This week marked the bicentennial of the passage of the Berezina and the battles of Brili and Studianka.
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We now enter the last month of the bicentennial of the campaign of 1812. You can follow the final, dramatic and terrible events of the retreat/pursuit thanks to these intrepid bloggers:
• Scott Armstrong with Napoleon in Russia, which has been mentioned previously on the blog;
• MurdocK with the posts on his blog, also mentioned previously here;
• The Retreat from Russia Killed Me (La Retraite de Russie m'a tué), a wonderful Facebook page that I have only recently 'discovered' (thanks to a link on Scott's blog).
The last is a Facebook page that has been following François Vandevoorde of the 21e ligne as he marched into and out of Russia, only to 'disappear' at Vilnius in December 1812—who can forget the discovery of that mass grave in late 2001, an event that has since been much studied? (Read more about Vandevoorde at Sylvie J's blog).
Fortunately this page does not require Facebook membership to view—I don't want to encourage Zuckerberg any more than is necessary(!). It is particularly fabulous to see the use of figures (1/32nd?) to provide many of the 'illustrations'.
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There have been some marvellous bicentennial games undertaken by Napoleonic wargamers across the world, links to which can be found in the tab 1812 : 2012 above. Links to further games will be posted as they are conducted and/or we become aware of them.
One such was a game of the Battle of Vinkovo (Tarutino) using the scenario from Vae Victus that was recently staged by the Association of Riflemen. See the report on their blog, complete with Phil's usual marvellous special effects!
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There is also a report of the second part of the Second Battle of Krasnoe, 17th November 1812* from the Atelier's of Portes d'Argent.
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(* I consider the First Battle to be the rearguard action by Neverovski on 14th August 1812, which disrupted Napoleon's turning movement on Smolensk, probably saving Barclay's army from disaster).
We now enter the last month of the bicentennial of the campaign of 1812. You can follow the final, dramatic and terrible events of the retreat/pursuit thanks to these intrepid bloggers:
• Scott Armstrong with Napoleon in Russia, which has been mentioned previously on the blog;
• MurdocK with the posts on his blog, also mentioned previously here;
• The Retreat from Russia Killed Me (La Retraite de Russie m'a tué), a wonderful Facebook page that I have only recently 'discovered' (thanks to a link on Scott's blog).
The last is a Facebook page that has been following François Vandevoorde of the 21e ligne as he marched into and out of Russia, only to 'disappear' at Vilnius in December 1812—who can forget the discovery of that mass grave in late 2001, an event that has since been much studied? (Read more about Vandevoorde at Sylvie J's blog).
Fortunately this page does not require Facebook membership to view—I don't want to encourage Zuckerberg any more than is necessary(!). It is particularly fabulous to see the use of figures (1/32nd?) to provide many of the 'illustrations'.
One such was a game of the Battle of Vinkovo (Tarutino) using the scenario from Vae Victus that was recently staged by the Association of Riflemen. See the report on their blog, complete with Phil's usual marvellous special effects!
There is also a report of the second part of the Second Battle of Krasnoe, 17th November 1812* from the Atelier's of Portes d'Argent.
(* I consider the First Battle to be the rearguard action by Neverovski on 14th August 1812, which disrupted Napoleon's turning movement on Smolensk, probably saving Barclay's army from disaster).