Talk:Battle of Maloyaroslavets

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Military history: French / Napoleonic era

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Davout's role in the battle?

I do not quite understand why Davout is listed among the "Commanders and leaders" of this battle (in the overview table). Napoleon being listed I can somewhat understand (even if he seems to not have been present in person), as he was the commander-in-chief. But Davout's name seems to not even be mentioned in the article of the battle. What was his role in the affair then? I feel like this needs either explanation or correction.

Smolensk or bust?

Currently, the article says:

This allowed Kutuzov to fulfill his strategic plans to force Napoleon on the way of retreat in the north, through
Mozhaisk and Smolensk, the route of his advance that he had wished to avoid.

This I understand to mean "Kutuzov forced Napoleon to go to Smolensk". At the same time, the article about the Battle of Vyazma states in the "background" section:

Napoleon's objective at this stage (a week before Maloyaroslavets) of the retreat was to lead the Grande Armée to 
his closest major supply depot, Smolensk

So did Napoleon want to go to Smolensk, or was he forced to go there? There seems to be some contradiction between the two articles... Or am I missing something? -- Syzygy (talk) 12:29, 3 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Napoleon did indeed want to go (back) to Smolensk, but apparently wanted to take a southerly route via Kaluga. This was now firmly occupied by the Russians, forcing Napoleon to take the northern route via Mozhaisk. This was the route he had taken on the inbound journey from Smolensk to Moscow, so it had already been thoroughly foraged. Backtracking there left the French with less supplies than they would have had access to on the southern route. A humble contributor (talk) 16:50, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There is still contradiction: granted that Napoleon wanted to go to Smolensk via a southern route, what prevented him to do so? Not the Russian army if as written in more than one article Kutuzov refused to involve it in a pitched battle: napoleon just had to march south and Kutuzov could not stop this unless offering battle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.205.194.4 (talk) 14:55, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]