POLISH EYEWITNESSES TO NAPOLEON'S 1812 CAMPAIGN: Advance and Retreat in Russia

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Describes Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia from the viewpoint of the tens of thousands of Polish soldiers who took part. Most of their accounts -- letters, diaries, and memoirs -- have not been translated into English before, and they come from a variety of authors. Some of them were patriots who were keen to wage war on the Russians in order to regain independence for their country. Others were charmed by the glory of Napoleonic warfare or were professional soldiers who did their duty but had seen too much war to be seduced by it.

They all tell an unrivaled tale - of muskets and drums and burning villages, of Borodino and Moscow and ruthless battles, and of the numbing hunger and biting cold. By the end the great army had been reduced to a pitiless mob and the Polish soldiers, who had set out with such hope, recalled it with horror