The forbidding fortress of Ochakov was Russia's most pressing prize in 1788 because it controlled the mouths of the Dnieper and the Bug. This was the key to Kherson, hence to the Crimea itself. The Turks had therefore reinforced its network of defences, advised by 'a French engineer of note', Lafite. 'The town', observed Fanshawe, 'formed a long parallelogram from the crest of a hill down to the waterside, fortified with a wall of considerable thickness running round it, a double ditch ... flanked by six bastions, a spit of sand running out from the west flank into the Liman which flanks the sea wall and terminates in a covered battery.'1 It was a considerable town of mosques, palaces, gardens and barracks with a garrison of between 8,000 and 12,000 Spahis and Janissaries, dressed in their green jackets and tunics over pantaloons with turbans, shields, curved daggers, axes and spears.[90] Even Joseph II, who inspected Ochakov on his visit, appreciated that it was not susceptible to a coup de main.2
As soon as he began to invest the fortress Serenissimus insisted on setting off with Ligne, Nassau and his entourage in a rowing boat to reconnoitre and test some mortars. Ochakov saluted the Prince with a bombardment and sent out a squadron of Turks in little boats. Potemkin haughtily ignored them.
'One could see nothing more noble and cheerfully courageous than the Prince,' said Ligne. 'I loved him to madness that day.'3 Potemkin's demonstrations of valour impressed everyone - especially a few weeks later when Sinelnikov, Governor of Ekaterinoslav, was hit in the groin by a cannonball while standing between an imperturbable Potemkin and an excited Ligne. Serenissimus ordered the reduction of a Turkish stronghold in the Pasha's gardens. This ignited a skirmish which Potemkin and 200 courtiers observed from amid the barrage. 'I've not seen a man', said Nassau, 'who was better under fire than he.'4 Potemkin rushed to help Sinelnikov, who, ever the courtier, even in agony, asked him 'not to expose himself to such danger because there's only one Potemkin in Russia'. The pain was so excruciating, he begged Potemkin to shoot him.5 Sinelnikov died two days later.6
The Prince extended both wings of his forces in an arc around the town and ordered a bombardment by his artillery. Everyone waited for the storming to begin - especially Suvorov, who was always longing to unleash the bloody bayonet, if not the 'crazy bitch' of the musket.
Next day, on 27 July, the Turks made a sortie with fifty Spahis. Suvorov, 'drunk after dinner', attacked them, throwing more and more men into a fierce fray, without orders from Potemkin. The Turks fled but returned with superior forces to pursue Suvorov and his Russians back to their lines, killing many of his best men, who were then beheaded. When Potemkin sent a note to inquire what was happening, Suvorov is supposed to have sent back this rhyming couplet:
I am sitting on a rock
And at Ochakov I look.7
Three thousand Turks fell on the fleeing Russians. Damas called it 'useless butchery'.8 Suvorov was wounded and the rest of his division was saved only by Prince Repnin making a diversion. The heads of the Russians were displayed on stakes around Ochakov.
Serenissimus wept at the waste of 200 soldiers, 'due to the humanity and compassion of his heart', according to his secretary Tsebrikov. 'Oh my god!', cried Potemkin. 'You're happy to let those barbarians tear everybody to pieces.' He angrily reprimanded Suvorov, saying 'soldiers are not so cheap that one can sacrifice them .. Л9 Suvorov sulked and recuperated in Kinburn.[91]
Potemkin did not storm Ochakov. The pressure on him increased all the time: on 18 August, the Turks made another sortie. General Mikhail Golenishev-Kutuzov, later the legendary hero of 1812 and vanquisher of Napoleon, was wounded in the head for the second time - like Potemkin, he was blinded in one eye.[92] Nassau repulsed the Turks by firing on their flanks from his flotilla in the Estuary. As winter descended on Ochakov, the foreigners - such as Ligne and Nassau - grumbled bitterly about Potemkin's slow incompetence. Nassau considered Potemkin the 'most unmilitary man in the world and too proud to consult anybody'.! Ligne said he was wasting 'time and people' and wrote to Cobenzl in code, undermining Potemkin - though he did not dare sneak to Catherine.10 'It is impossible', wrote Damas, who thought the batteries badly laid out around the town, 'that so many blunders should have been made unless Prince Potemkin had personal reasons ... to delay matters.' But these foreigners were prejudiced against Russia. Potemkin's reasons were political and military.11 Serenissimus was happy to let the Austrians absorb the first Ottoman attacks, especially since Joseph had failed in virtually all his plans except the meagre prize of Sabatsch and had himself gone on to the defensive. Catherine heartily agreed: 'Better be slower but healthy than quick but dangerous.'12 Given the Swedish war, the increasingly hostile Anglo-Prussian alliance and the surprisingly strong performance of the Ottoman armies against Austria, Potemkin knew Ochakov would not end the war: there was every reason to husband resources until the end of the year.
Serenissimus was not a genius of movement, more a Fabius Cunctator, a patient delayer and waiter on events. This was an age in which officers like Ligne and Suvorov believed warfare was a glorious game of charges and assaults, regardless of the cost in men. Potemkin threw away the book of conventional Western warfare and fought in a way that suited the nature of his enemies - and himself. He much preferred to win battles without fighting them, as in 1783 in the Crimea. In the case of sieges, he preferred to bribe, negotiate and starve a fortress into submission. His attitude was not swashbuckling, but modern generals would recognize his humanity and prudence.13 Potemkin specifically decided that he would not storm Ochakov until it was absolutely necessary, in order to save the blood of his men. 'I'll do my best', he told Suvorov, 'to get it cheap.'14 Potemkin's emissaries rode back and forth negotiating with the Turks. Serenissimus 'was convinced the Turks wish to surrender'.15 Storming was his last resort-ф The foreigners also had little concept of his vast responsibilities, commanding and provisioning armies and navies from the Caucasus to the Gulf of Finland, from managing Polish policy to driving Faleev to create another rowing flotilla, already looking ahead to the next year's fight up the Danube.16
'I won't be the dupe of the Russians who want to leave me alone to bear the entire burden,'17 Joseph bitterly complained to Ligne. Joseph's desperation to share the burden was the reason for Ligne's frantic and venomous attempts to force Potemkin either to storm Ochakov or to bear the blame for Joseph's failures. In September, the ablest Ottoman commander, Grand Vizier Yusuf- Pasha, surprised Joseph in his camp and the Kaiser barely escaped with his life, fleeing back to Vienna. Joseph learned the hard way that he was not Frederick the Great. 'As for our ally,' Potemkin joked, 'whenever he's around, everything goes wrong.'[93] The Turks had certainly improved their military skills since the last war - 'the Turks are different', Potemkin told Catherine, 'and the devil has taught them'. The Austrians could not understand why Catherine did not order Potemkin to storm, but 'she negotiates with him for everything'. Half the time, he did not even reply to her letters. 'He has decided to do what he wants.'18
The Prince often played billiards with Ligne until 6 a.m. or just stayed up to chat. One night, Ligne gave him a dinner for fifty generals and all his exotic friends.19 Potemkin was often depressed and then he would 'put his handkerchief dipped in lavender water around his forehead, sign of his hypochondria'. During the heat, he served icecreams and sorbets. At night, Ligne and the rest of them listened to his 'numerous and unique orchestra conducted by the famous and admirable Sarti'. There is a story that during one of these recitals, as the horns were piping, Potemkin in his dressing gown asked a German artillery officer: 'What do you think of Ochakov?' 'You think the walls of Ochakov are like those of Jericho^rfiat fell to the sound of trumpets?', replied the officer.20