Leon Young de Blankenheim (1837? – April 29, 1863 in

Nowiny Brdowskie Nowiny Brdowskie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Babiak, within Koło County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately east of Babiak, south-east of Brdów, north-east of Koło, and ea ...

) was a

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

soldier, who was promoted to the rank of colonel of Polish rebels during 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 ...

in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire on April 26, 1863. De Blankenheim was a volunteer who came to

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 ...

to participate in the anti-Russian rebellion. In March 1863, he was named commandant of a rebel unit, created by the Działyński Committee from

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

. De Blankenheim participated in fighting in

Kujawy Kuyavia (; ), also referred to as Cuyavia, is a historical region in north-central Poland, situated on the left bank of Vistula, as well as east from Noteć River and Lake Gopło. It is divided into three traditional parts: north-western (with t ...

, and he was killed in action in Nowiny Brdowskie on April 29, 1863. His body was buried in a parish cemetery in

Brdów Brdów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Babiak, within Koło County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in central Poland. It lies approximately north of Koło, east of the regional capital Poznań, (48 mi) south of Toruń an ...

, while a monument dedicated to him and other rebels was erected in Nowiny Brdowskie.

Sources

* Powstanie styczniowe i zeslancy syberyjscy. Katalog fotografii ze zbiorow Muzeum Historycznego m. st. Warszawy, t. I, Warszawa 2004 1830s births 1863 deaths French Army personnel Polish military personnel January Uprising participants French emigrants to Poland {{France-mil-bio-stub