CHAPTER XXIV

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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.]

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