The Battle of Kock was fought in 1809 during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, near the town of

Kock Kock is a town in eastern Poland, about north of Lublin and south-east of Warsaw. It lies in Lublin Voivodeship, in Lubartów County. It is the capital of the administrative district Gmina Kock. Historically Kock belongs to the Polish province ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The battle saw the death of

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...

colonel Berek Joselewicz, fighting against the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

for the freedom of Poland.

Course

Lieutenant Colonel Berek Joselewicz was in command of a squadron of the in the vanguard of the Polish Army and forming part of cavalry brigadier general Rożniecki's formation. The Polish cavalry had been tasked with clearing Austrian troops out of the way of the main force and capturing crossings over the river

Wieprz The Wieprz (, ; ua, Вепр, Vepr) is a river in central-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the country's ninth longest river, with a total length of 349 km and a catchment area of 10,497 km2, all within Poland. Its cour ...

. The only Austrian forces in the area withdrew to Kock on 2 May - this was formed of two squadrons (totalling around 300 men) of the 1st Hussars, commanded by major Friedrich Hoditz. The force was tasked with destroying all the crossings over the Wieprz. On 7 May Joselewicz attacked the Austrians at the head of his squadron. After a brief struggle, the hussars retreated in disarray and the bridge was captured intact. Joselewicz was killed - pursuing the fleeing hussars too closely, he was wounded, surrounded and killed despite pleading to surrender. His precise gravesite is unknown, though a cenotaph to him stands on the road between Kock and Bialobrzegi. Polish casualties were 1 dead and 7 injured, whilst the Austrians lost 11 killed, 8 wounded and 8 captured, including one captain. After the battle Hoditz withdrew towards

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

. Almost immediately after the battle, colonel Turno (commander of the 5th Mounted Rifles Regiment) wrote a letter to Hoditz criticising his soldiers' behaviour.

Bibliography

*''Mała Encyklopedia Wojskowa'', 1967, Wydanie I. *Łuniński Ernest, ''Berek Joselewicz i jego syn: zarys historyczny'' Warszawa 1909 *Bronisław Pawłowski, ''Wojna polsko-austriacka 1809 r.'' Warszawa 1999 *Roman Sołtyk, ''Kampania 1809 r.: raport o działaniach armii pozostającej pod rozkazami ks. J. Poniatowskiego podczas kampanii 1809 r.'' Warszawa 1906 {{coord, 51.650000, 22.450000, format=dms, display=title, type:event Kock 1809

1809 in the Austrian Empire