Disastrous Anapa campaign … Only on March 21, 1790, Bibikov's troops approached Anapa, periodically fighting off attacks from the Circassian detachments. They decided to start the assault the next morning, since the soldiers were extremely tired. Suddenly at night a blizzard began and frosts hit such that about two hundred horses died during the night.
Despite the monstrous weather conditions, with the first glimpses of dawn under the snow leaden clouds, the soldiers' columns lined up and slowly, in complete silence, moved towards the fortress. The Turks responded with artillery fire, and the garrison of the fortification lined up on the walls, preparing to take battle. But suddenly the ranks of our soldiers froze and turned back, setting up camp at a cannon-shot distance from the fortress. At the same time, the Turks sent a messenger to the mountaineers to coordinate joint actions. Despite the pursuit, the messenger managed to escape, which meant every minute the danger of a blow to the rear.
The next day, the Ottomans in the number of 1,500 fighters left the fortress and attacked the Russian camp. Our troops met the Turks with friendly rifle and artillery fire, and it seemed that the attempt to destroy the camp failed, but at that moment the Circassian hordes attacked the rear of our positions from the southeast, i.e. from the side of the spurs of the Caucasus, descending to the Anapa valley. As a result, I had to fight on two fronts. The battle went on all day. The perseverance and courage of our soldiers once again made it possible to avoid the collapse of the expedition. When evening began to fall, about five thousand enemy soldiers were left on the battlefield. Later, our victory in this battle was called a real miracle.
However, instead of changing his mind, taking into account the existing conditions, Bibikov gave the order … to immediately start storming the fortress. Thus, the soldiers, not having time to catch their breath after many hours of battle, rushed to the attack, pursuing the retreating Turkish troops. The garrison of Anapa was so impressed by such a sudden decision of the Russian general that it locked the gates right in front of their own soldiers, whom the Russian soldiers and Cossacks pursuing them, at full speed, simply smeared against the Anapa fortress walls.
But the attack was so sudden and so disorganized that our soldiers simply did not have assault ladders (!). The Turks met the Russians with grapeshot. They had to retreat, eventually losing up to 600 people killed. The columns rushed grimly back into the fortified camp.
The night was approaching, the soldiers were exhausted. It seemed that their troubles should have ended at least for the time of night. But the Circassians, who had just fled from the battlefield, stood in positions in the mountains, watching how the battle would end, and waiting for the right moment to deliver a cavalry strike. And such a moment came when the Russian troops struck by buckshot in disorganized ranks, carrying the wounded, retreated to the camp. Circassian horsemen swiftly rushed at the retreating fighters in order to cut them off from the camp.
The swiftly blackening twilight only further divided the ranks of the retreating. The plight was saved by two majors, Verevkin and Ofrosimov. Verevkin, commanding two infantry battalions, and Ofrosimov, leading a battery of "unicorns", wedged themselves between the Circassians and our soldiers, literally screening the Russian soldiers battered by battle with their chest and covering their retreat.
Joyless way home
Finally, when darkness fell on the ground, the Russians returned to the camp. Throughout the night, which was stormy and windy, the expedition was expecting an attack by the Turks or Circassians, but both were waiting for the attack themselves, so the night turned out to be sleepless for everyone.
For another three whole days Bibikov will stand under the walls of Anapa, not daring to storm the fortress or retreat. Only when the food situation became critical, Yuri Bogdanovich gathered a military council from all senior officers. Quite predictably, the overwhelming majority of those present spoke in favor of an immediate retreat, since the troops even began to run out of ammunition, not to mention provisions and the impossibility of foraging. Bibikov resigned himself to the council's decision.
The soldiers began to withdraw from their positions on March 27, 1790. Noticing this, the Turks sent an envoy who handed over a loaf of bread to the commanding general Bibikov. The envoy also conveyed the words of the commandant of the Anapa fortress. The Anapa Pasha, overwhelmed by a big "victory", "sends this bread to the commander-in-chief so that he does not starve to death on the way." Given the circumstances, the impetuous Bibikov was forced to endure such an offense.
It was decided to return back to the Kuban by the shortest road known at that time, which was paved during his campaign by General Pyotr Abramovich Tekeli. The return was hard and disastrous. The troops were starving and exhausted. In addition, Bibikov's expedition had to go through a swampy area that melted under the spring sun, when small rivers turned into stormy streams.
At the same time, the combined forces of the highlanders and the Ottomans, encouraged by the victory, moved after the retreating forces of the Caucasian corps, hoping to completely destroy the Russian army. Finally, during the next crossing over the spring-like full-flowing river, the Russians noticed that the enemy's cavalry appeared on the horizon. It would be sheer madness to accept a battle in an open area, having a fairly thinned army, tired of the hardships of a campaign. Therefore, Bibikov and the officers of the expedition did their best to speed up the passage of the soldiers across the bridge in order to burn it, blocking the crossing of the river.
