Paisiy Sergeyevich Kaisarov

Paisiy Sergeyevich Kaisarov (Паисий Сергеевич Кайсаров) was an Imperial Russian Army officer who rose to the rank of general of infantry and is chiefly documented in connection with the Patriotic War of 1812 and the subsequent campaigns of 1813–1814 in Central and Western Europe. He began military service in 1797. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–1812 he served on the Danubian theatre in Moldavia and Wallachia. By 1811–1812 he was attached to M. I. Kutuzov in a senior administrative-staff capacity as ruler of Kutuzov’s chancery, and he also carried out diplomatic assignments. On 18 July 1811 he received the Order of St George, 4th class.

In 1812 Kaisarov served as a duty general with Russian forces, including duty service connected with the St Petersburg militia establishment, and he was present at the general battle at Borodino. In the autumn phase of the 1812 campaign he was appointed to command the advance detachment (avant-garde) of the Cossack corps under General Matvei I. Platov during the pursuit operations against the retreating French. In the course of these operations he was wounded, described in the record as a lance (pike) wound in the side.

In the 1813 and 1814 campaigning he served with separate detachments and in advance guards, and after the Allied armies entered France he commanded a flying detached corps. One specifically recorded action attributed to his detached command in France is the storming and capture of Melun, described as removing an obstacle to Napoleon’s movement from Fontainebleau toward Paris during the 1814 operations. On 25 March 1813 he was awarded the Order of St George, 3rd class.

In 1815 he was dispatched from St Petersburg to Paris to the Emperor and remained in attendance until the Emperor’s departure back to Russian territory. Kaisarov lived on beyond the Napoleonic period, ultimately attaining the senior rank of general of infantry, and he died in 1844.