They had now to march 75 miles, a three days' march to arrive there.
The conditions were about the same as those on the march from the Beresina
to Wilna. Still the same misery, frost, and hunger, scenes of murder, fire.
The description of the details would in general be a repetition, with
little variation.
The following is an account of the last days of the retreat taken from a
letter of Berthier to the Emperor.
When the army entered Wilna on December 8th., almost all the men were
chilled by cold, and despite the commands of Murat and Berthier, despite
the fact that the Russians were at the gates, both officers and soldiers
kept to their quarters and refused to march.
However, on the 10th, the march upon Kowno was begun. But the extreme cold
and the excess of snow completed the rout of the army. The final disbanding
occurred on the 10th, and 11th., only a struggling column remained,
extending along the road, strewn with corpses, setting out at daybreak to
halt at night in utter confusion. In fact, there was no army left. How
could it have subsisted with 25 degrees of cold? The onslaught, alas, was
not of the foe, but of the harshest and severest of seasons fraught with
crippling effect and untold suffering.
Berthier, as well as Murat, would have wished to remain in Kowno through
the 12th., but the disorder was extreme. Houses were pillaged and sacked,
half the town was burned down, the Niemen was being crossed at all points,
and it was impossible to stem the tide of fugitives.
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