5. Napoleon Was a Genius, But In 1812 He Kept Piling One Mistake Atop Another
On September 7th, 1812, the retreating Russian army finally turned around to fight Napoleon at Borodino, near Moscow. Napoleon won a tough fight, but not a total victory. At the decisive moment, L’Empereur made his third bad decision by wavering. He refrained from his usual tactic of sending in his elite Imperial Guard, kept in reserve, to finish off the reeling enemy. That prevented the victory from becoming a complete one that could have won the war. The battered Russians were able to retreat, and thus live to fight another day.
Napoleon marched into Moscow, and assumed that the Russians would sue for peace, now that he held their capital. He made his fourth bad decision by waiting in Moscow for Russian peace feelers, as winter drew near. The Russians strung Napoleon along, but no more than he strung himself along with wishful thinking of a negotiated peace long after it became clear that the Russians were not interested. By the time Napoleon accepted that there would be no peace and marched back to Smolensk, it was too late. His unprepared army was caught by winter during the retreat.