The Battle of Zieleńce was fought on 18 June 17922, during the war Poland fought against Russia in defence of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. Prince Józef Poniatowski's army was retreating through Volhynia when a Russian force under General Irakly Morkov attacked its rearguard near Zieleńce. Poniatowski came up with reinforcements, and after a day of fighting in which raw Polish recruits wavered but were rallied, the Russian attacks were repulsed and Morkov withdrew. The Poles held the field, then continued their retreat. To honour the victory, King Stanisław August Poniatowski created the Virtuti Militari, which is still Poland's highest military decoration.
In the spring of 1792 Russian armies crossed into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to overthrow its new constitution. The young commander of the army in the south, Prince Józef Poniatowski, was retreating before a much larger enemy when, on a hill near the village of Zieleńce, he turned and fought.
A war for the Constitution
On 3 May 1791 the Commonwealth adopted a constitution meant to reform and strengthen the state. Empress Catherine II of Russia saw it as a threat, and in May 1792, at the invitation of Polish magnates3 who had formed the Confederation of Targowica, Russian armies invaded. In the south, the Polish forces in Ukraine were commanded by Prince Józef Poniatowski, nephew of King Stanisław August, with Tadeusz Kościuszko among his division commanders.
Retreat through Volhynia
Facing a much larger Russian army, Poniatowski avoided a decisive battle and fell back toward Połonne, only to find its fortifications unfinished and its stores inadequate. He abandoned it and marched to join another Polish division at Zasław. On 18 June a Russian force under General Irakly Morkov, hoping to seize the Polish baggage train, ran into a Polish rearguard under General Józef Zajączek drawn up on a hill near Zieleńce.
The battle on the hill
Poniatowski arrived with reinforcements early in the morning, and the Russians, who had occupied the village below the hill, opened fire from it. The village was set alight, and under cover of the smoke Russian cavalry struck the Polish right wing, which broke. Officers led by Prince Eustachy Sanguszko rallied the horsemen, who charged back and routed the Russian cavalry. In the centre, Polish recruits fled before an attack by Russian grenadiers, and Poniatowski led two battalions into the breach himself; the grenadiers' repeated bayonet charges were thrown back.
Holding the field
With his attacks repulsed everywhere and no help arriving, Morkov formed his troops and withdrew in good order around 5 pm1. The Poles held the battlefield and celebrated, but short of ammunition and food4 they soon resumed their march to Zasław, and Morkov reoccupied the ground and claimed the victory. Kościuszko's division, nearby, was kept in the rear to guard against other Russian columns and took no part in the fighting, and both Kościuszko and Zajączek later felt that Poniatowski should have pursued5 the enemy harder.
The birth of the Virtuti Militari
In Warsaw the news was greeted with joy; the king is said to have written to his nephew that it was the first battle the Poles had won on their own since the days of John III Sobieski. On 22 June 1792 he created a new military award6, the Virtuti Militari, and its first medals went to officers and soldiers who had fought at Zieleńce. The war was lost weeks later when the king joined the Targowica Confederation, which banned the decoration6. Revived many times, it remains Poland's highest military order, and Zieleńce is inscribed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier1 in Warsaw.
