Polish-Russian war 1609-11AD - advance on Smolensk

 Salvete Omnes,

Yesterday, i.e., the 21st of September,  but in 1609AD,  Polish-Lithuanian army crossed the border the Commonwealth-Muscovy border and advanced onto Smolensk, the most important fortress of the western Muscovy, guarding the so called Smolensk Gate. 

 
Since 1582 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy had been under the truce, although our Polish-Lithuanian magnates supported Dmitry, the alleged son of Ivan IV,  who even married and crowned a tsarina Maryna Mniszech, Polish noblewoman. 

Since 1605AD Muscovite realm, Grand Duchy of Muscovy, was in the throes of the civil war  known as the Dimitriads, where various factions of the Muscovite aristocrats aided by Polish-Lithuanian magnates, foreign mercenary armies and foreign powers, like Sweden etc, were meddling within the Russian realm. Technically, upon the murder of tsar Dmitry I in 1606,  there was a tsar or grand duke Vasili IV Shuisky in Kremlin, but his fraction had to face Dmitri II, known as false Dmitry II, whose armies and popularity with the population allowed for control of rather vast areas of the huge Muscovite realm since 1608AD.

Since 1600AD Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth already had been in a war, this was a dynastic war  against the usurper Karl IX of the kingdom of Sweden, where  the war was  mostly carried by Lithuanian  army with many private banners and companies. Ducal  forces were under the commanded of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, victor of Kircholm 1605. 

King Sigismund III,  the scion of the Swedish Vasa dynasty elected by the noble host  to sit on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth throne in 1587, and his councilors decided to breach the 1582 AD truce and to attack Smolensk, taken by the Muscovite armies in 1514AD. The ship had sailed- Mars ruled.

 

Smolensk on the Dniepr/Dnieper River 1609-11

Royal Polish army was divided into various divisions, the advance party was led by  Lew Sapieha, a chancellor of Lithuanian, and Stanislaw Stadnicki, castellan of Przemysl - reached Smolensk on September 28. 
Then came hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski division, with the artillery park = reached the camps on September 29.
And finally the king's division and court with the rest of the army and thousands of wagon trains filled with ammunition, powder, food, fodder and other supplies and necessities, but also thousands of servants, traders, and camp followers. 

King and his contingent  crossed the border, via a bridge over the river Iwala or Iwata,  on the 21 of September, 1609 and reached Smolensk camps on  October 1, 1609.

The anonymous diary of this campaign tells that  in vanguard 800 Hungarian infantry marched first, then the 200 [infantry] of starost of Sacz [Stanislaw Lubomirski], 100 [infantry] of lord of Krakow[Janusz Ostrogski], then 100 strong  horse banner of  Old Polish Kozak cavalry of starost of Sacz,   then lord of Krakow also  a 100strong  Kozak cavalry. Thena very fine 200 winged hussars banner of starost of Sacz. Just before the His Majesty person and  retinue(70 strong) a very well equipped   100-lancer strong winged hussar banner  of lord of Krakow. After the king [marched] the court banner of 600 lancers, after them a 150 horse [reiter] banner made out of Prussians, Pomeranians and 'Inflanteers'  under pan Nowodworski*, each rider with two carbines. After them a 100 strong Kozak cavalry royal banner. Then 1400 German infantry under [Ludwik] Weiher [marched across the bridge]. The weather was fine, no clouds in the sky and this fine weather lasted until the evening. The king arrived in Wasylov where he joined hetman [Zolkiewski] already in the camp there. This day a finely equipped banner of prince Porycki, 150 horse strong, came[to our side].  (page 65 of the diary).

According the Polish archives,   during the quarter of the 5th of July through Ocbober 5, 1609 the cavalry arm of the army consisted of:

- 2,300 winged hussars or lancers

- 800 Polish kozak cavalry

- 300 "German' reiters.

