The feat and death of the St. George post
Modern monument to the feat of the St. George post
The night from the 3rd to the 4th of September 1862 turned out to be windy and dank. Towards morning, mountains and ravines were being watered with mighty heavy rainfall, and fog crept over the mountain ranges. Slanting rain turned the area almost into a swamp. By this time, the enemy detachment of Circassians Natukhais, numbering up to three thousand foot soldiers and up to six hundred mounted soldiers, was already on the march. The detachment set itself the goal of looting and extermination of the villages of Verkhnebakanskaya and Nizhnebakanskaya.
By four o'clock in the morning the enemy began to realize that a night raid was no longer possible. The detachment was divided into three parts. One part was at the forefront, performing the functions of reconnaissance, the second part itself was fragmented due to the specifics of the local mountain routes and followed the vanguard, and the third closed this entire march. At the same time, each group had its own part of the cavalry. As a result, the mountainous terrain and weather conditions crossed out the initial plan to attack the villages at night. In addition, the light began to grow, which means that the detachment risks attracting the attention of the St. George post, the location of which the Circassians knew perfectly.
In the ranks of the mountaineers, disagreements began. Some Circassians, wise by experience, advised to retreat, hide in the mountains and repeat the maneuver at night. Others were afraid to run into the forces of the frantic Babuk (General Pavel Babich, at that time the commander of the Adagum detachment, which had successfully defeated the enemy parties of the Circassians) and complained that there was nothing to profit from the plastuns, and the Cossacks would cut a lot of them. Third voices were heard, accusing all opponents of cowardice. Shouts ran over the detachment: “Down with cowards, are we worse than plastuns?” However, the Cossack secret put an end to this dispute, which the avant-garde eventually ran into. The silence of Neberjaya was broken by gunfire. When the Circassians found out that the Cossacks of the secret fought two horsemen with their first shots, the hot heads immediately prevailed and led everyone else to the assault.
Under siege
After a couple of minutes from the first shots in the Neberdzhaev Gorge, the serf gun made several signal shots in order to let the neighboring fortifications know that the enemy was storming the line. Many veterans of that battle from the side of the Circassians later said that the valley shortly before the gunshot was filled with a wolf howl, which often imitated the plastunas to warn of danger, so it is impossible to pinpoint at what point the highlanders were discovered by the Cossacks.
Highlanders Circassians
Fearing that the plastunas, having seen their desperate situation, would make an attempt to break the blockade of the post, the Natukhai people first cordoned off the post from all sides, sending in front of the main forces of the horsemen, who had bypassed the fortifications from the flanks. Shortly afterwards, two parts of the cash from the mountaineers of the infantry advanced directly to the assault, and the third was sent to be ambushed at the entrance to the gorge in the event of the appearance of Russian cavalry. The attack began around five in the morning.
Hotheads, accusing their opponents of cowardice, were actually the first to rush into a head-on attack. Some even got off their horses without any order in order to join the ranks of the infantry. The post garrison led by the centurion Efim Gorbatko immediately took advantage of such confusion, supported by senseless mountain bravado. The first assault convoy was greeted with such a friendly rifle fire that before the post, up to a hundred soldiers fell to the ground instantly. The Cossacks calmly shot the Circassians, forcing the first wave of attack to retreat.
Where is the help?
Naturally, if the Russian cavalry had come forward to the post of St. George from the very first shots of the gun that signaled an attack, then, surely, there would have been a chance to avoid the death of the garrison. So why didn’t the troops arrive on time?
In the Konstantinovsky fortification and forstadt with him (the future Novorossiysk), strangely enough, at five in the morning the sentries, despite the rain and wind, still managed to hear a few gunfire. The garrison of the fortress was immediately raised on alert. But a reasonable question arose: where did the shooting come from? Alas, the sentries could not precisely indicate the direction, which is understandable. The St. George Post, located at the bottom of the gorge, to all its troubles, was also partly shrouded in fog and flooded with rain. Any sound just drowned in this raw haze.
Some of the reinforcement officers felt that the firing was conducted by the detachment of General Babich, who was distinguished by rapid maneuvering and delivering stinging strikes against the hostile forces of the Circassians. Others suggested that the convoy convoy, which was supposed to arrive the other day in Konstantinovskoye, ran into a Circassian ambush and is currently fighting.
And only a few units said that the battle could go on at the Georgievsky post near the Lipka River. However, this only true opinion was a victim of the experience of Russian officers. In a cruel irony of fate, the officers judged in the same way as the hostile Circassians wise in battle. Many people could not admit that the planned mountain raid, which set itself the goal in the overwhelming number of cases, robbery and captivity for ransom, was committed to a post where there is nothing to profit from, and you can completely lose a detachment in a matter of hours. In addition, the post can be rebuilt and strengthened, and the murder of a small garrison, no matter how cynical it sounds, will not significantly change even the operational situation. As a result, saving minutes were irretrievably lost.
Do not be timid, brothers!
After the first unsuccessful assault attempt, the Circassians sat behind the trees surrounding the post, as suggested by the centurion Gorbatko. Truth be told, for the sake of clarification, the highland gun shots did not bother the Cossacks much. But because of their own numbers, the Circassians literally crushed each other, constantly falling under well-aimed shots of plastuns. It got to the point that many offered to retreat. Local princes were able to keep them only fear of revenge and the danger of getting the stigma of a coward.
