Napoleon and the Russians

Napoleon could not risk staying in moscow another day. The russians would soon be able to encircle his now meagre force. On october nineteenth, he marched the remains of his army out of the russian capital. His goal was to get to smolensk as fast as possible. Of the 450 thousand men in his main attack force, some 25 thousand made it back. Few among the rest of the army survived as well. Napoleon had miraculously escaped to fight more wars but he would never recroup his losses in man power and horses.