The Battle of Fajslawice, one of many clashes of the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

, took place on August 24, 1863, near the village of

Fajsławice Fajsławice is a village in Krasnystaw County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Fajsławice. It lies approximately north-west of Krasnystaw and south-east of the regional ...

, which at that time belonged to Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

. A party of 1,500 Polish insurgents, commanded by

Michał Heydenreich Michał Jan Heydenreich (Heidenreich), also known under the pseudonym Kruk (19 September 1831, Warsaw, Russian Empire – 9 April 1886, Lviv), was a Polish general who took part in the January Uprising. He was a Podpolkovnik in the Russian Imperia ...

, clashed with 2,500 soldiers of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

’s Mounted Artillery Division under Colonel Grigoriy Emanov. The battle, which was one of the bloodiest clashes of the uprising, resulted in Russian victory. The insurgents lost 320 killed, 650 captured and 40 wounded, while Russian losses were app. 40 wounded and unknown number killed. After the victorious Battle of Zyrzyn (August 8, 1863), Heydenreich decided to break through a Russian cordon, which blocked the insurgents from Austrian Galicia. His forces camped in a small forest near Fajsławice, and on August 24, the insurgents were attacked by much stronger Russian detachment. Russian forces were divided into two groups, and their assault began with artillery barrage, in which 9 cannons were used. Due to unknown circumstances, an insurgent infantry unit under Karol Krysiński had left the camp before the battle. The remaining Poles tried to break through Russian encirclement, but were unable to do so. Russian artillery and rifle fire resulted in heavy losses among the insurgents. Captured Poles (altogether app. 650 men) were taken to a prison in

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

, while those killed were buried in a mass grave at a local cemetery. The grave was marked with a tall oak cross with the crown of thorns. Polish defeat meant that the insurgents lost strategic initiative in the Lublin region, and the uprising lost its climax in the area. Heydenreich, who survived the battle, left Congress Poland and crossed the Galician border. Russian commandant Grigoriy Emanov was on November 16, 1863 awarded the Cross of St. George by the tsar, for his “courage and bravery while fighting Polish rebels on August 12, 1863”.

References

Sources

Stefan Kieniewicz Stefan Kieniewicz (20 September 1907, in Dereszewicze – 2 May 1992, in Konstancin-Jeziorna, Konstancin) was a Polish historian and university professor, notable for his works on the 19th-century history of Poland. During his work at various uni ...

: Powstanie styczniowe. Warszawa:

Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN (''Polish Scientific Publishers PWN''; until 1991 ''Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe'' - ''National Scientific Publishers PWN'', PWN) is a Polish book publisher, founded in 1951, when it split from the Wydawnictwa Szkolne i ...

, 1983. . Conflicts in 1863 1863 in Poland Fajslawice History of Lublin Voivodeship August 1863 {{Russia-battle-stub