Napoleon's Buttons
October 1812: the notoriously frigid Russian winter was approaching. Napoleon and his Grande Armée were in Moscow. Moscow was a ghost town when they arrived, but Russian patriots stayed behind to torment the invaders, setting fires the following morning. Now there was no chance that Napoleon and his men could spend the winter there. The Russians had seen to it that food would be in brutally short supply for the enemy by implementing a scorched-earth policy, dictating what Napoleon would do next, with temperatures steadily plummeting in the ghost town that was Moscow. Napoleon had decided to retreat from the city, but only after receiving word that there were supplies to be had at Kaluga, 150 kilometres to the southwest. He sent his handsome adopted son on ahead. There was no question that Eugène de Beauharnais, the handsome only son of Empress Joséphine would not have accompanied Napoleon to Russia, considering how...
