In George Orwell's Animal Farm, what was Napoleon doing during the Battle of the Cowshed?

is
strangely absent during the Battle of the Cowshed. We see no sign of him during the fighting. It
iswho charges bravely at the humans, accompanied by all 35 pigeons, all the sheep, Muriel,
Benjamin and . At the end of the battle, Snowball and Boxer, who both fought bravely, are
awarded the honor Animal hero, first class, but Napoleon is conspicuously missing from the honor
roll. The conclusion one is led to draw is that Napoleon was carefully taking cover in the
background while the other animals risked life and limb for the cause. We can assume Napoleon
was there, somewhere, during the battle, because at the end of the battle Molly is noticed to be
missing and everyone goes in alarm to search for her. Later, Napoleon will use propaganda to try
to change the other animals' memories of what happened in this battle.