tropical heat during the day and the low temperature at night, the frequent
rainstorms from the north, the camping on bare and often wet ground, the
ever increasing want of pure water and fresh provisions, the immense masses
of dust, which, cloudlike, hung over the marching columns--all these
difficulties put together had sapped the strength of the soldiers already
at the beginning of the campaign. Many were taken sick before they reached
the Niemen.

The march through Lithuania was hastened as much as the march through
Poland. Provisions became scarcer all the time, meat from cattle that had
suffered from starvation and exhaustion was for a long time the soldiers'
only food. The great heat, and the inhalation of sand and dust, dried the
tissues of the body, and the thirsty soldiers longed in vain for a drink of
water. Often there was no other opportunity to quench the thirst than the
water afforded by the swamps. The officers were powerless to prevent the
soldiers from kneeling down at stagnant pools and drinking the foul water
without stint.

Thus the army, tired to the utmost from overexertion and privation, and
disposed to sickness, entered the land of the enemy. The forced marches
were continued during the day, through sand and dust, until stormy weather
set in with rain, followed by cold winds.

With the appearance of bad weather, dysentery, which had already been
observed at the time of the crossing of the Niemen, showed itself with
greater severity. The route the army had taken from camp to camp was marked
by offensive evacuations. The number of the sick became so great that they
could not all be attended to, and medical treatment became illusory when
the supply of medicaments was exhausted.