The three subdivisions of the Lithuanian corps take their
respective destinations.--Details of the operations of that of
general Rohland.--He meets alone the attack of the whole Russian
force.--Battle of Powenduny and Worna.--General Rohland, on his
way to Polonga, learns that general Chlapowski had marched towards
the Prussian frontier.--He presses his march to overtake and form
a junction with him.--The greater part of the corps of Gielgud
and Chlapowski were found to have passed the frontier, when that
of Rohland came in sight.--Indignation of the soldiery.--Death of
general Gielgud.--General Rohland, joined by a portion of the corps
of Gielgud which had not yet passed the frontier, continues his march
to Nowe-Miasto.--He declines a proposition from general Kreutz, to
surrender.--Successful skirmish with the enemy's cavalry.--General
Rohland takes a position at Nowe-Miasto, and awaits the enemy.--The
Russian forces, however, do not continue their pursuit, but go into
camp.--Propositions to pass the frontier are sent to general Rohland
by the Prussian authorities.--They are submitted to the corps, and
accepted.
On the 9th of July, at about 10, A.M., each of the three subdivisions
of the corps took the road designated for it. From this moment,
commences a new epoch in our operations in Lithuania, and we shall give
a separate detail of the proceedings of each of these corps, commencing
with that of general Rohland, which was in the line of the enemy's
pursuit, and was followed by his whole force. This corps, quitting
Kurszany, took the road for Telze. On the night of the 10th, it arrived
at Powenduny and the lake of Worna. Upon the road, it was joined by
colonel Koss, who had been sent, as we have said, with his detachment,
from Keydany, to construct a bridge over the Niemen, and who had
extricated himself from the exposed situation in which this attempt
had placed him. As the position was advantageous, and as our soldiers
had need of repose after their fatiguing march, we remained there the
whole night. On the next day, at sunrise, our camp was alarmed by the
approach of the Circassian cavalry of the enemy. Our generals decided
to wait the enemy's attack in their eligible position, and that day
was one of most brilliant success. We will present to the reader full
details of the events of that day, for they were of an extremely
interesting character. The manoeuvres of all our forces were admirable;
but those of the cavalry were indeed extraordinary. The reader will
be astonished to find how much was done by a cavalry, fatigued, their
accoutrements in disorder, and almost without ammunition, against a
cavalry like that of the enemy, well mounted, with fresh horses, and in
every respect in perfect order.
COMBAT OF POWENDUNY AND WORNA.
The battle commenced at sunrise, as we have already mentioned, with an
attack from two squadrons of Circassian cavalry. Those squadrons turned
our outer guard, and came in contact with our tirailleurs, who received
them with a warm and unexpected fire. These tirailleurs were concealed
in the forest and brush-wood. The Circassians halted, and commenced
a fire of carbines in return. Our fire could not but be attended
with great loss to the enemy, and they were forced to retire. In
this retreat, our own cavalry, which was at Powenduny, and which had
debouched by a covered road, and taken position, entirely surrounded
these two squadrons, and, attacking them on all sides, causing a severe
loss and taking forty prisoners. An hour after, the Russians renewed
the attack. Strong columns of infantry and cavalry passed through a
little village which is on the road from Kurszany to Powenduny. The
Russian artillery took positions upon the declivity of the heights
adjoining that village, and commenced a fire upon our cavalry. At the
same time, several columns of the Russian infantry threw themselves
into the brush-wood on the right of our position, while a strong
detachment, composed of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, was pushed
forward upon our right wing, with the design to turn our flank, and,
by surrounding us, to cut off our communications with Worna. This
detachment, after losing several hours in attempting to act upon us,
under the obstacles which were presented by the marshy nature of the
ground, returned without having effected any thing. Our generals,
seeing the superior force of the enemy, ordered our cavalry to retire,
and to place themselves in the rear of our artillery, which occupied
heights commanding the whole vicinity, and arrested by an incessant
fire, for more than four hours, the advance of the enemy. After our
cavalry had retired, the tirailleurs began to evacuate the wood, and
concentrating themselves upon the road to Powenduny, retired also,
after having destroyed the bridge which crosses a small marshy stream,
intersecting the road, and burnt a faubourg which adjoins Powenduny,
