Pierre tours the Russian line with Bennigsen and his staff. Bennigsen angrily moves a group of men from a strategic location from which Kutúzov had planned an ambush.
Pierre tours the Russian line with Bennigsen and his staff. Bennigsen angrily moves a group of men from a strategic location from which Kutúzov had planned an ambush.
Book 10, Chapter 23
Pierre tours the Russian line with Bennigsen and his staff. Bennigsen angrily moves a group of men from a strategic location from which Kutúzov had planned an ambush.
Summary:
Pierre, riding with Bennigsen’s staff as they inspect the Russian lines, passes enormous numbers of troops and guns. They come to a high knoll where militiamen were digging entrenchments. This spot, later known as Raévski Redoubt, will become very important during the battle. They continue and see other places where Russian troops are preparing defenses. They observe a group of French troops in the distance, possibly including Napoleon himself. They then come to a place where a group of soldiers has been placed behind a hill. Unbeknownst to Bennigsen, these men had been intentionally placed there by Kutúzov in order to ambush the French should they come that way. Bennigsen assumes it was just a stupid mistake, and he angrily orders them to the top of the hill. Bennigsen does not tell Kutúzov what he has done. Later, at the extreme left flank, Bennigsen talked a great deal and with much heat, and, as it seemed to Pierre, gave orders of great military importance.
quote from the chapter:
Listening to Bennigsen and the generals criticizing the position of the troops behind the hill, he quite understood them and shared their opinion, but for that very reason he could not understand how the man who put them there behind the hill could have made so gross and palpable a blunder. Pierre did not know that these troops were not, as Bennigsen supposed, put there to defend the position, but were in a concealed position as an ambush, that they should not be seen and might be able to strike an approaching enemy unexpectedly. Bennigsen did not know this and moved the troops forward according to his own ideas without mentioning the matter to the commander in chief.
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