At Tarutino Kutuzov during the 23rd received the intelligence sent by Miloradovich and Dokhturov. The hour is a little doubtful, but he cannot have received Dokhturov’s report until late in the day, and it was not possible to march at once owing to the absence of a large part of the artillery horses, which, as before the action of Vinkovo, had been led far away to obtain forage. The blame freely lavished upon Kutuzov for dilatoriness seems to be without foundation; there was no unnecessary delay. To set forth to encounter Napoleon without the artillery would have been unwise to the verge of insanity. As a fact, supposing the final information to have reached the camp about 4 p.m., six or seven hours was not too long in which to call in the parties and make preparations for the march. Platov was sent off at once with 15 regiments of Cossacks to observe and harass the march of Napoleon’s column, and at 11 p.m. the rest of the army started for Maloyaroslavetz. The distance, allowing for deviations, was about 25 miles, mostly over an execrable byway rendered almost impassable by the pouring rain. Nevertheless, the Russians pushed doggedly forward, and by 11 a.m. on the 24th the head of the column was within reach of Maloyaroslavetz. Seeing that Ney, who on this same night was moving across from the eastern road, did not reach Borovsk until the evening of the 26th, having occupied three days in covering about 36 miles, the greatest credit is due to the Russian army.
Dokhturov with his force reached Maloyaroslavetz in the night of the 23rd-24th. Either now or soon after daylight on the 24th he was joined by Dorokhov from Vereia. His troops must have been nearly dead beat, but he managed to spread them round the town so as to hold the outlets of all the roads which led out of it. He, of course, did not know that there were only two battalions holding the town; but Buturlin’s blame of him for not carrying it is unreasonable. His men had been marching for nearly an entire day and night, and it was indispensably necessary to allow them some rest.
Maloyaroslavetz, an ordinary Russian country town built almost entirely of wood, lay on the southern bank of the small river Luzha, at the point where it was crossed by a bridge carrying the Moscow-Kaluga road. The river, like most streams in the region, flows in a deeply sunk channel. Below the bridge there were, according to Wilson, fords, but the Russians did not need them, and the French knew nothing of them. In any case, neither side attempted to use them. The country was very broken and also wooded, and the banks of the river, especially the southern one, were very steep. There were a few isolated buildings near the stream, while the town proper lay some hundreds of yards farther on, spreading over the top of the rise on to a plateau with a slight descent to the southward. The only good artillery position on the Russian side was eastward of the town, but though from it the opposite bank of the Luzha, down which the enemy must come, could be commanded, the ground was so broken and wooded that the bridge could nowhere be seen, and it was never apparently seriously injured.
Early on the 24th some fugitive inhabitants made their way to Dokhturov, and informed him that there were as yet only two battalions of French troops in the town. Accordingly soon after daylight, his men having by this obtained a little rest, he sent forward the 6th and 33rd Chasseur Regiments to carry the town. They expelled the garrison from nearly the whole of the place, but the buildings near the bridge formed a sort of tête du pont, which the French held desperately. Dokhturov supported the attack by two more Chasseur regiments, but the resistance was stubborn, and the Russians could not advance against the deadly fire kept up upon them. Delzons could at first only reinforce the gallant garrison by fragments and driblets, for when his main body endeavoured to defile down the northern bank Dokhturov rapidly brought a line of batteries into action east of the town and effectually checked them. About an hour later some batteries of the 4th Corps, which were toiling along the miry road, were ranged by the Viceroy opposite the Russian artillery, and thus covered Delzons’ division crossed the bridge and recaptured the town.
Dokhturov thereupon restored the fight with three line regiments, which rallied the Chasseurs and stormed through the streets of Maloyaroslavetz, driving the 13th Division back towards the bridge. Baron Delzons was killed in the midst of the struggle, and as his brother and aide-de-camp endeavoured to carry his body to the rear he also was struck down. Baron Guilleminot, Eugène’s chief-of-staff, took the command, rallied the division and, supported by part of Broussier’s, which was beginning to arrive, again stormed the now burning town, only to be forced out again as Dokhturov sent in fresh reinforcements. Once more the Russian charge was checked at the bridge; and Broussier and Guilleminot, with their united divisions, again drove the 6th Corps through the blazing town, but could not debouch from it in the face of the Russian artillery fire.
The main armies were approaching the scene of action. Davout’s corps was advancing from Borovsk to the support of Eugène; the main Russian army was nearing the field from Tarutino. Raievski’s corps marched at the head of the long column, and behind him came in succession the 8th, 3rd, 5th, 2nd and 4th Corps, and Korff’s, Golitizin’s and Vassilchikov’s cavalry. The aged commander-in-chief travelled during the night in his carriage. When about 3 or 4 miles from Maloyaroslavetz he halted and ordered Colonel Löwenstern to see Dokhturov to report. The whole of the 6th Corps was now engaged and forced on the defensive by Broussier and Guilleminot; and of this Löwenstern informed the commander-in-chief. Kutuzov sent Raievski forward at once to the assistance of Dokhturov, ordered the other corps to march upon the field with all speed, and himself mounted his horse and hurried to the front to range his oncoming troops in line of battle.
PLAN OF BATTLE OF MALOYAROSLAVETZ, OCTOBER 24TH, 1812
Raievski’s leading division, personally led by the corps commander and by Konovnitzin, reached the front about 12.30 p.m., gathered up Dokhturov’s weary divisions, and the united force stormed Maloyaroslavetz for the sixth time, driving Broussier and Guilleminot into the bridge-head for shelter, until Pino’s Italians sustained and rallied them. The three divisions beat back the oncoming Russians and once more gained possession of the awful heap of blood-stained ruins that now represented the town. The conflict was horrible beyond description; the opposing soldiery fought to the death amid conflagration and ruin; the wounded were suffocated, trodden underfoot, burned alive in the blazing houses, or hideously mangled by the opposing guns and artillery waggons as they forged their way backward and forward through the chaos.