On July 3, 1787, one-family palaces, settled in the Yekaterinoslav province (Yekaterinoslavl now the city of Dnepropetrovsk), were converted to the Cossack rank along the former Ukrainian line. According to a number of historians, after the liquidation of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, the Cossack name on the Dnieper was withdrawn from official circulation for some time. The Cossacks, who remained in the former settlements and farms, began to be listed as bourgeois and peasants.
Initially, the new formation of the Cossacks was called the Yekaterinoslav Cossack Corps. Prince Potemkin played a major role in its creation. He even recruited into the Cossacks from among his people who lived in his Polish estates. Potemkin saw the numerical advantages of the Turkish cavalry over the Russian and solved this problem simply and inexpensively for the treasury. Created a new Cossack army.
On November 12, 1787, the corps became known as the Yekaterinoslav Cossack Host. On November 15 of the same year, the 1st and 2nd Bug Cossack regiments were assigned to the army. In 1788, the Yekaterinoslav Horse Cossack Regiment and residents of the city of Chuguev and its environs, Old Believers and petty bourgeoisie of Yekaterinoslav, Voznesensk (Voznesensk is now a city in the Nikolaev region) and Kharkiv provinces were added to the army.
The army was created mainly to carry out cordon service on the Dnieper and on the Black Sea coast, took an active part in all the wars of Russia at that time. The Yekaterinoslav Cossack army took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1791. The regiments of the troops distinguished themselves during the capture of Akkerman (Belgorod-Dnestrovskaya), Kiliya and Izmail. In total, the Army consisted of up to 100,000 souls of both sexes, exhibiting up to 20 five hundred regiments. Yekaterinoslav Cossacks fought very bravely with the Turks in the wars of Russia, and the famous feat of Platov under the walls of Izmail was committed with a regiment of Yekaterinoslav Cossacks.
Military control of the army was carried out by foremen appointed from the Don Cossack army. M. I. Platov. Platov was born on August 6, 1751 in the village of the Staro-Cherkasy region of the Don Cossack. His father was a military sergeant major and rose to the rank of major. The future chieftain of the Yekaterinoslav and Don Cossack troops was characterized by his contemporaries as a decisive and intelligent person. In 1770, M. Platov received the rank of esaul and commanded a Cossack squadron. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. he took part in hostilities as part of the Don regiments in the Kuban. Platov gained fame and glory during the convoy of transport with food. His unit was surrounded by the Tatars of Devlet-Giray on April 3, 1774 at Kalalakh. However, M. I. Platov skillfully built a defense and repulsed all enemy attacks. At the beginning of the war with Turkey (1787-1791), he already has the army rank of colonel and holds the post of chieftain of the Yekaterinoslav Cossacks.
The Yekaterinoslav Cossack army quickly turned into a significant military force. When on February 11, 1788 the Yekaterinoslavsky corps of the forward guard was formed, there were 3,684 people in its units (foreman, 2,400 Cossacks and 1,016 Kalmyks). An interesting point: the baptized Kalmyks, who were part of the Chuguevsky regiment, also entered the army.
A specific statute on the order of service of the Yekaterinoslav Cossacks was not issued, and the foremen of the Don Army ruled the local Cossacks at their own discretion. Due to this, and also due to military circumstances, the army was in disorder. Dissatisfied with this situation, a significant part of the Yekaterinoslav Cossacks filed a petition to return them to their "primitive state". Catherine II decided to disband it. The Bug Cossack regiments and the Chuguev Cossack regiment were left in the Cossack estate.
In 1796, Catherine II ordered to disband the Yekaterinoslav army, and to attribute the Cossacks to the bourgeoisie and state peasants, giving them a two-year benefit from the payment of state taxes. Some of the Cossacks were transferred to the bourgeois and peasant class, and some continued to carry out cordon service. Some of the former Cossacks of the Yekaterinoslav Army did not want to come to terms with their new position and the loss of the Cossack rank, and therefore in 1800 they turned to the Emperor with a request to allow them to move to the Caucasus and carry out the Cossack service there. At the same time, they begged for the return of the Cossack title, which they were proud of and lost against their will.
The request of the former Yekaterinoslav Cossacks was considered by the Senate and, upon approval by the Emperor, was allowed in the sense that the former Cossacks of the Yekaterinoslav Army are returned to the Cossack rank with the condition of their resettlement to the Caucasus, but without any support from the treasury. Material difficulties did not stop the Cossacks and in 1801 they, consisting of about 3 thousand people, moved with their families to the Caucasus, where they founded the villages: Temizhbekskaya, Kazan, Ladoga and Tiflis. These villages became the basis of the Caucasian regiment of the Kuban Cossack army.
