During the campaign, Mikhail Vorontsov penetrated too deeply into enemy country, was surrounded, and partially fought his way out with heavy losses and was rescued by General R. K. Freitag.

With heavy supplies and many wounded, the army became strung out when it was attacked from both sides, while the front and rear could not protect each other.

Following the Siege of Akhoulgo in 1839, Imam Shamil moved about 45 km northwest to the forests of Chechnya and established himself at Dargo.

Dargo is somewhere in a forested north-south valley about 33 km south of the flat country where the Russians had their forts.

Having little local knowledge he thought this might involve the occupation of Andi about 18 km south of Dargo.

He therefore planned to harass the Russians, let them wear themselves out and use up supplies as they penetrated further from their base and take more decisive action as circumstances permitted.

On 26 May he headed south from Fort Vnezapnaya near the modern Endirey about 42 km northeast of Dargo, with 12 battalions, 2 companies of sappers, 13 sotnias (hundreds) of cavalry, over 1,000 native militia and 28 guns.

On 3 June at Gertma 20 km south southeast of Vnezapnaya he was joined from the east by the Dagestan column with 9 battalions, 2 more companies of sappers, 3 sotnias of cavalry and 18 guns.

Passek rashly went 15 km further, was isolated and caught in a sudden cold snap where 450 men were frostbitten and 500 horses died.

Shamil held 'Mount Aval' with 5,000 men, but he was forced off this position (this is probably the one to the north, but the one to the south seems to be called Azal.)

At 3am on 6 July a native in the Russian service stole Vorontsov's favorite horse and galloped off the warn Shamil.

The march began an hour later and around noon stopped on a high place to eat and look down on the hills and valleys to the north.

Nowhere very wide, it was a series of descents broken by shorter rises and blocked every few hundred yards by felled timber.

If the vanguard got too far ahead or the line broke up the intervening space would fill with Chechens and the groups attacked in detail.

Vorontsov was caught in such a place and was in great danger until a group of dismounted Cossacks and Georgian militia cleared the surrounding woods.

Since it was unlikely that they could reach Dargo themselves, Vorontsov organized a column under General Klugenau to escort them over the mountain.

He considered continuing east to Dagestan and letting Vorontsov fight his way out to the north, but changed his mind.

One writer claimed that Vorontsov considered abandoning the wounded and fighting his way out with the healthy men, but this does not seem to be true.

[2] According to the estimate of the military historian M. I. Markov, the total losses of the expedition to the village of Dargo amounted to 5,000 people.

[5] Major general participant in the battle E. von Schwarzenberg wrote that the Dargin expedition was a significant campaign, during which the troops suffered huge losses in generals, officers, and lower ranks, and out of 20 thousand people of the detachment, no more than 5,000 remained.

[6] After that, Prince Vorontsov became extremely cautious and avoided making large expeditions into the enemy country.