Charles Minard’s graph follows Napolean’s Grande Armee thru it’s march to (tan color) and back from (black color) Moscow. Napoleon who understood the ‘friction of war’ started the campaign with approximately 600,000 soldiers. The black line shows the severity of the forced retreat with 20,000 some of his initial 600,000 troops eventually making it back to France.
Which brings me back to thinking about General Lee at Gettysburg, with his Calvary commander Jeb Stewart’s location unknown, all culminating in Pickett’s Charge.
Graph source: Wikipedia