Partisan warfare flames up fiercely as hundreds of irregular Russian units fell upon much larger units of the fleeing French army. Denísov and Dólokhov plan to jointly attack a French baggage convoy of fifteen hundred men.
Partisan warfare flames up fiercely as hundreds of irregular Russian units fell upon much larger units of the fleeing French army. Denísov and Dólokhov plan to jointly attack a French baggage convoy of fifteen hundred men.
Book 14, Chapter 3
Partisan warfare flames up fiercely as hundreds of irregular Russian units fell upon much larger units of the fleeing French army. Denísov and Dólokhov plan to jointly attack a French baggage convoy of fifteen hundred men.
Summary:
Before partisan warfare had been officially recognized by the government, thousands of enemy stragglers, marauders, and foragers had been destroyed by the Cossacks and the peasants, who killed them off as instinctively as dogs worry a stray mad dog to death. By October, when the French were fleeing toward Smolénsk, there were hundreds of such companies, of various sizes and characters. Some that adopted all the army methods and had infantry, artillery, staffs, and the comforts of life. Others consisted solely of Cossack cavalry. There were also small scratch groups of foot and horse, and groups of peasants and landowners that remained unknown. The irregulars destroyed the great army piecemeal. Denísov and Dólokhov led partisan units of about 200 men each. The had been stealthily following a French baggage convoy of about 1,500 men which they were planning to seize in a surprise attack.
quote from the chapter:
The partisan warfare flamed up most fiercely in the latter days of October. Its first period had passed: when the partisans themselves, amazed at their own boldness, feared every minute to be surrounded and captured by the French, and hid in the forests without unsaddling, hardly daring to dismount and always expecting to be pursued. By the end of October this kind of warfare had taken definite shape: it had become clear to all what could be ventured against the French and what could not. Now only the commanders of detachments with staffs, and moving according to rules at a distance from the French, still regarded many things as impossible. The small bands that had started their activities long before and had already observed the French closely considered things possible which the commanders of the big detachments did not dare to contemplate. The Cossacks and peasants who crept in among the French now considered everything possible.
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