About half an hour passed, but the post did not give up. Therefore, the princes had to return the infantry, which was ambushed at the beginning of the gorge. Thus, the fortification had about 3000 people. However, the silenced gun turned out to be a much greater disaster. A frantic downpour that watered the post since the night led to the fact that part of the gunpowder was damp. Thus, the buckshot mortally dangerous for attacking Circassians no longer threatened them.
Finally, the highlanders, noting the silence of the guns, perked up. There was a cry calling to crush the proud post by number. A whole embittered avalanche of soldiers rushed to the post with a hoot, who wanted to avenge such a mediocre assault attempt. This time, the Circassians managed to break through directly to the ramparts, and many rushed to climb the wattle fence. But the Cossacks Yefim Gorbatko, who continued to command the post in the front ranks of the defenders, did not lose their presence of spirit, with bayonets and butts they threw the enemy down on the heads of their own comrades.
Rodion Kuznetsov. A sketch on cardboard based on the tragedy of the St. George post
There was again a plea for retreat. Princes instantly attacked those who retreated, threatening shame and death. The mullahs also joined in the “inspiration” of their own warriors. They sent all kinds of curses to the defenders of the post and encouraged those who were storming with eternal glory. But the second attack was unsuccessful.
The third assault became disastrous for the post. Someone from the Circassian commanders proposed to cut right through the wattle fence under the guise of constant gunfire comrades. The highlanders again rushed to the wattle fence under the hurricane fire of their troops and began to break open the post with axes. After some time, a gap formed at the gate in the central direction of the defense, into which the enemy poured.
Yefim Gorbatko led the Cossacks in the last short battle. The plastunas hit with bayonets, momentarily scattering the mountaineers in front of them, but the forces were unequal. The Cossacks were cut with checkers. Gorbatko to the last chopped up with the Circassians, saying "do not be shy, brothers." After a couple of minutes, the Circassian, who was on the side, cut off with the blow of the centurion's blade, and he fell under the numerous blows of the enemy. Cannone Romoald Barutsky, seconded to the post, did not give up alive. Once surrounded, he blew up a box with artillery charges.
Another hero of the battle was an unnamed high-growth plastun who split his own gun into two parts on the head of another Circassian, which caused the highlander to die on the spot. He began to strangle the second enemy with his bare hands. A crowd of Circassians could not pull the only Cossack, so they stabbed him in the back with daggers.
The last defender of the central gate of the post was ... Gorbatko's wife - Maryana. The unfortunate woman with a terrifying scream rushed to protect her husband's body. Armed with a gun, with which she trained in shooting a few days before the attack, Maryana in the blink of an eye finished off with a successful shot of one Circassian. And while the highlanders recoiled in terrible bewilderment, a woman pierced the other enemy with a bayonet through and through. Only after that, the furious Natukhais chopped up the brave Maryana to pieces. To the credit of the mountain princes, it is worth noting that some of them, having heard about the woman at the ruins of the post, rushed to rescue her from the hands of a furious crowd, because they did not want to dishonor themselves with this death, which would not do them any honor. They just did not have time.
Surrender, if only the king himself commands!
True hell was happening in the post. At the gates stood a real mound of fallen enemies. Hordes distraught with hatred began to slaughter not only wounded Cossacks who were unable to resist, but also the corpses of the plastoons, including the brave centurion Gorbatko. In this bloody mess, only after some time the enemy discovered that his soldiers continued to fall under the shots of the Cossacks.
It turned out that at the time of breaking through the enemy’s fortifications, the part of the plastons defending the flanks, in the amount of 18 soldiers (according to other sources, no more than eight people), was able to retreat to the barracks and take up defense there. The princes, realizing their inglorious position, did not at all want to go on the attack of the next fortified point, so they immediately offered the plastunas to surrender, so that later they could be exchanged for Circassian captives. But in response they heard only one phrase: “Plastuns are not surrendered; let us surrender if the king himself commands. ”
Plastunas. Engraving by Arthur Vanyur
Nobody even wanted to think about a new fight. Princes and highlanders saw the depressing position of the detachment. The blood-stained, stunned by anger natuhayts no longer looked like not only warriors, but also people. In addition, from minute to minute, the commanders expected the arrival of the Russian cavalry, which would finally finish off a completely fragmented detachment. Therefore, taking advantage of the fact that the barracks was built of wood without any stone parts, after several attempts to storm the Circassians nevertheless set it on fire. Not a single Cossack surrendered.
As a result, after an hour and a half battle, the post fell. Of the defenders, no one survived, nor did the Circassians succeed in capturing anyone. The Circassian detachment, which had thinned after the roof of the barracks collapsed, did not even dare to think about continuing the operation. Everyone quickly rushed into the mountains, fearing the revenge of General Babych.
The rumor about the courage of the fast spread fast in the mountains. The highlanders began to call Sotnik Gorbatko “Sultan,” and his saber went around for a long time for a considerable fee, until its price became simply fantastic, unthinkable for these places.
On the morning of September 4, 1862, a Russian detachment arrived at the Lipki River. The soldiers found 17 bodies at the loopholes and gates, including Gorbatko and his wife. They were buried in the cemetery of the village of Neberdzhaevskaya. But only on September 8, a detachment of Colonel Orel opened the burnt barracks, where they found the bodies of the last defenders of the post. The remains of these soldiers were laid to rest on the banks of the Neberdzhay River. Alas, in one year the river became so full of water that it washed away the graves, and the bones were carried away by the current. But this is different story, the story of the memory of heroes.
To be continued ...
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