Stand up and fight!

According to an old motto, a good soldier is one who can march well. Due to problems with keeping military storehouses and too few means of transport, a Napoleonic soldier had to carry a lot of stuff in his backpack (a sort of throw or tent; a blanket, spare shoe soles) and only little food since it rotted away quickly. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries the army obtained food by way of mass requisitions; the system proved ineffective during the Russian campaign with the obvious result. A marching army spelt a disaster to all villages on its way. The ominous and now almost forgotten word “hiberna” meant a stay of an army at a specific place for the whole winter. As a result, several villages could be totally ravaged and villagers left with nothing to live on.