Warsaw 1656 - Swedish-Brandeburg-Prussian armies and Dahlberg's day one print

 Salvete Omnes

Battle of Warsaw - day 1 - 

Swedish-Brandeburg-Prussia armies come from Nowy Dwor - the map comes from collection at Polona, Polish National Library, and was based on the drawings by Erik Dahlberg

. Swedish army under Karl X Gustavus*

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.Brandenburg-Prussian army under  Friedrich Wilhelm, de jure Polish vassal in mutiny against his Polish sovereign. *

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total - 

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*according to Riese' work (1870) - now, the modern Polish historians (Herbst, Wimmer,, Nagielski etc) give the number at 18,000 soldiers. Swedish historians, based on Carlbom (1906) who worked from Pufendorf's book and Swedish army archives, provide a slightly smaller number - 17,000 plus 50 to 60 cannons.  
the cavalry (including dragoons) was more numerous than the infantry in this allied army.

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Ligny & Quatre Bras - June 16, 1815

 Salvete Omnes,

there is a war in the Middle East - Israel suddenly attacked Iran last Friday. God have mercy on the people of the region and hopefully  the ancient monuments will survive both in the Holy Land and in Persia. 

a little remembrance from the Napoleonic Era - on this day but in 1815 two filed battles were fought during the so called Waterloo campaign.

Battle of Ligny 

and battle of Quatre Bras - two serious battles . 

Pacaem aeternam to all fallen and veterans who survived to fight another day, as on June 18 two battle were to be fought - Wavre and Waterloo.

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Pomeranian-Kashubian Yorck defeats Macdonald's cavalry - 1814

 Salvete Omnes,

several days ago there was 211th anniversary of the battle at La Chausse - Feb, 3rd 1814.
This battle took place during the 1814 defense of France conducted by Napoleon's Grande Armee corps and divisions commanded by his marshals.

In this instance Marshal Macdonald's forces, the XI Corps and II Cavalry Corps, were defending the Rhine River  line from Coblenz on the Rhine.  The French were facing huge numbers of Prussian - Army of Silesia-  and Austrian armies - Army of Bohemia - augmented by the Russian regiments and squadrons. 

General Yorck, a scion of the Pomeranian Kashubian lower nobility family of Jarka-Gostowski, commanded the Prussian 1st Corps f the Silesian Army.

Yorck as a fieldmarshal of Prussian army

the conditions for war during that winter were difficult, especially for the cavalry, with plenty of snow and cold, wind and poor & foggy visibility. 

French cavalry units at the village of la Chaussee were commanded by Dommanget (hussars, chasseur a cheval and lanciers cavalry)  and Marin Thiry  (2 cuirassier regiments), and their potions were constrained by the terrain. Also the French cavalry had poor morale and low spirit, 

while the Prussian horse, including militia horse regiment, was full of military vigor, animus and ardor. They were also disciplined and well trained as horsemen and as miltiary units. 

immobile French heavy cavalry receiving  the charging Prussians 

After the battle Yorck wrote to marshal Schwarzenberg  that the French sufffered loss of: seven guns, six caissons, one standard, several hundred men prisoners. Prussian suffered 150 causalities.  According to researchers at least 100 French were killed. 

I came across this website - where the author, Andrew Field,  goes into the details concerning this cavalry battle, with a splendid use of primary sources and military studies. 

This is the orde de bataille (Order of Battle) acording to Andrew Field's research. 

It was a minor victory of the Prussian cavalry over the French one.
All ink and watercolor plates by Richard Knotel. 

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Russian cavalry 1806-7 via Robert Wilson

 Salvete Omnes,

long time ago I bought a book on the Russian Cossack irregular cavalry  during the Napoleonic wars, and looking for some information I checked whether this particular primary source -   Brief remarks on the character and composition of the Russian army, and a sketch of the campaigns in Poland in the years 1806 and 1807 -   cited in there was available on line.

A. V. Viskovatov - Istoricheskkoe opisanie Odezhdi i vooruzheniya Rossieskikh

Thankfully there are many sites where you can read or download to read this 1810 source by Robert T. Wilson. My favorite is world library Archive - here you can have the link.

Wiktor Mazurowski *- Friedland 

From this book I corralled for you general Wilson's remarks on the Russian regular cavalry from his book, describing the splendind qualities of the Russian army horses, comparing them with the period British horses when on campaign:

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*Wiktor Mazurowski (1859-1944) was a Polish painter of battles and war, educated in the atelier of Wojciech Gerson in Warsaw,  active  in Russian Poland and after 1918  in the independent Poland. In 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising 85 years old maestro Mazurowski was murdered, along with his wife Zofia, by the German SS unit. 

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