The Battle of Čegar (), also known as the Battle of Kamenica (Бој на Каменици/Boj na Kamenici) took place during the

First Serbian Uprising The First Serbian Uprising (; sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; ) was an uprising of Serbs in Orašac (Aranđelovac), Orašac against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 1804 to 7 October 1813. The uprising began as a local revolt ...

between the

Serbian Revolution The Serbian Revolution ( / ') was a national uprising and constitutional change in Serbia that took place between 1804 and 1835, during which this territory evolved from an Sanjak of Smederevo, Ottoman province into a Revolutionary Serbia, reb ...

aries and Ottoman forces near the Niš Fortress on 31 May 1809. Fought on the

Čegar Čegar ( sr-Cyrl, Чегар) is a location in Serbia where the Battle of Čegar, Battle of Čegar Hill took place. It was first marked on July 4, 1878 with the following inscription: :"To voivoda Stevan Sinđelić and his undying heroes who lost ...

hill situated between the villages of Donji Matejevac and Kamenica near

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...

in what is today southeastern

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, it ended in an Ottoman victory. Commander

Stevan Sinđelić Stevan Sinđelić ( sr-cyr, Стеван Синђелић; 1771 – 19 May 1809) was a Serbian revolutionary commander in Resava, who fought during the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813) against Ottoman rule. As the commander of the Resa ...

famously blew up the gunpowder magazine when the Ottomans overtook his trench, killing everyone in it. Skulls of dead Serb rebels were embedded into the

Skull Tower Skull Tower ( sr-Cyrl, Ћеле кула, Ćele kula, ) is a stone structure embedded with human skulls located in Niš, Serbia. It was constructed by the Ottoman Empire following the Battle of Čegar of May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprisi ...

Background

On April 15, 1809, the 10,000 Serbian rebels approached the villages of Kamenica, Donji and Gornji Matejevac, near the Fortress of Niš with Miloje Petrović as Commander-in-chief. They made six trenches. The first and the biggest one was on Čegar Hill in charge of ''vojvoda'' Stevan Sinđelić. The second one was in the village Gornji Matejevac with Petar Dobrnjac as the commander. The third trench was north-east to Kamenica with ''vojvoda'' Ilija Barjaktarović. The fourth trench was in Kamenica with Miloje Petrović as the chief commander. The fifth trench was in the mountain above Kamenica and under the control of ''vojvoda'' Paulj Matejić while the sixth one was in Donji Matejevac. The Ottoman commander of the fortress was

Hurshid Pasha Hurshid Ahmed Pasha (sometimes written Khurshid Ahmed Pasha; , ; died 30 November 1822) was an Ottoman- Georgian general, and Grand Vizier during the early 19th century. Early life He was born in the Caucasus and was of Georgian descent. He w ...

who had 8,000 troops in the fort and the surrounding area. The Serbs then launched several attacks against the Niš Fortress, but they could not take the fort due to lack of heavy artillery. In such circumstances, their strategy was to force Hursid Pasha to surrender with the long siege. But Hurshid had different tactics; after every Serbian attack, he offered negotiations and this way he bought time while fresh troops arrived. Meanwhile, on 20 May the

Ottoman army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

was reinforced with 20,000 soldiers from

Rumelia Rumelia (; ; ) was a historical region in Southeastern Europe that was administered by the Ottoman Empire, roughly corresponding to the Balkans. In its wider sense, it was used to refer to all Ottoman possessions and Vassal state, vassals in E ...

. One Ottoman unit then tried to surround the Serbian troops, 30 km east of the town.

Hajduk-Veljko Veljko Petrović ( sr-cyr, Вељко Петровић, ; Wiktionary:circa, c. 1780 – 1813), known simply as Hajduk Veljko (Хајдук Вељко, ǎjduːk v̞ɛ̌ːʎkɔ, was one of the ''vojvodas'' (military commanders) of the Serbian ...

and his 2,000 soldiers then left their position, and moved to prevent the Ottoman attack from their rear approach. This manoeuvre further weakened Serbian positions on the main front line. The Ottoman troops attacked on the trench of Petar Dobrnjac on 30 May. The following day, on 31 May 1809, the most prominent trench at Čegar Hill, under the command of Stevan Sinđelić, was under attack.

Battle

The battle lasted for the whole day. Stevan and his unit became separated from the remainder of the Serb guerrilla positions and he and his men resisted fiercely. With hundreds of Ottoman soldiers pouring into the trench, Stevan saw that his Brigade had little hope of staving off the Ottoman offensive. Hand-to-hand combat ensued in the trenches. Stevan decided to fire his flintlock pistol into a pile of gunpowder kegs. When the Ottomans swarmed the trench from all sides and headed for him, Sinđelić squeezed the trigger. As Milovan Kukić witnessed: It was earlier believed that the Serbian defeat at Kamenica was due to Miloje Trnavac, a commander of the Niš front.

Aftermath

The fall of Sinđelić's trench forced the other Serbian units to retreat back to the town of Deligrad, where they entrenched themselves in a new, fortified front line. When Hurshid Pasha realized this, even though the post at Čegar hill had been taken, he ordered that the heads of the Serb victims be collected, skinned, and that the skulls be built into the "

". This tower was built along the road to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, as a warning to anyone revolting against the Ottoman Empire. The Serbian defeat meant the loss of initiative in the war, which lasted until 1813. Thousands of Serbian revolutionaries and Ottoman troops were killed on Čegar Hill. In 1815 the

Second Serbian Uprising The Second Serbian Uprising ( / ''Drugi srpski ustanak'', ) was the second phase of the Serbian Revolution against the Ottoman Empire, which erupted shortly after the re-annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire in 1813. The occupation was ...

began under the leadership of

Miloš Obrenović Miloš Obrenović (; ; 18 March 1780 or 1783 – 26 September 1860) born Miloš Teodorović (; ), also known as Miloš the Great () was the Prince of Serbia twice, from 1815 to 1839, and from 1858 to 1860. He was an eminent figure of the Firs ...

Gallery

File:Đ.Krstić Cele Kula 1883.jpg, ''Ćele kula'' (1883) by

Đorđe Krstić Đorđe Krstić also Djordje Krstić (, ; 19 April 1851 – 30 October 1907) was a Serbian Realism (visual arts), realist painter and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, academic. He is often ranked alongside his contemporaries, Paja Jovanović ...

File:Hoursit.jpg, Hursid Pasha File:Sinđelić at Čegar Hill.jpg,

References

Sources