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The retreat from Moscow 1812, From Napoleon and his Marshals by A G Mac Donell. One only, in all that reeling column, did not lose heart. Ney, the barrel coopers son, fought on musket in hand, coolly, resolutely, and very silently. It is recorded of him that during this month he spoke very seldom. Ney had been cut off by overwhelming numbers. An attempt to fight through them was repulsed with great losses, but the Marshal even then did not despair. As night was falling he turned round and marched his survivors back towards Russia, and then wheeled northwards in the darkness and groped his way towards the Riber Dnieper. If the Dnieper was frozen, he might yet extricate himself. As he marched indomitably on, he heard the Russian artillery firing salvoes in triumph at the impending capture of an Imperial Marshal and his corps. Ney at once ordered fires to be lit, as though he was bivouacking for the night, and pushed on again. At last he found the river. There was ice on it, enough to bear a man if he was careful and jumped from floe to floe. But a corps of armed men, however depleted, with horses and guns, in pitch darkness, was another matter. But it was the last chance, and the risk had to be taken. Ney gave his men three hours rest before attempting to cross. In these three hours the stragglers would close up, and the river might harden. He himself wrapped his cloak round him, and spent the three hours sleeping as soundly as a child on the bank of the river. At midnight the passage of the Dnieper began.
Read more in the Tradition Magazine no.10