The Battle of Uzynagash (Russian: Узун-Агачское сражение) was a series of battles during the Kokand invasion of Kyrgyzstan in October 1860 ended with the victory of the Russians.
| Battle of Uzynagash | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Russian conquest of Central Asia | |||||||||
 Cossacks repel the attack | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Russia |
 Khanate of Kokand | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Gerasim Kolpakovsky | Shabdan baatyr | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
700 6 cannons | 16,000–20,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 1 killed, 26 wounded | 1,500 killed and wounded | ||||||||
Early contacts
editIn the early 1850s, the Russians slowly advanced into Semirechye, which caused discontent among the population, local Kazakhs began to en masse to serve the Kokand Khanate, which was gathering forces to re-invade the region, after the failure in 1853.[1]
Background
editIn October 1860, the Kokand invaded Semerechye, the number of this army was from 16[2] to 20[3] thousand, the Russian forces were dispersed throughout the regions, and there was a possibility of destroying them separately. Several hundred Cossacks everywhere, fighting off enemy forces, flocked to the village of uzun-agach, and the Kokand people also came here.[4]
Battle
edit19 October
editOn this day, the Kokand people, without waiting for a full gathering of forces, directly attacked the Russians, but the grapeshot artillery fire inflicted heavy losses on them and they were forced to retreat.[3]
20 October
editAfter the arrival of reinforcements, the Kokand decided to attack in another way, but this attempt was also unsuccessful,[5] after which the Russians began to organize maneuvers and look for places for a general battle.[2]
21 October
editKolpakovsky decided to enter the northern flank of the Kokand army and strike at the dominant heights, he successfully did this and, thanks to artillery fire, was able to take them. The Kokand men gathered their forces into a single striking fist and attacked the detachment, however, heavy infantry and artillery fire knocked them down, the battle lasted for a very long time, sometimes turning into hand-to-hand combat, wounded officers encouraged the soldiers and finally the Kokand retreated, losing up to 1,500 people.[6] The losses of the defenders were 1 killed and 26 wounded.[7]
Aftermath
editRussian sources say that this is one of the most important battles of the war, in case of the slightest failure, They could have lost the entire region, but after the battle it was completely assigned to the Russians.[3]
Reference
edit- ^ Егоршина 2023, pp. 536–537.
- ^ a b Terentyev 2022, p. 279.
- ^ a b c Егоршина 2023, p. 537.
- ^ Terentyev 2022, p. 278.
- ^ Хронологический указатель военных действий русской армии и флота. Том IV. 1855-1894 гг. p.52
- ^ Хронологический указатель военных действий русской армии и флота. Том IV. 1855-1894 гг. p.53
- ^ Terentyev 2022, p. 281.
Bibliography
edit- Terentyev, Mihail (2022). История завоевания Средней Азии [The history of the conquest of Central Asia] (in Russian). Volume 1. ISBN 978-5-4481-1327-7.
- Егоршина, Петрова (2023). История русской армии [The history of the Russian Army] (in Russian). Moscow: Edition of the Russian Imperial Library. ISBN 978-5-699-42397-2.
- Хронологический указатель военных действий русской армии и флота. Том IV. 1855-1894 гг. [Chronological index of military operations of the Russian army and Navy. Volume IV. 1855-1894.]. Runivers (in Russian). 1911.