Conquest of Stolp
The capture of the district and garrison town of Stolp on February 19, 1807 was the most important military action by Polish insurgents when they invaded the Prussian province of Pomerania during the Fourth Coalition War .
prehistory
At the beginning of the war with Prussia, Napoleon remembered the Polish legions that fought with distinction in Italy and southern Germany between 1797 and 1800 under the motto of the restoration of Poland against the partitioning power of Austria. Remnants of the troops, most of which had perished in action against slave revolts in Haiti , were in the service of the Kingdom of Italy . In October 1806, during the war against the partitioning powers Prussia and Russia , he summoned a legendary leader of the Legion, General Dąbrowski , from Italy. Napoleon avoided promising to restore Poland to Dąbrowski. Nevertheless, the latter accepted with enthusiasm the order to organize a popular uprising in line with the French warfare in the formerly Polish South Prussia .
After the victorious battles near Jena and Auerstedt , the penetration of the French army into this area triggered the expected uprising. In January 1807 , by order of Napoleon, a Polish government commission took power in the area liberated from Prussia . Dąbrowski had already ordered a conscription from Poznan in November and issued calls for entry into Polish armed forces. His officers formed an infantry regiment each in Gnesen , Rogasen near Lenczyc , a fortress that had been cleared at the beginning of the uprising, and Kosten and Rawitsch . Reinforced by two cavalry regiments and a battalion aristocratic corps , these troops formed a division . Without being able to agree on a leadership, the former legion leaders Zajączek in Kalisch and Poniatowski in Warsaw also set up divisions with French support . All three were given the traditional designation legions . Its officers were almost without exception former legionnaires, while the majority of the subordinate commanders and men were inexperienced. Because of this, the legions did not have artillery , even though France had supplied cannons .
The use of the legions operational in January 1807 by the French High Command corresponded to the overall strategic situation that had arisen since the end of November 1806 from the clash with the army of the Prussian ally Russia. On the left flank of the Grande Armée , which had crossed the Vistula between Thorn and Warsaw and was in western East Prussia at the end of December , northern West Prussia was firmly in Prussian hands . There the fortresses Danzig and Graudenz secured the lower reaches of the Vistula and the Fresh Spit as a land connection to Königsberg. To the north of the French connection line to the west, central and eastern Pomerania were under the control of patrols from the fortresses that were not included in Danzig and Kolberg , including the Schill Freikorps . The fortified ports could also be dangerous as landing points for the British and Swedes , whose appearance as allies of Prussia was to be expected since their peace treaty in January 1807. Napoleon therefore wanted the control of the Pomerania and the Vistula line as well as the capture of the fortresses of Danzig and Kolberg and the cities of Elbing and Dirschau .
The troops of the Confederation of the Rhine and the Kingdom of Italy designated for this purpose had to make their way from Stettin through Pomerania, because the resources along the Berlin-Posen-Warsaw road were already exhausted. Because of the oath that the provincial government in Stettin had given him after the fortress surrendered in October 1806, Napoleon regarded all of Pomerania as subject. The French therefore viewed any support for the Prussian warfare as a rebellion , any participation in it as banditry . The security of the new approach route was entrusted to Napoleon by the Dąbrowskis Legion, which he subordinated to the X Corps of the Grande Armée under Lefebvre .
The military operations in January and February 1807
Dąbrowski moved to Bromberg , where the tips of his left flank protection penetrated Pomerania. The advance through southern West Prussia found sporadic support from the population - it was quite different in Pomerania, where the inhabitants were "decidedly loyal to Prussia". On the far left wing, Colonel Garczyński commanded around 150 horsemen who waged the Little War as far as the Kolberg area and were supposed to establish contact with the Ménard column advancing from the west . While Garczyński was making poor headway, another force under Lubieński attacked Neustettin , which had been unsuccessfully defended by armed citizens, on February 3 , looted the place and withdrew to Tuchel the next day in front of a Schill cavalry unit .
Dąbrowski itself was while advancing toward Tczew on Prussian troops in thickness from a total of 1,600 infantry and almost 1,000 riders with a half battery under Major General Hans Stephan von Rouquette , Colonel Karl August von Schaeffer and Major August Ernst von Kamptz made. They were detachments of the only still intact Prussian large unit , the Corps L'Estocq deployed in East Prussia . After a defeat at Mewe on January 10, 1807 Dąbrowski went back to Schwetz and pulled Garczyński and Lubieński closer to him. Ménard joined him in February. He commanded the 3,700 men of the Baden Rhine Confederation contingent and the 3,000-strong Northern Legion made up of Polish deserters from the Prussian army . Together they started the march on Danzig in the middle of the month. The security of the left wing had meanwhile been entrusted to General Michał Sokolnicki . His main opponent was the Freikorps Krockow .
