Entrance of the Russian forces into the Kingdom.--Proclamations of
Marshal Diebitsch.--Their effect.--Disposition of the Russian and
Polish forces.--Plan of operations of the Poles.
The Russian forces, simultaneously with the Polish, began to
concentrate themselves on the frontiers of the kingdom, (_See Plan No.
1_) particularly at Bialystok (11) and Grodno (10). Four general points
were designated for the entrance of this enormous force, viz. Zlotoria
(12), Ciechanowiec (9), Brzesc (8), and Wlodawa (7).
Marshal Diebitsch, on entering the kingdom, published a proclamation to
the Poles, a copy of which is given in the note.[32]
[Illustration: _I_]
Those proclamations were published in the latter part of January.
The people were disgusted with their promises and their menaces,
and rejecting all idea of reconciliation on such terms as these
proclamations set forth, they entreated to be led to the struggle in
which they had once decided to engage, preferring every sacrifice to
so degrading a submission. They demanded that an answer should be
sent to Diebitsch, informing him that they were ready to meet him, and
called upon the government to commence hostilities without a moment's
delay.[33]
The Russian forces, [_See plan No. 1_, (_a_)] consisting, as we have
already mentioned, of about 200,000 men and 300 pieces of cannon, had,
on about the 5th of February, passed the Polish frontier at the four
general points above named (7, 8, 9, 12). Their different commanders,
besides the marshal Diebitsch, were, the Grand Duke Constantine,
generals Rosen, Pablen, Geismer, Kreutz, prince Wirtemberg, and
Witt. The chief d'etat major was general Toll, the most skilful of
the Russian generals. The space designated for the entrance of the
different detachments of the Russian corps embraced an extent of
ninety-six English miles. This space was almost wholly occupied by
either small or large detachments. General Diebitsch, meaning to attack
our centre at Siedlce with a part of his army, intended to outflank us
with the rest, and to march directly upon Warsaw, and thus, following
the plan of Napoleon in the campaign of Prussia, in 1806, at Jena and
Auerstacdt, to cripple our front, and to put an end to the war in a
moment. The plans of this renowned commander were well understood by
our general officers, and to resist them, it was determined to contract
our forces (_b_) into a line of operations, narrow, but concentrated
and strong; a course which our inferiority of force seemed to require.
This line was posted as follows. Our left wing, consisting of the
fourth division of general Szembek and a division of cavalry under
general Uminski, was in the environs of Pultusk (14). This wing sent
its reconnoissances towards Ostrolenka (4). In the environs of the
town of Jadow (16) was the division of general Krukowiecki; and in the
environs of Wengrow (15), the division of general Skrzynecki, with
the division of cavalry commanded by general Lubinski. The centre of
our position was about half way between the two latter places. Our
right wing was at Siedlce (2), and was composed of the 2nd division of
infantry under general Zymirski, and the 2nd division of cavalry under
general Stryinski. To cover the right wing, a small corps under the
command of general Dwernicki was posted at Seroczyn (17). That corps
consisted of 3,000 infantry, 800 horse, and three pieces of cannon.
Different patrols of cavalry were employed in observing the enemy along
the whole space between Sokolow, Miendzyrzec, and Parczewo. The rivers
Narew (N), Bug (B), and Liewiec (L), covered the whole line of our
operations, and made it sufficiently strong. Our centre, especially,
was well posted between Jadow (16), Wengrow (15), and Siedlce (2). It
was protected by the great marshes formed by the river Lieviec (L).
Excepting in a few points, which were well fortified, these marshes
were wholly impassable. It is to be regretted that this position was
not made still stronger by more ample fortifications. Besides making
the passage of this point cost a more severe loss to the enemy, such
fortifications would have enabled us to spare one whole division for
other purposes. Fortifications of positions should always be the more
freely combined with tactics, in proportion to the inferiority of a
force.
In the above mentioned position we were to await the first shock of the
enemy, after which the army was to retire slowly towards the environs
of Praga, and in such a manner that each corps should always be on the
parallel with the rest. In this retreat each corps was required to
profit by every opportunity, to cause the utmost loss to the enemy,
and to harass him as much as possible. By a retreat of this nature, it
was intended to draw the enemy on to the walls of Warsaw, and, having
weakened him during such a retreat, to give him a decisive battle
there.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 32: _Proclamation of the Field Marshal Count Diebitsch
Zabalkansky to the Poles._
POLES! His Majesty the Emperor and King, our august sovereign, has
confided to me the command of the troops destined to put an end to
the deplorable disorders which afflict the kingdom of Poland. The
proclamation of his majesty the Emperor and King has already apprised
you that the Emperor has wished, in his generosity, to distinguish
his faithful subjects who have respected their oaths, from the guilty
instigators of disorder who have sacrificed to their odious ambition
the interests of a happy and peaceful community. Nay, more, he wishes
to extend his benevolence and his clemency to the unfortunate persons
who through weakness or fear have lent themselves as the accomplices
of a deplorable enterprize. Poles! Hear the voice of your sovereign
and your father, the successor of the august restorer of your country,
who like him has always desired your happiness. Even the guilty will
experience the effects of his magnanimity, if they will trust to it
with confidence. Those only who have dipped their hands in blood, and
those who still more guilty perhaps, have excited others to do this,
will meet the just punishment to which the law condemns them.
