VII
VIII
IX
X
In this manner ended the attack upon that wing; and indeed the general attack might be said to have ended here. Towards night the enemy renewed his attacks upon our centre and right, but they were feeble. Thus closed another day, which, like the preceding, was most propitious to our arms.
BATTLE AT SWIERZA. [See Plan X.]
On this same day, as we have mentioned, general Dwernicki, with a detached corps, fought the enemy at Swierza. The reader is already aware that this general, having gained a victory over the corps of general Kreutz at Stoczek [Plan VI, (18)], on the 14th of February, received orders to pass the Vistula, in order to defend the palatinate of Mazovie, to check the operations of the enemy there, and to obstruct his demonstrations upon Warsaw.
On receiving this order, general Dwernicki, on the night of the same day, quitted Stoczek, traversed Zelechow (19) and Macieiowice, and on the 17th passed the Vistula near Ryczywol (7). On the 18th he commenced his operations against the corps of prince Wirtemberg, which was on its way from Radom, and the advanced guard of which begun to show itself upon the plain of Ryczywol.36
General Dwernicki harassed the enemy on that day [See Plan X,] by continual charges of cavalry, in which the krakus of Krakowie were particularly distinguished. His only plan upon that day was to keep the enemy upon the plain of Ryczywol. During the night he intended to pass, with the chief part of his force, the river Radomierza above Ryczywol (f), and by this course to present himself to the enemy upon the road which leads from Radom to Ryczywol, the same road in fact upon which the enemy had advanced, and attack him both on his flank and rear, the Vistula being on his front. In executing this movement, general Dwernicki left two squadrons of cavalry (A), one battalion of infantry (A), and two pieces of cannon, at the side of the river, under the command of colonel Russyian. He then quietly left his position, and crossed the river in its fordable places (f) about half a league above. Colonel Russyian, who as we have said remained on the position at Ryczywol, was ordered to commence a light fire of skirmishers at break of day, but to retrograde constantly, and to allow the enemy an easy passage over the bridge. On the 19th, the enemy (D), who had no suspicions of the manœuvre, commenced in the morning his debouchment upon the bridge, having the expectation of engaging with our whole force in a decisive battle upon the field of Ryczywol. His astonishment may be imagined, when, as the day commenced, he found both upon his flank and his rear a force marching against him to the attack (B). The enemy stopped passing the bridge, and attempted to turn and meet the attack, but this was not permitted him. Our cavalry threw themselves with impetuosity upon that part of his forces which were attempting to place themselves in position; and our artillery, which was boldly brought near the enemy’s columns, poured a terribly destructive fire of grape upon them. The utmost consternation ensued, and a general and disorderly flight was commenced in the direction of Nowawies (N), to which place our corps continued the pursuit of the enemy (R).
This day, which may be called one of the most brilliant in our war, cost the enemy, besides his killed and wounded, two thousand prisoners, with more than twenty officers, four standards, ten pieces of cannon, some hundred horses, and about thirty chests with ammunition, with officers’ baggage, &c. The prince Wirtemberg with the remains of his corps retreated by forced marches to the small town of Granica, where he repassed the Vistula and reached Pulawa. Thus, by a single battle, the whole country on this side of the Vistula was cleared of the presence of the enemy.
General Dwernicki permitted to his corps, who were really much exhausted by fighting and marching, to repose by a slow march as far as Kozienice, where he remained stationary, sending out, however, his reconnoisances as far as Pulawa.
On the 20th of February our main army was engaged with the enemy the whole day upon the same position as on the preceding. This repetition of his attack, without a change of plan or position, was a great weakness in the enemy. On that day, feeling sensibly the loss of a part of the great forest opposite Kawenzyn, as well as that of the small forest of elders, the enemy commenced his attack upon those points. Some twenty battalions were incessantly pushed forward to the attack, against which eight battalions on our part kept an effectual stand for several hours. This day, although uninteresting and indecisive in manœuvres, was bloody. No important blow was attempted by us, but every attack of the enemy was met with a vigorous and sanguinary repulse. It was a day of glory for the 4th regiment—the day on which that celebrated regiment, though already distinguished, began to take its high place in our reports; and on which it fought with a degree of valor that could never have been surpassed. Without even waiting for orders, this brave regiment was seen constantly pushing itself towards the points of the greatest danger; and its companies were often fighting singly in the very midst of the thickest masses of the enemy.
