Editing Jakob Walter (section)

===Retreat from Moscow===
Walter records that after the fall of [[Moscow]] and the subsequent retreat, the French commanders became more brutal to the men; he says that even in retreat the commanders would inspect the men's weapons, and men who had rust on their weapons were beaten with clubs "until they were near desperation."  Also, food became even harder to find, and several times he had to fight French and German soldiers over scavenged wheat. In the [[Bivouac shelter|bivouac]] at Smolensk, the men slaughtered their horses, and fought over the meat.  Unable to get even horse meat, Walter turned to blood:

<blockquote>...I took along the pot I carried, stationed myself beside a horse that was being shot, and caught up the blood....I set this blood on the fire, let it coagulate, and ate the lumps without salt.</blockquote>

On 16 November he arrived in Krasny (with [[Eugène de Beauharnais]]) and wrote he knew nothing about Ney who was cut off with his rearguard. On 25 November he arrived at Borisov, on the same day as Napoleon. By the end of December he reached the Polish border.<ref>German Conscript, p. 62-65, 81-83, 109</ref> On 24 February he arrived in Ellwangen and met his relatives.