When the November Uprising went to war with Russia in 1831, its first victory came from an old Napoleonic cavalryman. Józef Dwernicki routed a Russian cavalry division at Stoczek, then led a bold but doomed raid into Volhynia that ended at the Austrian border.
A Napoleonic uhlan
Dwernicki was born in Warsaw on 19 March 1779.1 He joined the army of the Duchy of Warsaw during the war with Austria in 1809 and in 1810 took command of a squadron of the 15th Uhlan Regiment2, with which he went through the Russian campaign of 1812. In 1813 he was promoted to major, and that autumn Napoleon awarded him the Legion of Honour. In 1814 he became a colonel and commanded a regiment of Kraków light horse.
In the Kingdom of Poland
After 1815 he served in the army of the Congress Kingdom of Poland, commanding the 2nd Uhlan Regiment for many years2, and in 1829 he was promoted to brigadier general1. He was over fifty when the November Uprising broke out in Warsaw at the end of 1830.
Stoczek
In February 1831 the Russian army under Field Marshal Diebitsch invaded the Kingdom. Dwernicki, commanding a cavalry corps, met the division3 of General Fyodor Geismar near Stoczek on 14 February 18311. The Russians, advancing through a narrow passage, were caught by Polish artillery and charged before they could deploy. Geismar's force broke and fled, leaving its guns behind. It was the uprising's first victory4, and it did a great deal for morale across the country. Dwernicki was promoted to general of division. Read more in our account of the Battle of Stoczek.
Nowa Wieś
Days later, on 19 February 1831, Dwernicki struck the vanguard of General Kreutz's corps, which had crossed to the left bank of the Vistula, at Nowa Wieś near Kozienice, and captured its artillery. The main Polish army meanwhile faced Diebitsch on the approaches to Warsaw, at Wawer and, days later, at Olszynka Grochowska.
The Volhynia expedition
In April 1831 Dwernicki was sent with a corps of several thousand men across the Bug into Volhynia2, with the hope of raising the land in revolt. The response of the local population fell far short of hopes. On 18 and 19 April he beat off a stronger Russian force under General Rüdiger at Boremel, on the Styr, but could not shake off the pursuit and reach Podolia. Hemmed in by superior forces against the Austrian border, his corps crossed into Austrian Galicia on 27 April 18311, where it was disarmed and interned.
Exile and return
Dwernicki left for France in late 1831 and took part in the political life of the Great Emigration. In 1848 the Austrian authorities allowed him back into Galicia, and he settled in Lwów. He died on 23 November 1857 at Łopatyn in Eastern Galicia and was buried there.5
Sources and notes
Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.
- dzieje.pl, “155 lat temu zmarł gen. Józef Dwernicki” ↩ a b c d
- Wikipedia (Polish), “Józef Dwernicki” ↩ a b c
- Sebastian Bartos, John P. Dunn, The 'canon provider' starts his career: General Józef Dwernicki and the cavalry battle at Stoczek (14 February 1831) (Security and Defence Quarterly 1(1), pp. 139-157, 2013). ↩
- Wacław Tokarz, Wojna polsko-rosyjska 1830 i 1831 (Wojskowy Instytut Naukowo-Wydawniczy, 1930). ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Pomniki nagrobne bohaterów powstania listopadowego we Lwowie i Łopatynie” ↩
- Wikipedia, “Józef Dwernicki”
- Wikipedia, “Wikipedia: Battle of Stoczek”
- Wikipedia, “Bitwa pod Boremlem”