Our colleagues on the Russian Napoleonic forum have posted an interesting document that I thought would be of interest to this forum as well. The document is a Russian soldier Ermolay Firsov's letter of appeal to Emperor Alexander, written in November 1823, to have him transferred from the Invalid Company of the Count Arakcheyev's Settled Grenadier Regiment to the Orlovskii Infantry Regiment. As part of his request, Firsov described his entire career, which is quite illuminating. All dates are given in Julian Calendar.
[To His Imperial Majesty Emperor Alexander]
I enlisted in Your Imperial Majesty’s army from the peasants of [nobleman] Musin Pushkin and began service as a private in the Moscow [Moskovskii] Grenadier Regiment on 16 December 1797. I achieved the following ranks in this regiment: non-commissioned officer on 16 June 1808, [and] feldfebel on 23 November 1814; in light of my years of service I was promoted to a sub-lieutenant on 9 December 1820 and assigned to the Invalid Company of the Count Arakcheyev’s Settled Grenadier Regiment.
In duration of my service I took part in the following campaigns and battles: starting on 15 October 1798, I was in western Galicia, eastern Salisia and Moravia; starting on 2 January 1799, in Austria, and after 29 March in Italy, Venetian territories, Mediolane and Piedmont, where I participated in the battles against the French troops at Brescia (10 April), Palazzollo (11 April), Bergamo 912 April), Lecco on the Adda River (14 April), Marengo (5 May), in the action at the Sardinian capital city of Turin when the enemy opened a heavy cannonade from the citadel, and then in the pursuit of the enemy to the French borders, including the actions at Suza (21 May), Pinerolo (27 May), returned back to the Venetian regions, where I took part in the battles on the rivers of Tidone, Trebbia and Nure on 6,7,8 and 9 June, in the nighttime expedition to the fortress of Tortona (15 June), at Allessandria (3 July) and subsequent bombardment and siege of the fortress fo Allessandria from 4 to 12 July, on the borders of the Genoese Republic on 23 July, in the assault and capture of the fortress of Seravalle, in various skirmishes on 3 August, in the general battle at Novi on 4 August, in the attack on the St. Gothard mountain and the village of Hospental on 3 September, in the pursuit of the enemy across the Tefem-brin [?] on 19 September, on the lake [Klontaler See], at Glaris and Nestal on 2 October, where I was wounded by a musket ball below my left knee and was captured by the French. I remained in captivity, near the [French] capital city of Paris until the [Franco-Russian] peace on 2 March 1801 and then traveled from France to Holland, Switzerland, Württemberg, Bavaria, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Silesia, Prussia and the Duchy of Warsaw (Varshavskoe gertsogtsvo) to the Russian borders.
From 2 July to 16 September 1805 I was in the Austrian Galicia and the Prussian Silesia, the Austrian Moravia, and after the armistice marched through Hungary and Southern Galicia. From 21 January to 21 November1806 I was in Prussia, in 1807 I took part in the battle against the French troops at Preussich Eylau on 26-27 January, where I received the Medal of Military Order [znak otlichia Voennogo ordena] No. 4731; at the combat at the village of Zechern on 24 February; in the pursuit of the enemy at Guttstadt on 24 May; in combats at Glotau on 25 May; on the Passarge River on 26; in the retreat near Liebstadt on 27 May, at Guttstadt on 28 May, on the Alle River, in a general battale at Heilsberg on 29-30 May, at Friedland on 2 June and in the march to the Russian borders.
From 9 to 14 July 1808 I was in Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia, fighting the Turks. Between 6 and 7 April 1809 I took part in the bombardment of the town of Braila, defeating the enemy at the village of Afrosia near the town of Giurgiu on 29 August, in the crossing of the Danube River into Bulgaria on 30 September, at the bombardment of the town of Silistra on 14 October, and in the battle near the village of Tatarchuk [Tataritsa], the crossing of the Danube into Moldavia on 28th, attack on Braila on 21 November; In 1810, I took part the second campaign across the Danube in Bulgaria in May, assault and capture of the fortress Bazardjik on 22 Mat, for which I received a medal on St. George’s ribbon; siege of Shumla and various actions between June 11 and July 3; defeat of the enemy sortie from the fortress of Shumla on 23rd; in the defeat of the enemy at the village of Batin, between the River Yantor and Loma near the town of Ruse, in the capture of Nikopol on 21 October. In 1811, I took part in the assault and capture of the fortress of Lovchea on 31 January, crossed the Danube to Wallachia on 2 March and remained in Moldavia after 1 September.
In May 1812, I returned to Russia, where I participated in the battles against the French troops: at Smolensk on 5,6 and 7 August, at Mozhaisk [Shevardino and Borodino] on 24 and 26 August, where I was wounded in the left leg by a musket ball and sent to recover to a mobile Artillery Hospital. For this campaign I received a medal.
In 1813, I served in the Duchy of Warsaw starting on 1 August, participated in the siege of Modlin until 19 November of that year. On 23 January 1814, I marched, with half a battalion, to our regiment, passing Silesia, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Württemberg, the Duchy of Wurzburg. On 2 July I rejoined the regiment and, following it, I marched through the same territories before reaching the Russian borders on 2 September.
I can read and write in Russian, had never been penalized, nor received a furlough, am single, and 44 years old.