Battle of Hodów

The Battle of Hodów was a battle between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Crimean Khanate forces, fought in June 1694 in Red Ruthenia, near the Hodów village.

Prelude
In June 1694 Tatars invaded Polish territory with aim to loot and capture prisoners for ransom. Polish forces sent to stop them consisted of 7 chorągwie of hussars and pancerni from Okopy Świętej Trójcy and Szaniec Panny Marii strongholds, approximately four hundred men total. Tatar numbers were estimated at twenty-five to seventy thousand, with forty thousand being the most commonly quoted figure.

Battle
The first encounter took place on the fields near Hodów. Polish cavalry charged 700 Tatar cavalryman vanguard and made them withdraw. Shortly afterwards Polish forces retreated to Hodów village due to overwhelming enemy numbers, and proceeded to fortify themselves using heavy wooden fences left there from earlier Tatar invasions. For the next 6 hours Polish troops resisted relentless Tatar attacks. Even after the Polish ran out of bullets, they continued to fire at the enemy, using Tatar arrows as improvised ammunition for their guns.

Aftermath
Unable to defeat the Poles, Tatars sent Polish-speaking Lipka Tatars to convince Polish troops to surrender. When Polish commander refused, Tatars withdrew to Kamieniec Podolski and gave up on the entire invasion, having gained nearly nothing despite large troop numbers.