Siege of Aktau (1838)

In 1838, after the fall of Akmolinsk,[1][2] an operation was carried out to lay siege to the Aktau fortification. Its garrison consisted of two companies No.7 of the Siberian linear battalion, Cossacks of three regiments of the Siberian army, horse and foot artillery of the 15th garrison brigade, a total of 6 guns. The garrison consisted of 27 non-commissioned officers, 6 musicians, 207 privates and 7 non-combatants; Cossacks - 30 conscripts, 1 trumpeter, 77 drill and 2 reserve.

The attack took place on the morning of June 22 at 7 o'clock, the number of Kenesary troops reached 2,000 people. At the beginning, four pickets were broken, located at a distance of 2.3 and 5 versts, each of them had up to three Cossacks and a police officer. Some of them were killed by the attackers or taken prisoner, the rest managed to escape in the fortress or in the reeds near the river, in the water.

The main part of the army, which was personally led by Kenesary, quickly surrounded the fortification and kept it under siege for more than an hour, interrupting relations with the outside world, the Kazakhs settled a mile away and the fire of the fortress guns did not harm them.

The rebels did not directly attack the fortress did because of the strong cannon and rifle fire. Having stolen a herd of 500 cattle, the attackers disappeared into the mountains an hour later. The garrison lost two soldiers killed, one was wounded, a constable and three Cossacks were wounded among the Cossacks, one was taken prisoner. On June 23, the centurion Kudryavtsev went out to pursue the rebels with 94 Cossacks, having traveled the distance to the 50th w. and not finding traces, returned. The success of Kenesary was ensured by the suddenness of the attack, the swiftness of the attacks from different sides, in loose formation, the dense encirclement of the fortification, the disruption of communications with pickets, theft of combatant horses, which did not allow organizing big pursuit.

The adjutant of the Commander of the Separate Siberian Corps, Captain Spiridonov, who investigated this case, reported to the Omsk regional chief Talyzin that the Cossacks were to blame for everything, who showed carelessness and cowardice at the sight of a large cavalry mass of the rebels, therefore they did not provide assistance to the picket Cossacks, did not have ready horses, horses were grazing were not even confused and therefore they were easily stolen, the Cossacks thought more about their safety than about the herds.[3]

• Siege of Akmolinsk

• Revolt of 1837 — 1847 under the leadership of Khan Kenesary