Battle of Berezina

The battle of the Berezina, fought from 26th to 29th November 1812, was the desperate river crossing that saved the remnant of the Grande Armée from destruction during the retreat from Moscow. After the Russians stormed Borisov and took the bridges, three Russian forces converged on the fleeing French. Éblé's engineers built two trestle bridges over the icy river near Studienka in under a day, partly from the timbers of wrecked houses; Oudinot's and Victor's corps held off the attacks on both banks while stragglers massed in their thousands. The crossings held through two days of ferocious fighting, though the crowds on the banks suffered horribly and the rearguard bridges were burned while stragglers were still on them. Twenty to thirty thousand French combatants fell and at least ten thousand Russians; the army escaped, but it was no longer an army. The crossing became proverbial: to survive one's Berezina entered several languages as shorthand for a narrow, costly escape.