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Detailed Military Battle of Borodino, one of the most imporant and bloodiest battles of Napoleon's Russian Campaign and the last significant battle before Napoleon's capture of Moscow.

Located 80 miles west of Moscow, the Battle of Borodino was the final battle fought by Napoleon's army prior to its taking of Moscow in 1812.

The plan includes pencil annotations, significantly augmenting the printed details.

The map describes the positions and movements of the French, Italian, Wurtemberger, Saxen, Polish, Westphalian, Bavarian and Russian Troops at the Battle of Borodino.

The Battle of Borodino was fought on September 7, 1812 and was a major engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia. The fighting involved around 250,000 troops and produced at least 70,000 casualties, making Borodino the single deadliest day of the Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon's Grande Armée launched an attack against the Russian army, driving the latter back from their initial positions but failing to score a decisive victory. Both armies were exhausted after the battle and the Russians withdrew from the field the following day. Borodino represented the last Russian effort at stopping the French advance on Moscow, which fell a week later; but because the Russian army was not badly beaten enough to be rendered ineffective, the French would have no clear way of bringing Czar Alexander to peace, resulting ultimately in the retreat from Moscow and the defeat of the French invasion.

After a series of Russian retreats at the beginning of the campaign, the nobility grew alarmed about the advancing French troops and forced the Czar to sack the army's commander, Barclay de Tolly; Mikhail Kutuzov was appointed as his replacement. In a final attempt to save Moscow, the Russians made a stand near the village of Borodino, west of the town of Mozhaysk. They fortified their positions and dug in, waiting for the French to attack. The Russian right wing occupied ideal defensive terrain, so the French tried to press the Russian left for much of the battle. The highlight of the fighting became the bloody struggle for the large Raevsky redoubt near the village of Borodino itself. The French managed to capture this redoubt late into the day, gradually forcing the rest of the Russian army to pull back as well. The Russians suffered terrible casualties during the fighting, losing over a third of their army. French losses were also heavy, further exacerbating the logistical difficulties that Napoleon encountered in the campaign.

The exhausted French forces, and the lack of information on the condition of the Russian army, persuaded Napoleon to remain on the battlefield with his army instead of ordering the kind of vigorous pursuit reminiscent of previous campaigns.[8] Napoleon's Imperial Guard, the only unit on the battlefield that saw no fighting, was available to swing into action at a moment's notice. In refusing to commit the Guard, some historians believe, he lost his one chance to destroy the Russian army and to win the campaign.

The capture of Moscow proved a hollow reward since the Russians had no intention of negotiating with Napoleon for peace. The French evacuated Russia's spiritual capital in October and conducted a difficult retreat that only ended in December, by which point the remainder of the Grande Armée had largely unraveled.

Historical reports of the battle differed significantly depending on whether they originated from supporters of the French or Russian side. Factional fighting among senior officers within each army also led to conflicting accounts and disagreements over the roles of particular officers.