The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov

by Alexander Mikaberidze

  Not far from Glinka, another officer had a hard time sleeping, as he felt ‘that the battle would be a terrible one …’ Mitarevsky’s head

  was full of things from books about wars – the ‘Trojan War’ in particular would not leave my thoughts. I was eager to take part in a great battle, to experience all the feelings of being in one, and to be able to say afterwards that I had been in such a battle.208

  A German captain spent most of that night by a watch fire with the men of the Fanagoriiskii Grenadier Regiment:

  The soldiers were in fairly good order, and as they had had a rest during the last few days, they now sat, wrapped in their long grey coats, round the fires – and often joined in chorus to sing the monotonous, melancholy, dirge-like, yet not unpleasing national songs which the Russian people are so fond of. This singing before the battle had a strange effect on me, and I listened to it for several hours until eventually I fell asleep, exhausted, beside my horse …209

  The last night before the battle set a sombre mood in the Russian camp. Officers took out their parade uniforms and soldiers dressed in their white shirts, which were prepared for such occasions:

  Sacred silence reigned on our line. I heard as the quartermasters called troops, ‘Vodka is here, come whoever wants it! Come and take a goblet!’ But no one moved. In some places one even could hear deep sighs and shouts, ‘Thanks for this honour! But we are getting ready for a different mission: tomorrow is a special day!’ At these words, many veterans made the sign of the cross and added, ‘Holy Virgin Mother! Help us defend our land!’210

  Officers also gathered around campfires and shared their feelings and premonitions. Young artillery commander Alexander Kutaisov was drinking tea and laughing with his fellow officers near Rayevsky’s Battery, but his mood changed as the darkness fell over the field. He became more sombre and told his comrades: ‘I would love to know who among us would survive tomorrow.’211 At another camp fire, the officers knew that:

  tomorrow will bring a bloody solution to the problem and, naturally, everyone talked only about this. Someone said, ‘It cannot be that all of us would survive such a battle unscathed. Some of us will certainly be killed or wounded.’ Others responded, ‘It cannot be that I will be killed because I do not want to be killed …’Another replied, ‘I will be only wounded.’ One young and handsome sous-lieutenant said, pointing to the opening in the tent, ‘Look, can you see that large star in the sky? When I will be killed, I want my soul to settle there.’ He was indeed killed in the battle but who knows if his soul reached that star?212

  Not far away, the 27-year-old Captain Ogarev made the last entry in his journal: ‘Our hearts are pure. Soldiers put on clean shirts. Everything is quiet. I and Mitkov looked for a long time upon the sky, sparkling with stars …’

  The night before the battle proved restless for Napoleon as well. Weakened by his urinary problems, he was now tormented by a high fever, a dry cough, and a burning thirst, which he spent the rest of the night trying to quench. Despite his health, he continued to work, issuing various orders and dictating a proclamation. Ségur asserted that:

  with the night came the old fear that under cover of darkness the Russians might escape from the field of battle. This apprehension disturbed Napoleon’s sleep. He kept waking up and calling out, asking what time it was, and if anybody had heard a noise, and each time dispatched someone to see if the enemy was still there. He was so doubtful that he had his proclamation distributed with the order that it should not be read until morning, and then only in case there should be a battle.

  According to Baron Fain, Napoleon’s secretary:

  The Emperor spent most of the night giving out final orders, and only took a few hours’ sleep, and even these were interrupted. At first light, he was up and about. He summoned the aide-de-camp on duty. Auguste de Caulaincourt was not asleep, but half lying down on a camp mattress and wrapped in his coat, with his head propped up on his elbow: he was gazing sadly at a portrait of his young wife whom he had been forced to leave almost as soon as he had married her. One would have said he was bidding her eternal farewell.

  The young general had only hours to live …

  Jean Rapp spent the night reading reports from various units. ‘The Emperor slept very little,’ he recalled:

  I woke him several times to give him reports from the outposts which all proved that the Russians were expecting an attack. At 3am he summoned his valet de chamber and had some punch brought in. I had the honour of drinking some with him.

