Orders were given to construct bakeries at Smolensk, and to form magazines and hospitals. The city, however, was little better than a heap of ruins. Nearly all the inhabitants had fled, and artificers and materials were lacking to carry out the works ordered by Napoleon. It is a favourite saying of the Emperor’s apologists that his orders were neglected. The truth is that they were too frequently impracticable. The hospitals, choked with some 15,000 sick and wounded, were in a frightful condition. So great was the dearth of supplies that the parchment of the city archives and gun-waddings were utilised for bandages. Nor was the condition of the army at large satisfactory. Food was for the moment sufficient; but clothing and equipment were already wearing out. Nansouty declared that he had never seen cavalry in so wretched a condition as his own 1st Corps; there were Cuirassiers half naked. The number of broken-down horses was alarmingly large. Discipline was worse than ever. Napoleon declared in a moment of depression that two-thirds of the army were stragglers. There was small prospect of these evils being remedied. The army, having made an all too brief halt about Vitebsk and Orsha, and a yet briefer one at Smolensk, was about to be pushed forward for another 250 miles. Napoleon had, in a sense, provided for everything; that is, he had issued orders which anticipated most contingencies. But De Fezensac, himself a soldier of merit, puts his finger on the weak point of the elaborate arrangements, and sums up the situation in a single damning paragraph: “Mais il ne suffit pas de donner des ordres, il faut que ces ordres soient exécutables; et avec la rapidité des mouvements, la concentration des troupes sur un même point, le mauvais état des chemins, la difficulté de nourrir les chevaux, comment aurait-il été possible de faire des destributions régulières et d’organiser convenablement le service des hôpitaux?” The army swept the country through which it was moving clear in a few hours; it became literally and without exaggeration a wilderness. Stores of every kind were being poured into Vilna and pushed forward with all diligence to Minsk and Smolensk, but bad roads, lack of horses and sometimes mismanagement delayed the advance of the convoys. The main army, for whose benefit they were intended, was constantly moving forward, and they could never attain it. When on October 19th, Napoleon turned back from Moscow his nearest considerable magazine was at Smolensk, and it contained only six or seven days’ supplies. There was depression and growing discontent among the generals. Napoleon noticed it and made angry and bitter comments thereupon. Ney alone seems to have been undaunted. Just after Lubino he wrote to the Emperor suggesting that an attempt should be made to overtake the Russians by three or four forced marches.