and was near this bridge. Such was the state of things when, at about
ten o'clock, a flag was announced from the Russian commander. It was
brought by an aid-de-camp of general Delinghausen. The proposition
borne by this flag was, that we should surrender, on the ground that we
were engaged with the whole of the Russian force, amounting to nearly
20,000 men, and that that force had already occupied the road to Worna,
the only communication which remained to us. This proposition was
followed by the usual considerations,--the wish to prevent the needless
effusion of blood, &c. It was declined, and the aid-de-camp returned
to the Russian head-quarters, but in a short time appeared again with
a renewal of the proposition. General Szymanowski, who received the
aid-de-camp, persisted in his refusal, adding, that 'he knew the duties
of a soldier--duties which were doubly obligatory upon one who is
fighting in the cause of liberty, and in the defence of the country of
his ancestors.' After the departure of the aid-de-camp, the order was
given to the artillery and infantry to re-commence their fire. At the
same time, arrangements were made for the continuation of our march to
Worna. At about mid-day, our columns of infantry, and a part of the
cavalry and artillery, quitted their position, and took up the march
for Worna. After a short time, there remained but one battalion of
infantry, and three squadrons of cavalry. The cavalry was employed to
mask the withdrawing of the remaining artillery. After our corps had,
by a march, arranged in the manner we have described, reached a point
sufficiently distant from our first position, the battalion of light
infantry which remained in that position was ordered to withdraw as far
as certain mills, keeping up a retreating fire. After passing those
mills, the tirailleurs received orders to run at full speed to rejoin
the corps, and to occupy the adjoining forests, while the cavalry
were ordered to take post at the mills, to cover this movement, and
afterwards to retire slowly, pass a small village which was on the
road, and on the opposite side of that village to await the approach of
the enemy. This manoeuvre was well executed by both the infantry and
cavalry, the latter placing themselves on rather an open space behind
the village, to await the enemy. After some time, six squadrons of the
light Russian cavalry, consisting of hussars and Circassians, passed
through the village, and seeing the small number of our cavalry, gave
the hurrah, and threw themselves upon them. Our cavalry, expecting this
attack, received orders to quit their position with promptness, in
order to lead the Russian cavalry upon the fire of our infantry, who
were concealed in the woods. The Russian cavalry, presuming that this
was a disorderly retreat, followed with impetuosity, while our cavalry
threw themselves on one side, to pass a ford which had been designated
for that object, and thus left the enemy exposed in a mass, to the fire
of our tirailleurs. The manoeuvre cost the Russians two hundred men, by
the acknowledgment of officers who were made prisoners. After having
caused this severe loss to the enemy, our infantry and cavalry retired
slowly, to occupy their third position, and the enemy did not follow.
A short time after we quitted our second position, the Russian cavalry
showed themselves again. General Szymanowski remained, with two
companies of the 7th regiment of the line, to defend the passage of
the third village against the enemy, and to give time to our cavalry
to take a third position. This general, for nearly an hour, resisted
the attack of a strong force of cavalry, but commenced evacuating
the position on the approach of considerable bodies of the Russian
infantry, withdrawing through the forests. The Russian cavalry, seeing
that the village was abandoned by our infantry, began to debouch
through it. It was an act of the greatest imprudence in the Russian
cavalry, unsupported by either infantry or artillery, to advance thus
upon a plain surrounded by forests, in which they might have supposed
infantry, and even cavalry, to be concealed. Two squadrons of our
cavalry commenced a fire in order to harass them, and draw them on
to the middle of the plain. Afterwards, those two squadrons wheeling
about, laid open the Russian cavalry to the fire of our artillery,
which was posted on a little elevation and concealed by brush-wood.
This fire of our artillery was effective. The enemy's cavalry began
to waver. General Szymanowski observing this, ordered an immediate
attack by our whole cavalry, consisting of twelve squadrons. This
attack was made with great impetuosity. Sixteen hussars, with two
officers, were taken prisoners, and forty or fifty were left, killed
or wounded, on the field. After this, the corps recommenced its march
to Worna, leaving two battalions of the 7th regiment of infantry, as a
rear-guard, in the forests which border on that road.