  Napoleon told him:

  Today we shall have to deal with this famous Kutuzov. No doubt you remember that it was he who commanded at Braunau during the Austerlitz campaign. He stayed in that place for three weeks without leaving his room once. He did not even mount his horse to go and inspect the fortifications. General Bennigsen, although as old, is a much more energetic fellow. I cannot understand why [Tsar] Alexander did not send this Hanoverian to replace Barclay.

  Napoleon then took a glass of punch, read several reports, and added, ‘Well, Rapp! Do you think that we [will] have a successful day?’ – ‘There is no doubt about [it], Sire. We have used up all our resources and have simply got to win.’

  A few minutes later, Napoleon contemplated: ‘Fortune is a shameless courtesan. I have often said it, and I am beginning to experience it.’ Rapp tried to cheer him up, repeating Napoleon’s words, ‘the wine had been poured out and must be drunk’. He noted that the Army was ready for battle and ‘it knows that there are no provisions to be found except in Moscow and that it has only thirty leagues to go’. Listening to Rapp’s words, Napoleon added: ‘This poor army is sadly depleted, but what remains is good. And my Guard is still intact.’ As Ségur recounted, probably apocryphally, Napoleon then contemplated the nature of war and the future of his campaign. ‘His fears overwhelmed him again,’ Ségur informs us:

  and he sent out to ascertain the Russian position. He was told that their fires were burning as bright as ever and that, judging by the great number of shadows moving about them, it was not merely a rearguard that was keeping them burning, but a whole army. The presence of the enemy soothed the Emperor …

  Napoleon worked until half-past five, when he called for his horse. As trumpets sounded, drums beat and soldiers greeted him, Napoleon turned to Rapp: ‘It is the Austerlitz enthusiasm again.’ Fain, accompanying Napoleon to a large group of officers outside his tent, heard the Emperor greet them with: ‘It is a trifle cold, but the sun is bright. It is the sun of Austerlitz.’213

  As the Army began to manoeuvre into position, Colonel Seruzier contemplated that

  never has there been a finer force than the French Army on that day, and despite all the privations it had suffered since Vilna, its turnout on that day was as good as it ever was in Paris when it paraded for the Emperor at the Tuileries.214

  On Napoleon’s orders, a special proclamation was read to the troops:

  Soldiers! Now comes the battle you have so much desired! The victory now depends on you: we need it. Victory will give us abundant supplies, good winter quarters and a prompt return to our native lands. Fight as you did at Austerlitz, Friedland, Vitebsk and Smolensk and posterity will remember with pride your conduct on this great day. May it be said of each one of us: ‘He fought in that great battle under the walls of Moscow!’215

  The proclamation was laconic and clear in its message but the reaction varied among the troops. According to Robert Guillemard, the opening sentence of the proclamation showed that ‘our impatience was known to the Emperor’. Chambray noted that ‘its spirit did not dispose for enthusiasm and the proclamation was met coldly’. However, Laugier recalled how

  each colonel had the proclamation read out to his regiment, in parade uniform. We of the Italian Guard, formed up in close columns of companies without intervals between our battalions, listened to it on the reverse slope of the hill, where the Italian battery was. Everyone admired the frankness, the simplicity, the imposing force of this procla
mation, so well suited to our circumstances.

  Another officer saw how ‘the soldiers responded with huzzahs’.216 Indeed, across the field, Russian Lieutenant Bogdanov could hear as ‘the stillness of the night was occasionally interrupted by the shouts of Vive l’Empereur!’217

  7 September: The Battle of Borodino Phase One (6am to 12am)

  The Monday morning of 7 September dawned gloomy and cold, with thick fog enveloping the ground. Seeking to draw a parallel between Borodino and Austerlitz, the 18th Bulletin later claimed ‘it was as cold as [in] December in Moravia [and] the Army accepted the omen’. Despite such an overcast start to the day, General Yermolov was keenly aware of its importance:

  The sun, hidden in the mist, maintained the deception of calm until 6am. Its first rays then illuminated the place where the Russians were ready to accept this unequal battle with complete self-sacrifice! Here, oh majestic Moscow, your die will be cast. A few more hours, and if the firm resolve of the Russians fails to avert the dangers threatening you, ruins will mark the place where you once haughtily rose up and prospered!

