d their reserves were subjected to an effective fire from the French
field guns. At 6 A.M. on the 7th of September the French attack began.
By 8 A.M. the Russian centre was driven in, and though a furious
counter-attack enabled Prince Bagration's troops to win back their
original line, fresh French troops under Davout and Ney drove them back
again. But the Russians, though they lost ground elsewhere, still clung
to the great redoubt, and for a time the advance of the French was
suspended by Napoleon's order, owing to a cavalry attack by the Russians
on Eugene's extreme left. When this alarm was ended the advance was
resumed. Napoleon had now collected a sufficient target for his guns. A
terrific bombardment by the artillery was followed by the decisive
charge of the battle, made by great masses of cavalry. The horsemen,
followed by the infantry, charged at speed, broke the Russian line in
two, and the French squadrons entered the gorge of the great redoubt
just as Eugene's infantry climbed up its faces. In a fearful _melee_ the
Russian garrison of the redoubt was almost annihilated. The defenders
were now dislodged from their main line and the battle was practically
at an end. Napoleon has been criticized for not using the Guard, which
was intact, to complete the victory. There is, however, no evidence that
any further expenditure of men would have had good results. Napoleon had
imposed his will on the enemy so far that they ceded possession of
Moscow without further resistance. That the defeat and losses of the
Russian field army did not end the war was due to the national spirit of
the Russians, not to military miscalculations of Napoleon. Had it not
been for this spirit, Borodino would have been decisive of the war
without'the final blow of the Guard. As it was, the Russians lost about
42,000 men out of 121,000; Napoleon's army (of which one-half consisted
of the contingents of subject allies-Germany, Poland, Switzerland,
Holland, &c.) 32,000 out of 130,000 (Berndt, _Zahl im Kriege_). On the
side of the French 31 general officers were killed, wounded or taken,
and amongst the killed were General Montbrun, who fell at the head of
his cavalry corps, and Auguste Caulaincourt, who took Montbrun's place
and fell in the _melee_ in the redoubt. The Russians lost 22 generals,
amongst them Prince Bagration, who died of his wounds after the battle,
and to whose memory a monument was erected on the battle-field by the
tsar Nichol
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