How Russian Cossacks fought against Napoleon in 1812

“The Cossacks are the best light troops that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go all the way round the world with them,” Napoleon said about the Russian Cossack cavalry that he encountered during the invasion of Russia by the ‘Grande Armée’ in 1812. But, what was it that impressed the French Emperor so much?

Natural-born warriors

In the early 19th century, members of the Cossack caste were mostly engaged in guarding the state borders of the Russian Empire. Their irregular troops stood out for their high combat readiness, strict discipline, sense of camaraderie and loyalty to one another and to their atamans (‘leaders’).

From early childhood, Cossacks were taught how to ride a horse and wield all kinds of edged weapons and firearms, although they preferred lances most of all (for which they used the word drotik - ‘dart’, ‘javelin’). In their free time from work around their house and on the land, they organized wargames and studied and practiced the tactical skills that their ancestors had borrowed from the military art of nomadic peoples.

Bonaparte himself gave a very colorful description of a typical Cossack: “He is well built, strong, agile, quick-witted, a good cavalryman and indefatigable. He was born on a horse, grew up amidst civil wars and, on the plain, he is like a Bedouin in the desert or a mountain dweller in the Alps. He never lives in a house, never sleeps in a bed and, at sunset, he changes his overnight camp, so as not to spend the night at a location where he might have been spotted by the enemy.” 

Cossack tactics

The basic military formation of the Cossack cavalry in battle was the so-called ‘lava’, which had been used back in the distant past by the Mongol conquerors. The mass of horsemen moved on the enemy in loose formation in one or several lines, in what seemed to be a totally chaotic manner. In actual fact, the Cossacks were organized into squads of 10-12 men and operated the ‘lava’ like a fine-tuned mechanism, in which every horseman knew his role.

“You never know how to act against them; if you spread out in a line, they will immediately form a column and break through the line; if you decide to attack them in a column, they will quickly spread out and surround the column from all sides…” ‘Grande Armée’ officers would lament. 

Of course, it was very difficult for the lightly-armed Cossacks to stand their ground in an open battle against heavy French cuirassiers. The Cossacks mainly engaged the enemy’s light cavalry, carried out reconnaissance, staged acts of sabotage, set up ambushes, captured prisoners for interrogation, struck at the rear of the enemy army and cut off the enemy’s lines of communication.

Providing cover to the Russian army

The Russian army had about 40,000 Cossacks in its ranks at the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812. They were mostly the Don Cossacks under Ataman Matvei Platov, joined by the Black Sea Cossacks, as well as Tatar, Kalmyk and Bashkir cavalry regiments.

On June 23, on the eve of the ‘Grande Armée’s’ full-scale invasion of the Russian Empire, 300 Polish uhlans of the V Corps crossed the River Neman, which ran along the border, to carry out a reconnaissance. There they were immediately attacked by a Cossack patrol that retreated after a short battle. During the military campaign, the Cossacks were to develop a special relationship with the Poles.

Avoiding a major battle, the disparate Russian armies withdrew deeper into the empire under the onslaught of superior enemy forces. The mobile Cossack regiments covered the withdrawal of the main forces, springing damaging surprise strikes on the French. As General Leonty Bennigsen (Levin August von Bennigsen) noted: “They exploit the tiniest enemy blunder and immediately make the enemy regret it.”

If the situation permitted, the Cossacks would join in open battle with the enemy. At the village of Mir on July 9 (in what is central Belarus today), they employed something called the ‘venter’ (‘hoop net’) tactic against Polish uhlans. Feigning a withdrawal, the Cossacks lured them into an ambush where they were assailed by the main Cossack force.

Fighting resumed the following day. The enemy learnt a bitter lesson, as the ‘venter’ no longer worked, so Platov attacked with a ‘lava’. “Heavy fighting continued for about four hours and it was head-on… of the six enemy regiments barely a single soul will come out alive, or perhaps a few will survive… Our losses are small,” the Ataman reported to the military command. 

Borodino

Twenty Cossack regiments and two Cossack horse artillery companies took part in the epic Battle of Borodino on September 7. In the course of the action, they more than once found themselves fiercely engaging their former “acquaintances” of the Polish V Corps, but the Cossacks’ real moment of glory was their daring raid against the rear of the left flank of the French troops.

After obtaining permission from Mikhail Kutuzov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, to “go round to the rear of the enemy”, Platov’s Don Cossacks, along with the cavalrymen of General Fyodor Uvarov’s reserve corps, covertly crossed the River Kolocha and descended on the French without warning, sowing chaos and disarray among them.

The number of attackers did not exceed 6,000, but Napoleon, who was not aware of this, was compelled to turn his attention to them and to suspend his onslaught against the positions of the Russian army, which gave the latter a few hours’ respite. Having won valuable time for the troops and after looting the baggage train and seizing prisoners, Platov’s and Uvarov’s cavalries withdrew.

Finishing off the enemy

The Cossacks were the first Russian troops to enter Moscow after the ignominious withdrawal of the French army on October 19. They immediately set about extinguishing fires, burying corpses, tracking down and arresting those who had collaborated with the enemy, as well as detaining looters and criminals.

Near Maloyaroslavets (121 km southwest of Moscow) early on the morning of October 25, Cossacks came close to capturing the emperor himself. Catching the enemy completely unawares, they attacked the French artillery positions and baggage train and joined battle with the guards corps, in whose midst were Napoleon and his retinue. Unaware of the opportunity that had presented itself, the Cossacks concentrated on looting the baggage train and withdrew when French reinforcements appeared.

“The Emperor had just missed being taken prisoner in the midst of his Guard! It has been said a hundred times that the Guard fought well, but guarded badly. In fact, during the night, the Cossacks had been just 300 paces from the battalion of Grenadiers…! It was only the uncommon courage of his convoy and the arrival of the mounted grenadiers and dragoons of the guard that saved Napoleon from captivity,” is how the French historian Henri Lachouque described this event. 

Acting as the eyes and ears of the Russian troops, the Cossacks pursued the once-great ‘Grande Armée’ as it fled westwards, prodding the enemy with occasional painful jabs. When the French had been driven out of the borders of the empire, Tsar Alexander I congratulated Ataman Platov: “Your services and the achievements of the Cossack troops subordinated to you will not be forgotten. Their very name is now enough to fill the enemy with terror.”

The Cossacks also succeeded in giving a splendid account of themselves in the military campaign in Europe that followed shortly afterwards. In the ‘Battle of Nations’ near Leipzig in October 1813 they saved Emperor Alexander I and King Karl Johan Bernadotte of Sweden from capture or even death, when the cavalry of Marshal Joachim Murat broke through the defensive lines and charged towards them. 

It comes as no surprise that the Cossacks were among the first units of the Russian army to enter Paris along with the tsar in March 1814. It was in the French capital that their arduous, but heroic combat odyssey came to an end.