November, 9-10 (October, 28-29),1812
(Zhilin "The Patriotic War Of 1812", Moscow,1988)
A retreating French (from the picture by K.Pulaski) |
Napoleon had dispatched this Corps from Dorogobuzh to Vitebsk, to the aid of the French garrison in Vitebsk. Atamat Platov made sure that the Vice-King's Corps was marching along the Dukhovshina road and charged after it. On the morning of November 9th, the French came to the Vop river, but were unable to cross at once because the single bridge had been destroyed. Platov's cossacks opened fire on the French, pressing them towards the river. Some of the cossacks crossed the river and appeared on the opposite bank. The Vice-King's men, fearing to be surrounded, began to ford the river. The cossacks pressed the French rear-guard harder and harder, and The Corps of Beauharnais became panic-stricken and lost 64 of its 87 artillery pieces. More than 2 thousand soldiers and officers were killed and 3500 were captured.
Platov pursued the remainder of the French Corps, destroyed several hundred more French and capturing another 1000. Beauharnais' corps lost almost all its fighting ability. (1)
About the same time of the events at Liakhovo and the Vop river, heated fighting developed on the approaches to Smolensk near the Solovieva crossing. The troops of General Miloradovich had captured the town of Dorogobuzh on November 7th, and then turned Southward to join the main forces of the Russian army. The detachment of Major-General A.A.Yurkovsky and the cossacks under the command of General A.A.Karpov were sent to pursue the Corps of Marshal Ney on the Smolensk road.
The Russian troops came to the Solovieva crossing on November 9th, overtaking the enemy. After fierce fighting, the Russian captured 21 artillery guns and about 1 thousand men. (2)
Meanwhile, the Cossack regiments of Orlov-Denisov discovered the big French transports of food and forage intended for Smolensk, concentrated in the region of the Klemiatino and Alexeevo villages. the Russians attacked, killing more than 1500 men. They captured 1300 more, along with about 400 carriages filled with food and forage, and more than 1 thousand horses collected for artillery and about 200 head of cattle. (3)
- M.I.Kutuzov. Volume.4, Part.2, p.270,289
- The Patriotic War Of 1812. The Materials of the Military Historical Archive, V.19, p. 163
- The same
