Battle of Berestechko



The Battle of Berestechko (Bitwa pod Beresteczkiem; Берестецька битва, Битва під Берестечком) was fought "after a two-year truce", between the Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aided by their Crimean Tatar allies, and a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army under King John II Casimir. Fought over three days from 28 to 30 June 1651, the battle took place in the Polish province of Volhynia, on the hilly plain south of the Styr River. The Polish camp was on the river opposite Berestechko and faced south, towards the Cossack army about two km away, who's right flank was against the Pliashivka (Pliashova) River and the Tartar army on their left flank. It was, very probably, the world's largest land battle of the 17th century.

The number of Polish troops is uncertain. One of the senior Polish commanders on the day, Duke Bogusław Radziwiłł, wrote that the Polish army had had 80,000 soldiers, which included "40,000 regulars and 40,000 nobles of the levy en masse, accompanied by roughly the same number of various servants, footmen, and such" Modern historians Zbigniew Wójcik, Józef Gierowski, and Władysław Czapliński have reduced this figure to 60,000-63,000 soldiers. The Cossack army totaled 80,000 men, including 28,000-33,000 Tatars and an uncertain number of Ukrainian peasants or as much as 100,000 men, most of them low-grade foot troops, plus 40,000 to 50,000 allied Crimean Tatar cavalry and a few thousand Turks and Vlachs, for a total of 200,000. Both sides had about 40,000 cavalry. Fighting was close, with the core of excellent Cossack infantry making up for the weakness of their cavalry; much of the decisive fighting was by the infantry and dismounted dragoons of each side.

The Armies
On 19 June 1651, the Polish Army numbered 14,844 Polish cavalry, 2,250 German-style cavalry, 11,900 German-style infantry and dragoons, 2,950 Hungarian-style infantry (haiduks), 1,550 Lithuanian volunteers, and 960 Lipka Tatars. 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 into the Cossack ranks with an impetous charge of the famous Polish 'Winged' Hussars - a tactic proven effective in many previous battles, including Kircholm, and Kłuszyn (and which would later prove successful at the 1683 Battle of Vienna against the Turks). The Cossack army were well acquainted with this Polish style of war well, having much experience of 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 battle
2000 Polish cavalry (one regiment under the command of Aleksander Koniecpolski, supported by Jerzy Lubomirski, six pancerni cavalry companies of Jeremi Wiśniowiecki and Winged Hussars under the command of Stefan Czarniecki ) repulsed the 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".

Second day of 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". The Polish infantry and artillery remained in camp and didn't 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. The Poles lost 300 soldiers, including many officers of "caliber", and the "escort troop of Hetman Mikolaj Potocki". 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".

Third day of battle
The "king insisted, at a night council, on engaging the enemy in a decisive battle the next day, Friday, 30 June". The Polish army appeared out of the "morning mist in full strength" but only the Tatars engaged in skirmishes which was met by the Polish artillery. At 3 p.m. Duke Jeremi Wiśniowiecki led a successful charge of 18 cavalry companies against the right wing of the Cossack-Tatar Army and "the zealous cavalry attack was a success: it broke up the rows of Cossack infantry and the wagons moving in corral formation". The Polish infantry centre, under the personal command of King John Casimir, advanced slowly forward and "drove the Tatars from the field". During the fighting, a Polish nobleman called Otwinowski noticed the Tatar Khan's standard, and Polish artillery was directed to fire at it. A Tatar standing next to the Khan fell dead. With the battle already turning badly, the Tatar forces panicked, "abandoning the Khan's camp as it stood", with the Khan taking Khmelnytsky and Vyhovsky hostage. With their cavalry support gone, the Cossack wagon-fort, containing the vast bulk of the Cossack army now stood isolated on the battlefield, and in effect was under siege by the Polish army.

The siege of the Cossack wagons
The Polish army and Cossack camp exchanged artillery fire for ten days while both sides built fortifications, the Polish intent to establish a blockade of the camp. Leadership without Khemlnytsky, the Cossacks were commanded by Colonel Filon Dzhalalii, but after a few days he was replaced by Ivan Bohun but some accounts state it was Matvii Hladky. When terms for surrender failed and the Poles dammed the Pliashivka River so as to flood the Cossack Camp, the Poles prepared to attack on July 10, while the Cossacks prepared to flee across the river. When Bohun "went to the crossing point with two thousand cavalrymen and several cannon", the Cossacks thought the officers were fleeing and "everyone panicked in desperation and began to flee wherever he could, worse than at Pyliavtsi". The Polish forces attacked the panicked Cossacks and the battle turned into a slaughter with more than 20,000 killed or drowned. "Khmelnytsky's tent was captured intact, with all his belongings", which included two banners, one he received from John II Casimir's 1649 commission and one from Wladyslaw IV in 1646.

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 levy 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". The "king left the whole army to Potocki" on 17 July [N.S.] and returned "to Warsaw to celebrate his victories over the Cossacks". After making promises of a pecuniary nature, Khmelnytsky was soon released by the Tatar Khan. He was then able to reassemble the Cossack 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". The Ukrainian revolt far from ending would continue for several more years under Khmelnytsky.

Polish noble families
Members of noble families had the personal obligation to take part in the battle with men from their towns and villages. Those who supplied men for this battle included:


 * Stefan Czarniecki
 * Piotr Dołęga-Ossowski
 * Adam Grzymała-Kazanowski
 * Mikołaj Janina-Rzeczycki
 * Marcin Kalinowa-Kalinowski, Hetman
 * Franciszek Leliwa-Czapski
 * Zygmunt Przyjemski
 * General Ubald
 * Pan Artsishevski
 * Marek Sobieski (1628-1652)
 * Jan Sobieski
 * Ludwik Wejher
 * Yakob
 * Konyetspolski
 * Wladyslaw Dominik Zaslawski

Legacy
Samuel Twardowski's narrative poem, Civil War, describes the setting for the battle along the Styr River:

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.