  Meanwhile, Thirion found:

  modern battles [were] a strange thing. Two armies gradually turn up on a piece of ground, place themselves symmetrically facing each other […] All these preliminaries are carried out with calm barrack-square precision. From one army to the other are heard the commanders’ sonorous voices. In sombre silence you observe the mouths of the guns being turned on you, which are going to send you death …

  What Time Did the Battle Start?

  The exact timing of the first artillery shot varies greatly in both French and Russian literature. Among the French participants, Planat de la Faye, Vionnet de Maringoné and Castellane indicated 5 am; Vaudoncourt, Teste, Laugier, Bourgois, François, Pelet, Griois, and Chambray referred to 6am; while Bourgogne, Brandt, Denniée, Kolachkowski and Le Roy argued it was made as late as 7am. On the Russian side, most participants refer to 6am, but some (Bogdanov) also mention 5am. Kutuzov’s first (brief) report of 8 September to Emperor Alexander was somewhat confusing, since it stated that the French attacked ‘at 4am, at dawn’, which is obviously a mistake, since, at Borodino, the sun does not rise so early at that time of year. Kutuzov’s later report was corrected by removing the reference to ‘dawn’ but retaining the ‘4am’ as the start of enemy ‘movement’. Bagration’s report referred to an enemy attack ‘at the very dawn’, while Barclay’s noted that the enemy ‘movement’ was noticed ‘before dawn’. Both Paskevich and Yermolov gave the specific time of 6am for the start of the battle.

  As he left his tent at dawn, Napoleon set up his observation point in front of the Shevardino Redoubt, from where he could observe the Bagration Flèches to his right and Rayevsky’s Redoubt to his left. Surrounded by his entourage, he would remain here for the rest of the day, except for a brief excursion in the afternoon, when he visited the left wing. Many participants, and later generations of scholars, were surprised by Napoleon’s inactivity, which was blamed both on his age, exhaustion and poor health. Some noted that they could not recognize in Napoleon the hero of Lodi, Arcole, Austerlitz and Wagram. At the opposite end of the battle field, Kutuzov awoke at Tatarinovo and then travelled with his escort to Gorki, where he established his command post. Bogdanovich acknowledged that:

  since the battle was being decided on the left wing and in the centre, our commander-in-chief [who remained at Gorki on the right flank] had no direct influence on the course of battle, especially because his old age compelled him to remain in one place and limited him to issuing orders, which, due to his distance from the point of enemy attacks, were not always timely. This circumstance deprived our army of the much needy unity of action and had a disadvantageous effect on the course of the battle.218

  Around 6am the batteries of Sorbier, Pernetty and Foucher welcomed the dawn with a salvo, and as the Russians returned fire, ‘thick clouds of smoke curled from the batteries into the sky and darkened the sun, which seemed to veil itself in a blood-red shroud’.219 The Polish General Soltyk, standing near Napoleon, ‘never heard anything like it. At moments, the uproar was so terrible it was more like broadsides discharged from warships than a land artillery engagement’. Meanwhile, Von Roos was even more awestruck, since the cannonade seemed to him: ‘as if all Europe’s voices were making themselves heard in all its languages’.

  Who Fired First?

  Most participants and scholars acknowledge that the French battery fired the first round of the battle. However, several Russian participants provide a different account. D. Danilov of the 2nd Artillery Brigade later claimed that one of his guns made the first shot of the battle and the French round was only made in return. In his memoirs, Danilov wrote: ‘At dawn, the first Russian cannon shot was fired by our battery and this round was made by me personally. The noise of the round resounded through the woods and gave a signal. Everything fell silent but several minutes hardly passed when a long line of French guns, deployed in front of Shevardino, erupted in response.’

  Bennigsen, however, believed the first shot was made by Raevsky’s battery, obliging Bennigsen to go and investigate it in person.

