The Invasion of Russia 1812 - Death toll and head count

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pesja

Sergeant Knight at Arms
I'm preparing for my history exam, and I've noticed a difference in two of the textbooks I'm using. In the one we use in our class they have numbered the amount of troops Napoleon brought to Russia to 600.000 and his loss to 400.000. Just now I noticed that the other textbook I've borrowed numbered his troops to 400.000 and his loss to 380.000.

Even though this has nothing to do with the subject I'm having my exam in, I decided to double check with Wikipedia just to clarify which book has it wrong. First I go to .no (Norwegian.) Numbers are: 600.000 in, 10.000 out. Checks Wikiepdia in English, which seems like the most credible source so far, and they list: 650.000 in, 27.000 fit soldiers out.

Just wondering, what is the correct number here?
 
Ah, "le grande armé", in history channel they said it was about 400.000 men, don't know how much they've lost thought
 
It depends on which troops you count.  Napolean had 1st line combat troops, troops necessary to cover their flanks, troops to occupy hostile conquered territory already within the Empire and what he expected to gain in Russia, plus all the service and supply troops.

Here's what The Campaigns of Napolean, by David G. Chandler, says:

1st Line:  Main combat element
A.  Schwerepunkt:  440,000 men in 3 armies.  Most of these were Frenchmen.
B.  Flank and rear guards of advance, feint attacks:  216,500 men in 2 armies and 2 independent corps.  Most of these were "allies", and most of them were resentful, repressed, conquered nations.

1st Line Total:  656,500 troops

2nd Line:  Reserves and replacements for 1st Line
165,000 men in several corps.  Most of these were "allies".

Total 1st and 2nd Lines:  821,500

3rd Line:  Ultimate reserver of last resort
60,000 men in a couple of corps and many rear garrisons along the supply lines.  Most of them were "allies".

Grand Total:  881,500.  I don't now how many of these were service and support.

According to the same book, a total of 655,000 "troops" crossed the Vistula in the summer of 1812, including reinforcements and replacements.

As to casualties, the same book says this:

"In round figures, Napolean lost 570,000 soldiers.  Of these, 370,000 died on the battlefield, or of illness or exposure.  The remaining 200,000 [were captured], but at least half of these unfortunates subsequently perished."

Chandler's book is regarded as pretty good in most circles of Napoleanophiles.  He's wrong here and there, but in general he's pretty solid.
 
Short answer: nobody, not even the actors of Napoleon's Russian campaign, has ever come up with a non-controversial head count for la Grande Armée. Possibly some obscure paper-pushers attached to Napoleon's staff knew how many Frenchmen and allies there were, but if so they never wrote about it. The Russian general Pavel Liprandi, of Crimean War fame, once compiled an exhaustive listing of accounts of the battle of Borodino, by participants and contemporary historians. This didn't even allow to conclude who had had the numerical advantage, much less the exact numbers of troops in presence.
 
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