By the next quarter - October through January 1610, the number of winged hussars would grow to 4000 lancers, Polish Kozaks to 900 horsemen, while reiters would fall to 269. Again in 2 quarters- January to July  1610AD the winged hussar would drop to 2205 lancers, Polish Kozaks to 400, and the reiters would grow again to 300 horsemen (after Kazimierz Gorski, 1895). 

Infantry - German, Hungarian hajduk, Polish hajduk and royal guards -  and artillery - cannon masters, gunsmiths, gun crews and craftsmen  -   also waved in numbers during the first year of the siege - started with 4213 officers and soldiers, went down to 2513 (June) and to 1698 in July 1610.  Gunmasters 

The siege continued during the summer of 1610,  the following winter and spring of 1611. During this period hetman Zolkiewski defeated the allied army at Klushino, July 1610, and consequently  the Muscovite Shuisky regime collapsed and victorious and Sun Tsu-like hetman Zolkiewski entered Moscow and new era, our Poles in Moscow, ensued.

King Sigismund III victorious at Smolensk

 Finally  our king ended victorious in June 1611AD,  when on the 13th  the Polish army stormed and captured the fortress, king  had medals made for the happy occasion. During the final assault knight of Order of Malta pan Bartlomiej Nowodworski *,  Nalecz coat of arms,  sallied to blow the gate and having succeeded became a hero. Winged Hussar Samuel Maskiewicz wrote his diaries describing the war. Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski wrote his famous work about his war -  Poczatek i progres wojny moskiewskiej. Another warrior ,Mikolaj Scibor Marchocki also wrote his history of the war.

Meantime, since 1605 many thousands of Cossacks, Zaporozhian and Don, roamed the Muscovite lands siding with this or that party or power But perhaps more importantly it was during this period that the  new Polish light cavalry was born:  the Lisowczycy (Lisowski' kozacy [singular Lisowczyk, kozak lisowski] cossacks), one could say also to the detriment of the civilian populations in Muscovy and in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and further west in the Holy Roman Epire and Hungaries.
For the project about Khotyn 1621 I did draw two Lisowski kozaks.

Valete

Keeokuk vel Keokuk - Sauk chief on horseback in full spendor

 Salvete Omnes,

chief Keeokuk vel Keokuk, who later in life called himself the 'man who has been everywhere,' was a principal leader of the pro-American goverment factions of the formerly Woodland Algonqian Sauk(Sacs) and Meskwaki (Foxes)tribes  and a chief antagonist of Black Hawk and his independent faction (the 1832 Black Hawk War and aftermath resolved the conflict within the Sacs & Foxes in Keokuk's favor).

George Catlin visited the notorious chief in his  Iowa home, and they met again during the Sauk chief's visit to the East Coast. Catlin drew the chief, his favorite wife and son (who became his successor when the chief died in Kansas 1848). 

Also, he painted a famous painting of chief astride a fine warhorse - Keokuk was a note warrior and war leader, and 

The photo of the painting comes from the Smithsonian.

We could say that Keokuk and his people did not prosper from pro-government stance  in their dealings with the Americans between 1804 and 1840s, finally ending in the so called Indian Territory in 1860s. 
They had to fight another fight for their reservations in Kansas and Iowa in the 1950s and 1960s, surviving and winning that last fight for their tribal existence. 

Valete

17 Sept 1939-2025

 Salvete Omnes,

Polish-Soviet border

over the years it has become my custom to commemorate the attack of the Soviet Union on Polish 2nd Republic in 1939. So one more post of the anniversary variety with some little sidelines. 

Polish guardsman in front of a Polish border marker ,with the Soviet border post behind the fence 

My favorite post of those I have written made is this one - about KOP or the Polish Border Protection Corps.

These boys, part of the espirit de corps, were part of the equestrian sporting events favored by the Polish Army Command. I encountered these photos in Wiki Commons.