By the unsuccessful and costly attacks of the enemy the whole day was occupied, and at its close, after the loss of thousands of men, he had not gained a foot of ground.
Thus ten days had passed in continual and bloody actions upon the same position, during which the Polish army had been uniformly successful, and at the end of which the enemy discontinued his attacks, thus giving the most convincing proof of the extent of the losses he had suffered on all points, during that period, amounting, in fact, in killed, wounded and prisoners, to full 30,000 men. In this space of ten days, the whole Russian army had been engaged, and that army amounted, as we have already said, and as will be confirmed by all the official reports, to more than 150,000 infantry, 50,000 cavalry, and 300 pieces of cannon. To this force was opposed a handful, comparatively, of Poles, consisting of 30,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and 96 pieces of cannon; a sixth part, in fact, of the Russian force.
This memorable commencement of our war will show to the world what can be effected by a nation fighting in defence of its liberty and to throw off an oppressive yoke. Those bloody combats, and that enthusiasm, to which my feeble pen cannot render justice, but which some better historian will present to the world in their true colors, should convince men that the immense mercenary forces which a despot may lead on, and by which he trusts to enforce his will, may avail him little. His enormous masses are like a heap of sand, which a little stone can pierce. Without animating motives, and therefore without energy,—a machine scarcely to be trusted,—that army itself, upon the slightest change of circumstances, may become terrible to the despot, of whom and of whose creatures it was to have been made the unhappy sacrifice.
The reader will pardon me, if I fatigue him with farther reflections upon this stage of our affairs. I shall not exaggerate in saying that this enormous mass of the enemy’s forces would in an equal period have been absolutely annihilated, if we had then had a commander in chief of greater talent, and a general plan of operation differently arranged,—for the different operations in detail were, generally speaking, perfectly executed. The commander in chief, prince Radzivil, was an individual of the most estimable character, but as he afterwards himself avowed, not possessed of military talent. General Chlopicki, who was always near him, and who in fact virtually commanded, if he had in the early part of his life exhibited military talent, in his present advanced age had certainly lost much of his energy, and was unfit to undertake things which demanded the most active intellect, and the most absolute devotedness of mind and body to the cause. We cannot too strongly express our astonishment that general Chlopicki, who had formed the plan, and a very judicious one it was, of drawing the enemy on to the walls of Warsaw, to give him there a decisive battle, should have neglected to fortify the natural positions upon his route, by which the enemy’s loss would have been doubled or even trebled. Serock and Zagroby (4), [See Plan VI], situated upon points of the greatest importance, especially the first, were evacuated by our forces, for the want of proper defences. Not the slightest fortification was constructed at the different passages of the Narew (N), the Bug (B), the Liewiec (L), and the Swider (S), nor upon the region between those rivers, which was full of forests and impenetrable marshes, and in which proper fortifications would have presented the most important obstructions to the enemy’s passage. No concealed passages or by-roads through those forests were constructed, as they should have been, by which a body of troops could be led in ambuscade and brought to act suddenly on the enemy’s flanks or otherwise, in critical moments, and with decisive effect. Such works would have required but little expense, and could have been made by the Jewish inhabitants, of whom there are some millions in Poland, (twenty thousand in Warsaw alone,) and who could have no claims for exemption, for they render no service to the country, but on the contrary lead a life of profitable fraud and deception, practised upon the inhabitants. The Jews, indeed, with some very few exceptions, did not in the least aid in the war, but often frustrated our exertions by their espionage; and there are in fact instances of their having fought against us,—against those who had given them an asylum upon their soil. In the towns of Nasielsk and Makow this occurred. This part of our population, who had an equal interest with us in the protection of the country, as far as property was concerned, could have been thus employed with perfect justice and propriety. If, by such arrangements, a system of fortification had been properly united with tactics, and all the plans directed by a man of talents and energy, of which examples were certainly to be found in our ranks, with such troops to command, the reader will admit that the Russian forces could have been soon driven back to the frontiers.
The succession of victories which we have described were not the results of any general system:—they were victories of detail, executed with energy and rapidity, and for which we were indebted to the generals of divisions and brigades, the colonels of regiments, &c. These successes were isolated, but, had they been made to bear upon each other, their advantages would have been much greater. For example, the battle of Dobre, which was so brilliantly gained by Skrzynecki, would have caused the total ruin of the corps opposed to him, if the 11th division of Krukowiecki, which was in the environs of Jadow, had come to the aid of Skrzynecki during that action. And indeed this was the expectation of Skrzynecki when he remained so long upon the position of Makowiec. But this division, instead of acting upon the rear of the enemy, as it might have done, having no orders to this effect, continued its retrograde march, although within the sound of the cannon of that action.
