Personal Adventures and Excursions in Georgia, Circassia, and Russia.

Personal Adventures and Excursions in Georgia, Circassia, and Russia.
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17:10, 02 май 2012
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A few days afterwards, I was invited by the General-in-Chief to view the barracks, hospital, both of us had long since been well convinced that, while solitary travellers, or persons accompanied by large convoys, generally moved in safety , others who proceeded with smaller ones were invariably attacked. We reached the colony without any accident, and the following day, about four o'clock, rose, and proceeded on our enterprise. We found the ascent fatiguing enough, as we had anticipated; but, if we experienced this at the commencement, we soon found it was child's play to that which awaited us as we approached the summit, the height appearing greater and far more difficult as each step brought us nearer to it. At length, half-dead with fatigue, after nearly four hours' constant exertion, when about three-fourths of our task had
A few days afterwards, I was invited by the General-in-Chief to view the barracks, hospital, both of us had long since been well convinced that, while solitary travellers, or persons accompanied by large convoys, generally moved in safety , others who proceeded with smaller ones were invariably attacked.
We reached the colony without any accident, and the following day, about four o'clock, rose, and proceeded on our enterprise. We found the ascent fatiguing enough, as we had anticipated; but, if we experienced this at the commencement, we soon found it was child's play to that which awaited us as we approached the summit, the height appearing greater and far more difficult as each step brought us nearer to it. At length, half-dead with fatigue, after nearly four hours' constant exertion, when about three-fourths of our task had been completed, we found ourselves brought to a stand-still on a species of platform, at the foot of what appeared an absolutely perpendicular face of rock, reaching, if not the whole way, most certainly a considerable portion of what remained of the distance yet to be accomplished.
Having rested ourselves, we proceeded to reconnoitre the possibility of our advancing further. A minute's glance sufficed to convince us there was but one method. The thick, high grass, through which we had waded on our route up, afforded a sufficiently strong hold to cling to, and our guide and myself at once declared that by this mode only, therefore, and trusting to our nerves and sinews, must our ascent be accomplished.
We reached Piatigorsk in the evening; the Count observing to me on parting, in what I thought was a somewhat significant manner, that our adventure had been well and fortunately accomplished. Whether there was more in this than met the car, is left to the reader's imagination; perhaps after, what 1 have related, he will agree with me, and think there was; at least, this impression was not lessened, when we heard, on our return, that official information had been forwarded to the commandant, apprizing him that the body of Circassian cavalry, whom I have already mentioned as having, under one of their most enterprising and able chiefs, passed the Kouban, had already surprised and cut off several of the advanced posts.
It was about a week after his departure that our neighbourhood became particularly troublesome. On all occasions of moving even five versts from the post, it became necessary to act with considerable circumspection, and never to proceed without escort; while, one morning, the town was discovered to be on fire no less than three times in as many different places, and though there was every reason to believe the circumstance was any thing but accidental, the utmost activity and vigilance on the part of the police failed to discover the least trace of the incendiaries.
Again, another outpost, five-and-thirty versts from the station, had been attacked, and from its wounded commander, who was subsequently brought into Piatigorsk, I gathered an account of the affair.
His detachment consisted of two companies of infantry and four guns — in all 180 men — and were stationed as a guard over a valuable stud and depot of other cattle. Though the party did not possess any great numerical force, it was very strongly posted; but what imparted to its situation a character of security, was, the circumstance that none of the flying parties of the enemy had for years past been heard of in the neighbourhood; when, therefore, the assault took place, if not taken by surprise, it certainly was wholly unexpected.
The commander, a Pole, a young man of considerable skill and ability in this sort of warfare, having served in the Caucasus for several years, made a desperate defence — for which the assailants, who had calculated upon the weakness of the force opposed to them rendering them an easy prey, were evidently unprepared; the consequence was, the irritation engendered by the firmness of the besieged lent a character of additional ferocity to the scene.
