On 8 June 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, the insurgent corps of General Józef Zajączek, made up of regular troops and peasant scythemen, fought the Russian corps of General Otto Wilhelm Derfelden outside Chełm in eastern Poland. The Russians broke the Polish left wing after a heavy bombardment, the scythemen scattered when their artillery commander Michał Chomentowski was killed, and Zajączek retreated toward the Vistula. Coming two days after Kościuszko's own defeat at Szczekociny, the battle deepened the uprising's crisis.
Guarding the Bug
In the spring of 1794 Tadeusz Kościuszko's uprising faced Russian armies on several sides. According to the historian Tadeusz Korzon, Kościuszko detached troops across the Vistula to meet the Russian corps of General Derfelden advancing from Podolia, and sent General Józef Zajączek to take overall command there. Zajączek's corps stood on the Bug, covering the Lublin region, and by early June it had fallen back to Chełm.1
His force included regiments of the regular army and large numbers of peasants called up in a levy, many armed with war scythes. The historian Ryszard Orłowski, writing on how the uprising was supported in the Lublin region, notes that Zajączek gathered about 6,000 peasants at Chełm, 610 of them recruits supplied by the great Zamoyski estate. The figures for the two armies differ widely between accounts: the lexicon <em>Bitwy polskie</em> gives Zajączek about 16,300 men against Derfelden's 13,000, counting the levy among the Poles.2
The battle
As <em>Bitwy polskie</em> describes the fighting, a Russian attack on the Polish right wing under General Kajetan Ożarowski was stopped by artillery fire, while Polish infantry and scythemen attacking on the left failed to break the Russian line. The Russians then opened a heavy bombardment and threw their decisive attack against the Polish left, which gave way, and Zajączek had to retreat.3
Korzon singles out the moment when Colonel Michał Chomentowski, an able officer who was to lead the scythemen, was killed by a cannonball, to their horror. In his account only Brigadier Wyszkowski distinguished himself, with a spirited charge of his cavalry brigade against the Russian ranks and then by covering the retreat. Both Korzon and the lexicon describe the peasant levy dispersing: the lexicon puts it at about 1,000 scythemen who scattered completely, and Korzon says the country people simply ran from the camp.4
Losses and a mutiny
<em>Bitwy polskie</em> puts Polish losses at about 600 killed, wounded and missing, besides the scattered scythemen, and Russian losses at about 300. Orłowski records that the insurgent order commission for the Chełm land, whose levy had ended in this failed battle, found itself with its treasury of some 100,000 złoty in Zamość, then beyond the border in Austrian territory. Dates here are Gregorian, as used in Poland; the Russian calendar of the time was eleven days behind.5
Korzon is blunt about Zajączek, who in his view showed no talent either in command or in dealing with the local commission and the peasants. After the defeat his subordinate generals refused to obey him and called on Wyszkowski to take command; General Haumann, commander of the 10th Regiment, collected the signatures. Kościuszko, himself retreating after Szczekociny, turned toward Radom and settled the matter there in mid-June: Zajączek kept his command, Ożarowski was transferred, and Wyszkowski became commander of the left wing and duty general at Zajączek's side. The uprising's leader is the subject of our biography of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and its first victory is told in our article on Racławice.6
Also on this day
- 218: Battle of Antioch. Near Antioch, the army of Emperor Macrinus fought troops loyal to the young Elagabalus, whom the soldiers had proclaimed emperor as Caracalla's heir.
