The Battle of Dębe Wielkie was fought on 31 March 1831. The

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

army, led by

Jan Skrzynecki Jan Zygmunt Skrzynecki (2/8/1787–1/12 or 12/1/1860) was a Polish general, and commander-in-chief of the November Uprising (1830–1831). Biography He was born in Żebrak, Siedlce County, in 1787, and completed his education at the Lwów Unive ...

, won over

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n curtain forces commanded by General Geismar.

Background

Following the

battle of Grochów The Battle of Olszynka Grochowska was fought on 25 February 1831 in the woods near Grochów, on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The Polish army, commanded by Józef Chłopicki, succeeded in preventing its Russian counterpart, under Hans Karl v ...

of 25 February, the Russian advance under General

Hans Karl von Diebitsch Hans Karl Friedrich Anton Graf von Diebitsch und Narten (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Ди́бич-Забалка́нский, tr. ; 13 May 1785 – 10 June 1831) was a German-born soldier serving as Russian field marshal. Career ...

through Praga did not occur, and he decided to cross Vistula river south of the city trying to take it "from land".

Battle

The Poles, numbering some 40,000 men (both bayonets and sabres) and 116 cannons on March 31, 1831 advanced from Praga on the nearby standing Russian vanguard under General Geismar and attacked it. Maneuvering and retreating all day, Geismar went to the village of Debe Wielkie by 4 p.m. Russian force was almost finished but arrival of three fresh regiments allowed Geismar to get out of trouble and take hold at the town of Siedlce.

Aftermath

Although Poles gained some ground and inflicted heavy casualties on Russians, they did not manage to achieve their main goal — to finish Rosen's Observation Corps and expose Diebitsch's line of supply.

Literature

Memoire of baron Geismar published by Vladimir Geismar and comments on them. "

Russkaya Starina ''Russkaya Starina'' ( rus, Русская старина, p=ˈruskəjə stərʲɪˈna; ''Russian Antiquity'') was a Russian history journal published monthly in St. Petersburg by amateur historian Mikhail Semevsky and his successors between 1870 ...

" — 1881, book 5; 1882, book 1. Conflicts in 1831 Debe Wielkie March 1831 events {{Poland-battle-stub