Qualla: Battle of Berezina

Battle of Berezina: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter von Hess, Public domain. The word entered the French language as a noun. A berezina is a catastrophe — a disaster so total that it has its own grammar. Napoleon Bonaparte gave that word to French in late November 1812 when he led the surviving fragments of an army that had been six hundred thousand strong across a small Belarusian river called the Berezina. Tens of thousands died on the bridges or in the water or on the eastern bank when the engineers, on Napoleon's orders, set the bridges on fire with people still on them. The Emperor escaped. That, too, is part of the word.

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Image: Peter von Hess | Public domain

Battle of Berezina: What Was Left

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gravure allemande, Public domain. Napoleon had entered Russia in June 1812 with somewhere between six hundred and twelve thousand and seven hundred thousand men, depending on how you count the various reinforcements. By late November, retreating from Moscow toward Poland, his combat strength was down to roughly 4...

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Image: Gravure allemande | Public domain

Battle of Berezina: Studienka

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Julian Fałat / Wojciech Kossak, Public domain. The bridge at Borisov had been burned. Napoleon's army reached Bobr, fifty kilometres short, and there learned that a French cavalry brigade had found a place where the Berezina might be crossed — a hamlet called Studienka, eight miles north. November normally would have meant so...

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Image: Julian Fałat / Wojciech Kossak | Public domain

Battle of Berezina: The Crossing

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit January Suchodolski, Public domain. The French ruse — a feint south of Borisov, made to look convincing — drew Admiral Chichagov's main force away from Studienka, and on the morning of November 26 Napoleon's advance party crossed and secured the west bank. The smaller bridge was finished by 1 p.m. and the infantry ...

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Image: January Suchodolski | Public domain

Battle of Berezina: The Stampede

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Feist, M. (ca fl. 1800-1820) - amateur painter, Public domain. The bombardment turned the eastern bank into a panic. People who had walked from Moscow rushed for the bridges or jumped into the river to swim, and almost none of them made it across the freezing water. Victor's corps, the actual rearguard, finally crossed at around ten that nig...

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Image: Feist, M. (ca fl. 1800-1820) - amateur painter | Public domain

Battle of Berezina: Aftermath

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Felician Myrbach, Public domain. Twenty to thirty thousand French combatants died at Berezina. Roughly the same number of non-combatants died — the camp followers, the wounded, the wives, the canteen-keepers, the children. The Cossacks rounded up tens of thousands more on the eastern bank as prisoners. Napoleon ...

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Image: Felician Myrbach | Public domain