Battle of Borodino

Belligerents

RussiaCommanders and leaders

Napoleon I

L.-N. Davout (WIA)

Auguste J.-G. de Caulaincourt †

Michel Ney

Joachim Murat

Eugène de Beauharnais

Józef A. Poniatowski

Mikhail Kutuzov

Michael A. Barclay de Tolly

Pyotr Bagration (DOW)

Karl W. von Toll

Aleksey Yermolov

Nikolay Tuchkov (DOW)

Nikolay Raevsky

Matvei Platov

Fyodor UvarovStrength

103,000–135,000
• approx. 109,500 engaged

...see § Opposing forces

125,000–160,000
• approx. 122,200 engaged, including 10,000 irregulars

...see § Opposing forcesCasualties and losses 30,000–42,000 killed, wounded or missing
50 generals
...see § Casualties 40,000–53,000 killed, wounded or missing
29 generals
...see § Casualties

The Battle of Borodino or the Battle of the Moskva took place on the outskirts of Moscow near the village of Borodino on 7 September 1812, during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The Grande Armée fought against the Imperial Russian Army.

After the Russian retreat at the Battle of Smolensk, the road to Moscow lay open. Napoleon fought against General Mikhail Kutuzov, whom the Emperor Alexander I had appointed to replace Barclay de Tolly on 29 August after Smolensk was razed and captured by the French and Polish forces. Approximately a quarter of a million soldiers were involved in the battle, and it was the bloodiest single day of the Napoleonic Wars. In the battle, up to 50 French generals and marshals were killed or wounded, as well as 29 Russian generals; hence Sir Robert Wilson referred to it as the Battle of the Generals.

After the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon remained on the battlefield with his army; the Imperial Russian forces retreated southwards. What followed was the French occupation of Moscow, while the retreating Russians resorted to scorched earth tactics to trap Napoleon and his men within their own largest city. The main results of the battle were that Napoleon managed to take the Russian strong but unfinished defensive positions: the redoubt and the flèches, though he was unable to end the war as he hoped. In particular, Napoleon's reluctance to deploy his Imperial Guard, as he wished to negotiate with Alexander to make him re-join against the British, has been widely criticized by historians as a large blunder, as it allowed the Russian army to retreat into territory increasingly hostile to the French.