War and Peace

n the early days of October another envoy came to Kutúzov with a letter
from Napoleon proposing peace and falsely dated from Moscow, though
Napoleon was already not far from Kutúzov on the old Kalúga road.
Kutúzov replied to this letter as he had done to the one formerly
brought by Lauriston, saying that there could be no question of peace.

Soon after that a report was received from Dórokhov’s guerrilla
detachment operating to the left of Tarútino that troops of Broussier’s
division had been seen at Formínsk and that being separated from the
rest of the French army they might easily be destroyed. The soldiers and
officers again demanded action. Generals on the staff, excited by the
memory of the easy victory at Tarútino, urged Kutúzov to carry out
Dórokhov’s suggestion. Kutúzov did not consider any offensive necessary.
The result was a compromise which was inevitable: a small detachment was
sent to Formínsk to attack Broussier.

By a strange coincidence, this task, which turned out to be a most
difficult and important one, was entrusted to Dokhtúrov—that same modest
little Dokhtúrov whom no one had described to us as drawing up plans
of battles, dashing about in front of regiments, showering crosses on
batteries, and so on, and who was thought to be and was spoken of as
undecided and undiscerning—but whom we find commanding wherever the
position was most difficult all through the Russo-French wars from
Austerlitz to the year 1813. At Austerlitz he remained last at the
Augezd dam, rallying the regiments, saving what was possible when all
were flying and perishing and not a single general was left in the rear
guard. Ill with fever he went to Smolénsk with twenty thousand men
to defend the town against Napoleon’s whole army. In Smolénsk, at the
Malákhov Gate, he had hardly dozed off in a paroxysm of fever before he
was awakened by the bombardment of the town—and Smolénsk held out all
day long. At the battle of Borodinó, when Bagratión was killed and nine
tenths of the men of our left flank had fallen and the full force of the
French artillery fire was directed against it, the man sent there was
this same irresolute and undiscerning Dokhtúrov—Kutúzov hastening to
rectify a mistake he had made by sending someone else there first.
And the quiet little Dokhtúrov rode thither, and Borodinó became the
greatest glory of the Russian army. Many heroes have been described to
us in verse and prose, but of Dokhtúrov scarcely a word has been said.

It was Dokhtúrov again whom they sent to Formínsk and from there to
Málo-Yaroslávets, the place where the last battle with the French was
fought and where the obvious disintegration of the French army began;
and we are told of many geniuses and heroes of that period of the
campaign, but of Dokhtúrov nothing or very little is said and that
dubiously. And this silence about Dokhtúrov is the clearest testimony to
his merit.

It is natural for a man who does not understand the workings of a
machine to imagine that a shaving that has fallen into it by chance
and is interfering with its action and tossing about in it is its most
important part. The man who does not understand the construction of
the machine cannot conceive that the small connecting cogwheel which
revolves quietly is one of the most essential parts of the machine, and
not the shaving which merely harms and hinders the working.

On the tenth of October when Dokhtúrov had gone halfway to Formínsk and
stopped at the village of Aristóvo, preparing faithfully to execute the
orders he had received, the whole French army having, in its convulsive
movement, reached Murat’s position apparently in order to give
battle—suddenly without any reason turned off to the left onto the new
Kalúga road and began to enter Formínsk, where only Broussier had
been till then. At that time Dokhtúrov had under his command, besides
Dórokhov’s detachment, the two small guerrilla detachments of Figner and
Seslávin.

On the evening of October 11 Seslávin came to the Aristóvo headquarters
with a French guardsman he had captured. The prisoner said that the
troops that had entered Formínsk that day were the vanguard of the whole
army, that Napoleon was there and the whole army had left Moscow four
days previously. That same evening a house serf who had come from
Bórovsk said he had seen an immense army entering the town. Some
Cossacks of Dokhtúrov’s detachment reported having sighted the French
Guards marching along the road to Bórovsk. From all these reports it was
evident that where they had expected to meet a single division there
was now the whole French army marching from Moscow in an unexpected
direction—along the Kalúga road. Dokhtúrov was unwilling to undertake
any action, as it was not clear to him now what he ought to do. He had
been ordered to attack Formínsk. But only Broussier had been there at
that time and now the whole French army was there. Ermólov wished to act
on his own judgment, but Dokhtúrov insisted that he must have Kutúzov’s
instructions. So it was decided to send a dispatch to the staff.

For this purpose a capable officer, Bolkhovítinov, was chosen, who
was to explain the whole affair by word of mouth, besides delivering
a written report. Toward midnight Bolkhovítinov, having received the
dispatch and verbal instructions, galloped off to the General Staff
accompanied by a Cossack with spare horses.