Khopyor Cossacks founded four stanitsas: Stavropolskaya (next to the fortress of Stavropol, established on 22 October 1777), Moskovskaya, Donskaya and Severnaya – with approximately 140 Cossack families in each. In 1779, the Khopyor regiment was given its own district. The conditions were desperate as the Circassians would mount almost daily raids on the Russian positions. In 1825-1826 the regiment began its first expansions, pushing westwards to the bend of the Kuban River and founding five new stanitsas (the so-called new-Kuban line: Barsukovskaya, Nevinnomysskaya, Belomechetskaya, Batalpashinskaya (modern Cherkessk), Bekeshevskaya and Karantynnaya (currently Suvorovskaya). In 1828 the Khopyor Cossacks participated in the conquest of Karachay and became part of the first Russian expedition to reach the summit of Elbrus in 1829. However, the Russian position in the Caucasus was desperate, and to ease administration in 1832 military reform united ten regiments from the mouth of the Terek River all the way to the Khopyor in the western Kabarda, forming a single Caucasus Line Cossack Host. The Khopyor regiment was also given several civilian settlements, raising its manpower to 12,000. With the further advance to the Laba River the Khopyor district was split into two regiments, and Spokoynaya, Ispravnaya, Podgornaya, Udobnaya, Peredovaya, Storozhevaya formed the Laba line. Zaporozhets beyond the Kuban River Many traditions of the Zaporozhian Cossacks continued in the Black Sea Cossacks, such as the formal election of the host administration, but in some cases, new traditions replaced the old. Instead of a central Sich, a defence line was formed from the Kuban River Black Sea inlet to the Bolshaya Laba River inlet. The land north of this line was settled with villages called stanitsas. The administrative centre of Yekaterinodar (literally "Catherine's gift") was built. The Black Sea Cossacks sent men to many major campaigns at the Russian Empire's demand, such as the suppression of the Polish Kościuszko Uprising in 1794, the ill-fated Persian Expedition of 1796 where nearly half of the Cossacks died from hunger and disease, and sent the 9th plastun (infantry) and 1st joint cavalry regiments as well as the first Leib Guards (elite) sotnia to aid the Russian Army in the Patriotic War of 1812. The new host participated in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) where they stormed the last remaining Ottoman bastion of the northern Black Sea coast, the fortress of Anapa, in 1828. In the course of the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856, the Cossacks