1. At the moment of entering with the troops which I command into the
kingdom of Poland, I wish to convince you of the principles which will
guide all my steps. A faithful soldier, and a conscientious executor
of the orders of my sovereign, I will never depart from them. The
peaceful inhabitants who shall receive us as friends and brothers, will
find their friendly dispositions reciprocated by the troops placed
under my orders. The soldiers will pay a fair price for every thing
which shall be furnished to them, and if circumstances require that
the troops shall be provisioned by the inhabitants, or if we shall be
forced to make requisitions (which we shall endeavor to avoid as far
as possible,) in such cases the inhabitants will receive payment in
printed certificates, which will be taken as money at the offices for
the payment of imposts. Prices will be established for the provisions
furnished according to the current value of the articles in the
different districts.
2. On the approach of the Russian troops, the inhabitants of the towns
and villages, who have taken arms in obedience to the orders of the
government which has been illegally instituted, will be required to
surrender their arms to the local authorities, if those latter shall
have returned to their duties. In other cases, they will be required to
give up their arms upon the entrance of the troops of his majesty the
Emperor and King.
3. Every inhabitant, who, forgetting the duties which he owes to his
sovereign, shall persevere in the revolt, and shall be taken with arms
in his hands, will have to meet the utmost rigor of the law. Those
who shall attempt to defend themselves against the troops, shall be
delivered over to a council of war. The towns and villages who shall
dare to resist his majesty the Emperor and King, will be punished
according to the degree their resistance shall have been carried, by
an extraordinary contribution, more or less heavy. This contribution
will be principally levied upon those who shall have taken part in a
criminal defence, either by carrying arms themselves, or by exciting
others to that crime. In case of relapse from a return to duty, and of
rebellion in the rear of the Russian army, the insurgent places shall
be treated with the utmost military rigor. The principal instigators
shall be punished with death, and the others exiled; but the greatest
care will be taken to distinguish and protect those who shall have had
no part in the crime.
4. To prevent such evils, I invite all the authorities, civil as well
as military, who may be in the towns and cities, to send deputies to
the commanders of the Russian forces, when these forces shall arrive.
Such deputations will bring with them as a sign of submission to their
legitimate sovereign, a white flag. They will be expected to announce
that the inhabitants submit themselves to the benevolence of his
majesty the Emperor and King, and that their arms have been deposited
in some place which shall be designated. The Russian commanders will
then take the necessary measures of security. They will maintain the
civil authorities, which existed before the revolt, as well as those
which shall have been instituted afterwards, if they have taken no
active part in the rebellion. The sedentary guard of veterans will
be continued, if they have not engaged in the resistance, or given
manifest proofs of treason towards their legitimate sovereign. All
those authorities, civil as well as military, will be required to renew
their oaths of fidelity. Conformably to the orders of his majesty the
Emperor and King, an amnesty and pardon for the past will be given to
all of those who shall submit without delay, and shall comply with the
conditions which have been above mentioned.
5. The Russian commanders shall organize, as circumstances may require,
in the places where no Russian garrisons may remain, a civil and
municipal guard, who shall be chosen from among the most faithful of
the veterans, and the inhabitants shall be entrusted with the interior
police, as far as may be necessary to secure order and tranquillity.
6. The organization of the administration of the palatinates,
arrondissements, and communes, will remain upon the footing on which it
was before the insurrection. It will be the same with all the direct
and indirect taxes. The authorities will remain in their places after
they shall have complied with the above conditions. In other cases,
new authorities will be established by the choice of the commanders
of the Russian forces. That choice will fall principally upon the
individuals who may unite, with the necessary capacity, an established
moral character, and who shall have given proofs of their fidelity to
their legitimate sovereign. All those will be excluded who shall have
taken any part whatever in the rebellion, as well as those who after
the entrance of the Russian troops into the kingdom shall persist in
an organized opposition against legal order. The proprietors of land
and houses who may remain tranquil in their habitations, and shall
submit to the conditions above announced, will be protected in their
rights, as well by the local authorities as by the Russian troops.
