It is not enough just to get your forces from A to B - you have to keep them fed and watered as they go. The art of movement, therefore, is one of the most complex and vital that any commander must master, if he is going to win.
In 1812, his armies having swept all before them, Napoleon was at the zenith of his power (shades of another invader of Russia 129 years later). His Grande Armee of 400,000 men was thought to be unbeatable and he himself anticipated a rapid victory.
Yet within six months his huge force had been reduced to a straggling band of ragged fugitives, and fewer than one in 20 of his soldiers would ever see their homes again. How had it come to this?
During previous campaigns in Western Europe, Napoleon had solved the problem of feeding his armies by letting them "live off the land" - either by pillaging or buying up supplies as they advanced.
But aware that such an expedient would not be possible in "the wastelands of the Ukraine", he planned to take his supplies with him.
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