The detachment of General Bulgakov could only penetrate the territory of Greater Chechnya by passing the Khankala Gorge, known to the line Cossacks as the Iron Gates.

The whole day there was a shootout, at dusk crowds of Chechens rushed into hand-to-hand combat, but the Nizhny Novgorod dragoons under the command of Colonel K. F. Stal successfully beat them off.

The Chechens greeted the attackers with a wild cry, and the whole forest trembled from the mixed sounds of the fierce battle that immediately began.

Continuous shooting, hand-to-hand fighting, knocking, yaw of shying Cossack horses, crackling of trees, Bulgakov says in his report, made up a very striking picture for the eyes and ears and gave rise to extraordinary feelings.

[5] Military historian P. M. Sakhno-Ustimovich wrote:[6] In order to force them out of this ambush, Bulgakov, hastening some of the dragoons and Cossacks of the line that he had, sent them to the arrows, and left the horses, with a little cover, at the entrance to Khankala.

Thus, at the very beginning of the campaign, we lost up to 500 horses, and the same number of dragoons and Cossacks had to remain on foot during the entire time of the detachment's actions in Chechnya.The battle went on for seven hours.

[8] As a result of a stubborn 10-hour assault, accompanied by heavy losses on the part of the Russian army, the Khankala fortification was occupied by the 16th Jaeger Regiment, commanded by General P. G. Likhachev, later the hero of the Battle of Borodino.