CHAPTER VI

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Remarks on the policy of the late Dictator.--System of operations adopted.--The army leaves Warsaw.--Statement of the existing forces.--Of the forces proposed to be raised.--Unfortunate consequences of the delay in the preparation of the forces.--Statement of the force with which the war was actually commenced.

The dictatorship had exercised a most unpropitious influence upon our affairs.[29] Every movement had been retarded, and the most invaluable time was lost. Instead of offensive operations, the defensive was now necessarily taken. We awaited the enemy on our native soil, and exposed that soil to his insults and outrages. Even, however, at this point, the patriots called on the government to take the offensive, but it was too late. An immense Russian army was concentrated upon our frontiers, and was ready to pass them. Our forces were not strong enough to defend every point against the enemy's entrance. It was decided to keep our troops concentrated, and presenting to him always a narrow and recurvated front, to lead the enemy to the environs of Warsaw, and to give him a decisive battle there. On about the 20th of January, the prince Radzivil renewed the orders for the most rapid organization of all the different corps, and directed those corps which were already organized to hold themselves in readiness for marching. A division of lancers which was in the environs of Siedlce, augmented by some regiments of newly raised light cavalry, occupied, as a corps of observation, all the country between Wlodawa and Ciechanowiec, and were ordered to watch every movement of the enemy in that region. On about the 25th of January, the troops began to leave Warsaw and the other towns of the department, and to concentrate themselves upon a line embracing the towns of Siedlce, Ostrolenka, and Lukow.[30]

STATEMENT OF THE EXISTING ARMY, AND OF THE NEW FORCES PROPOSED TO BE LEVIED.

The whole Polish force under the Russian government, consisted, of _Infantry_, nine regiments of two battalions each, 19,000 men, and a battalion of sappers of 1,000 men, in all 20,000; _Cavalry_, nine regiments of four squadrons each; in all, 7,200; _Artillery_, six batteries of eight pieces each, and two batteries of light artillery, also, of eight pieces each; in all, sixty-four pieces. According to the plans of the Dictator, the infantry was to be augmented in the following manner. To each of the existing regiments was to be added a battalion of 1,000, making a total of 9,000 men. He then proposed to form fifteen new regiments, thus increasing the number of regiments of infantry to twenty-four. Each one of the new regiments was to be composed of three battalions of 1,000 men each. The total of these new regiments would then have been 45,000 men, and the grand total of the new levy would be 54,000 men. This body of recruits was to be made up from those of the exempts (their term of service[31] having expired) who were yet under the age of forty, and from all others under that age, and above that of sixteen.

Of this force, six thousand men was to be furnished by Warsaw, and an equal number by each of the eight palatinates. Besides this force, the enrollment of a national guard at Warsaw of 10,000 men was ordered; and in forming this body, no exemption was admitted except from age or bodily infirmity. Each of the eight palatinates was also to enroll a national guard of a thousand men. Thus the whole national guard was to consist of 18,000 men.

The cavalry was to be augmented as follows. From the whole gend'armerie, it was proposed to form a regiment of carabiniers, consisting of two squadrons of two hundred men each. To the nine existing regiments of cavalry it was proposed to add, as a reserve, four squadrons of two hundred each, making, in all, eight hundred. Ten new regiments were to be formed, of four squadrons each; so that the whole number of old and new cavalry would be twenty regiments. The whole augmentation of this army would amount to 9,200. The raising of this force, as in the case of the infantry, was to be equally divided between Warsaw and each of the eight palatinates.

The artillery was to be augmented by four batteries, of eight pieces each, making a total of thirty-two pieces.

RECAPITULATION.

Infantry. Cavalry. Artillery. New forces, 54,000 9,200 32 pieces. Existing forces, 19,000 7,200 64 ------ ------ -- Total, 73,000 16,400 96

If we should add to this number the regiments formed by the land proprietors at their own expense, detachments of volunteers, foreigners, and detachments of

## partizans, amounting

perhaps to 6,000 2,000

The total might be ------ ------ -- increased to 79,000 18,400 96

This force, although it would seem to be disproportionate to the resources of the kingdom, it was certainly possible to have raised; for the energy and spirit of the people were at the highest point, and every one felt the importance of improving the favorable moment, which the general state of Europe, and the weakness of Russia, presented. If the reader will anticipate the course of events, and remember what a struggle, against the Russian force of more than 200,000 men, was sustained by the 40,000 only which we actually brought into the field, he may conjecture what advantages might have been expected from twice that number, which we should certainly have brought to the field, had the energy of the government followed out its plans. But from the incapacity of the Dictator for the energetic execution of his trust, these forces were never raised, and it was soon seen that Chlopicki, by assuming a duty to which he was unequal, gave the first blow to the rising fortunes of his country. The Dictator, as we have seen, had not even taken a step towards the organization of these forces, and one would have thought that he had thrown out these plans merely to blind the eyes of the nation, without having entertained the thought of taking the field. Two months passed away, the inevitable moment of the conflict arrived, and the nation was obliged to march to the fight with half the force which, under an energetic administration, it would have wielded. If we add to this unfortunate state of things, that, besides the threatening forces of our gigantic enemy, Prussia and Austria, at this late moment, and especially the former, had began to take an attitude of hostility towards us, and thus all hope of sympathy from her neighbors was lost to Poland, the perilous nature of the crisis to which the delay of the dictatorial government had brought us, thus unprepared, may be imagined. But Poland did not suffer herself to be discouraged by all these unpropitious circumstances. Trusting to the righteousness of her cause, she went forth to the contest, determined to fall or to be free.

