The whole army which marched to Russia consisted of 620 thousand men.
The question of subsistence for this immense body occupied Napoleon
chiefly. He felt the extraordinary difficulty and great danger, he knew
that at the moment of coming in contact with the enemy all the corps would
be out of supplies in twenty or twenty-five days if there were no great
reserves of bread, biscuit, rice, etc., closely following the army.
His system was that of requisition. To secure the needed supplies the
commanders of the corps were ordered to seize in the country all the grain
which could be found and at once to convert it into flour, with methodic
activity.
Napoleon himself superintended and hastened the work. At twenty different
places along the Vistula he had the grinding done unceasingly, distributing
the flour thus obtained among the corps and expediting its transport by
every possible means. He even invented new measures for this purpose, among
which the well-known formation of battalions of cattle, an immense rolling
stock destined to follow the columns to serve twofold: for transportation
of provisions, and finally as food.
With the beginning of June these supreme preparations had been made or
seemed to have been made. In the lands through which the troops were to
march before they reached the Niemen, the spring had done its work; there
was abundance of forage.
Napoleon had impatiently awaited this time during ten months of secret
activity.
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