Editing Jakob Walter (section)

===March to Moscow===
As a common soldier, Walter had a limited view of the scope of the campaigns he was involved in.  By far the greater part of his time was spent on the march, and most of his memoir concerns [[foraging]]; he speaks of the difficulty of forcing peasants to show where their food was hidden.  <blockquote>Finally we arrived at Polotsk, a large city on the other side of the [[Western Dvina]] River. In this region I once left the bivouac to seek provisions. There were eight of us, and we came to a very distant village. Here we searched all the houses. There were no peasants left. I later realized how heedless I had been, since each one ran into a house alone, broke open everything that was covered, and searched all the floors and still nothing was found. Finally, when we assembled and were ready to leave, I once more inspected a little hut somewhat removed from the village. Around it from top to bottom were heaped bundles of hemp and shives, which I tore down; and, as I worked my way to the ground, sacks full of flour appeared. Now I joyfully called all my comrades so that we might dispose of the booty. In the village we saw sieves; these we took to sift the flour mixed with chaff an inch long; and, after that, we refilled the sacks. ... Then the question of carrying and dividing the grain arose, but it occurred to me that I had seen a horse in one of the houses. Everyone immediately hurried to find the horse. We found two instead of one, but unfortunately they were both [[Colt (horse)|colts]], and one could not be used at all. We took the largest, placed two sacks on it, and started out very slowly. While we were marching there, the Russians saw us from a distance with this booty; and at the same moment we saw a troop of peasants in the valley, about fifty. These ran toward us. What could we do but shoot at them?<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walter |first=Jakob |title=The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier |publisher=Doubleday |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-307-81756-3 |location=New York, New York |page=53 |language=English}}</ref></blockquote>He describes the extremes of heat and cold (made worse because he abandoned his extra clothing in the hot weather, and then suffered in the cold) and notes that more soldiers died from thirst than anything else, because there was very little good water on the route.  At times he survived on dough balls made from looted flour mixed with muddy water and roasted in a fire; for almost a week he lived on a jar of [[honey]] he dug up from where a peasant had hidden it.

As both a German and a [[conscript]], Walter had no particular loyalty to Napoleon.  He rarely mentions him, and when he does he generally refers to him simply as "Bonaparte."  He had no knowledge of the larger strategy of the campaign; his descriptions of combat are chaotic, as in his description of the [[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|assault on the city of Smolensk]] on August 17, 1812:

<blockquote>So, as soon as day broke &mdash;we marched against the city.  The river was crossed below the city.  The suburbs on the northern side were stormed, set on fire, and burned up.  My company's doctor, named Staüble, had his arm shot away in crossing the stream, and he died afterward.  No longer could I pay any attention to my comrades and, therefore, knew not in what way they perished or were lost.  Everyone fired and struck at the enemy in wild madness, and no one could tell whether he was in front, in the middle, or behind the center of the army.</blockquote>

Walter was shaken by the efficiency of the Russian [[scorched earth policy]].  He recorded that

<blockquote>From Smolensk to Moshaisk the war displayed its horrible work of destruction: all the roads, fields, and woods lay as though sown with people, horses, wagons, burned villages and cities; everything looked like the complete ruin of all that lived.</blockquote>