Cossacks

Cossacks were hardy and recklessly courageous men from the Crimea, Don and Volga regions, who were good at skirmishing and night-raids, and were able to fight even in the extreme cold weather.

Nigel Nicolson (Napoleon: 1812, p.125) describes:

"The Cossacks became bolder as their advantage grew. They would burst suddenly from the trees in small groups, having watched their chance, and attack ferociously with lance and musket the straggling lines of marching men, who had no means of foreseeing their danger. Or they would wait till the enemy left the road for shelter, fuel or food, and pounce upon them, wheeling their horses as readily through the woods as across the open plain. Their cry, 'Houra! Houra!' was heard a dozen times a day. The only means of defence was to keep the formations as tight as possible, each unit moving like a battleship firing port and starboard, fore and aft, when attacked. Or, at the halt, they would lay a powder-train to a keg of explosives, await the arrival of the Cossacks, and detonate it in their faces. [...] Their purpose was not to take prisoners or destroy communications and supplies, as in the 1941-5 Russian war, but to kill. Kutuzov's reluctance to acknowledge their value to him or give them arms meant that they regarded themselves as free from discipline and able to commit any atrocity with impunity. [...] Sometimes they acted in large bands, like that, 4,000 strong, organized by Ermolay Chetvertakov, a private in a Russian regiment of dragoons, which took on an entire French battalion. More ofthen they acted in small groups, or sometimes, even singly, like the woman Preskovya, who defended herself with a pitchfork against six Frenchmen and killed three of them, including a colonel. Any man captured by the partisans would attempt suicide, such was the terror they inspired, and it was considered an act of mercy if a Russian officer shot him dead before the peasants could do their worst."

(Image from Nicolson, plate 7)