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Here we get a glimpse of the older generation believing their own b.s. Only Kutuzov knows Austerlitz will be lost because he’s a realist. Yet the plans move forward independent of everyone and there is no stopping it, much like the scene on the bridge on the first battle where nobody can cross because there are too many men already moving. Here we see what Tolstoy is teaching us slowly reveal itself.

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Soon we’ll get Tolstoy pontificating about the idiocy of the Great Man of History theory, how no man can really influence events other than react as best he can to them. But for right now we see how blind the youthful loyalty is to Alexander, and a glimpse of the result of that fervor with the bleeding soldier being seen by the tsar.

War is terrible as the tsar comments.

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Boris is an overlooked character in the book. He is the mirror of Dolokhov in that he is ambitious and even a little cold, but he’s not a bad man. He understands he must make his way in life by himself and by his wit, but he’s not immoral like Dolokhov. He plays by the rules, Dolokhov breaks the rules – and gets people killed. Yet we remember Dolokhov more because there is something to remember about him.