On the 18th there was not enough of harmony in the operations of the several divisions. On that day, if those operations had been directed from one point as from a centre, the enemy, who had been guilty of extreme imprudence in the advance which he had made into the marshy and wooded region between Stanislawow (9), Okuniew (11), and the great road, could have been completely hedged in. [See Plan VI.] The manœuvres of general Zimirski, when the enemy made his rapid attack on the morning of the 19th, were executed at hazard, no general order having been given in anticipation of such an attack. These manœuvres were well executed by general Zimirski: but if the case had been thus anticipated by the commander in chief, and, at the commencement of the action, our right wing had been withdrawn to Grochow, [See (A) Plan VIII,] an obstinate defence of the commanding position of Kawenzyn (B) being kept up, and the enemy had been thus allowed to follow our right wing with his left; by the same method of operation which was in fact executed by Skrzynecki and Zimirski, in concert, but with much larger forces; the enemy could have been attacked on his flank, and instead of the annihilation of his sixteen battalions, the same fate would have attended twice or thrice that number;—for, when a force is taken by surprise in flank and rear, numbers avail comparatively little in resistance;—indeed, the greater the number, the greater is the difficulty of changing position, and the greater the disorder and consternation which follows.
The Russian army was thus early inspired with terror at the resistance which it had experienced, and the immense losses to which it had been subjected. It was of the utmost importance to profit by this consternation; but the vast advantages which might have been gained under such circumstances, by some general plan of offensive operations of bold and decisive character, were let pass.
Footnotes
35 I cannot pass over this occasion of describing the manner in which the nation received that army, which had but a month before left the walls of Warsaw, and had, after so many glorious actions, returned to give there a decisive battle to the enemy, and to fall or conquer there before the eyes of the nation. Those were moments rare in history, and should be handed down to posterity, to demonstrate to what a height the feelings of the nation were exalted, and what a unanimity was felt in the great cause that warmed all hearts. The thunder of the cannon which, during the 15th, rolled over the fields of Milosna and Okuniew, was heard at Warsaw, and announced the approach of the army. At nightfall, when our first detachments began to show themselves from the forests of Milosna and Jablonna, and to deploy upon the plains of Wavre and Bialolenka, the whole population of Warsaw began to leave the city, and go forth to meet and hail their defenders. The senate, whose estimable president, Czartoriski, was with the army, left the city also. In a short time the fields were covered with an exulting multitude. When the army took its position, and all was quiet under the protection of night, the people drew near and entered the camp. What a touching scene was there presented! Here a father and mother seek their son, who meeting them, presses them to his bosom. There a wife, leading her children, finds her husband and their father, and throws herself into his arms, while the children cling around the knees of their delighted parents. A melancholy contrast was presented by those who sought in vain for son—husband—parent. But no complaint was heard. The tears falling for those who were no more, were checked by the thought that they had died for their country.
The senate, in the name of the nation, and in the most touching language, thanked the commander in chief and his officers for the services which they had rendered to their country, and requested them to communicate these sentiments to the whole army. They finished their address in nearly the following terms: ‘Preserve, brave compatriots, this noble energy, and in a short time the throne of despotism will fall, and upon its ruins civilization and public happiness will rise.’ The people continued with the army, furnishing them with every comfort, and regardless of the fire which was commenced the next day from the enemy’s artillery. Under this fire, vehicles with provisions and ammunition were continually arriving from the city, and some of them were destroyed by the enemy’s shot. During the actions before Warsaw, the inhabitants made it a duty to be at hand, to bear off and succor the wounded; and among those who engaged in these offices were some of the most distinguished ladies of Warsaw. The strangers who were then there, and who witnessed the enthusiasm which animated the people, and seemed to unite them into one family, exclaimed that such a nation could never, and ought never be conquered.
