Battle of Berestechko

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Battle of Berestechko
Part of the
Poles against the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars
Date28 June — 10 July, 1651
Location
Berestechko, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine
Result Polish-Lithuanian victory
Belligerents
Cossack Hetmanate
Crimean Khanate		  Poland–Lithuania
Commanders and leaders
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Ivan Bohun
Fylon Dzalaliy
Matviy Hladky
İslâm III Giray
Tugay Bey  †
Jeremi Wisniowiecki
Mikołaj Potocki
Marcin Kalinowski
Stefan Czarniecki
Stanisław Lanckoroński
Strength
200,000 total[1]
33,000 Cossacks
many thousands of peasants
30,000 Crimean Tatars
2,000 Don Cossacks
Several thousand Turks and Vlachs		 80,000 total[2]
17,000 cavalry
16,000 infantry
56,000 Pospolite ruszenie
Casualties and losses
30,000-40,000 killed[3] 700[4]

The Battle of Berestechko (

land battles of the 17th century.[8][9]

Armies

The number of Polish troops is uncertain. One of the senior Polish commanders, Duke Bogusław Radziwiłł, wrote that the Crown Army had 80,000 soldiers,[10] which included "40,000 regulars and 40,000 nobles of the levée en masse, accompanied by roughly the same number of various servants, footmen, and such."[2] Some modern historians, such as Zbigniew Wójcik, Józef Gierowski, and Władysław Czapliński, have reduced this figure to 60,000–63,000 soldiers.[11]

There is no reliable source on the number of Zaporozhian Cossack and Crimean Tatar troops. The possible estimates range from 90,000 men[12] to 130,000 men.[13] The core of Cossack forces at Berestechko consisted of 12 regiments named after towns they were stationed in (list numbers provided according to the Treaty of Zboriv (1649):

A total of 33,313 Registered Cossacks from the above. Additional 5 Cossack regiments (of Kyiv, Kaniv, Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Pavoloch) didn't participate in the battle being deployed mostly against the Lithuanian forces of Janusz Radziwiłł advancing on Kyiv. The Registered Cossack force was supported by a large number of Ukrainian peasants armed with scythes, flails and the likes which were rather undisciplined and organised poorly. The Crimean Tatar force is estimated to 25,000–30,000 men, though might be lower. There were also 2,000 Don Cossacks and a few thousand of Turks and Vlachs.

On 19 June 1651, the

haiduks), 1,550 Lithuanian volunteers, and 960 Lipka Tatars.[14] A number of registered Cossacks remained loyal and participated in the battle on the Polish side. Many magnates brought in their large private armies. In addition, there was a huge militia force, of limited value, numbering 30,000 noblemen of the levée en masse
.

The Polish commanders were hoping to break the Cossack ranks with a charge of the Polish

Kłuszyn (and which would later prove successful at the 1683 Battle of Vienna
against the Turks).

The Cossack Army was well acquainted with this Polish style of war, having had much experience fighting against the Poles and alongside them. Their preferred tactic was to avoid an open field battle, and to fight from the cover of a huge fortified camp.

First day of the battle

2,000 Polish cavalry (one regiment under the command of

Winged Hussars under the command of Stefan Czarniecki) repulsed the Crimean Tatars, who suffered heavy losses. During the first day of "skirmishes by the Tatar and Cossack vanguard regiments", the Poles were victorious "since their army sustained that first attack cheerfully and in high spirits".[15]

Second day of the battle

The Poles, encouraged by their success on the first day, deployed all their available cavalry against the "main Tatar horde" and "Cossack vanguard regiments".[15] The Polish infantry and artillery remained in camp and did not support the cavalry. This time, Tatar cavalry gained the upper hand, pushing the Poles back to their camp but were then "barely repelled" by heavy fire from the Polish infantry and artillery.[15] The Poles lost 300 szlachta, including many officers of "caliber", and the "escort troop of Hetman Mikołaj Potocki".[15] During the second day of the battle, the rebels were victorious, although "the Tatars, too, were unpleasantly surprised by the determination and endurance of the Polish army in both battles and, having suffered rather painful losses of their own, they lost heart".[15] Tugay Bey and İslâm III Giray’s brother-in-law Mehmet Giray were killed.

Third day of the battle

The "king insisted, at a night council, on engaging the enemy in a decisive battle the next day, Friday, 30 June".[15] The Crown Army appeared out of the "morning mist in full strength" but only the Tatars engaged in skirmishes which was met by the Polish artillery.[15] The Cossack defences consisted of two fortified camps, a larger for the registered Cossacks and a smaller for the peasant militia, both protected by 10 lines of chained wagons.[16] At 3 p.m. Duke Jeremi Wiśniowiecki led a successful charge of 18 cavalry companies against the right wing of the Cossack-Tatar armies and "the zealous cavalry attack was a success: it broke up the rows of Cossack infantry and the wagons moving in corral formation".[17] However the Cossacks regrouped, pushed the Polish cavalry out of the camp and advanced further with the help of the Tatars. The left flank of the Polish army started to retreat when the King reinforced it with all German mercenaries under command of Colonel Houwaldt who repulsed the attack and "drove the Tatars from the field".[17][18] During the fighting, a Polish nobleman called Otwinowski noticed the Tatar Khan's standard, and Polish artillery was directed to fire at it. The Khan's brother Amurat was wounded mortally. With the battle already turning against them, the Tatar forces panicked, "abandoning the Khan's camp as it stood", and fled the battlefield leaving most of their belongings behind. Khmelnytsky and Vyhovsky with a few Cossacks chased Khan attempting to bring him with his force back, but were taken hostage to be released when the battle was over.[19] A heavy rain started which complicated cavalry operations. With the Tatar cavalry gone, the Cossacks moved their wagons in the night to a better defensive position closer to the river, dug trenches and constructed walls to Polish surprise in the morning.