In other cases, the property of all those who shall remain in the
revolutionary ranks will be sequestered, as well as that of those who
shall have continued to exercise the functions entrusted to them by
the illegal government, or in some who shall have openly taken part
in the revolt. Such are, Poles, the principles which will direct the
army which his Majesty has deigned to confide to my command. You have
to choose between the benefits which an unqualified submission to the
will of our magnanimous sovereign assures to you, and the evils which
will be brought upon you by a state of things without object as well as
without hope. I hold it an honor to have been called upon to make known
to you these resolutions, emanating from the generous intentions of the
Emperor and King. I shall execute them scrupulously, but I shall not
fail to punish criminal obstinacy with inflexible severity.
(Signed) The Marshal Count Diebitsch Zabalkansky.
_Proclamation of the Count Diebitsch Zabalkansky to the Polish troops._
GENEROUS POLES! Twenty-five years since, your country was implicated
in the wars which the gigantic plans of a celebrated conqueror had
kindled. The hope, often awakened, and always disappointed, of an
illusory regeneration, had connected you with his fortunes. Faithful,
although unfortunate, you answered those deceptive promises by the
sacrifice of your blood. There is scarce a country, however distant it
may have been, that has not been wet with that blood which you have
prodigally shed for interests altogether foreign to the destiny of
your country. Great events brought at last, at a remarkable epoch, an
end to your misfortunes. After a contest, forever memorable, in which
Russia saw you among the number of her enemies, the Emperor Alexander,
of immortal memory, obeying only the impulse of his magnanimous heart,
wished to add to all his other titles to glory, that of being the
restorer of your country. Poland recovered her name, and the Polish
army a new life. All the elements of national welfare, of tranquillity,
and of prosperity, were miraculously united, and fifteen years of
uninterrupted progress prove, to this day, the greatness of the
benefits for which your country is indebted to the paternal solicitude
of the sovereign who was its restorer, and to the no less earnest
concern of him who has so nobly continued the work of his predecessor.
POLISH WARRIORS! His Majesty the Emperor and King has trusted to
your gratitude and your fidelity. A short time since he gladly did
justice to your devotedness and your good will. The exemplary conduct
of all the Polish officers, without exception, who partook with our
armies the fatigues and the glory of the Turkish war, had given a high
satisfaction to his Majesty. We accepted with pleasure this fraternity
of arms which became a new bond between the Russian and Polish troops.
The best hope of reciprocal advantages should connect with that union,
which was founded upon all that is sacred in military honor. Those
hopes have been cruelly deceived. A handful of young men, who have
never known the dangers of battle, of young officers who had never
passed through a campaign or even a march, have shaken the fidelity of
the brave. The latter have seen committed in their ranks the greatest
of crimes, the murder of their commanders; they have not arrested the
revolt against their legitimate sovereign. What unhappy blindness, what
criminal condescension has been able to induce these veterans to permit
the consummation of the greatest of offences, and to join themselves
with those whose hands were stained with blood! Can it be possible
that the design of rendering a service to their country has been made
for a moment a pretext for such conduct? That country can answer that
for a long period she had never enjoyed so much happiness. She had
attained much, and she could still hope much from her fidelity, and the
support of public order. She exposes herself to the loss of all these
advantages by engaging in an unequal struggle, in revolting against
a sovereign whose firm and energetic character is well known, and in
braving a power which has never been defied with impunity.
