Volume I, Book III, Chapter XVII

So Bagration is annoyed at the order given to him by Dolgorukov to begin action, so instead he sends a scout to where Kuzutov and the Emperor are, knowing since it's six miles it will take him all day to just go and come back. He looks over and sees eager Nikolai.

The rest of the chapter is Nikolai running into fighting. He gets more and more confused at where the shots are coming from. At one point, he almost gets trampled by the horse guard stampeding toward the French (he later hears only 18 of them survived). I'm a little confused that he's still riding Bedouin, since he bought that other horse from the Frenchman they captured, but I'm sure I'm misunderstanding.

He runs into Boris and Berg, who have fought their first action. He continues on in spite of the danger (I think this is a prerequisite for survival) and sees soldiers confused and shooting at each other through the fog, who later turn out to be Austrians & Russians accidentally shooting each other. He heads on toward the Pratzen Heights, where the just sees French, though he knows that's where the commander is.

Whoops - this can't be good...