14 December 1812
Retreat from Russia

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By the time Marshal Ney is the last French soldier to retreat across the river Niemen, Napoleon's Grande Armée, which started its invasion of Russia just six months previously, has been all but destroyed. Of the 442,000 men who set out on the invasion in June, barely 10,000 make it back. Napoleon has suffered his greatest defeat, and it is only a matter of time before the Coalition against him takes advantage of this to sweep him from power altogether.

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