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Napoleon's goal was to get around Kutuzov, but on the 24th he was stopped at Maloyaroslavets on his way to Medyn and forced to go north on the 26th. After the Battle of Maloyaroslavets , fought with a 1:1 ratio of French and Russian soldiers, Napoleon decided to avoid a decisive battle and marched north via Mozhaisk to Smolensk into a higher ...
Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842) – surgeon to Napoleon; Jacques Lauriston (1768-1828) – The first of two envoys sent to Kutuzov by Napoléon in an attempt to negotiate peace. Lavrushka – Valet to Denisov. A rogue, later valet to Nikolai Rostov. Misled Napoleon. Lazarev – Soldier at Kozlovski's battalion, was awarded a medal by Napoleon.
Orphaned children were adopted by Napoleon personally and were allowed to add "Napoleon" to their baptismal and family names. [89] He could afford this, and much else besides, thanks to the return of financial confidence that swept the country as government bonds leaped from 45% to 66% of their face value on the news of victory.
The battle was a great victory for Kutuzov, boosting the morale of his forces, destroying valuable French cavalry units, and proving that Napoleon's once formidable army could be beaten on the battlefield. One day later, Napoleon started his own retreat from Moscow on the 19 October 1812 southwards in direction of Kaluga. [15]
On Kutuzov's order, Platov and his Cossacks directly followed Napoleon. The next major battle for the Russian army was the Battle of Vyazma on 3 November 1812. [14] Kutuzov "escorted" Napoleon on the more southern roads with better supply of food and shelter, securing the south against the French army.
Having lost contact with Kutuzov over the past two weeks, Napoleon mistakenly assumed that the Russian army had suffered equally due to harsh conditions and was a couple of days behind. [ 36 ] [ 37 ] Underestimating the potential for a Kutuzov-led offensive, Napoleon made the tactical blunder of resuming his retreat.
A week of close escapes on the part of the Russian army followed. Napoleon and Kutuzov even slept on the same bed in the manor of Bolshiye Vyazyomy just one night apart, as the French chased the Russians down. Napoleon and his army entered Moscow on 14 September. To Napoleon's surprise, Kutuzov had abandoned the city, and it fell without a fight.
The Russian Emperor, constrained by Napoleon to sign an armistice with the Turks, used the time of peace to transfer more Russian soldiers from Prussia to Bessarabia. After the southern army was augmented to 80,000 and the hostilities were resumed, the 76-year-old commander-in-chief Prozorovsky made little progress in more than a year.