[1] The initial Russian position, which stretched south of the new Smolensk Highway (Napoleon's expected route of advance), was anchored on its left by a pentagonal earthwork redoubt erected on a mound near the village of Shevardino.

Kutuzov stated that the fortification was manned simply to delay the advance of the French forces.

Fighting resumed the next day but Konovnitzyn again retreated when Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais' Fourth Corps arrived, threatening his flank.

Simultaneously, Prince Józef Poniatowski's Polish infantry attacked the position from the south.

[4] The unexpected French advance from the west and the fall of the Shevardino redoubt threw the Russian formation into disarray.