Siege of St. Elizabeth fortress (1769)

Siege of St. Elizabeth fortress
Part of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)
The earthworks in the modern city of Kropyvnytskyi
Date 7 January 1769 Location Fortress of St. Elizabeth, New Serbia, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, central Ukraine) 48°29′53″N 32°15′14″E Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire Zaporozhian Sich	Ottoman Empire Crimean Khanate
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Isakov	Qırım Giray
Strength
6,000	70,000

The siege of St. Elizabeth fortress was one of the major events of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) and its first decisive battle.

This was the only time when the Fortress of St. Elizabeth, built to defend these lands from the Tatars and Turks, took part in hostilities.

On January 4, 1769, the Turkish-Tatar army led by the Crimean Khan Qırım Giray crossed the border near the Ovidiopol, moved towards the Yelisavetgrad province in order to carry out another raid, and on January 7 stopped near the fortress of St. Elizabeth in which local residents and a garrison consisting of 4 thousand soldiers of the Russian army and 2 thousand Ukrainian Cossacks led by General Alexander Isakov.

When attempting an assault, the horde was met with fire from numerous guns of the fortress. Qırım Giray did not dare to attack, preferring to burn nearby settlements and take their inhabitants (mainly Ukrainians and Serbs) into slavery. General Isakov, in turn, could not oppose him with sufficient military force for open battle. After the siege, the horde was driven out by the troops of General Rumyantsev and fled across the Dniester.

This was the last raid of the Crimean Tatars into ethnic Ukrainian lands. After the victory in this war in 1774, this fortress lost its defensive significance, finally losing this status only in 1805.