of December: "Pilgrims of the Grand Army, who had
withstood many a severe frost indeed, dropped like flies, and of those who
were well nourished, well clothed--many of these being of the reserve corps
having but recently come from Wilna to join the retreating army,--countless
numbers fell exactly like the old exhausted warriors who had dragged
themselves from Moscow to this place."
The reserve troops of which Roeder speaks were the division Loison, the
last great body of men that had followed the army. They had been in
Koenigsberg and had marched from there to Wilna during the month of
November, had remained in the latter place until December 4th., when they
were sent to protect the retreating soldiers and the Emperor himself, on
leaving the wreck of his once grand army at Smorgoni on December 5th.
These troops who thus far had not sustained any hardships, came directly
from the warm quarters of Wilna into the terrible cold.
It was quite frightful, says Roeder, to see these men, who a moment before
had been talking quite lively, drop dead as if struck by lightning.
D. Geissler, a Weimaranian surgeon, renders a similar report and adds that
in some cases these victims suffered untold agonies before they died.
Lieutenant Jacobs states that some said good bye to their comrades and laid
down along the road to die, that others acted like maniacs, cursed their
fate, fell down, rose again, and fell down once more, never to rise again.
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