The Battle of Krasnobrod was one of the many battles 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 ...

against the Russian control over Poland. It took place on March 24, 1863, near Krasnobrod in southeastern corner of Tsarist

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 ...

in the territory of the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition (), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian ac ...

. The Polish forces under Marcin Borelowski clashed with troops 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 ...

, commanded by Mayor Yakov Ogalin. The battle ended in Russian victory due to overwhelming numerical superiority. On March 22, the Polish unit of Borelowski, which marched southwards from

Podlasie Podlachia, also known by its Polish name Podlasie (; ; ), is a historical region in north-eastern Poland. Its largest city is Białystok, whereas the historical capital is Drohiczyn. Similarly to several other historical regions of Poland, e.g ...

, reached Hrubieszow, where it burned a Russian storehouse. The garrison of Russian-held Zamosc Fortress sent a unit of Mayor Ogalin, whose task was to find the insurgents and destroy them. On March 24, Poles and Russians clashed near Krasnobrod, in a location that now is a nature reserve. Polish unit consisted of 80 riflemen, 20 cavalry and 160

kosynierzy Scythemen, also known as scythe-bearers is the term for soldiers (often peasants and townspeople) armed with war scythes. First appearing in the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, scythemen quickly became one of the symbols of the struggle for Poli ...

, and Polish losses amounted to 42 men, including 7 officers. After the battle, bodies of 42 insurgents (32 of them remained unknown) were buried at a local parish cemetery. In 1930, a monument dedicated to the skirmish was unveiled there.

Notes

References

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. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Krasnobrod (1863) Conflicts in 1863 1863 in Poland Krasnobrod History of Lublin Voivodeship March 1863