The Battle of Borodino, also known as the Battle of the Moskva, was the largest and bloodiest single-day battle fought during the Napoleonic Wars, involving over 250,000 men. The battle ended without significant tactical gains for either side. The French forces under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte failed to inflict the decisive defeat needed to conclude the campaign on the Russian army, commanded by General Kutuzov. Napoleon strangely took little part in the battle, as he had at Waterloo, suffering from an illness (cold and bladder inflammation), completely neglecting the possibility of outflanking the enemy’s forces on the weak southern flank. Instead, he organized frontal attacks against supposed Russian weak points, managing to capture them after heavy losses, caused primarily by the strength of the enemy artillery in the central redoubt. Napoleon was reluctant to fully commit his reserves, particularly the old guard, because he wanted to conserve some fresh troops. The subsequent retreat of the Russian army after the battle will be forced by strategic reasons and will ultimately lead Napoleon’s army to disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Battle of Borodino, also known as the Battle of the Moskva, was the largest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vg-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n