STATEMENT OF THE FORCES WITH WHICH THE WAR WAS ACTUALLY COMMENCED.

A great exactitude in the computation of these forces would be obviously impracticable, as the precise number of the detachments of volunteers, occasionally joining the army, serving in a particular locality only, and often perhaps for a limited period, cannot be ascertained; but it will not be difficult to make a pretty near approximation to the truth.

At the beginning of the campaign, the forces were divided into four divisions of infantry, four of cavalry, and twelve batteries of artillery, of eight pieces each.

The whole infantry consisted of:

The nine existing regiments, enlarged by one battalion to each regiment, making in all, 27,000 One battalion of sappers, 1,000 A tenth regiment, of two battalions, called 'The Children of Warsaw,' 2,000 A battalion of volunteers, added to the 4th regiment, 1,000 Different detachments of volunteers, as the detachments of Michael Kuszel, and the Kurpie or Foresters, &c., 1,600 ------ Total of infantry, 32,600

The four divisions of infantry were nearly equal, consisting of from 7 to 8,000 men each. To each of these divisions a corps of 250 sappers was attached. The divisions were commanded as follows; 1st division by general Krukowiecki; 2d division, general Zymirski; 3d division, general Skrzynecki; 4th division, general Szembek.

The cavalry consisted of the nine existing regiments, 7,200 Four squadrons, added to these as a reserve, 800 Two squadrons of carabiniers, 400 Two regiments of krakus or light cavalry, of Podlasia and Lublin, 1,600 Two regiments of Mazurs, 1,600 Six squadrons of Kaliszian cavalry, 1,200 Two squadrons of lancers of Zamoyski, 400 ------ Total of cavalry, 13,200

This cavalry, which was composed of 66 squadrons, was divided into four nearly equal bodies. They were commanded as follows. 1st division, by general Uminski, consisting of 15 squadrons; 2d division, general Stryinski, 15 squadrons; 3d division, general Lubinski, 15 squadrons; 4th division, making the reserve, under general Pac, 17 squadrons. Besides those divisions, four squadrons were designated for the corps of general Dwernicki.

The artillery was divided into 12 batteries of eight pieces each, making in all 96 pieces.

The general statement of the forces with which the campaign was commenced is then as follows:

_Infantry_, 32,600. _Cavalry_, 13,200. _Artillery_, 96 pieces.

This incredibly small number marched to the combat against a Russian force of at least 200,000 men and 300 cannon. In fact, by the reports of field marshal Diebitsch, found after his retreat, and the detailed statements confidently made in the Berlin Gazette, the Russian forces amounted to 300,000; but we reject one third on the supposition that the regiments had not been entirely completed. If the very thought of commencing a war with such disproportionate means, against so overwhelming a force, should seem to the reader to be little better than madness, he will appreciate the energy and courage with which it was supported, when he learns that in _twenty days_, from the 10th of February to the 2d of March, _thirteen_ sanguinary battles were fought with the enemy, besides twice that number of small skirmishes, in which, as we shall see, that enemy was uniformly defeated, and a full third part of his forces annihilated.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 29: The dictatorship may be said to have been the first of our misfortunes. The Dictator, acting in contradiction to the spirit of the revolution, did not take advantage of that enthusiasm with which the revolution commenced and by which prodigies might have been achieved. But not only did he neglect to make use of that enthusiasm, or to foster it, he even took measures which had a tendency to repress it. The first fault with which he was reproached by the Patriotic Club, was his having given permission to the Grand Duke to leave the kingdom with his corps, taking with them their arms and accoutrements, which were really Polish property. The retaining of the Grand Duke would have been of the greatest importance to us. No historian could have blamed such an act; for if the justice of our revolution be once acknowledged, every energetic and decisive act which would favor its happy result must also be justified in the view of history. The Russians indeed have regarded our conduct on this point as an indication of weakness and timidity rather than as an act of delicacy and magnanimity, in which light Chlopicki intended that it should be considered. That same corps, attached to the Grand Duke, consisting, as we have said, of 7,000 men and 24 cannon, with the Grand Duke himself, did not regard it in this light, for they fought against us in the very first battle. Another fault of general Chlopicki was, not to have taken immediately the offensive, passed the Bug, and entered the brother provinces which had been incorporated with Russia. The Russian troops, especially those in Lithuania, were not in a state to resist the first impetuosity of our national forces. The Russian soldiers, as the reader probably knows, are not, except in the large cities, concentrated in barracks, as in other states of Europe, but are dispersed in quarters throughout the country, in small bodies; so that sometimes a single regiment may be spread to a circumference which may embrace eighty to a hundred villages, with perhaps from ten to thirty soldiers only, in each. In fact, the soldiers of a company may have often from six to twelve miles march to reach the quarters of their captain. All this made the concentration of these forces an affair of time and difficulty; and one regiment after another could have been fallen upon, and their whole forces annihilated in detail, and that without much effusion of blood. Besides this, the Russian corps of Lithuania was composed, in part, of our brethren enrolled in that province, and even commanded, in part, by officers natives of that province. They would of course have united themselves with us, and the revolution would have spread, with the rapidity of lightning, to the very borders of the Dwina and the Dnieper; and after this, not four millions alone, but sixteen millions of Poles, would have been united in one cause. At a later period, all this was no longer possible. Russia began to become alive to the danger of the occurrence of such a state of things, and all the regiments with Polish soldiers in their ranks were withdrawn into the interior, and three hundred Polish officers in the Russian service were sent to take commands in regiments posted in the regions about the Caucasus, in Asia.

