![Podzamcze - Pole Bitwy pod Maciejowicami z 1794 r](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Podzamcze_-_Pole_Bitwy_pod_Maciejowicami_z_1794_r._Pomnik_AL01.JPG)
The Battle of Maciejowice was fought on 10 October 1794, between
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 ...
and the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
.
The Poles were led by
Tadeusz Kościuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ( be, Andréj Tadévuš Banavientúra Kasciúška, en, Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish Military engineering, military engineer, statesman, an ...
. Kościuszko with 6,200 men, who planned to prevent the linking of three larger Russian corps, commanded by generals Fyodor Denisov, Iwan Fersen and
Alexander Suvorov
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Суво́ров, Aleksándr Vasíl'yevich Suvórov; or 1730) was a Russian general in service of the Russian Empire. He was Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy ...
. He also had requested the support of
Adam Poniński (who had 4,000 soldiers), but Poniński failed to arrive on the battlefield in time.
[Storozynski, A., 2009, The Peasant Prince, New York: St. Martin's Press, ]
Battle
Kosciuszko had spent the night in an abandoned manor house of the
Zamoyskis with his army in the field in front flanked by woods, and a river behind the house.
[ Denisov and then Fersen attacked the next morning, and the Poles burned the village on their left flank to prevent it being used as cover.][ Initially, the Russian advance was slowed by the mud, but after three hours the Poles ran out of ammunition for their cannons.][ The Russian infantry then made a ]bayonet charge
A bayonet (from French ) is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on the end of the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar firearm, allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon.Brayley, Martin, ''Bayonets: An Illustra ...
and slaughtered the Poles for the next three hours.[
After three horses were shot from under him, Kosciuszko finally tried leaving the battlefield, but his horse tripped.][ A Cossack stabbed him with a pike from behind, followed by a second Cossack who stabbed him in the left hip.][ Attempting to take his own life, Kosciuszko found his pistol empty, and then passed out in the mud, but was not identified as the Polish commanding general.][ He was stripped by two unknown horsemen, but then saved and carried away from the battlefield by Denisov's Cossacks and later taken prisoner.][
]
Aftermath
Kosciuszko was taken to St. Petersburg by General Alexei Khrushchev and two thousand Russian soldiers.[ The news of the fall of Warsaw reached him on 17 November.][
The Battle of Maciejowice is commemorated on the ]Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ( pl, Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza) is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, dedicated to the unknown soldiers who have given their lives for Poland. It is one of many such national tombs of unknowns that were erected af ...
, with the inscription "MACIEJOWICE 10 X 1794”.
References
External links
10.10.1794. Battle of Maciejowice, Fersen's Corps OOB
* ''Соловьев С.М.'' История падения Польши». — Москва, 1863.
* [http://wars175x.narod.ru/dc94_116.html Донесение Ф.П. Денисова А. В. Суворову, 30 сентября 1794 г. (РГВИА, ф. ВУА. д. № 2731, ч. I. лл. 180 — 182).]
Рапорт генерал-поручика И. Е. Ферзена А. В. Суворову, 12 октября 1794 г. о сражении при Мацеевицах.
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Battles of the Kościuszko Uprising
Alexander Suvorov