Ujscie - the Deluge - 25th July 1655

Salvete omnes,
the good month of July is flying fast towards its end, and since we are in the high summer time perhaps all things should have been taken easy, but it appears that presently this July is not the easiest time in Poland, where there have been conflicts, protests and calls for government to step down (by the EU-backed opposition) amid the most various and sensible calls for reforms and reinvention of the Polish state under the current duly elected government etc.

It all reminds me a bit of the situation within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the beginning of the Deluge or the Swedish invasion of Poland in the summer of AD 1655 and the battle of Ujście.

I am gathering material to write a little article about the military aspects of the Ujście debacle, where our Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) province pospolite ruszenie ( national noble levy, Noble host, noble militia etc) met the invading Swedish army (in reality a brand new army  consisting of mostly German infantry, cavalry and artillery companies under the Swedish officers and leadership) and upon the conclusion of this 'meeting' the extraordinary sorrows and calamities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth  commenced.

a print based on the drawing by Erik Dahlberg, Swedish officer during the war

I asked two independent historians Witold Biernacki and Michał Paradowski known for his blog under the title & nom de guerre Kadrinazi for help in gathering the historical source materials and consequently I have been receiving some  fantastic, to borrow the favorite word of the current US President, material  from these two researchers.

In case you have not heard they collaborated on the Deluge  period battle in the following article:  Bitwa pod Nowym Dworem 30 września 1655 roku, written for De Re Miltiari, rather recently launched Polish-language military history magazine, and it was published in 2016, number III-1. 
enjoy your summer