The troops managed to cross the ill-fated river, but, alas, they no longer had any opportunity to burn the bridge. General Bibikov ordered to deploy 16 guns on the move. The artillery took up positions to the right and left of the bridge, as if a cork had closed a bottle. When the enemy rushed to the bridge, a powerful salvo of buckshot burst out. Again and again the Turks and Circassians tried to break through the bridge in order to cut out the retreating Russian fighters, but they only blocked the passage across the bridge with their bodies. Only an hour later, when the enemy's losses could overshadow the previous success, the Turks and Circassians retreated. Bibikov nevertheless destroyed the dangerous crossing, but this, of course, did not guarantee against more and more attacks of the Circassians.
The last push
The coast of the Kuban was still far away. Thousands of fighters, drowning in the marshes and freezing water, continued their dramatic march. Soon the first deaths from hypothermia appeared, who literally fell dead in the discordant ranks of the army. Seeing all the horror of the position of the expedition, Bibikov decided to change the direction of the movement, making a large circular detour, but leaving on a drier road that went along the mountain spurs. The officers, led by the hero of the battle at the Anapa fortress, Major Ofrosimov, rebelled against this, arguing that the position of the soldiers and Cossacks is disastrous, and the ammunition in some units remained for five shots per person, which is madness in the enemy mountainous territory, where they will certainly ambushes and rubble will await.
Yuri Bogdanovich fell into such a frenzy that he ordered Major Ofrosimov to be chained to a gun. And then the soldiers raised their voices. No, they did not raise the commander on bayonets and deserted. The soldiers simply lay down on the frozen ground and declared that "let it be, whatever pleases God and the mother queen, and we cannot go further."Realizing that an unsuccessful campaign would soon become a real disaster that destroyed the overwhelming part of the Caucasian corps, Bibikov again convened a council of war. The result was predictable: Ofrosimov was released, and the expedition rushed to the saving Kuban with its last strength.
However, the long-awaited waters of the Kuban turned out to be inhospitable. The river overflowed, became stormy, carrying in its stream the roots and trunks of trees. It was decided to build rafts from improvised material - reeds and branches. However, those hours of delay that the expedition lost in choosing the path, those hours that Bibikov persisted, those hours that it took to give the soldiers a break, now responded with a new disaster. The Circassians and Turks finally caught up with the corps soldiers. Even on the approach to the Kuban, the detachment repeatedly repelled the stinging attacks of the enemy.
At the river itself, the expedition was caught between a mad stream and death at the hands of the enemy. The small choice itself prompted the decision - during the day the detachment repelled the attacks of the enemy, and at night, by the light of bonfires, it made rafts.
Apparently, at first the artillery was transported, since not a single weapon fell to the enemy. And later, under the cover of cannons, the rest of the army began crossing. Some of the rafts, which were hastily made from the material at hand, lost their stability and turned over. The unfortunate soldiers were carried away by the current of the Kuban.
Thus ended that disastrous campaign, and at the same time Bibikov's career. According to various sources, from 1,100 to 4,000 people died in that campaign, while many of those who managed to force the Kuban later died of their wounds.
On the right bank of the Kuban, Bibikov was met by Lieutenant General Baron Ivan Karlovich Rosen, whom the command, aware of the position of the stubborn general, sent to help. Rosen reported to His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin:
“The officers and lower ranks are in such a miserable state, which is beyond any expression; they were all swollen from hunger and exhausted by marches, cold and bad weather, from which they had no shelter. Soldiers and officers lost all their property during this campaign and were left in rags, barefoot, without shirts and even without underwear, which rotted in public."
This later led to a series of charges in a military court following a short-lived investigation. Bibikov's only punishment was complete resignation. He died in 1812 at the age of 69.
Empress Catherine II wrote to her favorite Potemkin:
“Bibikov's expedition is very strange for me and looks nothing like anything; I think he lost his mind, keeping people in water for forty days, almost without bread; it's amazing how one survived. I reckon that not much returned with him; let me know how many are missing - which I am very sorry for. If the troops rebelled, then one should not marvel at this, but more should marvel at their forty days' patience."
The infinitely persistent and patient soldiers of the detachment, who endured indescribable hardships and hardships, were eventually awarded a special silver medal with an engraving "For loyalty". True, one can judge differently, but this is a disproportionately insignificant price to pay for all the suffering of our soldiers and Cossacks.
