michael adams wrote
Rod Speed wrote

I've been reading the memoirs of a sergeant in Napoleon's Grande Arme in
the utter fiasco of the retreat back from Moscow in 1812

Andrew Roberts wrote a very readable biography of Napoleon which is
lightened by his very dry sense of humour.

Yeah well worth reading.

(On the basis of new letters being made available) Napoleon is something
of a hero for Roberts who he somewhat physically resembles and so he does
spend a lot of time defending him against mostly baseless charges which
have laid against him by his detractors down the years. Which is maybe not
surprising given the hundreds of books that have been written about him.

From the book Napoleon happily mixed with his troops and would take naps
by the fire almost anywhere. He put in lot of work drawing up new
enlightened constitutions for each new country he conquered only for them
to be largely abandoned after his fall.

And in France too.

The big mistake was in burning Moscow in a scorched earth move when he
could have used its resources himself.

He didn’t burn it himself, the russians
did that. That’s very clear from
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

He wasn't only a brilliant general who commanded unrivalled loyalty from
his troops but an enlightened statesman who simply ran out of luck.

It wasn’t a lack of luck that produced that utter fiasco,
it was the russian scorched earth policy that meant
that even when he did succeed in capturing Moscow,
there was nowhere for him to go once he had done
that and the russians didn’t put their hands up.

i.e if the Prussians hadn't shown up, who knows ?

That’s not what the retreat from Moscow was about.