It would be interesting to know more about the logistics of running a mobile army in that era. I'd guess it would be hard work even to get hold of adequate maps for the regions you might decide to move into. Even with maps, you'd still face problems of trying to predict where food would be available as you moved forward.
Show HN: Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia
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Re: Show HN: Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia
#12[deleted]
Re: Show HN: Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia
#13Tufte wrote a ton about this map for those interested: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard
What is the y-axis supposed to represent in the graph? Not to nitpick, but a y-axis title would be helpful. EDIT: I assume it represents Napoleon's army. If so, that spike in December is interesting, and presumably represents reinforcements?
It's a map, not a graph so there is no y-axis. The colored area represents the size of the army with the gold area being March to Moscow and the black being the retreat. There were two small groups that split from the main thrust. The black are them rejoining the retreat. As you can see you were luck if you were in one of those two groups since they did not get decimated.
Re: Show HN: Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia
#14Worth to notice that Napoleon lost most of the army in August and September. He expected plenty of food during harvest season, not the scorched-earth tactics.
Re: Show HN: Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia
#15Tufte wrote a ton about this map for those interested: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard
What is the y-axis supposed to represent in the graph? Not to nitpick, but a y-axis title would be helpful. EDIT: I assume it represents Napoleon's army. If so, that spike in December is interesting, and presumably represents reinforcements?
See http://www.masswerk.at/minard for a translation of the map's original legend (mouseover). There wasn't just a single movement of the army, but several troops were detached or left behind and rejoined later in the campaign. There's also a bit of a simplification in the map, as was pointed out by Minard, in order to provide the bigger picture of the events in the flow chart.