The attack on Murat’s camp at Tarútino is poorly managed and results in only partial success. Many prisoners and booty are taken, but Murat is not captured and there are unnecessary Russian casualties.
The attack on Murat’s camp at Tarútino is poorly managed and results in only partial success. Many prisoners and booty are taken, but Murat is not captured and there are unnecessary Russian casualties.
Book 13, Chapter 6
The attack on Murat’s camp at Tarútino is poorly managed and results in only partial success. Many prisoners and booty are taken, but Murat is not captured and there are unnecessary Russian casualties.
Summary:
On the following evening the troops assembled and advanced during the night, taking great care not to be seen or heard. As always happens, most of them got lost and failed to arrive at the proper locations assigned to them in the dispositions. At dawn, someone claiming to be a disgruntled Polish sergeant promised to help them capture Murat if they lend would him 100 soldiers. Count Orlóv-Denísov lent him the 100 soldiers, but soon decided it was probably a trick, so called back the 100 soldiers. No one except Count Orlóv-Denísov arrived in time for the planned Russian attack. Rather than wait any longer, Orlóv-Denísov attacked Murat’s camp. The surprised French troops ran away. Rather than give chase, Orlóv-Denísov’s began collecting booty and prisoners. This gave the French time to reform and offer resistance to the Russians, which resulted in some Russian casualties.
quote from the chapter:
One desperate, frightened yell from the first French soldier who saw the Cossacks, and all who were in the camp, undressed and only just waking up, ran off in all directions, abandoning cannons, muskets, and horses.
Had the Cossacks pursued the French, without heeding what was behind and around them, they would have captured Murat and everything there. That was what the officers desired. But it was impossible to make the Cossacks budge when once they had got booty and prisoners. None of them listened to orders. Fifteen hundred prisoners and thirty-eight guns were taken on the spot, besides standards and (what seemed most important to the Cossacks) horses, saddles, horsecloths, and the like. All this had to be dealt with, the prisoners and guns secured, the booty divided-not without some shouting and even a little fighting among themselves-and it was on this that the Cossacks all busied themselves.
The French, not being farther pursued, began to recover themselves: they formed into detachments and began firing. Orlóv-Denísov, still waiting for the other columns to arrive, advanced no further.
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