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Originally Posted by Ceasar  Exactly. Napoleon expected to force Russia into a peace treaty early on and simply did not anticipate the winter retreat. Being one of history's greatest commanders does wonders for one's ego, but one's ego doesn't always do wonders for them. In this case, Napoleon was simply overconfident and could not comprehend that the invasion was doomed. In fact, he didn't realize he wasn't steamrolling until he occupied a deserted Moscow. He simply couldn't have known. For all of his greatness, Napoleon was a general and emperor- not a god. |
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Originally Posted by irishcrusader95 he had studied all the campaigns of previous military giants and knew all the formations and tactical details yet he proved very unwilling to accept anything new such as his disregard for the spanish guerrilla and also for this form of war that the russians were fighting. retreating constantly and scorching the earth had him scratching his head the whole way through and then when at moscow he couldn't understand that alexander does not want to negotiate. as he saw it once you had taken the enemy's (holy)capital they had to then make terms yet it wasn't working this time and he couldn't understand it.
which is why it would have been better to wait at smolensk and try and make the russians advance but that wasn't going to happen as napoleon was in a hurry and had no reason to fear the russians. |
He would've known about Charles XII's failed campaign into Russia, and IIRC some of Napoleon's commanders warned him about invading based on that experience.
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