Operations of the main army.—Expedition under Jankowski.—General Chrzanowski having driven Rudiger from his position, crosses the Vistula, but returns to act in concert with general Jankowski against the enemy near Kock.—Details of general Jankowski's movement.—He remains inactive within sight of the fire of the corps with which he was to co-operate.—Other evidences of treason.—Generals Jankowski and Bukowski are arrested and ordered for trial.—View of the advantages that were sacrificed by this misconduct.—Discovery of a plot to liberate and arm the Russian prisoners at Warsaw, and to deliver the city to the enemy.—State of the public mind induced by these events.
From these melancholy occurrences in Lithuania, let us turn to follow the operations of the grand army.
On the 13th and 14th of June, a division of infantry, under the command of general Muhlberg, left Praga, and took the direction of the environs of Stanislawow and Jadow. In the latter place this division surprised a strong detachment of the enemy in camp, and took many prisoners. Thence they were instructed to follow the left bank of the Liwiec as far as the environs of Kaluszyn, and even to Zelechow, clearing each bank of the presence of the enemy. This division was then to join itself with the division of cavalry of general Jankowski, which on that day left for Kock. Those two divisions combined, were to endeavor to act upon the different corps of the enemy which were pressed by the corps of general Chrzanowski.
The latter general had commenced the offensive on the 16th, and had driven the corps of general Rudiger from its position at Krasny-taw, and compelled it to retreat to Lublin, continually pursued by him. On the 23d, he took that town by storm. The enemy was obliged to evacuate it in disorder, leaving a great number killed, wounded, and prisoners, and to take the direction of Kock. The corps of Rudiger would have been inevitably destroyed, if another Russian corps of 15,000 strong had not marched to its aid.
General Chrzanowski, apprized of the arrival of this reinforcement, quitted the pursuit, for a more favorable moment; and, to avoid an engagement with this combined force of the enemy, as well as to escort the prisoners, which he had taken at Lublin, to a place of safety, he repassed the Vistula, at Pulawy. He had scarce reached the opposite side of the river, when he received the intelligence that the division of general Jankowski, reinforced by a brigade of infantry, was approaching Kock, where was already the corps of general Rudiger, and whither the corps of general Keisarow, above mentioned, was hastening to join him. In order, therefore, to take between the two fires all the forces which might be collected at Kock, general Chrzanowski promptly repassed the river, reached the environs of Kock, and waited impatiently for the attack of general Jankowski, in the opposite direction; but Jankowski delayed his movement, and allowed the corps of Kiesarow to join Rudiger.
The following are the details of this expedition, as they were related by an officer of the division of Muhlberg, and which exhibit satisfactory evidence of treason on the part of general Jankowski.
'The issue of this expedition, which could have had the most brilliant results, has filled us with grief and indignation. We were marching in the utmost haste upon Kock, with the hope of beating Rudiger. On our route, at Stoczek, for our misfortune, we were joined by the division of cavalry under general Jankowski, who then took the command. We ought to have passed the Wieprz, to meet Rudiger, and cut him off. Suddenly news was brought to us that the enemy had passed the Wieprz, at Lysobyki, with 6,000 infantry, sixteen squadrons of cavalry, and ten pieces of cannon. General Jankowski then called a council of war, at which the following plans were adopted. General Turno was to attack the enemy, in the direction of Sorokomla, and general Jankowski was to come to his support at the first sound of his cannon. The brigade of general Romarino (detached from the corps of general Chrzanowski, and destined to act as an independent corps) was to act upon the left wing, and general Bukowski, with a brigade of cavalry, upon the right wing of the enemy by Bialobrzegi. This plan, which in the conviction of all our officers would have exterminated the corps of general Rudiger, and the execution of which was reserved to general Jankowski, came to nothing.