Battle of Pyliavtsi
Part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising

Attack of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Date21–23 September 1648
Location
Result Cossack–Tatar victory
Belligerents
border=no Zaporozhian Host
Crimean Khanate
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Commanders and leaders
border=no Bohdan Khmelnytsky
border=no Tymofiy Khmelnytsky
border=no Maksym Kryvonis
Tugay Bey
Władysław Dominik Zasławski-Ostrogski
Mikołaj Ostroróg
Jeremi Wiśniowiecki
Janusz Tyszkiewicz
Aleksander Koniecpolski
Strength
border=no 60,000–80,000 Zaporozhian Cossacks[1]
3,000–4,000 Crimean Tatars[1]
40,000–50,000 Polish–Lithuanian servants[2]
32,000–40,000 Polish–Lithuanian nobility, cavalry and infantry[2]
8,000 German mercenaries[2]
Casualties and losses
Unknown killed and wounded[1] Unknown killed and wounded[2]

The Battle of Pyliavtsi (Ukrainian: Битва під Пилявцями, Polish: Bitwa pod Piławcami; 21–23 September 1648) was the third significant battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day village of Pyliava in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Host and Crimean Khanate under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Otaman Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, Colonel Maksym Kryvonis and Tugay Bey attacked and completely defeated the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s forces under the command of Princes Władysław Dominik Zasławski-Ostrogski and Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Noblemans Mikołaj Ostroróg and Aleksander Koniecpolski with Magnate Janusz Tyszkiewicz.

Background

At the beginning of the Khmelnytsky Uprising in the early months of 1648, Polish forces tried to suppress it but suffered two defeats at the battle of Zhovti Vody and Korsun. This was followed by the death of king Władysław IV on 20 May 1648, and Chancellor Jerzy Ossolinski called for a congress of notables in Warsaw on 9 June, at which Zaslawski, Ostroróg and Koniecpolski were designated provisional commanders, and Adam Kisiel was instructed to enter into negotiations with Bohdan Khmelnytsky.[3]:418–419 By 27 June, the Bratslav region, Volhynia and the south Kyiv region were engulfed by the uprising, Khmelnytsky had halted at Bila Tserkva, Tugay Bey foraged with his horde, and the khan had returned to the Crimea with two hundred thousand captives.[3]:431,442–443 By August, Kysil's commission had failed and this period of truce was coming to an end.[3]:467

The Crown Army organized in Galicia, headed by the unpopular triumvirate of Crown commissioners: Władysław Dominik Zasławski, Mikolaj Ostroróg, and Aleksander Koniecpolski, were all famously derided by Bohdan Khmelnytsky as a peryna (the feather-down bed), latyna (the Latinist) and dytyna (the child), respectively.[3]:468 Zaslawski's Army marched to Zbarazh on 16 August 1648, in the footsteps of another Crown Army organized around Jeremi Wisniowiecki, who had been stationed in south Volhynia "following the battles at Starokostiantyniv".[3]:468 These armies merged on 1 September 1648, at Chovhanskyi Kamin.[3]:469

Bohdan Khmelnytsky was "sationed at the time with his army on the fields of Pyliavtsi southeast of Starokostiantyniv".[3]:469

An advance regiment commanded by Koniecpolski and Ostroróg crossed the Ikopot River at Rosolivtsi on 6 September 1648, and encountered a Cossack garrison near Starokostiantyniv, who overnight abandoned the town to the Crown Army.[3]:472 Yet, rather than "establishing themselves in..this mighty fortress...they set out to take" Khmelnytsky's position at Pyliavtsi, convinced "he would do anything to avoid a battle" while awaiting the arrival of the Crimean Tatars.[3]:472

On 8 September 1648, Polish cavalry troops under the command of Mykola Zatsyvilkovsky approached the Cossack positions at Pyliavtsi, driving a Cossack reconnaissance patrol from the field, allowing the Crown Army to camp on the Ikva opposite Khmelnytsky.[3]:473

Battle

The scheme of the battle

Following several days of minor battles, Khmelnytsky led his army on the morning of 13 September 1648 shouting: “For the faith, brave warriors, for the faith!", killing many Polish cavalrymen as they fled back across the Ikva.[3]:474 That night, the Polish commanders decided to retreat in corral formation to Starokostiantyniv, but while preparing for this retreat the next day, they would hold their position and fight under Wisniowiecki's command.[3]:475 However, "rumours began curculating among the troops ... that the commanders had abandoned the camp and taken flight, and fear was turned into wholesale panic".[3]:475 "Everyone else began to flee, leaving behind wagons, cannon, and all kind of supplies, only the sick and maimed remained", not stopping at Starokostiantyniv, Koniecpolski went to Brody, Ostroróg to Olesko, Zaslawski to Vyshnivets.[3]:475

Aftermath

The Poles left behind an "immense, unheard-of booty", including a hundred thousand loaded wagons, and the "Cossacks then threw themselves, completely unarmed, into looting the camp", which "significantly weakened the victor's desire to launch a pursuit."[3]:476–477 Even the "Tatar Horde, arriving after the rout, paid no attention to taking prisoners, but applied themselves to keeping the assorted booty".[3]:477 A few days later, Bohdan Khmelnytsky seized Zbarazh, "the residence of the Cossack's greatest enemy, Jeremi Wiśniowiecki", continued on to siege Lviv from 28 September until 15 October 1648, leaving after that city paid 500,000 złoty worth of "money, metal, goods, and supplies" (330,000 went the Tatars).[3]:480–481,489 He then laid siege to Zamość on 27 October until 22 November 1648, before receiving 20,000 złotys.[3]:493,497

The Polish Sejm convened 26 September 1648 (6 November 1648,) and elected Jeremi Wisniowiecki as Crown Hetman, Andrzej Firlej as Field Hetman, and John II Casimir Vasa as king on 17 November, who sent Jakub Smiarowski to ask Bohdan Khmelnytsky to withdraw "to the usual places".[3]:500–501,506 Khmelnytsky departed Zamość on 24 November, the king confirmed Khmelnytsky as hetman in December[3]:512 and Khmelnytsky entered Kyiv before Christmas.[3]:511,515

References

Inline:
  1. 1 2 3 Wayback Machine. Yuriy Mytsyk, “Battle of Pyliavtsi 1648, Encyclopedia of the history of Ukraine”. 4 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ukrainian Historical Journal. Dmytro Vyrsky, “About the beginning of the Cossack Revolution (Campaign of 1648)”. November — December 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Hrushevsky, M., 2002, History of Ukraine-Rus, Volume Eight, The Cossack Age, 1626-1650, Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, ISBN 1895571324

49°35′56″N 27°27′36″E / 49.599°N 27.460°E / 49.599; 27.460

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