Between 26-29 November, Napoleon's Grande Armee crossed the Berezina river at Borisov. The losses for Napoleon were great, more than 22,000 French forces would not make it to the other side of the river. Of these casualties, five of them were family members of mine (tragically enough four out of five were brothers as well). Despite the heavy losses, the crossing is seen as a logistic victory as Napoleon with the remnants of his army managed to escape and return to France.
As Napoleon's army reached Bobr, 50km away from Borisov, Napoleon was informed that the bridge at Borisov had been destroyed and the French garrison captured. At the same time a French cavalry brigade discovered a spot where they might be able to cross the river 13km north of Borisov. So on 25th November, the construction of bridges were started by mainly Dutch engineers. The water was close to freezing, only 40 of the 400 Dutch engineers survived the construction of the bridges.
To draw the Russian's attention away from the bridges being built, a diversion was undertaken by Oudinot's corps which led the Russians to believe that the French would either attempt to attack at Borisov and repair the bridge or cross the river south of the place. This resulted in the bulk of the Russian army moving southwards which enabled Napoleon to cross the army.
During the night of 26-27 November, the crossing began but the Russian forces also became aware of the French attempt and tried to return northwards, they were however stopped by Oudinot's battalions. By midday of the 27th, Napoleon and his imperial guard had crossed the river, Marshal Davout's and Prince Eugene's corps also managed to cross the river before the day's end. Meanwhile Marshal Victor's IX corps was given the order to defend against the approaching Russians in order to buy more time for the others to cross. Unfortunately the Dutch regiments were part of Oudinot's forces and most of them sadly died defending the Berezina crossing.
On 28th November, the Russian forces attacked Napoleon's army on both sides of the river. The crossing turned into a completely chaotic stampede as thousands of people, soldiers and stragglers rushed for the bridges. Some of the men tried to swim across the river which was a futile attempt since the water was so cold. There was a mad rush to cross the river since the stragglers knew that the temporary bridges would be destroyed, which happened at 08:00 in the morning on the 29th. tens of thousands of stragglers, both civilian and soldiers, did not manage to cross the river and were now at the mercy of the Russians.
As the bridges were set on fire, the Russians were no longer able to pursue the French army. The French retreat was therefore almost complete, with the Russians no longer on their tail and friendly territory nearby, the remnants of the army had escaped. The casualties were heavy, between 20-30,000 French soldiers died, the IXth corpse was hit particulary heavy as they lost half of their strength trying to protect the bridgehead. Besides the 20-30,000 military casualties, an additional 30,000 noncombatants died as well as result of the crossing and capture by the Russians. 40,000 French soldiers managed to cross the river, with Napoleon's imperial guard still being relatively intact.
Harking back on these relatives of mine, four out of five who died during the Berezina crossing were brothers, but there were other relatives of mine who participated in the Russia campaign, nine to be precies, of the 14 family members who served under Napoleon. Only two out of these nine relatives survived the Russia campaign, which is why those two are my 3rd great grandfathers and the other six are my 3rd great grand uncles as they all died young without partners or children. Here are the names of my relatives who died during the Berezina crossing:
Christiaan Daniels Nijhuis (third great grand uncle), served with the 125é regiment.
Hendrik Reeder (third great grand uncle), served with the 125é regiment.
Christiaan Daniels Nijhuis (third great grand uncle), served with the 125é regiment.
Johannes Reeder (third great grand uncle), Served with the 125é regiment.
Jean Mélard (fourth great grand uncle), served with the 48é regiment.
Here are the names of my other four relatives who participated in the 1812 Russia campaign:
Christiaan Reeder (third great grandfather), served with the 125é regiment and survived.
Jan Bakhuizen (fourth great grandfather), served with the Imperial guard as a red lancer, he survived though never returned to the army so was marked as missing in action.
Willem van Rijn (fourth great grand uncle), served with the 14é regiment cuirassiers, died during the Russia campaign possibly during the Berezina crossing on 28th November during Doumerc's charge.
Martinus van der Spek (first cousin 6 times removed), served with the 33é lights regiment but did not survive the campaign.
Images include: pictures of the crossing, a red lancer defending his family while crossing, Dutch engineers building the bridge in ice cold water, remains found at the Berezina during ww1 by German soldiers and a document of one of my five relatives who died at Berezina.
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