The Battle of (the) Berezina (or Beresina) took place from 26 to 29 November 1812, between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army under Field Marshal Wittgenstein and Admiral Chichagov.

The outcome of the battle was inconclusive as, despite heavy losses, Napoleon managed to cross the river and continue his retreat with the surviving remnants of his army.

His plan was to cross the Berezina River at Borisov (in Belarusian Governorate General) in order to join up with his Austrian ally, Field Marshall Schwarzenberg at Minsk.

[8] As the central core of Napoleon's Grande Armée marched toward Borisov, however, Russian troops supported by Cossacks moved to block his battered force, reduced to 49,000 men under arms and 40,000 stragglers.

A French advance force attempted to regain Borisov on 23 November, but the Russians destroyed the bridge and remained in control of the west bank.

[13] On 23 November 1812, the Sacred Squadron (French: L'escadron sacré) was formed as an ad hoc cavalry unit which consisted – out of military necessity – entirely of officers to serve as Napoleon's bodyguard.

On 25 November, bridge construction started in Studienka, even though numerous campfires belonging to the forces of Admiral Chichagov were observed across the river at Brili.

As a result, Chichagov made the decision to move the main body of his force south of Borisov to Szabaszeviki so that he could watch and patrol a 90‑kilometre stretch of the Berezina River.

[21][22] By 1 p.m. the smaller of the two bridges was complete and Oudinot began to lead his infantry of 7,000 men across the river and establish a defensive position to protect against the Russian forces to the south.

The last unit on the eastern bank, Marshal Victor's IX Corps was given the order to defend against the approach of Wittgenstein who had then reached Borisov.

As a part of that operation, French General Louis Partouneaux's 12th Division of the IX Corps suffered a great defeat, surrendering over 8,000 men when they were overwhelmed by Wittgenstein at Staroi-Borisov.

On the west bank, Chaplits reinforced with additional infantry attacked the French forward positions and began to push Oudinot back to Brili.

The artillery bombardment fell largely upon the stragglers causing a human stampede as individuals rushed for the bridges or jumped into the cold river in an attempt to swim to the other side.

The fighting and bombardment lasted for approximately four hours at which time the bridge engineers began working to clear a path for Victor's IX Corps to cross the river.

The bridges were then available for the stragglers; however, despite encouragement, most of those who had fought so hard to get across the river during the bombardment chose to light their campfires and spend the night on the east bank.

They next set fire to the bridge, and I have been told that scenes impossible to describe for horror then took place...[30] Cossacks and Wittgenstein's troops closed in upon Studienka and took the stragglers on the east bank as prisoners.

Chichagov sent Chaplits in pursuit of Napoleon but the French had destroyed three successive bridges across the Gaina swamp between Brili and the Zembin Road leading to Vilna.

Probably between 20-30,000 French combatants became casualties during the three days of the operation; worst hit in this respect were the IInd and IXth Corps, which lost more than half of their effective strength in their important roles of protecting the bridgehead area.

There would be no large military confrontation for the rest of the retreat, although the incessant harassment of Russian Cossacks and the weather continued to take a devastating toll on the surviving members of the French army.

The next two days were, according to some, among the worst of the entire retreat[...]no fallen horse or cattle remained uneaten, no dog, no cat, no carrion, nor indeed, the corpses of those who died of cold and hunger.