Battle of Borodino,
7 September 1812
This time we did not have to go far to seek the
enemy. The sun of the seventh of September rose on the armies, and showed
them to each other in the same positions they had occupied at sunset. There
was general rejoicing. This incoherent, sluggish, shifting war in which
our best efforts had been fruitless and in which we seemed to be hopelessly,
endlessly sinking was at last centered in one spot. Here we touched bottom,
here was the end, here everything would be decided.
--Philippe-Paul de Segur
A great day is in the making! It will be a terrible
battle.
--Napoleon Bonaparte
At half past five on the morning
of September 7, Napoleon ordered his French batteries to begin firing.
By ten o'clock Napoleon's original plan had been overtaken by events. Eugene
had done better than expected, capturing Borodino, bringing up guns, and
pounding the Raevsky Redoubt. But Poniatowski had fared less well. Though
he had battered the Russian left--General Tuchkov was dead and Bagration
dying of wounds--he was unable to take the Bagration Fleches from behind.
Retreat
Advance