2-365-170 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Moscow on fire, 15th September 1812 (1882-1884). After the indecisive but bloody Battle of Borodino, the Russians abandoned Moscow to Napoleon and the French invaders, setting fire to stores of food before they left. The French occupied and looted the city which, consisting mainly of wooden buildings, was largely destroyed by fire. Hoping for a Russian surrender, Napoleon waited in Moscow for five weeks, but with no capitulation forthcoming, short of food and menaced by Russian manouevres outside the city, he began in mid-October what would become an epic retreat. When the Grande Armee finally crossed the Niemen out of Russian territory on 7th December only 20,000 men out of the original force of over 600,000 remained. A print from La France et les Français à Travers les Siècles, Volume IV, F Roy editor, A Challamel, Saint-Antoine, 1882-1884.