среда, 6 апреля 2011 г.

Extract from a letter of a Lithuanian officer about siege of Mohylev, Feb 1655

"Extrait d'une lettre écrite par un officier de l'armée de Lithuanie, logée dans la ville de Mohilow, le 19 février 1655" by unknown Lithuanian officer from Radziwill's troops. Published in April 1655 by G. Scheybelis





18 комментариев:

  1. Very, very nice indeed! It is very interesting to compare the second Anglo Dutch War with the Polish-Russian one of the same year (1667).

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  2. By any chance someone had translation of that in English? ;)

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  3. No English version, sorry -) Lithuanians in 17 c didn't like this language -) I can try to convert it into the text file. But not sure that it will be of a good quality

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  4. I don't think that many Lithuanian nobles knew French as well ;) Letter seems very interesting, few names of officers are known to me but my French is sooooo bad that it will take ages to try to translate it :)

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  5. I converted images into text file. Quality is low, sorry... Link to the file:
    http://depositfiles.com/files/agpr8qm2t

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  6. The author wrote that Russians had 6 regiments of infantry (about 5,000) & 7 choragwies of "bourgeois de la ville" (citizens). As far as I remember, Russians had 2 prikazes of Moscow Streltzy, several coys of Norotmortcev Foot, Staden Foot (1,500; came to Mohilev the day or two before Radziwill) plus Poklonskiy's Cosscaks. But I need time to check

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  7. By 1 Jan 1655 garrison numbered 1,105 Russians (evidently 2 prikazes & Nirotmortcev coys) & about 4,000 Cossacks (Poklonski & citizens). Source: Мелешко В.И. Могилев в XV- середине XVII вв. Минск, 1988. c. 249

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  8. Cheers, I will try to translate it. Are You interested in info about Crown and Lithuanian units present there?

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  9. Yes, of course. I will be pleased if your share Lithuanian BO for Mohilev.

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  10. It will not be full ODB, rather just those units that take part in bloody assaults on Mohilev. I wrote 'Crown and Lithuanian' on purpose - there was strong Crown 'division' send to support Radziwill's forces. I will write about it tomorrow then.

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  11. I know about Crown troops. As far as I remember for most part of the Radziwill's troops were powiatowy choragwies (komput was destroyed at Shepelevichy).

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  12. Lithuanian army was indeed under 'rebuilding process' after heavy losses at Szepielewicze (although in fact most losses were taken at Ciecierzyn during rout) and that's why Crown troops (mostly 'foreign troops' - infantry, dragoons and reiters but also some Tatars' light cavalry) were send to support them. I was able to find quite a lot of individual units mentioned during assaults and skirmishing around Mohilev, so I will write about it and post on my blog today.

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  13. First part posted as promised :)
    http://kadrinazi.blogspot.com/2011/04/armia-litewsko-polska-pod-mohylewem.html

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  14. seniores,
    interesting - 3 banners of hussars under Field Hetman in Mogilev fighting their way through [ ...], and prince Boguslav Radziwill wounded in his shoulder, superficial wound, and his horse wounded in its head...
    good find from

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  15. Evidently author meant the action on Feb 6. That night Poklonskiy changed side with about 400 of his troops & opened gates into the main city. Russian gathered troops and repulsed Lithuanians & even destroyed 2 Hussar choragwies & took Boguslav's horsetail & a colour.

    Komput of 1654 (see here: http://rusmilhist.blogspot.com/2011/03/lithuanian-army-summer-1654.html) had 3 hussar banners. Radziwill's banner (& maybe Polubinskiy?) heavily suffered at Shklov & ShepelevichY (sorry for my use Russian variants of the places) in August 1654. So maybe these 3 banners "from Mohylev" are powiatowy or priwatny

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  16. In fact there were two banners of husaria involved in that fight (hetman Gosiewski's under lt. Kazimierz Żeromski and 'powiatowa' from nowogródzki district under Stefan Frąckiewicz) and they were not destroyed, although took heavy losses - Żeromski was wounded, lt. from nowogródzka husaria was killed. Third banner that participate in fight was cossack style cavalry banner of Gosiewski under Jan Aleksander Ihnatowicz-Łubiański.
    Standard that was captured was called 'znaczek' and didn't belong to Bogusław Radziwiłł but to hetman Gosiewski.

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  17. Salve,
    actually given the 'portioned' character of this print (for this is not the whole letter but substantial excerpts) and my limited French, I gather that in the eyes of this officer these were 3 hussar or lancer banners (we could speculate that perhaps this 3rd banner was a kozacka banner that also used lances i.e. demi-lances or rohatyna?).
    Also it is unclear to me to whom the part after '& d'ya lasser sa marque ou son drapeau...' belongs, and it may be about prince Boguslaw Radziwill, as the rest of the passage about wounded and difficulties refers to the Prince himself and his retinue.

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