the inhabitants had left. The soldiers fought the flames and saved some
houses into which they brought those of their wounded and sick who could
not drag themselves any farther. Cases of typhus were numerous. From Wiasma
the army marched to Ghiat, a city of 6 thousand or 7 thousand inhabitants;
at this place Napoleon gave a two days' rest in order that the army could
rally, clean their arms and prepare for battle (the battle of Borodino on
September 7. This battle is known under three names: the Russians have
called it after the village of Borodino, of 200 inhabitants, near the
battlefield and have now erected a monument there, a collonade crowned with
a cross; some historians have called it the battle of Moshaisk, after a
nearby town of 4 thousand inhabitants, and Napoleon has named it the battle
of the Moskwa, after a river near the battlefield.) Napoleon had only 120
thousand to 130 thousand under arms, about as many as the Russians. It was
6:30 a.m., a beautiful sunrise. Napoleon called it the sun of Austerlitz.
The Russian generals made their soldiers say their prayers. A French cannon
gave the signal to attack, and at once the French batteries opened the
battle with a discharge of more than 100 cannon. Writing this medical
history of the Russian campaign I feel tempted to give a description of
this most frightful, most cruel of all battles in the history of the world
in which about 1,200 cannon without interruption dealt destruction and
death; fracas and tumult of arms of all kinds, the harangue, the shouts of
the commanders, the cries of rage, the lamentations of the wounded, all
blended into one terrible din. Both armies charged with all the force that
terror could develop. French and Russian soldiers not only fought like
furious lions rivaling each other in ardor and courage, but they fought
with wild joy, devoid of all human feeling, like maniacs; they threw
themselves on the enemy where he was most numerous, in a manner which
manifested the highest degree of despair. The French had to gain the
victory or succumb to misery; victory or death was their only thought. The
Russians felt themselves humiliated by the approach of the French to their