Related
1698] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 189 ' I broke up in the morning, and pitched camp again on the Swidnja, a vcrst from Tuschina
1686] DIAHY OF PATRICK GORDON. Ill granted me two Strcltsees for a convoy
122 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 flesh was torren out of their armes
128 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 I was, because of hireing chaires or coaches
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 163 and equity which I had on my syde
1655] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 19 last night's engagement, I found myself in such a labirinth of perplexed thoughts
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 141 Being invited to devotion and dinner, by my Lord Chancellour
190 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [leQS ' Taking the six deputies with me, I went to their camp
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
190 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [leQS
' Taking the six deputies with me, I went to their camp, where I communicated the orders to
assemble and hear the gracious concessions of his Majesty. When about two hundred had come
together, I let the deputies communicate the orders given, and then employed all the rhetoric I
was master of to induce them to return to obedience, and give in a petition, confessing their
guilt in having transgressed his Majesty's orders. But they answered that they were all determined
to die or else go to Moscow, though it were only for eight or three days ; after that they would
go wherever his Majesty should order. When I told them that they would not be permitted to
go to Moscow, and that they must not think of it, they replied that they would rather die than
not get to Moscow. With that began two old fellows among them to aggravate their privations,
and half a dozen confirmed what they said, and kept up the disturbance. I advised that each
regiment should hold a consultation apart, and that they should consider well what they did,
and what they were refusing. But they rejected all advice, and declared that they were all of
one mind. I then intimated that I would withdraw from the camp and wait an answer outside,
adding the threat, that if they did not embrace the gracious offers of his Miijesty now, they
needed not expect such conditions again, when once we should be obliged to use compulsion to
bring them to obedience. But to all this they paid no heed. I then rode out of their camp, and
waited at some distance for a quarter of an hour ; after which I sent to ask their final answer.
Finding no alteration of their mind, I took my departure with an indication of sorrow. After
inspecting the best approaches to the rebels, and holding a consultation with the Generalissimo
and others, it was resolved to draw up the army, and plant the cannon, and use force. I brought
up the infantry and twenty-five cannon to a fit position, surrounded their camp on the other
side with cavalry, and then sent an officer to summon and exhort them once more to submit.
As they again declined, I sent yet another to demand a categorical decision. But they rejected
all proposals of compromise, and boasted that they were as ready to defend themselves by force
as we were to attack. Seeing that all hope of their submission was vain, I made a round of the
cannon be fired. But as we fired over their heads, this only emboldened them more, so that
they began to wave their colours and throw up their caps, and prepare for resistance. At the
next discharge of the cannon, however, seeing their comrades fall on all sides, they began to
waver. Out of despair, or to protect themselves from the cannon, they made a sally by a lane,
which, however, we had occupied with a strong body. To make yet surer, I brought up several
detachments to the spot, so as to command the hollow way along which they were issuing.
Seeing this, they returned to their camp, and some of them betook themselves to the barns and
outhouses of the adjoining Tillage. At the third discharge of the guns, many of them rushed
out of the camp towards the infantry and cavalry. After the fourth round of fire, very few of
them remained in their waggon rampart; and I moved down with two battalions to their camp,
and posted guards round it. During this affair, which lasted about an hour, a few of our men
were wounded. The rebels had twenty-two killed on the spot, and about forty wounded, mostly
mortally. We had all the prisoners brought to tLe convent, and shut up in vaulted houses and
other places. A list of their horses was then made, and orders given not to touch their pro-
perty ; only the ammunition and the regimental waggons were brought to head quarters, and
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.