Thus ten days had passed in continual and bloody actions upon the same position, during which the Polish army had been uniformly successful, and at the end of which the enemy discontinued his attacks, thus giving the most convincing proof of the extent of the losses he had suffered on all points, during that period, amounting, in fact, in killed, wounded and prisoners, to full 30,000 men. In this space of ten days, the whole Russian army had been engaged, and that army amounted, as we have already said, and as will be confirmed by all the official reports, to more than 150,000 infantry, 50,000 cavalry, and 300 pieces of cannon. To this force was opposed a handful, comparatively, of Poles, consisting of 30,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and 96 pieces of cannon; a sixth part, in fact, of the Russian force.

This memorable commencement of our war will show to the world what can be effected by a nation fighting in defence of its liberty and to throw off an oppressive yoke. Those bloody combats, and that enthusiasm, to which my feeble pen cannot render justice, but which some better historian will present to the world in their true colors, should convince men that the immense mercenary forces which a despot may lead on, and by which he trusts to enforce his will, may avail him little. His enormous masses are like a heap of sand, which a little stone can pierce. Without animating motives, and therefore without energy,—a machine scarcely to be trusted,—that army itself, upon the slightest change of circumstances, may become terrible to the despot, of whom and of whose creatures it was to have been made the unhappy sacrifice.

The reader will pardon me, if I fatigue him with farther reflections upon this stage of our affairs. I shall not exaggerate in saying that this enormous mass of the enemy's forces would in an equal period have been absolutely annihilated, if we had then had a commander in chief of greater talent, and a general plan of operation differently arranged,—for the different operations in detail were, generally speaking, perfectly executed. The commander in chief, prince Radzivil, was an individual of the most estimable character, but as he afterwards himself avowed, not possessed of military talent. General Chlopicki, who was always near him, and who in fact virtually commanded, if he had in the early part of his life exhibited military talent, in his present advanced age had certainly lost much of his energy, and was unfit to undertake things which demanded the most active intellect, and the most absolute devotedness of mind and body to the cause. We cannot too strongly express our astonishment that general Chlopicki, who had formed the plan, and a very judicious one it was, of drawing the enemy on to the walls of Warsaw, to give him there a decisive battle, should have neglected to fortify the natural positions upon his route, by which the enemy's loss would have been doubled or even trebled. Serock and Zagroby (4), [See Plan VI], situated upon points of the greatest importance, especially the first, were evacuated by our forces, for the want of proper defences. Not the slightest fortification was constructed at the different passages of the Narew (N), the Bug (B), the Liewiec (L), and the Swider (S), nor upon the region between those rivers, which was full of forests and impenetrable marshes, and in which proper fortifications would have presented the most important obstructions to the enemy's passage. No concealed passages or by-roads through those forests were constructed, as they should have been, by which a body of troops could be led in ambuscade and brought to act suddenly on the enemy's flanks or otherwise, in critical moments, and with decisive effect. Such works would have required but little expense, and could have been made by the Jewish inhabitants, of whom there are some millions in Poland, (twenty thousand in Warsaw alone,) and who could have no claims for exemption, for they render no service to the country, but on the contrary lead a life of profitable fraud and deception, practised upon the inhabitants. The Jews, indeed, with some very few exceptions, did not in the least aid in the war, but often frustrated our exertions by their espionage; and there are in fact instances of their having fought against us,—against those who had given them an asylum upon their soil. In the towns of Nasielsk and Makow this occurred. This part of our population, who had an equal interest with us in the protection of the country, as far as property was concerned, could have been thus employed with perfect justice and propriety. If, by such arrangements, a system of fortification had been properly united with tactics, and all the plans directed by a man of talents and energy, of which examples were certainly to be found in our ranks, with such troops to command, the reader will admit that the Russian forces could have been soon driven back to the frontiers.

The succession of victories which we have described were not the results of any general system:—they were victories of detail, executed with energy and rapidity, and for which we were indebted to the generals of divisions and brigades, the colonels of regiments, &c. These successes were isolated, but, had they been made to bear upon each other, their advantages would have been much greater. For example, the battle of Dobre, which was so brilliantly gained by Skrzynecki, would have caused the total ruin of the corps opposed to him, if the 11th division of Krukowiecki, which was in the environs of Jadow, had come to the aid of Skrzynecki during that action. And indeed this was the expectation of Skrzynecki when he remained so long upon the position of Makowiec. But this division, instead of acting upon the rear of the enemy, as it might have done, having no orders to this effect, continued its retrograde march, although within the sound of the cannon of that action.

