Wittgenstein was probably more blameworthy than the much abused Admiral. His pursuit of Victor was unenergetic; despite his double superiority of numbers, he made no attempt to press. He was in fear that Napoleon would turn his own right flank and retreat by Lepel to Vilna; and this was in fact one of the Emperor’s alternative plans. He moved so cautiously that on the 25th his advance-guard did not touch the rear-guard of Victor, who fell back unmolested towards the high-road at Borisov. Reconnaissances made it clear that Napoleon was not moving past the Russian right and Wittgenstein advanced to Kostritza, only 8 miles from Borisov and about 10 east of Studianka. Victor reached Borisov in safety; and Eugène and Davout moved on to Studianka, where they arrived at dusk on the 27th. Victor’s move, however, had evil effects; his troops came upon the line of march of the unhappy fugitives from Moscow, and the awful condition of the latter spread demoralisation in the ranks of the 9th Corps. The 2nd Corps had already come in contact with the woeful relics of the Guard and Ney’s corps, and their morale was affected. At Kostritza Wittgenstein learned that the French were at Studianka, but instead of marching thither he directed part of his troops on the 27th on Borisov, part on Staroï Borisov, some miles above the former place. Platov was in touch with Wittgenstein, and Yermólov was on the march to Borisov. There were thus, of Russian troops, on the Berezina the army of Chichagov, 32,000 strong with 180 guns, that of Wittgenstein at least 31,000, and Yermólov’s and Platov’s columns, say 12,000 men and 30 guns, in all 75,000. As against this large and eager, if partly irregular, force Napoleon is said by De Chambray to have had barely 31,000 men. This figure is certainly too low. De Fezensac believes that he had 50,000 men; and on the whole it is possible that the total number of combatants was about 47,000. It was composed as follows: Guard (less Claparède) 8500, Ney about 5000, Davout 3000, Eugène 2000, Junot 1500 (including dismounted cavalry), Oudinot 11,000 (including Dombrowski), Victor 13,500, Head-quarters 2500. The last item is usually ignored by historians. There were between 250 and 300 guns, and perhaps 5500 effective cavalry, of whom 1500 belonged to the Guard and Head-quarters. But of these troops nearly a third were so worn down by hardship as to be hardly capable of making any great effort.