The successes which we had thus obtained in our three first positions
were over the advanced guard of the enemy; but in the fourth position,
arranged by the brave and skilful colonel Koss, and in which our
successes were even greater, we had to encounter the whole body of
the Russian forces in Lithuania, which, according to some of our
prisoners, were to be estimated at 18,000, and by others at 25,000 men,
with 36 pieces of artillery, under the command of the several Russian
generals, Kreutz, Tolstoy, Szyrman, Delinghausen, and Saken. The town
of Worna is surrounded by two large lakes, in such a manner that the
only communication with that town to the west, is by a neck of land,
separating the extremities of those two lakes. The town is situated
upon an elevated ground, which overlooks the whole vicinity. On our
left wing was a forest, that reached one of the lakes. This forest was
occupied by two battalions of infantry. Our right wing leaned upon the
other lake. All our artillery remained in the centre, and occupied the
heights near Worna.
When our arrangements were completed, we heard the fire of the
two battalions composing our rear-guard, who were engaged, while
withdrawing, with the Russian infantry. Strong columns of the enemy's
infantry, which were following these battalions began to debouch from
the forest, and to deploy upon the plains before Worna. Those columns
were followed by the enemy's artillery, 12 pieces of which took post on
the side of the road, and immediately opened a fire upon our centre.
At the same time, a warm fire of skirmishers was commenced on each
side. Our artillery, which was very advantageously placed, without
replying to that of the enemy, opened a fire upon the columns of the
enemy's infantry. Before night, the whole Russian forces had deployed
upon the plain, and a powerful attack on their side was expected; but
instead of this we were astonished to find that their fire began to
slacken, perhaps owing to a heavy rain, which had just began to fall.
Our commander with the view to profit by this rain and the approach
of darkness, after an interval of not more than ten minutes, ordered
the two battalions which remained in the forests on our left, to make
a sudden charge with the bayonet upon the right wing of the enemy.
These battalions, under the command of the brave colonel Michalowski,
performed prodigies of valor in this charge, and bore down all before
them. Colonel Koss at the same time taking the command of the cavalry,
and addressing a few exciting words to them, led them upon the centre
of the enemy at the charge. The consternation of the Russians was
extreme. A great part of their cavalry was found dismounted, for they
had not the least expectation of an attack; their artillery fled,
and abandoned their cannon; the utmost disorder followed, and a vast
number of the enemy fell upon the field. According to the testimony of
prisoners, the consternation was at such a height that we might have
put their whole corps to rout. Our forces, however, could not follow up
these advantages; for the obscurity of the night and our own weakness
made it impossible. We were content with having reduced the strength of
the enemy by the great losses we had occasioned; and we continued our
route towards the seaport of Polonga, agreeably to our orders, where we
were looking for reinforcements, and where our generals believed that
the corps of general Chlapowski would join, and act with us upon some
new plan. On the morning of the 12th we arrived at Retow.
The battle of Powenduny and Worna, in which we had beaten the Russians
in four positions, and which cost the enemy more than a thousand men,
including prisoners and wounded, renewed our hopes. We were expecting,
as we have said, new accessions of strength at Polonga; and we were not
without hope that our other corps under Dembinski and Chlapowski, who
could not have been far distant, finding that we had been thus engaged
and so successfully, with the whole force of the enemy, would change
their plan of operations, and attack him in his rear or his flank.
To this end, in fact, on the very morning of that battle, after our
first successes, we sent two officers in the direction of Dembinski
and Chlapowski, to apprize them of the circumstances in which we were
placed, and especially to inform them of the important fact that the
whole force of the enemy were before us. With these hopes awakened in
our minds, our disappointment may be imagined on learning, at Retow,
that the corps of general Chlapowski had passed through that place on
the day before, in a rapid march towards the Prussian frontier. During
the battle of Powenduny, therefore, the corps of general Chlapowski
was at the distance of only _four miles_ from us. He heard our fire
during the whole day, but instead of marching to our support, which,
as we afterwards learnt, his officers and even his soldiers loudly
called upon him to do, he declined doing it, answering their appeals in
the following terms:--"What do you ask of me, gentlemen? I can assure
you that the corps of general Rohland, on whom the whole force of the
enemy has fallen, is destroyed. The baggage of his officers have passed
through Retow.[79] All is lost, and, surrounded as we are on all sides
by the enemy, it only remains for us to seek at once the frontiers of
Prussia, and to throw ourselves upon the protection of that power."