The young officer who commanded was well aware, from past experience, that, if once his adversaries succeeded in closing with him, the discipline of his men, so far from availing them, was considerably to their disadvantage; his great hope and object, therefore, was to keep the assailants at a distance by the cross fire of his guns and musketry, till such time as reinforcements could reach him from the neighbouring outposts; but the fierce hardihood and indomitable energy of the mountaineers, who were equally aware with himself of the value of time, overcame every obstacle, and, though they suffered a frightful loss from the death-dealing shower which poured in among them, and which, though it staggered, did not repel them, a quarter of an hour had scarcely elapsed from the commencement of the assault, before the contest was maintained hand to hand; in the midst of which, the fortification was as usual set fire to, and the whole of the cattle carried off by a mounted party who lay in wait for the purpose.
Notwithstanding that the object of the Circassians was thus accomplished, it did not appear to form any part of the plan of their leader to draw off his men; his fierce and sanguinary nature appearing rather to riot in the work of slaughter he had created, and of which, from the predominant figure he displayed by his voice and example in encouraging; his followers, as, covered with blood, he swept all before him, he might, without injustice, be well supposed to represent the supreme Moloch.
Worn out and overpowered, the defendants were fast falling — the utter extermination of the whole detachment appearing the object that would alone satisfy their stern and relentless adversary — when the bright glimmering of arms in the distance, glancing upon a body of cavalry advancing at speed, caused the assailants to betake themselves to their horses, and retreat.
The body of troops, which had thus so opportunely arrived, proved to be a party of Cossacks of the Line, whose fortunate and timely appearance alone preserved the shattered remnant of the garrison from annihilation, and two-thirds of the original number of whom lay killed and wounded, while the entire convoy had been carried off, and everything within the earthen ramparts reduced to ashes.
Exasperated at the spectacle which met their view, the Cossacks scarcely stayed to breathe their horses, but darted off in pursuit. They soon came up with their adversaries, who were retiring swiftly, but in good order, when a sharp running fight ensued, by which both parties sustained some loss, the Circassians still retreating; till, entering a narrow gorge, when, as the shrill war-cry of the mountaineers issued at once from each side, and burst upon the startled ear of their assailants, the pursued wheeled about, and rushed full speed upon the Cossacks, who, in the same instant, were vigorously charged from both flanks.
Though taken at disadvantage, and wholly unprepared for the ambuscade into which their impetuosity had led them, the warriors of the Line were too well accustomed to such straits to feel dismayed at circumstances under which perhaps the best and finest regular cavalry in any other part of the world must inevitably have been destroyed. Accordingly, a short but fierce and sanguinary conflict ensued, which terminated in the Cossacks cutting their way through their antagonists, but leaving a score of their companions dead on the field, besides having several others severely wounded.
This narrative left no doubt upon my own mind, in conjunction with other circumstances I learned connected with it, as to who was its author. Its red-handed characters were too clearly manifest in their points of resemblance to be mistaken; and, in its history throughout, was again legibly portrayed my Friend of the Mountain!
This was a fatal error on the part of the Imperial Government, and was the main cause of protracting the struggle in the plains, by instilling into the mountaineers a vast idea of their own superiority, as well as an utter contempt for their adversaries; since, from the superiority of the former in weight, dexterity, and horsemanship, and, above all, in their breed of horses, the Tchernamorskies were speared, sabred, and ridden down by their adversaries to such a degree, that the gradual diminution of their numbers seemed but the prelude to the utter extermination of the whole race.
The infantry at this period were too few in number to be of much avail by themselves: the Russian soldier, as I have previously observed, is a bad tirailleur, and it is only in large, heavy columns that his powers of endurance and unshaken firmness can be brought into play and appreciated; qualities which, however admirable in themselves, it must be confessed are but comparatively of little value in a warfare where lightness, activity, and individual intelligence are such essential requisites.
