Kuban Oblast
In 1862, Dukhovskoi graduated from the Nikolaevskii Academy of the General Staff and was appointed to the General Staff of Russian forces in the Caucasus region headquartered out of Tbilisi. His first assignment was to compile a series of articles on the neighboring Dagestan Oblast. Upon his return in the fall of 1863, he joined the Dahovskii detachment in a number of military campaigns in the Kuban Oblast. This involved exploring unmapped terrains, driving out mountain peoples, and establishing Cossack stanitsas. In 1864, he was elevated to the rank of Captain of the General Staff, and in this capacity he continued to serve the regiment in operations throughout the Northern Caucasus. In recognition of his efforts on the battlefield, he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1865, and two years later was made a Colonel. He remained in the region, serving the Russian army in a variety of capacities at the Clerical Office of the Kuban Oblast and then the Caucasus Military District in Tbilisi. His rise through the military ranks continued in 1873 when he became a General Major. During the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-78, he led a maneuver against Ottoman forces in Ardagan, for which he later received the St. George Cross. He also fought in battles in Eastern Turkey at Kars, the Aladzhin Heights and Erzerum. In the aftermath of the hostilities, Dukhovskoi was appointed the head of the demarcation commission tasked to draw up new boundaries between the Ottoman and Russian empires. He was also Governor of Erzerum for a brief period of time before the Ottomans reoccupied the city. When the campaign ended in 1879, he was stationed as Chief of Staff of the Moscow Military District. In this capacity, Dukhovskoi was involved in the coronation ceremonies for Alexander III in 1883 and oversaw the training of the tsar's forces in Russia and abroad.