War And Peace: Book 15 - CHAPTER IV

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AFTER THE ENGAGEMENT at Vyazma, where Kutuzov could not restrain his troops

in their desire to break through, to cut off and all the rest of it, the further

march of the flying French, and of the Russians flying after them, continued as

far as Krasnoe without a battle. The flight was so rapid that the Russian army

racing after the French could not catch them up; the horses of the cavalry and

artillery broke down, and information as to the movements of the French was

always very uncertain.

The Russian soldiers were so exhausted by this unbroken march at the rate of

forty versts a day that they were unable to quicken their pace.

To form an idea of the degree of exhaustion of the Russian army, one need

only grasp clearly what is meant by the fact that while losing no more than five

thousand killed and wounded, and not a hundred prisoners, the Russian army,

which had left Tarutino a hundred thousand strong, numbered only fifty thousand

on reaching Krasnoe.

The rapidity of the Russian pursuit had as disintegrating an effect on the

Russian army as the flight of the French had on their army. The only difference

was that the Russian army moved at its own will, free from the menace of

annihilation that hung over the French, and that the sick and stragglers of the

French were left in the hands of their enemy, while Russian stragglers were at

home among their own people. The chief cause of the wasting of Napoleon's army

was the rapidity of its movements, and an indubitable proof of that is to be

seen in the corresponding dwindling of the Russian army.

Just as at Tarutino and at Vyazma, all Kutuzov's energies were directed to

preventing—so far as it lay in his power—any arrest of the fatal flight of the

French from being checked (as the Russian generals in Petersburg, and also in

the army, wished it to be). He did all he could to urge on the flight of the

French, and to slacken the speed of his own army.

In addition to the exhaustion of the men, and the immense losses due to the

rapidity of their movements, Kutuzov saw another reason for slackening the pace,

and not being in a hurry. The object of the Russian army was the pursuit of the

French. The route of the French was uncertain, and therefore the more closely

our soldiers followed the heels of the French, the greater the distances they

had to traverse. It was only by following at a considerable distance that they

could take advantage of short cuts across the zig-zags made by the French in

their course. All the skilful man

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1. Ebooks list page : 85
2. War And Peace: Book 4 - CHAPTER V
3. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER III
4. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER II
5. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER I
6. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER IV
7. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XIX
8. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XVI
9. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XV
10. War And Peace: Book 3 - CHAPTER XIV
11. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER V
12. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER VI
13. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XIX
14. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XVI
15. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XIV
16. War And Peace: Book 2 - CHAPTER XV