Battle of Berestechko

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The Battle of Berestechko (Beresteczko) in Volhynia, today Ukraine,the largest battle of the 17th century, part of the Chmielnicki Uprising, lasted from June 28 to June 30, 1651, between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army under King Jan II Casimir and Cossack and Ukrainian peasant forces, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and their Crimean Tatar allies. The number of Polish troops is uncertain. Duke Bogusław Radziwiłł (one of Polish commanders) wrote that the Polish army had had 80,000 soldiers^[1]. Modern historians[Zbigniew Wójcik, Józef Gierowski,Władysław Czapliński] estimate that the Polish army had 60,000-63,000 soldiers^[2]. The Cossacks had around 100,000 plus 40,000 Crimean Tatar cavalry and few thousand Turks and Vlachs. Both sides had about 40,000 cavalry each. Fighting was close; with the core of excellent Cossack infantry making up for the weakness of their cavalry, much of the decisive fighting was by the infantry and dismounted dragoons of each side. The battle was won by the Poles after the Crimean Tatars, dispirited by the death of their leader Toğay bey, deserted the battlefield, and kidnapped Khmelnytzky. The battle turned in to a slaughter, as the Polish cavalry Winged Hussars charged the panicked ranks of the Cossacks. As a result, Khmelnytsky was forced to sign the Treaty of Bila Tserkva with the Poles.

[edit] Polish noble families

Members of noble families had the personal obligation to defend the country with men from their towns and villages. The officers and their supplied men for this battle were:^{[citation needed]}

• Czarniecki, Stefan
• Dołęga-Ossowski, Piotr
• Grzymała-Kazanowski, Adam
• Janina-Rzeczycki, Mikołaj
• Kalinowa-Kalinowski, Marcin Hetman
• Leliwa-Czapski, Franciszek
• Rawicz-Przyjemski, Zygmunt

[edit] External links

• http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/Berest.htm

• [1] - Alphabetical List Of Polish Battles