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The  eastern  borders of Poland - mostly with the Soviet Union - 

were protected by KOP outposts, where horses. both cavalry mounts and draft animals, played an important role throughout the whole period 1920-1939, especially since there were very little good paved roads in the border area. There was plenty of contraband, smuggled goods  and intelligence gathering & spying on both side of the border.

  Sergiusz Piasecki, one of the famous novelists of the Polish 2nd Republic and Polish XX century literature, was a smuggler and spy on the Soviet-Polish border, being chased by the border guards on both sides of the border line.

Soviet border crossing behind the Polish guardsman

Soviet train entering Poland

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Bystrzyce outpost

Bystrzyce outpost stables

These boys and their horses went to fight the invading Germans on Sept 1, 1939, and the garrisons of the outposts stood firm  fighting the invading Soviet Red Army on September 17, 1939.
Pacem Aeternam 

Valete

Vienna 1683-2025 - horses

 Salvete Omnes,

today we commemorate the battle of Vienna 1683 -  I have written many posts on the battle, and I am sure will write many more, God willing. 

I would like to commemorate the struggle with the images of horses from the period paintings, mostly from this one - Anonym Entsatz Wien 1683 (painting in Vienna , Austria). 

Many thousands, perhaps a hundred thousand,  of horses participated in this battle. Horses on both sides suffered from lack of adequate feed. Days before the battle the Ottoman side had to take  their horses across the  Danube River to pasture and hay cutting parties roamed further and further from the besieged city and their own camps. During the battle some horses died from wounds but many more, especially of the Polish cavalry and wagon trains, died from malnutrition and near  starvation (the last couple days before the battle they ate tree leaves or nor food at all,  ). After the battle there was very little fodder  in and near Vienna, captured Ottoman camps had stores of fodder but they were wasted by the pillaging victorious soldiers,  while mostly Polish forces captured more than 20,000 animals in the Ottoman camps, including some very fine Turkish and Arabian noble horses.
Imperial bureaucracy was slow to deliver hay and grain to the encamped armies, while the armies  immediate supplies for men and horses. Only when the Polish royal army decamped away from Vienna and entered the country near Pressburg (present Bratislava) they had enough fodder for their horses - but then many Polish soldiers were sick with fever (bloody dysentery) and dying from this plague.
There was more fighting to be had in October against sultan's vizier Kara-Mustafa and his armies. 

Valete

The need to remember - Charlie et al.

 Salvete Omnes

Saint George slaying the Evil dragon 

today is another anniversary of 9-11, already 14 years ago. The current tragic  events in American also need our attention, as there is a need to remember. We must slay the Evil dragons.

I remember the day mostly through imprinted in my memory images of burned and still smoldering paper bits,   those millions upon millions of snowflake-like office paper bits floating in the morning air, dimming the sunlight (it started as as a nice Indian Summer-like sunny day), settling on my jacket, hat, skin, pants and boots, as I walked from Manhattan Ave towards the shore of the northern Brooklyn Greenpoint & Williamsburg waterfront on the East River. 

And yesterday, September 10,  a good American, free speech advocate, defender of liberty and right to bodily integrity and choice,  defender of reason, family values and American Conservative, fine father and loving husband - Charlie Kirk - was murdered during his debate-meeting with the young college students  in Utah. He was the most promising young leader among the Conservative Americans... Someone robbed us and our children of a future leader and pathfinder.  So much sorrow...

And I still see the hidden-behind-the screen figure of a young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, dying from  stab wounds, inflicted by a  racial hatred-filled black man,  slumped below her seat on the floor on a mass transit train in Charlotte, NC. 

She came for a better future than in Ukraine, and found horrible death. Her American dream never took of...  so sad.

 
Nobody came to her rescue, indifference  of her fellow straphangers was terribly unsettling. 

All these crimes pale  when compared with what horrific scale of mayhem is happening in the Holy Land, or the deaths in the Ruso-Ukrainian war.   
Pacem Aeternam to all

Georgsaltar of Laurentiuskirche Scharenstetten

Valete