Napoleon began preparing for the war. He secured the support of Austria and Prussia since even though neither was in any position to refuse. Emperor Francis of Austria provided 34,000 men to cover the French but sent secret messages to St. Petersburg assuring Alexander that Austrian hostilities would be kept to a minimum. Prussia though was placed in a less fortunate position. With Berlin occupied by French and most of their 1807 debt to be paid it had no alternative but to provide 25,000 men and supply quarters and rations for the entire army. The rest of Napoleon's Grand Army came from the many countries under his direct control. The Kingdom of Italy sent 45,000 men, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw 35,000. T

Napoleon's intention was to put his army into winter quarters in the Smolensk, Vitebsk, and Minsk areas where there were enormous amounts of supplies that were guarded by the troops of Marshal Victor. His orders were for the move to take place on the Kaluga road because the direct road was already stripped bare of all provisions. Murat's defeat at Vinkovo pressured him to put the evacuation forward by one day. On October 19th hundreds of troops, led by the advance guard of Prince Eugene and his Italian troops, poured out of Moscow in 'Three Great Columns' and began moving towards Smolensk.

At Smolensk, Barclay's army was anxiously guarding the city's right side. Napoleon though swung around to the Russian's left side, crossed the Dnieper River and attacked the city from the south. A courageous rearguard action by a group of 9,500 Russian soldiers under General Neverovsky gained enough time for the First and Second Western Armies to unite in the city and hear Barclay's command. Bargation and most of the generals were determined to make a stand but Barclay disagreed with them. He recognized that his heavily outnumbered army would be destroyed in a battle and insisted on a retreat. He overrode the generals' decision to stand and ordered a retreat on August 17th.

When the French finally reached Smolensk on November 8th they found that Marshal Victor and his troops had marched north to hold Witetgenstein back and they had taken most of the provisions with them. The distribution of what remained was extremely unfair, with many troops getting nothing. By this time the army was down to 49,000 men. Napoleon decided to continue the retreat. On November 15th though, General Miloradovitch, commanding Kutusov's advanced guard, ambushed the Italian corps. Prince Eugene and his men fought their way out with 900 men left from the original 5,000. Napoleon had another problem when on November 18th, Kutusov's army cut off the French rearguard, which consisted of 15,000 men under the control of Davout and Ney. Napoleon turned back to rescue the two marshals. Davout and Ney eventually made it back to the rest of the army on November 21st with 850 men left.

defeat Barclay while Eugene and Jerome kept Bagration busy. The Czar had adopted a plan made by Ernst von Phull, a Prussian colonel. His plan was more of a defensive strategy. He planned that Barclay would fall back 150 miles to the town of Drissa on the East Bank of the Dvina River. There, Barclay's army would remain in a camp fortified and entrenched and wait for Napoleon. The Czar gave Barclay the task of coordinating the movements of the First and Second Armies according to the plan. Bagration (commander of the Second Army) though was a higher-ranking officer than Barclay and did not want to listen to anything Barclay had to say. This produced some problems in the future.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2999
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)