The following days, the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of February, in which no action took place, were devoted to thanksgiving to God, for his favor in protecting the Polish cause thus far. In all the churches the people assembled to offer prayers for the welfare of the country; and the army employed this period of repose in the same manner. On that field, over which the three hundred cannon of the enemy were pointed in battle array; while the first line was in position, the rest of the army were engaged in these devotional exercises. At each assemblage of troops, the ministers of religion administered patriotic oaths, and animated the soldiers to perseverance in the holy struggle. Those sacred ceremonies were followed by hymns, which were sung along the whole line, and which, mingling with the solemn sounds of the bells of Warsaw tolling for the assembly of the people in the churches, produced an indescribably impressive effect. These exercises ended in the general shout of ‘Poland forever!’
To convince the Russians that the Poles were not blindly fighting against them as Russians, but for that cause of civilization and happiness which was of equal moment to themselves, several hundred white flags were prepared with inscriptions in the Russian language, in terms such as follows: ‘Russians! brother Sarmatians! we march to combat not as your enemies, but to fight for your welfare as well as our own.’ Each regiment received from ten to twenty of those flags, which, during the combat, were to be distributed among the tirailleurs and flankers. They were directed to throw them, as occasion might offer, among the Russian ranks. Many of those volunteers, in rushing forward to plant those flags among the Russian skirmishers, met their death at the hands of those whom they wished to save from tyranny. Thus the Poles had done all that their duty required of them in this holy contest, to convince the world that the general cause of civilization and happiness was the great end of their struggle. They sought not their own aggrandizement by conquests from the territory of another nation, for their ancient boundaries are wide enough for them. They fought for that liberty which they had for ages possessed; and that ancient liberty and those ancient limits they will sooner or later regain.
36 The prince Wirtemberg, who commanded the corps against which general Dwernicki was sent, had served in the Polish army as brigadier-general. He was cousin to the present king of Wirtemberg, and nephew of the late Emperor Alexander, who married his aunt. This prince commanded the 2d and 4th regiment of hulans, of the first of which regiments general Dwernicki was colonel. In this way the prince was perfectly well known to general Dwernicki, and was held by him in very low esteem, as a man of vanity and pretension, and a tyrant over his subalterns. The vices of his character developed themselves sufficiently during our revolution. At the breaking out of the revolution at Warsaw, this man was at Krasny-staw, a small town in the palatinate of Lublin, in which his brigade was posted. On the arrival of the news of the revolution, his first care was to secrete himself. Afterwards, finding that it was impossible to keep concealed, he began to tamper with the brigade, and tried to persuade his soldiers to adhere to the service of the Grand Duke, and to refuse to join the cause of their country. These false persuasions, coming from him, a general in the Polish service, in open defiance of the will of the nation, and in opposition to its holiest efforts, afforded a sufficient ground of accusation against him, to have brought him to judgment as a traitor. Besides all this, by his tyrannic conduct as a general, he had deserved severe treatment. But all these offences were forgotten, and the nation spared him, merely ordering him to quit the country. He exhibited his gratitude for this delicate treatment, by departing for Russia and the Polish provinces, and pointing out for arrest some of the most respectable citizens, who were known for their patriotic sentiments. He passed several days at Wlodawa, a small frontier town between the Polish kingdom and the government of Grodno. There he was guilty of the mean act of intercepting the correspondence between the different patriotic individuals.
This was not enough. In the campaign, he took the command of a Russian corps destined to act in the very palatinate of Lublin where he had held his Polish command for fourteen years, and where all the proprietors had treated him with the greatest kindness and delicacy. Arriving there with his corps, he left at every step the traces of his tyranny. On reaching Pulawa, the estate of the beloved Czartoriski, the president of the national government, the residence of that family from which he had himself received so many kindnesses, and in which every virtue reigned, he did not scruple to give orders to burn the town;—he did not scruple to take the name in history of ‘the devastator of Pulawa’—of that beautiful spot on which the labor of ages had been expended, and which was so celebrated for the charms with which nature as well as art had enriched it. His cruelties were carried to such a height, that he actually caused to be beaten with the knout, a young lady, a friend of the princess Czartoriski, who had manifested her patriotic sentiments by the sacrifice of her jewels to aid the cause of her country. Even the princess Czartoriski, who was already at an advanced age, was not spared the insults of this gross man, who, to put the finishing stroke to his barbarity, on his second visit to Pulawa, directed a fire of artillery upon the palace, which he knew was occupied only by the princess and her ladies. Even the Russians themselves regarded these actions with abhorrence. In regard to his military talents, they were of the lowest order. General Dwernicki promised that in a few weeks he would despatch him; and he in fact kept this promise to the letter.