Andrei Ivanovich Gorchakov

Andrei Ivanovich Gorchakov

Andrei Ivanovich Gorchakov ( Russian Андрей Иванович Горчаков ; * 1779 in Moscow ; † February 11, 1855 ibid) was a Russian infantry general (1819) and an important troop leader during the wars of liberation .

Life

Andrei Ivanovich Gorchakov came from the princely family of Gorchakov and was the son of Prince Ivan Romanovich Gorchakov and Anna Suvorov. He was a nephew (on his mother's side) of Field Marshal AW Suvorov and brother of Alexei Ivanovich Gorchakov (1769-1817), who rose to become General and Minister of War . At the age of two he was registered for military service with the Guard. On January 1, 1793, he entered active military service as an ensign in the Preobrazhensky Guard Regiment. In 1797 he received the rank of lieutenant colonel , he obtained the position of adjutant of Tsar Paul I . On February 12, 1798, on the personal instructions of the monarch, he went to Suvorov, who was in exile, and asked him to come to St. Petersburg for reconciliation. After obtaining his uncle's approval, Gorchakov acted as a mediator in the reconciliation. He was promoted to colonel in April 1798 and made major general on March 25, 1798.

Gorchakov accompanied Suvorov during the campaign in northern Italy in 1799 and in Switzerland received his baptism of fire during the capture of Brescia . For the battles on the Adda River , he received the Order of Saint Anne, 1st class. The storming of the Tortona fortress earned him the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem; where he carried out several attacks on the right flank of the French with two Cossack regiments. Then he distinguished himself in the battles on the Trebbia and Novi , where he prevented the French attempting to attack the Russian flank with his grenadiers. For his bravery he was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky with diamonds. For his missions when crossing the Alps and crossing the Gotthard Pass , he was promoted to lieutenant general on February 11, 1800 and appointed chief of the Nevsky musketeer regiment on March 8 of the same year. On February 17, 1803, he switched to the Tambov Musketeer Regiment as chief. On August 17, 1805 he was appointed inspector of the garrisons of the Moscow Inspectorate, retaining his position as chief of the Tambov Musketeer Regiment.

In 1806 he led the formation of the 18th Infantry Division in Kaluga , which he commanded in the 1807 campaign with the auxiliary army under Benningsen in East Prussia . He carried out an attack against the French in the battle of Heilsberg and at the end of the battle took over the command instead of Bennigsen . During the Battle of Friedland (1807) he was entrusted with the leadership of the right wing with the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th infantry and cavalry divisions. After initially repelling all attacks by the enemy and giving the order to withdraw, he withdrew his troops in the best order.

In the 1809 campaign, his troops were part of the Russian invasion army under Prince S. Golitzyn in Galicia , which took part in hostilities against Austria. In a secret letter to the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, he expressed his personal distaste for the operation. His letters were intercepted by the French secret service and initially punished by the Tsar with a ban on attending church services in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He was brought before a military tribunal, which ordered his expulsion from the army on September 29, 1809.

After the outbreak of the Patriotic War, Gorchakov was allowed to return to the army in July 1812 and led a corps in the 2nd Western Army. At first he received the command of the avant-garde (27th division, 2nd grenadier division and militia cavalry with about 11,000 men) to defend the positions near the village of Shevardino. In the Battle of Borodino (September 7th) he commanded the entire left wing under Prince Bagration . He was seriously injured in the counterattack of the 8th Infantry Corps on the Fleches and was later honored with the Order of Saint George 3rd Class. After his recovery he was returned to active service in January 1813 and was again given command of the 8th Infantry Corps. In June 1813 he changed his position and became commander of the 1st Infantry Corps. His troops fought in the Battle of Dresden , for the withdrawal of his rearguard he was awarded a saber of honor with diamonds and the inscription "For Courage". In the Battle of Leipzig (October 16-19, 1813) his corps, deployed on the southern sector, was part of the main Bohemian Army.

From December 18, 1813 to January 2, 1814, his troops blocked the fortress of Kehl and then fought in the battles of Brienne , at La Rothière , Bar-sur-Aube , Troyes , Arcis-sur-Aube and Fere-Champenoise . During the battles of Paris on March 19, he commanded a corps that attacked the position at Vincennes in the center of the French and contributed to the fall of the height at Belleville. For this achievement he was awarded the Order of St. George 2nd Class on the same day. In June 1814 he became commander of the 3rd Infantry Corps and in August commander of the 7th Infantry Corps. In 1817 he was appointed a member of the Council of State and on January 1, 1819 promoted to General of the Infantry. On January 14, 1819 he led the 3rd Infantry Corps and from February 19, 1820 the 2nd Infantry Corps. On September 9, 1826 he resigned from the army to heal an illness and lived in Moscow. He died in Moscow in 1855 and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery .

literature

• Отечественная война 1812 года : Биографический словарь. - Росвоенцентр; Кучково поле; Росспэн, Moscow 2011, p. 99 ISBN 978-5-9950-0171-3
• В. М. Глинка: Помарнацкий А. В. Горчаков, Андрей Иванович // Военная галерея Зимнего дворца. - 3-е изд. - Л .: Искусство, 1981. - С. 97-99.
• Залесский К.А. Наполеоновские войны 1799–1815. Биографический энциклопедический словарь, Москва, 2003

Web links

• Biography on www.brdn.ru.
• Biography on hrono.ru