Kirill Fyodorovich Kazachkovsky

Kirill Fyodorovich Kazachkovsky (Кирилл Фёдорович Казачковский) was an Imperial Russian Army officer who fought in the wars against the Ottoman Empire and in the Napoleonic Wars, reaching the rank of генерал-лейтенант in 1813 and becoming known for his service with P. K. Wittgenstein’s corps in 1812 and for the wound that ended his active field career in 1813.

He was born in 1759 or 1760 (the two years appear in different reference compilations). On 1 January 1774 he was enrolled as a Sergeant in the Yelets Infantry Regiment. He was commissioned прапорщик on 24 November 1781. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 he served in operations on the Black Sea littoral; in 1788 he distinguished himself in the assault of Ochakov and for that action received promotion to captain. In subsequent service he held command of the Yekaterinburg Line Battalion, a posting that placed him in the system of frontier troops on the empire’s southern and southeastern lines.

In the Patriotic War of 1812 Kazachkovsky served with Count P. K. Wittgenstein’s corps on the northern axis of operations. He took part in the first Major actions fought there in the summer campaign, including the engagement at Klyastitsy. Later in 1812 he fought at Polotsk, where he was wounded. After recovering from his wound he returned to the army and was again engaged in operations connected with Polotsk and then in the fighting on the Berezina during Napoleon’s retreat, continuing with the pursuit until the French forces had been driven back to the empire’s frontiers.

In 1812 he held brigade command in the 1st Brigade of the 5th Infantry Division of Wittgenstein’s 1st Corps, and in that capacity he was specifically credited with distinguished conduct in actions on the Svolna River and at Polotsk. For his 1812 service he received high Russian decorations, including the Order of St George, 3rd class, awarded on 24 August 1812, and he also received the Order of St Vladimir, 2nd class, and the Order of St Anna, 1st class with diamond insignia, in connection with his conduct and wounds in the northern battles.

In the 1813 campaign in Germany he held divisional command of the 5th Infantry Division and took part in the operations that brought Allied forces into contact with Napoleon’s main army in Saxony. He fought at Wittenberg and then at the battle of Lützen (2 May 1813). At Lützen he led a counterattack around Klein-Görschen and was severely wounded by canister shot in the abdomen. That wound ended his capacity for continued active field service. He nonetheless remained on the rolls, and he received promotion to генерал-лейтенант in 1813; accounts of the promotion specify that it was granted by Emperor Alexander I on the battlefield at Lützen.

Kazachkovsky died on 24 June 1829, reported in the tradition of the 1812 biographical handbooks as at or near Tsaritsyn in Saratov Governorate (later Volgograd region), and he was buried at Kamyshin.