Solitude, the sultry heat of a Russian mid-summer, and drenching thunderstorms depressed the spirits of the invaders.

The miserable cart tracks were at once cut up by the passage of the host, and 10,000 horses perished of fatigue or of disease caused by the rank grass, in the fifty miles' march from the Niemen to Vilna.
The difficulties of the transport service began at once, and they were to increase with every day's march.

With his usual foresight, Napoleon had ordered the collection of immense stores of all kinds at Danzig, his chief base of supplies.

Two million pairs of boots were required for the wear and tear of a long campaign, and all preparations were on the same colossal scale.

In this connection it is noteworthy that no small proportion of the cloaks and boots came from England, as the industrial resources of the Continent were wholly unequal to supplying the crusaders of the Continental System.
A great part of those stores never reached the troops in Russia.