Held in early August, the Smolensk battle of 1812 was the first battle between the Russians and the French, and although it did not become a general battle, it nevertheless turned into one of the most dramatic events of the war with Napoleon. It is safe to say that this clash of armies marked the beginning of a turning point in the course of the confrontation.
Although the retreat of the Russian army to Moscow did not stop, however, after the battle of Smolensk ended, it took on a slightly different character, and Napoleon began to realize that a swift “blitzkrieg” would not work, and sooner or later he would have to look for new ways of warfare and perhaps even reasons for a truce.
It is interesting that although neither Napoleon himself, nor the commander of the First Western Army, Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, tried to conduct the Smolensk battle, it was practically impossible to avoid it. Napoleon needed to take a break in his rapid progress through Russian territory. Due to the need to provide themselves with food, the French troops were stretched out to the sides, and they had to be gathered together again, at the same time trying to cut off the Barclay de Tolly First Western Army from the connection with the Second Army, commanded by Bagration, and at the same time both of them from the capital.
Barclay de Tolly, however, was afraid to engage in direct battle with the troops of the French emperor, knowing how trained and strong his soldiers were in this particular method of warfare. He did not want to weaken the fighting ability of the Russian armies in such a battle, realizing that in any case the advance of the enemy towards Moscow could not be stopped. However, due to the persistent pressure of the imperial encirclement and his own generals, encouraged precisely by the apparent fragmentation of the French army, he had to agree to the battle of Smolensk.
On August 4, the fifteen thousandth Russian troops repelled the first French attack on Smolensk, restraining their advance and providing an opportunity for the First and Second Western Army, which united in the 120,000th group by the evening of the same day, to approach the city and settle down on the heights of the Dnieper right bank opposite the 200,000th French army, fortified on the left bank.
The next morning, Napoleon expected the Russian troops to enter the battlefield in full form, but this did not happen. The Russian commander in chief, still wanting to keep the army at all costs and not be cut off from the capital, ordered to retreat towards Moscow. In order to cover up the retreat and restrain the onslaught of the French troops, the corps of Raevsky and Dokhturov, and the divisions of Neverovsky and Konovitsin were allocated, which mainly participated in the battle with the French. The losses of Napoleon’s army at Smolensk amounted to about 20 thousand people. Whereas the Russian army lost only 10 thousand soldiers.
The next day, near Valutina Gora, a village located 10 kilometers from Smolensk, a clash broke out between a 3,000 Russian detachment commanded by General Tuchkov and 40,000 Frenchmen from General Ney’s corps sent by Napoleon to cut off communications of the outgoing Russian army . Tuchkov, assessing the danger that Ney’s maneuver posed to the Russians, voluntarily blocked the French with his small detachment, taking a very convenient position near the Smolensk road. Thanks to the advantage of his position, Tuchkov managed to restrain the French all day and even periodically switch to counterattacks. During the last of them, which took place already in the moonlight, the courageous general was wounded with a bayonet and was captured.
However, Tuchkov’s efforts were not in vain. The Russian army successfully retreated. Thus, the battle of Smolensk was completed, which lasted a total of two days. Smolensk fell, but the Russian army crossed the Dnieper without significant losses and retreated deep into Russia, ready for further hostilities.