  But then Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky – Kutuzov’s adjutant and future historian – noted in his memoirs that: ‘the first cannon-ball, fired by the enemy batteries, was directed towards the house occupied by Prince Kutuzov’.

  This interesting fact is supported by Kutuzov’s ordinance officer Dreyling, who remarked: ‘It barely dawned when the enemy fired his first round. One of the very first cannon-balls flew above our heads and shattered the roof of the house where Kutuzov was billeted.’

  Across the field, Radozhitsky was in the midst of the terrible Russian cannonade: ‘The rounds were so frequent that there were no intervals between them: they soon turned into one continuous roar like a thunderstorm, and caused an artificial earthquake.’ And for Johann von Dreyling, one of Kutuzov’s orderlies,

  The thunder of some thousand guns, musket fire – all of this combined into one continuous rumble; one’s consciousness faded away and all feelings became numbed […] in one moment, you can experience a condition that is impossible to describe, as if you are not feeling anything anymore. Then a doubt sets in, ‘Are you still alive?’

  It was soon noticed that the French cannon shots were falling short of their targets on the Russian left lank; some scholars have argued that peculiar atmospheric conditions (i.e. morning fog) affected the French fire but the truth is more prosaic. As noted above, the terrain was reconnoitred incorrectly and batteries were set up beyond their effective range. So the cannon had to be quickly moved forward. According to Bogdanovich, the French had to advance some batteries (Sorbier and Foucher) up to ‘1,600 steps’ before the cannonade resumed with greater fury. Lejeune recalled seeing:

  the projectiles ploughing through our ranks with a hissing noise such as it is impossible to describe. As ill luck would have it, our reserves at the beginning of the struggle, even those of the cavalry, were rather too near the fighting, and, either from vainglory or more likely from fear of giving a false impression to the enemy, they would not retire the few hundred paces needed to place them in a position less exposed to useless danger, so that we had the grief of seeing thousands of gallant cavaliers and fine horses struck down, though it was of the utmost importance to us to preserve them.

  Captain Biot knew some of these unlucky victims and saw:

  a horse running along our front, its rider thrown on to its cruppers. I recognized poor Colonel Désirad. A Russian round shot had taken off his cranium […] everything that fell beyond the second line went on to strike the third; not a shot was lost.

  On the Russian side, Radozhitsky watched as ‘the enemy shot flew towards us in their last bounds or rolled through the grass with their last impetus. Shells burst in the air and showered splinters with a horrid noise.’

  Northern Sector – The Village of Borodino

  Two hours before the artillery duel began, Barclay de Tolly recei
ved ‘a report from [Colonel] Bistrom regarding the enemy movement against the village of Borodino’.220 Yermolov, standing south-east of the village, also noticed a movement ‘in the enemy forces opposite our right flank’. Meanwhile, Bistrom reported that his outposts had detected ‘the enemy moving in two columns, probably 8,000 men strong – on the right side of the village’.221 This body of troops belonged to Napoleon’s IV Corps, which, ‘taking advantage of a thick fog covering the ground’,222 was advancing towards Borodino. It’s commander, Prince Eugène later recalled that:

  the Division of General Morand was on the right, and that of General Gérard behind it; farther to the right and in the rear was the cavalry of General Grouchy, in charge of gaining the area which would allow the best use of his arm […] at the centre and in echelon of Gérard’s Division was placed Broussier’s division with the [Italian] Royal Guard behind it. Delzon’s division formed the extreme left. It was supported by the light cavalry division under the orders of General Ornano.223

  According to a Bavarian officer, Wiedemann, after Napoleon’s proclamation was read at dawn:

  Ornano’s cavalry moved again to occupy its position in the battle line. We initially took a direction towards the village of Borodino, but then turned left and reached the Borodino stream that lowed in a deep ravine […] A battery was set up in this defile and, on the opposite side from it, the 1st Chevau-léger brigade was deployed, adjacent to an infantry regiment from Delzon’s division. The 2nd Chevau-léger brigade stood on the left side of the battery, while [the] Italian Chasseurs à Cheval were nearby … 224