Siege of the Cossack–Tatar camp

The

Wladyslaw IV in 1646.[24] Although it was difficult to estimate how many Cossacks and peasants were killed in the retreat, Piasecki and Brzostowski, who participated in the battle, mentioned 3,000 killed. Tsar's ambassador podyachy Bogdanov in his report to Moscow mentioned 4,000 killed.[25]
Most Cossack artillery pieces were either lost to the Poles or drowned in the marshes. Many spoils were collected in the Cossack camp including the army treasury of 30,000 talers.

Schematic map of the battle

Aftermath

As the battle ended,

King John Casimir made the error of not pressing even harder the pursuit of the fleeing Cossacks, "the first several days following ... defeat of the enemy were so blatantly wasted" but there "was the unwillingness of the nobility's levée en masse to proceed into Ukraine" plus "rainy weather and a lack of food and fodder, coupled with epidemics and diseases that were becoming active in the army, were generally undercutting any energy for war".[26] The "king left the whole army to Potocki" on 17 July 1651, and returned "to Warsaw to celebrate his victories over the Cossacks".[26] After making promises of a pecuniary nature, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky was soon released by the Tatar Khan İslâm III Giray He was then able to reassemble the Zaporozhian Host, which was able to present a substantial army to confront the Poles at the Battle of Bila Tserkva (1651). Poland and "the bulk of the rebels make peace in the Treaty of Bila Tserkva" on 28 September 1651, which "reduces the number of registered Cossacks from 40,000 to 20,000 and deprives them of the right to settle in or control various provinces of Ukraine previously allowed to them under the Treaty of Zboriv".[27] The Ukrainian revolt, far from ending, would continue for several more years under Khmelnytsky.[27]

The Battle of Berestechko by Vernier
Th Battle of Beresteczko, 1651 by Władysław Witkowski

Legacy

Samuel Twardowski's narrative poem, The Civil War, describes the setting for the battle along the Styr River:[28]

There is a little town on it,
In the middle of Volhynia, called Berestechko,
Belonging to the Leszczynski family, that was not as famous in the past
As it has now become – both ancient Cannae
And Khotyn are far outshone by it, because as many heads here
Our eyes have seen as at Thermopylae
Or Marathon they counted, although there the whole strength
Of Europe and Asia had come together.
Since our arrival – hilly roads
And steep slopes, until open
Meadows unfold near the Styr's
Low banks. It was pleasant to look from the south
At the pyramid of the Pronskis and the groves that are green
In winter always. And to th east there lies as if a natural
Field for a camp – and there it was indeed placed
Later, but first – this was pondered for a long time.

The Battle of Berestechko is commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription "BERESTECZKO 28-30 VI 1651".

References

  1. ISBN 1895571227
    , p. 304
  2. ^ a b Hrushevsky, p. 304
  3. ^ Romuald Romański, Książę Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. p. 338.
  4. ^ Romuald Romański, Beresteczko 1651, p. 192
  5. ISBN 9781851096671
    , p. 621
  6. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 304–305
  7. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 304 and 313
  8. ISBN 9781524596644
    . Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  9. ISBN 9789633862049
    . Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  10. ^ Jan Widacki, Kniaź Jarema p. 255.
  11. ^ Zbigniew Wójcik, Jan Kazimierz Waza, p. 75; Władysław Czapliński, Glosa do Trylogii, p. 45; Józef Gierowski, Historia Polski, p. 223.
  12. ^ Tadeusz Wasilewski, Ostatni Waza na polskim tronie. p. 103.
  13. ^ "Cyprian Pawel Brzostowski's letter of 9 July [N.S.] from the camp" according to Hrushevsky, p. 304
  14. ^ Tadeusz Wasilewski, Ostatni Waza na polskim tronie. p. 102.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Hrushevsky, p. 305
  16. ^ Igor Svieshnikov, p. 108
  17. ^ a b Hrushevsky, p. 306
  18. ^ Igor Svieshnikov, p. 109
  19. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 306–307
  20. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 314 and 316
  21. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 314–315
  22. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 317–318
  23. ^ Hrushevsky, p. 318
  24. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 321–322
  25. ^ Igor Svieshnikov, p. 124
  26. ^ a b Hrushevsky, p. 361
  27. ^ a b Tucker, p. 622
  28. ^ Hrushevsky, pp. 303–304

External links

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