Generals Rohland and Szymanowski, on receiving the unwelcome
intelligence of the course which general Chlapowski had adopted,
concluded to change their plan of operations, and instead of going to
Polonga, to follow the march of general Chlapowski, to endeavor to
join him as soon as possible, and by exhibiting to him the unimpaired
strength of our corps, which he had believed to be annihilated, to
induce him to abandon the project of crossing the Prussian frontier,
and to make some farther attempts in junction with us.
With this view, after resting a few hours at Retow, we left, by a
forced march, for Gorzdy, a small town near the Prussian frontier, at
which we hoped to overtake the corps of general Chlapowski, and at
which we arrived on the next day (13th,) at noon. But it was already
too late. The greater part of the corps of Chlapowski and Gielgud had
passed the frontier at the village of Czarna, about a half league from
the former place, and an inconsiderable part only of the corps, which
had not yet passed over, could unite with us. The other part were
already advanced a considerable distance within the Prussian territory,
and having been disarmed, were placed under a guard of Prussian
sentinels.
Such was the end of the corps of generals Chlapowski and Gielgud,
composed of our best troops, and which had performed such feats of
valor in so many battles. Those brave soldiers were led, against their
will, into the territory of a foreign nation, to seek a protection of
which they themselves had not even dreamed.
This step, which every historian of our revolution will record with
horror, when it was seen how totally without justification it was,
awakened the disgust and indignation of all. The part of the corps of
general Chlapowski which was already in the Prussian territory, when
they saw the corps of general Rohland, which they had been made to
believe was destroyed, continuing its march in an entire state, and
even with nearly 200 Russian prisoners in its train, and hearing too
the animating shouts which naturally burst from their comrades, as they
came in view of them, and who called on them to rejoin them, fell into
a state of the utmost exasperation. A great number rushed forward, and,
breaking through the Prussian guard, unarmed as they were, reached our
side of the frontier. The brave commander of the light artillery, who
was already on the Prussian territory with his battery, profiting by
the circumstance that his horses were not yet unharnessed, returned,
and joined our corps, with five pieces of cannon. Both officers
and soldiers surrounded general Gielgud, and loudly demanded some
explanation of this state of things. That general betrayed the utmost
confusion, and seemed wholly at a loss to satisfy these demands; his
manner, indeed, was such as to encourage the suspicions of treason,
which his previous conduct had but too well justified. At this moment,
one of his officers, in a frenzy of patriotic indignation, advanced
towards him, drew a pistol from his side, and exclaiming, 'This is the
reward of a traitor,' shot him through the heart. After this sad event,
general Chlapowski was sought after, and the same fate would have
probably awaited him, had he not succeeded in concealing himself. A
scene of great confusion then took place throughout the corps. General
Rohland and the other officers exerted themselves to tranquillize the
soldiers, reminding them that our situation was critical, and that
the Russians were pressing upon us. These appeals had the effect of
restoring quiet; and at about 4 o'clock the corps of general Rohland,
joined by a part of that of Chlapowski, took up the march in the
direction of Yurburg, in order to pass the Niemen there, and attempt to
reach Poland. At night, we arrived at Wierzbna. After having marched
four miles from the spot where the Prussian frontier was passed by
general Chlapowski, we were met by an aid-de-camp of general Kreutz,
sent with a flag of truce, and bearing a letter to general Rohland,
which was read aloud, containing propositions to surrender, and setting
forth the circumstances under which we were placed. In declining
the proposition, general Rohland, among other expressions, used the
following: 'The strength of your forces is well known to us; we have
seen them at Powenduny and Worna. If Providence protected us there, it
will still protect us;' and turning towards the officers of his suite,
he added, 'Gentlemen, look on my grey hairs! they have become blanched
in a service of thirty years under the Polish eagles, and during that
whole period I have endeavored to keep the path of honor and duty.
