The Battle of Aldy, also known as the Battle of the Sunzha was a battle between the Russian Empire and Chechen forces of Sheikh Mansur in 1785. The Russian troops under command of Colonel De Pieri were surrounded and defeated by the forces of Sheikh Mansur. De Pieri and 840 Russians and Cossacks were killed, with 162 more taken captive, several hundred injured and the remainder of the Russian forces fleeing through the woods, chased by Chechen fighters.^[1]: 57

Quick Facts Date, Location ...

Battle of Aldy
Part of Chechen conflict
Date 6 July 1785 Location Aldy, Chechnya, North Caucasus Result Chechen victory
Belligerents
Chechen fighters	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sheikh Mansur Ucherman	Colonel De Pieri  †
Strength
Unknown	3,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	740 KIA

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To strengthen the influence of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus, the Azov-Mozdok fortified line was erected. In response, this was followed by the liberation movement of the highlanders of Chechnya and then the entire North Caucasus against the colonial policy of Russia, led by the first imam of the North Caucasus, Sheikh Mansur. The command of the Russian army decided to conduct a punitive expedition deep into Chechnya to suppress the uprising.^[2]

On July 6, 1785, the expeditionary detachment of Colonel De Pieri, consisting of the Astrakhan regiment, a battalion of the Kabardian regiment, two companies of the Tomsk regiment and hundreds of Cossacks of the Terek army, from the side of the Kalinovskaya village headed for the flat village of Alda, where the main forces of Sheikh Mansur were located.

At Sunzha, they left part of the Astrakhans (grenadier regiment) to protect the crossing; others, in turn, occupied the middle point with a small detachment, in order to secure their way back.

Coming closer, De Pieri found out that the inhabitants had left the village and ordered the soldiers to burn it down. Having destroyed the village, the troops began to retreat to the crossing over the Sunzha.

The column moved back, but as soon as it entered the gorge, it was surrounded on all sides by the troops of Mansur, who were covered by a small forest. The highlanders, not feeling much damage, hit the detachment with well-aimed shots. As soon as Pieri's detachment reached the thick of the forest and went deep into it, the battle began. Aldyns, together with the inhabitants of neighboring villages who came to their aid, attacked Pieri's detachment. The troops, squeezed from both sides, were surrounded. On the way of movement of the detachment, the highlanders in several places arranged blockages of trees. Under crossfire, at the cost of heavy losses, they continued to move towards the crossing through the Sunzha. The column, having passed the first verst (1.07km) through the forest, had already lost most of the rear guard. After repeated attempts to recapture the cannon they had taken from the enemy, Captain Kazin and several soldiers went ahead of the column and began to protect the front cannon. Nevertheless, the horses that carried the shells and dragged the second gun were killed. Kabardians (Kabardinsky 80th Infantry Regiment) were forced to simultaneously fight off the highlanders, carry boxes of shells and pull the gun. At the same time, the highlanders pressed on from the flanks with the onslaught and crashed into the ranks of the side chains. “Despite this, the detachment moved forward, but when they approached the place where the reserve was left to protect the passage, a terrible picture appeared before them - all the soldiers and officers were killed. Under this unexpected circumstance, the troops became confused and at the same moment the highlanders rushed at them with renewed vigor from all sides, where a fierce battle ensued, the side chains were crushed and overturned by a mass of highlanders. The column was cut into two parts, among the retreating began a panic.^[3]

The soldiers, exhausted by the difficult transition and the continuous battle that lasted several hours, having exhausted themselves, became tired and were exterminated almost without resistance. The battalion of rangers, who was in front, and a small number of linear Cossacks managed to break through, the remaining Cossacks and two battalions of grenadiers with all the officers were killed; Pieri himself was cut down near the cannon; both guns that were in the detachment with all the shells went to the Chechens as a trophy

The remaining small part of the detachment with heavy losses went to the crossing. Having reached the Sunzha, the remnants of the troops began to hastily cross to the other side of the river. The mountaineers chasing them were already shooting at the soldiers who were crossing the river.

The rangers and a small number of Cossacks who broke through Chechens near Sunzha were supposed to wait for the detachment left there to guard the crossing, but they did not find either the detachment left there or the ships for the crossing. The commander of this detachment, having heard cannon shots in Aldy and wishing to be involved in a favorable, in his opinion, victory, went to connect with Pieri; but, having stumbled upon the dead bodies of the soldiers left in the narrow passage, he was so frightened that, having hastily fled back, he crossed to the left bank of the Sunzha, having destroyed the kayuk and left for the Terek. This commander was V. S. Tomar, who later held the important post of Russian envoy to Constantinople.^[4]

Pieri's detachment lost thirteen officers and seven hundred and forty men of the lower ranks. 162 people were captured by the highlanders. Among them was the young Prince P. I. Bagration, later a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. “This defeat of the army greatly raised the authority of Mansur in the eyes of the highlanders. The success of the troops of Sheikh Mansur quickly spread to the Kuban and Kabarda, after the uprising covered a significant area.

A. P. Ermolov, in a letter to the general on duty under the emperor Arseny Zakrevsky, mentions the construction of fortifications along the Sunzha line:

I just received the news that this year's work against the Chechens has been completed. A fairly good fortress was built, called the "Relentless Camp". A redoubt named "Evil Trench" has been built. It is so named after its position at the place where the most "evil predators" used to attack, and in memory of the fact that at this place there was a crossing over the Sunzha of the famous Colonel Pieri, who died with a regiment against the Chechens, being surrounded in a forest where he could not operate his artillery

• Sheikh Mansur — Commander of the Chechen forces, 1st Imam of the North Caucasus
• Battle of Alkhan–Yurt — Russian punitive campaign against the Alkhan–Yurt village a day after the Battle of Aldy