The Dictator, who gave as a reason for not having taken the above course, that the neighboring cabinets would have taken umbrage at it as a violation of a foreign territory, can with difficulty be conceived to have really felt that this would have been the case. Even if such apprehensions were well founded, are diplomatic formalities to be regarded, on an occasion like this? Should we, in such a cause, forbear, from apprehensions of this kind, to press on to the delivery of our brethren from the despotism under which they were suffering? But, in fact, the true interests of those cabinets were to be found in, what every sagacious observer of European history has pointed out as the great safeguard of Europe, the establishment of the Polish kingdom as a barrier against the threatening preponderance of our barbarous enemy. It was indeed ridiculous to require of the Poles that they should regard, as their only limits, the little kingdom into which the violence and fraud of the combined sovereigns had contracted them. The Poles, in entering those provinces, would have been still on the soil of their ancient country; and, in fact, the revolution was equally justifiable at Wilna, Kiow, and Smolensk, as at Warsaw. The patriots, indeed, who began the latter, did not think of their own sufferings alone, they bore in mind also the even greater sufferings of their brethren who were more absolutely in the power of despotism. It was indeed the great end of the patriots and of the nation, the union of all the provinces of ancient Poland, which was abandoned by the Dictator. Nothing else, in fact, but the forcing of the frontiers, would have subdued the arrogance of the Emperor, and forced him to listen to our claims. The unanimous voice of sixteen millions of Poles could not have safely been despised. This compulsory amelioration of our condition would have also spared Nicholas the remorse with which he must reflect on the sacrifice of nearly 200,000 lives, and the death or suffering to which he has condemned, and is still condemning, the best spirits of Poland.]

[Footnote 30: I cannot forbear to dwell for a moment upon the occasion of the departure of our troops from Warsaw and the other towns. It was one of the fine and touching moments of our revolution. Every friend of liberty would have desired to have brought together all the autocrats of the world to witness the animation with which our national troops went forth to engage in the combat for liberty. Perhaps they would have been involuntarily struck with the conviction that this liberty must be a blessing when men will sacrifice themselves so cheerfully to achieve it. When the march was commenced, all the inhabitants of the neighboring country left their homes to witness the departure, and all the plains about Warsaw and the road sides between Warsaw and Siedlce were covered with people. The soldiers, in marching through the streets of the city, passed between lines of people composed of senators, officers of the government, the clergy, children from the schools, the members of the national guard, and in short an immense assembly of both sexes, reaching even to two miles beyond Praga. All the regiments passed in review before the general in chief, and each regiment took the oath to defend their country to the last drop of their blood. Exclamations such as these were constantly uttered: 'Dear General, if you see us turn from before the enemy, point the artillery against us, and annihilate our ranks.' The fourth regiment, the bravest of the brave, knowing that our magazines were ill provided with powder, refused at first to receive any cartridges; but on the remonstrance of the chief, they agreed to take thirty each man, (half of the complement for one battle,) saying that they would furnish themselves afterwards from the Russians. They then entreated the commander in chief never to send them against a smaller body of the enemy than a division, and to use them wherever a decisive blow was required. 'Forget, dear general,' said they, 'that we have no powder; but trust to our bayonets!'

It was truly affecting to witness the parting of the soldiers from their friends and relatives,--fathers taking leave of children, children of fathers, husbands of wives,--and to hear the cries of sorrow mingled with animating shouts and patriotic hymns. These are moments of which I am unequal to the description; but which every freeman will form a conception of,--moments of the struggle between domestic happiness and public duty; moments which show that the love of country is the most powerful of all sentiments, and that men will sacrifice every thing under its impulses.]

[Footnote 31: A service of ten years in the army, in person, or by substitute, was required by law of every citizen.]

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