When was the Battle of Rymnik?

On 22 September 1789, or 11 September by the Julian calendar then used in Russia, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792.

How large were the armies at Rymnik?

About 25,000 allies, 18,000 Austrians and 7,000 Russians, faced about 100,000 Ottoman troops, most of them cavalry, according to the Russian accounts.

How did Suvorov win at Rymnik?

He made a forced march to join the Austrians, attacked after a night march while the Ottomans were spread over several camps, held off their cavalry with infantry squares and took the camps one by one.

What title did Suvorov receive for Rymnik?

Catherine II made him a count of the Russian Empire with the name Suvorov-Rymniksky, and Emperor Joseph II made him a count of the Holy Roman Empire.

Battle of Rymnik, 1789: Suvorov and Coburg rout the Grand Vizier

Q: Who fought at Rymnik?

A Russian force under Alexander Suvorov and an Austrian corps under the Prince of Saxe-Coburg against the Ottoman army of the grand vizier.

J. Petrich and Carl Schütz, Schlacht bey Martinestie am 22 September 1789 (Vienna, 1789), Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Quick answer

What happened at the Battle of Rymnik?

On 22 September 1789 a small Russian force under Alexander Suvorov and an Austrian corps under the Prince of Saxe-Coburg attacked a far larger Ottoman army led by the grand vizier near the Rymnik river in Wallachia. Suvorov had marched about 100 kilometers in two and a half days to join the Austrians, and after a night march the allies stormed the Ottoman camps one after another, beating off the Ottoman cavalry with infantry squares. The Ottoman army broke and fled, losing its guns and baggage, and Suvorov took the title Count Rymniksky.¹

In the Russo-Turkish War of 1787 to 1792, Austria fought as Russia's ally. By 1789 the main Russian army was operating towards the Danube fortress of Izmail, while an Austrian corps of about 18,000 men under Prince Frederick Josias of Saxe-Coburg stood around Focșani in Moldavia. Alexander Suvorov, with a small Russian detachment at Bârlad, was the nearest link between them.²

The summer had already shown how well the allies could work together. On 1 August, by the modern calendar, Suvorov and Coburg had defeated an Ottoman corps at Focșani. After that defeat, the Ottoman command decided to strike at the junction between the Austrian and Russian forces.³

The grand vizier's blow

According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the grand vizier, named Yusuf Pasha in the Russian accounts, pinned down the main Russian army near Izmail with demonstrations and sent his main force, about 100,000 men, most of them cavalry, against Coburg's corps. The Ottoman columns began crossing the Buzău river at Brăila, and Coburg sent to Suvorov for help.⁴

Suvorov set out on the night of 19 September with 7,000 men. His troops covered about 100 kilometers in two and a half days and reached Focșani before the Ottomans did; Calend.ru dates the junction with the Austrians to the morning of 21 September. Together the allies numbered some 25,000 men, 18,000 Austrians and 7,000 Russians, with 103 guns.⁵

Scouting showed that the Ottomans did not expect an attack and were spread across four camps between the rivers Rymna and Rymnik. Suvorov, who now directed the combined force, decided to attack at once rather than wait on the defensive.⁶

The night march

The allies moved off in two columns on the night of 21 to 22 September, after a march of about 14 kilometers. The Russians crossed the Rymna and went into the attack at six in the morning. About a kilometer and a half from the first Ottoman camp, at Tyrgo-Kukuli, they came under artillery fire; they silenced the guns, beat off a charge by the Ottoman cavalry and after a hard fight took the camp, driving its defenders towards the Rymnik. Meanwhile the Austrians threw back some 15,000 Ottoman horsemen who tried to drive a wedge between the two allied forces.⁷

Throughout the day the allied infantry fought in squares, meeting the counterattacks of the numerous Ottoman cavalry with fire. Suvorov's men took the entrenchments at the village of Bokza and joined hands with the Austrians.⁸

The forest of Kryngu-Meilor

At three in the afternoon the allies attacked the main Ottoman camp by the forest of Kryngu-Meilor. The Austrians went at the center of the Ottoman position, where a long fight developed, while Suvorov swung round the flank and threw his cavalry at it. Panic broke out in the Ottoman army. At the river crossing the fleeing mass fell into chaos, horse and foot plunged into the water and thousands drowned; according to Calend.ru the Ottomans lost more men in the retreat than in the battle, and the vizier could gather only 15,000 of them afterwards.⁹

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia puts allied losses at about 700 men and Ottoman losses, by different estimates, at 6,000 to 20,000 killed and wounded, with all their artillery and baggage. The Austrian print made in Vienna that year, which calls the battle Martinestie after one of the villages, shows the allied infantry drawn up in hollow squares across the plain.¹⁰

Count Rymniksky

Rymnik became one of Suvorov's most brilliant victories, and Calend.ru records that the Austrians nicknamed him General Forward. The rewards came quickly. On 6 October Emperor Joseph II made him a count of the Holy Roman Empire; on 7 October Catherine II sent him a golden sword set with diamonds and inscribed to the conqueror of the vizier; on 14 October he was made a count of the Russian Empire with the name Suvorov-Rymniksky; and on 29 October he received the Order of St. George, first class.¹¹ › Battle of the Trebbia, 1799

The name later carried a sad echo in his family. His son Arkady, a lieutenant general, drowned in 1811 while crossing the same Rymnik river.¹²