War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [511]
Having examined the terrain in front of the Shevardino redoubt, Napoleon reflected for a time in silence and pointed to places on which two batteries were to be set up by tomorrow to go into action against the Russian fortifications, and to places next to them where the field artillery was to be lined up.
After giving this and other orders, he returned to his headquarters, and the disposition of the battle was drawn up at his dictation.
This disposition, which French historians speak of with rapture and other historians with deep respect, was the following:31
At dawn two new batteries, set up during the night on the plain occupied by the duke of Eckmühl, will open fire on the two opposing batteries of the enemy.
At the same time, the commander of artillery of the 1st corps, General Pernety, with thirty guns of Compans’s division and all the howitzers of Dessaix and Friant’s division, will move forward, open fire, and rain shells on the enemy battery, against which there will be in action:
24 guns of the guards’ artillery
30 guns of Compans’s division
and 8 guns of Friant and Dessaix’s division
62 guns in all.
The commander of artillery of the 3rd corps, General Fouché, will place the howitzers of the 3rd and 8th corps, sixteen in all, on the flanks of the battery designated to bombard the left fortification, which will bring against it a total of 40 guns.
General Sorbier should be ready at the first order to bring forward all the howitzers of the guards’ artillery against one or the other fortification.
In the course of the cannonade, Prince Poniatowski will advance on the village through the woods and outflank the enemy’s position.
General Compans will move through the woods in order to take the first fortification.
After entering into combat in this way, orders will be given in accordance with the enemy’s actions.
The cannonade on the left flank will begin as soon as the cannonade on the right wing is heard. The riflemen of Morand’s division and of the viceroy’s32 division will open heavy fire when they see the attack beginning on the right wing.
The viceroy will take the village*479 and cross its three bridges, proceeding at the same level as the divisions of Morand and Gérard which, under his leadership, will head for the redoubt and fall in with the other troops of the army.
All this is to be carried out in order (le tout se fera avec ordre et méthode), sparing as far as possible the troops of the reserve.
In the imperial camp by Mozhaisk, 6th September 1812.33
This disposition, drawn up quite vaguely and confusedly—if one allows oneself to consider Napoleon’s instructions without religious awe of his genius—contained four points, four instructions. Not one of these instructions was or could be carried out.
The disposition says, first, that the batteries set up at the places chosen by Napoleon, along with the guns of Pernety and Fouché lined up with them, one hundred and two guns in all, should open fire and rain shells on the Russian flèches and redoubts. That could not be done, since from the places designated by Napoleon the projectiles did not reach the Russian works, and those one hundred and two guns were shooting into the void, until the nearest commander, contrary to Napoleon’s order, moved them forward.
The second instruction was that Poniatowski, heading towards the village through the woods, would turn the left wing of the Russians. That was not and could not be done, because Poniatowski, heading for the village through the woods, met Tuchkov there, who blocked his way, and so did not and could not outflank the Russian position.
The third instruction: General Compans will move through the woods in order to take the first fortification. Compans’s division did not take the first fortification, but was repulsed, because, on emerging from the woods, it had to form up under canister shot, something Napoleon did not foresee.
The fourth: The viceroy will take the village (Borodino) and