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The so-called partisan war began with the entry of the French
into Smolensk.
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. Denis Davydov, with his Russian instinct, was the
first to recognize the value of this terrible cudgel which regardless
of the rules of military science destroyed the French, and to
him belongs the credit for taking the first step toward regularizing
this method of warfare.
On August 24 Davydov's first partisan detachment was formed
and then others were recognized. The further the campaign progressed
the more numerous these detachments became.
The irregulars destroyed the great army piecemeal. They gathered
the fallen leaves that dropped of themselves from that withered
tree- the French army- and sometimes shook that tree itself. By
October, when the French were fleeing toward Smolensk, there were
hundreds of such companies, of various sizes and characters. There
were 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. A sacristan commanded one party which captured
several hundred prisoners in the course of a month; and there
was Vasilisa, the wife of a village elder, who slew hundreds of
the French.
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.
On October 22, Denisov (who was one of the irregulars) was
with his group at the height of the guerrilla enthusiasm. Since
early morning he and his party had been on the move. All day long
he had been watching from the forest that skirted the highroad
a large French convoy of cavalry baggage and Russian prisoners
separated from the rest of the army, which- as was learned from
spies and prisoners- was moving under a strong escort to Smolensk.
Besides Denisov and Dolokhov (who also led a small party and moved
in Denisov's vicinity), the commanders of some large divisions
with staffs also knew of this convoy and, as Denisov expressed
it, were sharpening their teeth for it. Two of the commanders
of large parties- one a Pole and the other a German- sent invitations
to Denisov almost simultaneously, requesting him to join up with
their divisions to attack the convoy.
"No, bwother, I have gwown mustaches myself," said
Denisov on reading these documents, and he wrote to the German
that, despite his heartfelt desire to serve under so valiant and
renowned a general, he had to forgo that pleasure because he was
already under the command of the Polish general. To the Polish
general he replied to the same effect, informing him that he was
already under the command of the German.
Having arranged matters thus, Denisov and Dolokhov intended,
without reporting matters to the higher command, to attack and
seize that convoy with their own small forces. On October 22 it
was moving from the village of Mikulino to that of Shamshevo.
To the left of the road between Mikulino and Shamshevo there were
large forests, extending in some places up to the road itself
though in others a mile or more back from it. Through these forests
Denisov and his party rode all day, sometimes keeping well back
in them and sometimes coming to the very edge, but never losing
sight of the moving French. That morning, Cossacks of Denisov's
party had seized and carried off into the forest two wagons loaded
with cavalry saddles, which had stuck in the mud not far from
Mikulino where the forest ran close to the road. Since then, and
until evening, the party had the movements of the French without
attacking. It was necessary to let the French reach Shamshevo
quietly without alarming them and then, after joining Dolokhov
who was to come that evening to a consultation at a watchman's
hut in the forest less than a mile from Shamshevo, to surprise
the French at dawn, falling like an avalanche on their heads from
two sides, and rout and capture them all at one blow.
In their rear, more than a mile from Mikulino where the forest
came right up to the road, six Cossacks were posted to report
if any fresh columns of French should show themselves.
Beyond Shamshevo, Dolokhov was to observe the road in the
same way, to find out at what distance there were other French
troops. They reckoned that the convoy had fifteen hundred men.
Denisov had two hundred, and Dolokhov might have as many more,
but the disparity of numbers did not deter Denisov. All that he
now wanted to know was what troops these were and to learn that
he had to capture a "tongue"- that is, a man from the
enemy column. That morning's attack on the wagons had been made
so hastily that the Frenchmen with the wagons had all been killed;
only a little drummer boy had been taken alive, and as he was
a straggler he could tell them nothing definite about the troops
in that column.
Denisov considered it dangerous to make a second attack for
fear of putting the whole column on the alert, so he sent Tikhon
Shcherbaty, a peasant of his party, to Shamshevo to try and seize
at least one of the French quartermasters who had been sent on
in advance.
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