translation (c) Sienkiewicz Society, 2006
Cossack Living History
|
Battle
of Batoh 1652
translation (c) Sienkiewicz Society, 2006 Cossack Living History |
Bitwa pod Batohem (1652) kozak hussar saber
Cossack
Hetman Bohdan Chmielnicki in 1652
marched toward Moldavia in order to form an alliance against the Poles
with Hospodar Basil Lupu. Additionally he wanted to marry his son Tymofieja with
Rozalin, the daughter of the Hospodar.
Hetman
Martin Kalinowski, leader of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s Crown army,
decided to foil that plan. In May 1652 he concentrated armies, intending to
block the road against the march of the Cossacks and accompanying Crimean
Tatars. The assembly point was designated as the entrenched camp at Batoh,
founded previously near the river Boh. This was a significant error of Polish
leadership, since there had been an opportunity to prevent the unification of
the enemy force, now lost. The camp was however in good naturally defensive
terrain, and appeared good to serve as the base to further actions, but it
worked out differently.
It is difficult to estimate the strength of the sides because of the paucity of records. Sometimes Crown banners ordered to move to the camp never arrived. This is tied to the unpopularity of hetman Kalinowski among junior officers. The total Polish force was about 9-11 Thousand, that of the Cossacks and Tatars three to five times as large.
Poor leadership and the passivity of the Crown army led to the enemy, without hardship, crossing the Boh. The Camp thus became surrounded. Though the camp could have been easily defended for quite some time, rebellion broke out. Kalinowski decided to treat with senior men of the army. In negotiations, the units loyal to the hetman wanted to defend in camp, whereas the rioters wished to flee. June 1, 1652 was the first day of the battle of Batoh.
June
2, 1652, during the fighting, the camp was overcome by 
fire
after the grass and straw was set ablaze. Many running away were captured by the
Tatars. Hetman Kalinowski fell by the side of his son Samuel. The battle at the
camp ended as a rout of the Crown army.
After the battle the Tatars, with blessings from the Cossacks, slaughtered the Polish captives. This avenged Chmielnicki’s defeat at Berest (Brest) in June 1651. It was a complete massacre of the Poles- 8000 soldiers, including many of their best.
Future
Hetman Stephan Czarniecki narrowly escaped death. He was reportedly hidden in a
haystack from which he watched the massacre.
Lost
included Samuel Jerzy Kalinowski, Sigmund Przyjemski - general of Crown
Artillery and the Chancellor of the Crown, John Odrzywolski-Castellan of
Czernihow, Marek Sobieski, Starost of Krasnystaw and the brother of John the
future king.
The
battle of Batoh had crucial significance because it destroyed the best Crown
units, This permitted Chmielnicki to cross to the offensive and tear parts of
the Ukraine from the Commonwealth. Defeat of the Poles created a
vulnerability that was to be exploited in wars to come with Muscovy in 1654-5,
which in turn resulted in the ‘deluge’ of the country by Swedish armies in
1655.