The Line Cossacks, who alone matched their opponents in arms, equipment, and skill, were too much scattered to be brought up in any great force; besides, their presence was requisite in covering the line of communication with the Georgian provinces, and their attention well occupied with the Lesguees on the eastern side of the Caucasus.
After repeated and disastrous defeats on the part of the invading forces, a new plan was adopted, and heavy masses of infantry, with powerful trains of field-artillery, brought into play. Then, indeed, the picture was fearfully reversed, as, inspired by the confidence they had acquired in their former conflicts with the Tchernamorskies, and little aware of the formidable nature of the highly-disciplined enemy to whom they were now opposed, the Circassian cavalry, in the dense column formerly practised by the Turkish Spahis, rushed upon the Russian squares and guns, and more than once the former were crushed, withered, and broken, by their terrific and impetuous onset, in a manner which set all modern tactics at defiance.
But dearly, heavily, were these glories purchased. Thousands of the Muscovite soldiery had fallen; but to what purpose? They formed a mere item in the array of their powerful enemy; other thousands replaced them; whilst of those that fell on the Circassian side, victims to their own rash and ill-fated but chivalrous devotion, from what source was their loss, so deep, so irreparable, to be supplied?
Those consequences speedily manifested themselves which I have already mentioned; and the Kabardas first, and next the provinces of the Kouban and Laba rivers, after a long, protracted, and bloody struggle, were compelled to submit, and, giving hostages for their fidelity, remain neutral in the contest now carried on in the mountain districts.
But the inhabitants of the latter provinces now also completely changed their own system of tactique. The lesson attending the reverses of their compatriots had by no means been lost upon them; and, with no less sagacity than skill, they commenced such a system of harassing and worrying guerilla warfare, that, united with the climate eternal night-watching, and total absence of any thing like repose, want of provisions, and destitution of proper medical attendance, the loss of the Russians presented a frightful picture of human sacrifice.
Convoys were cut off, outposts surprised, the largest apmies even were followed, and numbers slaughtered by an unseen enemy, whose deadly accuracy of aim carried fearful destruction amid the dense ranks and crowded masses of the invaders, whose numbers, discipline, and military skill, were thus rendered nugatory when opposed to individual intrepidity and daring, coupled with natural strength of position, and the quick sagacity and perception of employing it to the highest degree of advantage.
Large bodies of cavalry now seldom acted together, except in cases of great moment; and when the nature of the ground promised success to a dash in upon the Russian columns before they could form square, or the prospect presented itself (as was the case on a recent occasion) of luring the invading forces into an ambuscade; when, after a heavy and destructive fire from a foe of whose proximity not the remotest trace till then was visible, and where every ball told upon and selected its victim; in the sudden confusion created by such an unexpected event, and through the interval of the fearful gap caused by this deadly shower, the horsemen were among them on the instant, and then the work of slaughter became an absolute butchery; the heavy, disciplined infantry soldier being no match for the nervous-armed, energetic, and mailed rider of the Caucasus.
These instances, however, are now rare; but, in accordance with the system at present in vogue, bodies of horse, varying from fifty to two or three hundred, under chieftains of undoubted and established reputation, scour the country, falling upon the outposts and small detachments, whose numbers render the prospect of success ever certain, and sweeping off alike stores, cattle, and captives. In the meanwhile, the larger garrisons are closely beleaguered, nor can the soldiery move beyond the walls of their fortifications for the purpose of obtaining forage, wood, or water, without the prospect of a desperate struggle, and not infrequently the sharp crack of the rifle is heard close under the walls; and the very sentries, in their walks to and fro, fall, pierced to the heart, on their own ramparts.
This mode of warfare on the part of the mountaineers has been productive of additional plans on that of the Imperial Government to subdue them, the surest and most fatal of which has been that (as far as was practicable) of a blockade both by land and sea.


1838
Cameron J. P.
www.circas.ru
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