3. Napoleon’s Dramatic Recovery from Catastrophe
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 was disastrous. He went in with history’s biggest army to date, 685,000 strong, and came out with 120,000 cold and hungry survivors. The debacle shattered Napoleon’s dominance of Europe, as client states and subject nations shook off French hegemony. Racing back to France, he raised an army equivalent in size to the one recently lost, but of lower quality and experience than the veteran force destroyed in Russia.
Marching into Germany to reassert French dominance, Napoleon won some victories. However, he was unable to follow up with a decisive win because his enemies avoided battle with him, falling upon his subordinates instead, whom they defeated as often as not. By October 1813, the allies were confident enough to challenge Napoleon directly, and the showdown took place at Leipzig between Napoleon’s army of 225,000, and a 380,000-strong coalition of his enemies.
