The following is from his own pen:- "I was born in December, 1862, at kovno in Russia, of strictly orthodox Jewish parents, and, with the rest of my brothers, I got the usual education of rabbinical Jews.
"Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ"
Rev. A. Bernstein, B.D.
After crossing the Beresina, he might hope that the worst was over and that the stores at Vilna and kovno would suffice for the remnant of his army.
"The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2)"
John Holland Rose
Amidst ever deepening misery they struggled on, until, of the 600,000 men who had proudly crossed the Niemen for the conquest of Russia, only 20,000 famished, frost-bitten, unarmed spectres staggered across the bridge of kovno in the middle of December.
"The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2)"
John Holland Rose