Salvete Omnes,
One of the most important battles in Polish history, the one of Chocim (Khotyn) 1621, is not really celebrated in Poland and other former lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But for these celebrations that took part last Saturday in Rzeszow, Poland.
This epic armed conflict between Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ottoman Turkey, the culmination of about 20 years of border conflicts, incursions, raids and etc, armed invasions eg Cecora 1620AD. this year has its 400th anniversary. And not a small role in instigating this conflict, apart from the huge role of the Polish border magnates, Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars, was played by the enemies fighting during the early stages the 30 Years War -prince Gabor Bethlen on one side and the Hapsburg Empire. Perhaps Gabor Bethlen was instrumental in instigating the Ottoman attack on Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as he was the enemy of our Respublica. Luckily for the Polish side the victorious Ottoman commander Iskander Pasha had died before the fighting at Chocim took place.
so I would like to add some info about the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army that mustered in the defensible war laager around the medieval Chocim castle on September 2nd, 1621 AD or at the beginning of a month long 'battle' between the hostile parties. It should be followed by another post about the Ottoman host.
the commander in chief :
Lithuanian grand hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz
three major components of the army:
-mercenary soldiers and their retinues, where appropriate
-the Zaporozhain Cossacks
-magnate and lesser lords private banners and companies with appropriate retinue and warmed camp followers.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army at Chocim had also several separate commands -
-Crown
-Lithuanian grand duchy,
these former armies were untied under one register.
-Zaporozhian Cossack
Now, as far as the total number of soldier there are two troop lists aka registers, that differ slightly as to the number of units and horses/portions(infantry), of the Crown and Lithuanian army divided into different types of units:
Register one Register Two
1. Winged hussars :
-53 banners or 8520 horses (paid for soldiers on paper) or - 70 banners or 8600 horses
2. Pancerny kozak calvary and lisowczyk banners
-66 or 8450 horses or -75 kozak cavalry or 7700 horse and 10 lisowczyk/1300horse
3. German reiter cavalry
- 10 companies/ 2160 horses or - 12 companies 1300 horse
4. regiments of German infantry
-5 regiments / 6450 portions or -6 regiments 6100 portions
5. Polish and Hungarian hajduk infantry
-29 companies/ 7600 portions or -30 regiments /8000 portions
all together
33180 horses and portions. or- 33000 horses and portions
Crown and Lithuanian army also included the camp followers, and some historians count to add about 30 to 35,000 armed camp followers from the hussar, kozak pancerny, reiter and infantry commanders' retinues to the total number of armed combatants. The actual numbers of paid soldiers were at least 10% smaller in fact or so it this thought.
The second important component consisted of the Zaporozhian Cossacks commanded by hetman Petro Konaszewicz-Sahajdaczny and it consisted of about 25-30,000 soldiers or portions(?)
So for the purpose of operational and tactical combat application this Commonwealth army was divided into 'pulk' or temporary divisions of various sizes -
1.prince Władysław Vasa - 10,180 horses and portions
2. Grand hetman Chodkiewicz - 4,600 horses and portions
3.voivode Lubomirski - 3,350 horses and portions
4.Maciej Lesniowski - 1,000 horses and portions
5.Jana Mikolaj Boratynski - 859 horses and portions
6.Mikolaj Zienowicz - 1,750 horses and portions
7.Aleksander Sapieha - 2,000 horses and portions
8.Piotr Opalinski - 1,600 horses and portions
9.Mikolaj Kossakowski - 1,300 horses and portions
10.Mikolaj & Prokop Sieniawski, 1,200 horses and portions
11.Stanislaw Rusinowski - 1,200 lisowski horse
in addition there were 2,650 horses and portions that were not included in these 'pulks', as they arrived separately into the war laager and thus not assigned to any division.
The army had circa 30 pieces of field artillery, only few of them heavier guns.
Zaporozhian Cossacks, with their separate camp extended along the river constituted a self-operating rather huge division ( we do not know how they might have been divided and operated other than they did have a 'pulk' organization too) - like I said experienced fighter, scholar and commander hetman Petro Konaszewicz-Sahajdaczny commanding.
From the very first day the Commonwealth army was not sufficiently provisioned with foodstuffs, horse fodder, munitions and especially gun powder. For some reason the river Dniester was not used to ship food and war supplies into this war laager. Which is interesting in itself since all Commonwealth large rivers were used as the shipping and trading highways, yet Dniester was no used to provide supplies to the fighting army.
to be continued
Valete
