The Battle of Borodino

Revisiting Napoleon's Bloodiest Day

French Order of Battle
(Graphics: extremely slow: 639K)

by LTC Villahermosa and Matt DeLaMater
artwork by Mark Churms and Steven Palatka

Each bock represents an infantry regiment, with the number inside indicating how many battalions. Each triangle represents a cavalry squadron. Each cannon represents a battery of artillery. Unless otherwise noted, foot batteries has six 6pdrs and two howitzers. Horse artillery had four 6pdrs and two howitzers. In addition, two 3- or 4-pdrs were attached to each infantry regiment.

The Russian army had 179 bttns plus four divisions of opolchenie (militia) vs. the French Grande Armee's 229 bttns. Napoleon enjoyed a significant advantage in cavalry (288 sqds vs. Russia's 195). Russia's 672 total guns (56 batteries of 12 guns each) faced 600 French cannon (71 batteries of usually 8 guns each plus 2 light cannon attached to infantry regiments). The constricted area of the battlefield and untimely death of Kutaisov resulted in this advantage being wasted. Overall, Napoleon deployed 130,000 troops vs. Kutuzov's 120,000.

OOBs were created based primarily on Nafziger's Napoleon's Invasion of Russia. Additional uniform info was provided by Jim Stathes. Layout by D.L. McElhannon.

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