen’ near Smolensk in November, 1812.