Chapter 33 Chapter Thirty-Three

The main battle of the Battle of Borodino was fought in the area of ​​a thousand yards between Borodino and Bagration's bulwark. (Beyond this zone, on the one hand, Uvalov's cavalry of the Russian army made a feint attack at noon, and on the other, behind Uditsa, Poniatowski and Tuchkov came into contact, but with the center of the field. These two were isolated minor battles compared with the situation in the present case.) On the field between Borodino and the Fort, near the woods, in clearings visible from both sides, the main battles were fought with the most The simple, most common way to do it.

The battle started with the bombardment of hundreds of cannons on both sides. Afterwards, when gunpowder smoke enveloped the entire battlefield, the French divisions of Desai and Campan attacked the Fort from the right, and several regiments of Governor Murat attacked Borodino from the left. Napoleon was standing on the Shevardino multi-faceted fort, which was a mile away from the turret and always more than two versts away from Borodino in a straight line, so it was impossible for Napoleon to see what was going on there, let alone the smoky intellectuals. is the leading force in this revolution.What he yearns for is a nothing that shades the whole area.The men of Desai's division, who were attacking the fort, were not discovered until they entered the gully that ran between them and the fort.As soon as they entered the gully, the guns and muskets on the bulwark fired in unison, and smoke obscured the higher slopes opposite the gully.Dark figures flickered through the smoke—people probably, and sometimes the flash of a bayonet could be seen.But whether they were walking or standing, whether they were French or Russian, it was not clear from the Shevardino Fort.

The sun was already shining brightly, and the slanted light fell on Napoleon's face. He shaded his eyes with his hands and looked at the fort.Smoke billowed in front of the Fort Luxe.Sometimes it seems that the smoke is moving, and sometimes it seems that the procession is moving.Sometimes people shouting could be heard over the shooting, but it was impossible to know what they were doing there. Napoleon stood on the mound and watched with a telescope. In the small cylinder he saw smoke and people.Sometimes it was one of our own, sometimes it was a Russian; but as soon as he saw it with his own eyes, he could no longer recognize where what he had just seen was.

He walked down the mound and lingered in front of the mound. Sometimes he stopped to listen to the sound of the guns and watch the situation on the battlefield. From where he stood under the mound, and from above the mound where his generals now stand, even from those bulges--there were Russian soldiers, there were French soldiers, sometimes they appeared at the same time, and sometimes they took turns. All of them appeared, dead, wounded, alive, frightened, and mad—all unable to see clearly what was happening on the battlefield.For hours on end, in this area, amidst the constant sound of gunfire, infantry and cavalry, Russians and French, appeared, fell, shot, and met each other without knowing how. Do it, just yelled, and ran back.

Napoleon's adjutants, and the orderlies of his marshals, were constantly galloping up to him from the field, to report to him the state of the battle; Telling what happened at a certain moment is also because many adjutants did not go to the actual battle, but only reported what they heard from other people; It has changed, and the news it brings is no longer true.For example, an adjutant came galloping from the governor with news that Borodino had been taken and that the bridge over the Kolocha had fallen into French hands. An adjutant asked Napoleon whether he should order the troops to cross the river?Napoleon ordered the army to stand by in formation on the other side of the river; but, at the time of Napoleon's order, even when the adjutant had just left Borodino, that is, the beginning of the campaign, in the fight in which Pierre participated, the The bridge was recaptured by the Russians and burned.

A pale and frightened adjutant galloped up from the fort to report to Napoleon that the attack of the march was repulsed, that Campan was wounded and that Daou was killed, when in fact the adjutant said that the army had been repulsed. At that time, the fort of the protruding horn had been occupied by another French army. Daou was still alive, but suffered a little shock injury.It was upon these inevitable falsehoods that Napoleon issued orders which he either carried out before he issued them, or could not be carried out or were not carried out. The marshals and generals were closer to the battlefield, but like Napoleon, they did not participate in the battle. They only occasionally walked within the range of their rifles and did not ask Napoleon for instructions. Where to go, where the infantry is going.But even their orders, like Napoleon's, were carried out only occasionally, to the minimum, and often in opposition to their orders.Soldiers who were ordered to advance ran back as soon as they encountered shotgun; soldiers who were ordered to stand firm when they saw Russians suddenly appearing on the opposite side sometimes ran back and sometimes rushed forward. people.For another example, two regiments of cavalry crossed the Semyonovskoye gully, and as soon as they climbed the hillside, they reined in their horses and turned back, desperately running back.The infantry moved in the same way, sometimes in the direction they were not ordered to go at all.All the orders: when to move the cannon where and where, when to send the infantry to shoot, when to send the cavalry to charge the Russian infantry—all these orders were issued by the officer closest to the soldiers in the ranks, not only without consulting Napoleon. , without even consulting Ney, Daou and Murat.They are not afraid of punishment for failing to carry out orders or acting on their own initiative, because in combat the most precious thing of the individual is involved—the individual's life.Sometimes I feel that I can be saved by running back, and sometimes I feel that I can be saved by running forward. These people who are in the hottest battle act according to their momentary mood.In fact, neither advancing nor retreating improved or changed the situation of the army.They chased each other and did little damage, it was the cannonballs and bullets that did the damage and the casualties, and the people scurrying about under the hail of bullets.As soon as these people left the space where the shells and bullets flew, the officers stationed in the rear immediately rectified them and made them obey the discipline. Terrified, they lost their discipline again, and ran wild again due to the random emotions of the crowd.