Polish Warriors! Rebellion would stamp upon your front the stain of
dishonor. Put away from you such an ignominy. History will one day
relate, that, in the hope of serving your country, you have been
faithful and devoted to the man who promised you every thing, and
kept his promise in nothing. Shall it also say that, paying with
ingratitude and perjury, the sovereign who has generously granted you
every thing which you had any right to hope for, you have drawn down
upon your country new misfortunes, and upon yourselves an indelible
disgrace? If some grievances existed, you should have had confidence
enough in the character of our august sovereign to have laid before
him your complaints, in a legal manner, and with that frankness
which characterizes the true soldier. And I too, Poles, I speak the
sincere language of a soldier; I have never known any other. Obedient
to the orders of my sovereign, I reiterate, by his wishes, all the
propositions which, in his clemency, he has already made to you
by his proclamation of the 17th of December. Our august sovereign
has witnessed, with marked satisfaction, the fidelity of the brave
light-cavalry of the guard, of the greater part of the grenadiers of
the guard, and of the sub-officers of the cavalry. He does not doubt
that the greater part of the troops cherished the desire to remain
faithful to their oaths, and that many others were hurried away only
by the impulse of the moment. Let each one hasten to execute the
orders which are contained in the proclamation of his majesty. But
if unforeseen circumstances do not permit you to follow the course
which has been pointed out to you; at least, on the approach of the
faithful armies of our common sovereign, remember your duties and
your oaths. It is not as enemies that the troops placed under my
command enter the kingdom of Poland. It is on the contrary with the
noble object of re-establishing public order and the laws. They will
receive as brothers all persons, either in civil or military life,
who shall return to their duties; but they will know how to subdue,
with the constancy and courage which they have ever manifested, the
resistance which evil-minded men may attempt to oppose to them,--men
who, trampling under foot the sacredness of their oaths and the laws
of honor, sacrifice to their ambitious and even criminal projects the
dearest interests of their country. It is to you especially, generals
and colonels of the Polish army, that I address myself with confidence;
to you, whom I have been accustomed to regard as my worthy brothers in
arms. Return from the momentary error to which you have been capable of
surrendering yourselves, that you may, in joining the rebellious, bring
them back to their duties, and serve your country without violating
your oaths. Experience will have disabused you of your error: return
to the path of fidelity, and you will by that restore the happiness of
your country. You know the clemency of our august sovereign: return to
him. Weigh well the immense responsibility which you will take upon
your heads by a criminal obstinacy. Join yourselves to your brothers
in arms. Show that you are still worthy to be the commanders of the
troops which your sovereign has entrusted to you. You will be received
as brothers. An amnesty of the past is assured to you. The troops which
I command will fulfil with loyalty the intentions of our sovereign,
and the gratitude of your country, restored to tranquillity, will be a
delightful reward for your return to your duty. But if there are found
among you men hardened in crime, who cannot be persuaded to trust in
magnanimity, because they know not the elevated sentiments in which
it has its origin, let all the bonds of military fraternity between
you and them be broken; the all-powerful hand of God, the protector of
the good cause, will bring down upon their heads the punishment due to
their crimes.
(Signed) The Marshal Diebitsch Zabalkansky.]
[Footnote 33: To the proclamations of general Diebitsch, one of our
countrymen made a reply, in the form of a letter, which was published
in the gazettes, and which, as far as my memory serves me, was in
nearly the following terms: 'General, your proclamations, which breathe
the spirit of injustice, arrogance, and cruelty--the menacing tone of
which is backed by the colossal force you have led to the invasion
of our territory, and which you are to wield as an instrument for
establishing a new tyranny and inflicting new sufferings upon a country
of freemen,--these proclamations, general, prove that the favorable
opinion which Europe entertained of you was ill-grounded, and that
you too, like the rest, are willing to lend yourself an easy and vile
instrument in the hands of the oppressor. Diebitsch! Can it be you who
so recently passed the Balkan, to deliver a nation from the yoke of
barbarism,--an action which gained for you so great a name in history?
'Do you remember the proclamations which you published on that
occasion, how different from these, filled with noble thoughts, and in
which you felicitated yourself on being placed in command of an army
destined to deliver the unfortunate Greek nation from the barbarism
which was oppressing it. What a contrast! There you went to deliver
the unfortunate; here you come to increase the sufferings of a nation
which has for fifteen years been oppressed in a manner which was well
known to you, and which it is horrible to think of. General, have you
forgotten how you were received at Warsaw, after your return from the
campaign of Turkey? Have you lost the recollection of those looks
of welcome and of joy at the sight of the man who had effected the
deliverance of an unfortunate and oppressed nation? You were then
touched, for the sentiments of the Polish nation were in harmony with
those which you yourself then entertained. All those recollections you
have turned away from. Dazzled by false ideas of greatness, arrogance
has driven from your heart those noble sentiments which would have made
you truly great. Diebitsch! Poland once had confidence in you. Many
Poles had hoped that you would act as a mediator between your monarch
and us. No one could be in a more favorable situation than yourself to
set before that monarch the nature of our sufferings, and the claims
which we had upon his justice. You would have been in a situation to
persuade him that the time had come to aid the cause of civilization,
and to promote his own happiness, by conceding to a nation those rights
which are essential to its happiness and prosperity. Poland had such
expectations of you. You alone, who are so near the person of the
monarch, and to whom his character is so intimately known, you could
have done this. Such conduct would have added indeed to the glory you
had already acquired. Who then would have equalled you? But, for your
misfortune, you have chosen another course, and by acting as a servile
instrument of tyranny you have tarnished all your former glory. Know
then, Diebitsch, that the Poles despise you. Spare both your promises
and your menaces; for with neither will you effect anything. They long
for the approach of your colossal masses, that they may give you an
example of what freemen can do.']