Permit me in my old age to continue in that path.' The answer having
been communicated to the corps, the cry of 'Long life to Rohland,'
burst forth on every side. The aid-de-camp departed, and we continued
our route.
Having passed the night at Wierzbna, we arrived on the noon of the
next day (the 14th,) at Nowe-Miasto, at which place we put to flight a
squadron of Russian cavalry posted there. Before reaching that town,
and at the distance of about a half league from it, our cavalry had
a small skirmish with four squadrons of the Russian light cavalry.
This cavalry fell upon a small detachment of our sappers, which had
been detailed for the object of destroying a bridge upon a branch of
the main road, at the distance of about a mile from it. The sappers,
in withdrawing, kept up a fire, and thus drew the enemy on, till our
cavalry falling upon them, dispersed them, causing a considerable loss,
and taking several prisoners.[80]
On arriving at Nowe-Miasto, our commander sent a reconnoitering party
in the direction of Yurburg, in order to ascertain if any of the
enemy's forces were there, and considering the strong position of
Nowe-Miasto, he decided to remain there, and to await the result of
this reconnoissance. Our forces were placed in order of battle, to
await the enemy, in case he should choose to make an attack. Remaining
for two hours in this position, we were astonished that the enemy did
not show himself; and a platoon of cavalry, sent in the direction of
the enemy to observe him, returned with the intelligence that he was
_encamped_ at the distance of two miles from us.
Four hours had thus passed, when the arrival of a Prussian officer
upon the frontier was announced, who requested an interview with our
general. General Rohland, accompanied with a party of officers, went to
receive him. The Prussian officer was an aid-de-camp of the commandant
general of the forces on this part of the frontier, (general Kraft, we
believe). The officer, after some complimentary language, presented a
letter from his commander, which was filled with expressions of respect
and good will, and in which it was proposed that, in consideration of
our position, surrounded as we were by a force so much superior to our
own, and in a state of destitution in respect to arms and ammunition,
we should accept the offer which the Prussian government had authorised
him to make, in order to save the useless effusion of the blood of
so many brave men, and throw ourselves upon the protection of its
territory, where we would be convinced of the cordial disposition of
that government towards us,--adding, that our sojourn there would be
short, and that we should soon be allowed to return to our firesides,
as was the case with the Russian soldiers who had sought the same
protection. We have already mentioned that several detachments of
Russian soldiers, who had before sought the protection of Prussia, had
been allowed to return with their arms and ammunition. Our generals,
on being thus apprised of the liberal intentions of the Prussian
government, which were confirmed by the personal representations of the
officer who brought the letter,--reflecting on the deplorable state
of our soldiers, fatigued and weakened by so many forced marches; the
greater part of the infantry being without covering to their feet,
which were lacerated with wounds; the greater part of the cavalry,
almost without horses, (for their animals were so broken down, and
chafed by unremitted use, as to be unfit for service;) both artillery
and infantry nearly destitute of ammunition, a great quantity of which
had been thrown into the river by the orders of generals Gielgud and
Chlapowski, on passing the frontier;--considering also the assurance
which had been made that we could return to our country, and hoping
therefore to be able to renew their services to that country at some
more favorable period,--presented these circumstances to the whole
corps, and solicited the opinion of the soldiers upon the question of
acceding to the propositions of the Prussian government. The soldiers,
manifesting their entire confidence in the judgment and the honor
of their officers, signified their assent to the acceptance of the
propositions, influenced strongly by the assurance of being allowed
to return to their country. In consequence of this assent, a protocol
was prepared that night, and signed by our generals, and by several
Prussian officers on the other part, who came over for that object.
On the morning of the next day, we passed the frontier and marched
into the Prussian territory, and by that act the operations of the
Lithuanian corps were ended.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 79: It might have been the case, that a few wagons with some
of the baggage of the corps, were sent in advance in the direction of
Polonga, merely as a precautionary arrangement.]
[Footnote 80: In this affair major the prince Giedroyc distinguished
himself at the head of his regiment, the 6th chasseurs, and killed with
his own hand the commander of the enemy's cavalry, an officer of the
rank of general.]