On the 18th there was not enough of harmony in the operations of the several divisions. On that day, if those operations had been directed from one point as from a centre, the enemy, who had been guilty of extreme imprudence in the advance which he had made into the marshy and wooded region between Stanislawow (9), Okuniew (11), and the great road, could have been completely hedged in. [See Plan VI.] The manœuvres of general Zimirski, when the enemy made his rapid attack on the morning of the 19th, were executed at hazard, no general order having been given in anticipation of such an attack. These manœuvres were well executed by general Zimirski: but if the case had been thus anticipated by the commander in chief, and, at the commencement of the action, our right wing had been withdrawn to Grochow, [See (A) Plan VIII,] an obstinate defence of the commanding position of Kawenzyn (B) being kept up, and the enemy had been thus allowed to follow our right wing with his left; by the same method of operation which was in fact executed by Skrzynecki and Zimirski, in concert, but with much larger forces; the enemy could have been attacked on his flank, and instead of the annihilation of his sixteen battalions, the same fate would have attended twice or thrice that number;—for, when a force is taken by surprise in flank and rear, numbers avail comparatively little in resistance;—indeed, the greater the number, the greater is the difficulty of changing position, and the greater the disorder and consternation which follows.

The Russian army was thus early inspired with terror at the resistance which it had experienced, and the immense losses to which it had been subjected. It was of the utmost importance to profit by this consternation; but the vast advantages which might have been gained under such circumstances, by some general plan of offensive operations of bold and decisive character, were let pass.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] I cannot pass over this occasion of describing the manner in which the nation received that army, which had but a month before left the walls of Warsaw, and had, after so many glorious actions, returned to give there a decisive battle to the enemy, and to fall or conquer there before the eyes of the nation. Those were moments rare in history, and should be handed down to posterity, to demonstrate to what a height the feelings of the nation were exalted, and what a unanimity was felt in the great cause that warmed all hearts. The thunder of the cannon which, during the 15th, rolled over the fields of Milosna and Okuniew, was heard at Warsaw, and announced the approach of the army. At nightfall, when our first detachments began to show themselves from the forests of Milosna and Jablonna, and to deploy upon the plains of Wavre and Bialolenka, the whole population of Warsaw began to leave the city, and go forth to meet and hail their defenders. The senate, whose estimable president, Czartoriski, was with the army, left the city also. In a short time the fields were covered with an exulting multitude. When the army took its position, and all was quiet under the protection of night, the people drew near and entered the camp. What a touching scene was there presented! Here a father and mother seek their son, who meeting them, presses them to his bosom. There a wife, leading her children, finds her husband and their father, and throws herself into his arms, while the children cling around the knees of their delighted parents. A melancholy contrast was presented by those who sought in vain for son—husband—parent. But no complaint was heard. The tears falling for those who were no more, were checked by the thought that they had died for their country.

The senate, in the name of the nation, and in the most touching language, thanked the commander in chief and his officers for the services which they had rendered to their country, and requested them to communicate these sentiments to the whole army. They finished their address in nearly the following terms: 'Preserve, brave compatriots, this noble energy, and in a short time the throne of despotism will fall, and upon its ruins civilization and public happiness will rise.' The people continued with the army, furnishing them with every comfort, and regardless of the fire which was commenced the next day from the enemy's artillery. Under this fire, vehicles with provisions and ammunition were continually arriving from the city, and some of them were destroyed by the enemy's shot. During the actions before Warsaw, the inhabitants made it a duty to be at hand, to bear off and succor the wounded; and among those who engaged in these offices were some of the most distinguished ladies of Warsaw. The strangers who were then there, and who witnessed the enthusiasm which animated the people, and seemed to unite them into one family, exclaimed that such a nation could never, and ought never be conquered.

The following days, the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of February, in which no action took place, were devoted to thanksgiving to God, for his favor in protecting the Polish cause thus far. In all the churches the people assembled to offer prayers for the welfare of the country; and the army employed this period of repose in the same manner. On that field, over which the three hundred cannon of the enemy were pointed in battle array; while the first line was in position, the rest of the army were engaged in these devotional exercises. At each assemblage of troops, the ministers of religion administered patriotic oaths, and animated the soldiers to perseverance in the holy struggle. Those sacred ceremonies were followed by hymns, which were sung along the whole line, and which, mingling with the solemn sounds of the bells of Warsaw tolling for the assembly of the people in the churches, produced an indescribably impressive effect. These exercises ended in the general shout of 'Poland forever!'