The aftermath of the battle of Smolensk, through a letter …

Staff officer Nicolas Planat de la Faye, aide-de-camp to General Lariboisière, writes to a friend on the consequences of the battle he witnessed a few days prior …

To Constant D***.

Smolensk, 20 August 1812.

My dear Constant,

We finally caught up with the Russians in front of Smolensk on the 17th of this month.

They held a very strong position. The city, well located, dominating the plain and surrounded by a fifteen foot thick wall, was a tough place to capture. We succeeded, and the Russians are now in full retreat. Yet, all this has cost us much more than the Russians, and the advantage we have gained is more of a moral than a practical nature; that is to say, our soldiers are animated by success and the Russians are discouraged.

We are beginning to look forward to our arrival in Moscow before winter. We are currently only ninety-two leagues away. However, I believe that we will have great difficulty in maintaining ourselves there, having to guard a line of operations stretching three hundred leagues. We ourselves as well as our horses also run the risk of dying of hunger, because the Russians, while withdrawing, leave us nothing to cook.

Everything therefore suggests to me that we will withdraw to the Dnieper and the Dvina, and that we will take up our winter quarters there, unless a decisive affair occurs, but which the Russians avoid as much as they can.

We are exhausted due to fatigue; for three days and three nights we have spent almost without sleeping or eating, and most of the time on horseback. We hope to stay here for eight days, which is essential to recover a little and replenish our supplies.

I always complain that I receive few letters from you; I have only received two in the last three months.

Farewell, my good friend, my heartfelt embrace to you and Henrietta.

Source : Correspondance intime de Planat de la Faye – Supplément à la Vie de Planat, Paul Ollendorff, Paris, 1895, p. 57.