Major Graf Krockow had with the consent of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. At the turn of the year five companies of hunters on foot with two mounted three-pounder cannons and a squadron of 180 riders - a little over 1000 men in total - were set up in Danzig . In contrast to the Schill Freikorps, equipment, clothing and armament in the Krockow Corps were uniform and complete. The crew consisted for the most part of battle-tested rancied or dispersed soldiers from the Prussian army.
Krockow intended to secure the connection between the not yet besieged Prussian fortresses Kolberg and Danzig and to wage the Little War against requisitioning Polish insurgents and French who were invading Pomerania . He made the Stolp, known to him from his service as a hussar , his base of operations . Therefore, since February 10, 1807, there was an approximately 160-strong company of the Freikorps under Captain Gutzmerow as advance command . Citizens from Stolp supported it with two city amusements .
course
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After Sokolnicki learned of Krockow's intention, he tried to thwart it by taking Stolp. He had about 500 infantry and four cavalry squadrons - a total of about a thousand men. For this purpose, Sokolnicki directed Garczyński, who was subordinate to him, from the west to Stolp. While Sokolnicki was approaching Stolp von Bütow , he addressed a proclamation to the citizens of Stolps on February 18 . In the unusually pathetic letter he urged them to "leave the League of Rebellion against the terrible and insurmountable army of Napoleon the Great" and to ensure that all "Prussians" were unarmed as prisoners of war with all of them "within an hour" Surrender of war material. In the event of refusal, Sokolnicki announced the "storming" of the city, clearly exaggerating his strength at 6000 men with a reserve of 12,000 men.
When there was no answer, he attacked the city from the east via the Stolpe in the evening hours of February 18 . Even outside the city, Sokolnicki's vanguard met fierce resistance. Later on, Sokolnicki pushed the defenders back to their main position, the medieval mill gate on the Stolpe, where his attack stopped. During the night, the Garczyński troops managed to conquer the Neutor in the west of the city. His soldiers pursued the escaping defenders into the city, with some beginning a pillage . Despite urgent requests, Sokolnicki failed to send support to Garczyński, who was now attacking the mill gate from behind. During the night Garczyński, whose small troops could not get the city center under control against the resistance of armed residents, withdrew to the Neutor, while Sokolnicki stopped his attack because of the large casualties, around 200 men, and probably also because of a lack of ammunition.
Gutzmerow had lost about a third of his people to death and wounding. He could neither recapture the new gate with his weak strength nor did he have any prospect of support anytime soon. He therefore decided to give up the city and, in the early morning of February 19th, without being bothered by Sokolnicki, began his march towards Schmolsin .
Immediate consequences
In the morning hours a Stolper delegation went to Sokolnicki and assured him that the Prussian soldiers had left the city. Sokolnicki then sent a cavalry detachment under Colonel Psarski to the city to take hostages . Only after the arrival of twelve Stolper dignitaries in his camp did Sokolnicki move into Stolp on the evening of February 19. He immediately confiscated all public coffers as well as large quantities of food and slaughter cattle, horses, clothing and vehicles, which he had transported to Bütow at the expense of the owners. In addition, he made a contribution of 30,000 thalers to the city , to which he collected Pfandbriefe and valuables. The city magistrate and the district administrator of the Stolp district as well as higher officials of the domain administration forced Sokolnicki to take an oath of loyalty to Napoleon. He sent a report to his commander, Dąbrowski, in which he emphasized the moral importance of the conquest of Stolp, which he saw in the sparing of the rebellious inhabitants. Garczyński, on the other hand, reported critically about Sokolnicki as a leader, who had not helped him during the night and who in the morning let the enemy escape down to the last man.
In the days and nights that followed, Sokolnicki could not prevent many of his soldiers from plundering and mistreating citizens and farmers in and around the city. Despite these individual actions, the coffers of the city and the Stolp district suffered damage of over 135,000 thalers.
Assuming that the Krockow corps was approaching Stolp, Sokolnicki evacuated the city on February 25th and on the 26th was already in Gustkow, 30 kilometers away, near Bütow. There, too, he did not feel safe with his untrained and undisciplined troops, and at the end of February he joined the main army in West Prussia. When a group of horsemen from Schill's Stolp passed through at the beginning of March, his commander, Lieutenant Wedell, solemnly released the officers from the oath they had extorted from Sokolnicki.
Aftermath
In addition to valuables such as gold watches and a very nice four-horse equipage , Sokolnicki had also appropriated 9,000 thalers from the contribution and sent his friend Psarski 1000 thalers and 100 Friedrichs d'or in cash. He had refused to acknowledge the contribution amount and the valuables, as had evidently the return of the pledges. The corresponding allegations, confirmed by the accusing Garczyński report, reached Dąbrowski, who had expressly forbidden looting. Sokolnicki defended himself by claiming that he had only accepted gifts from the citizens given to him because of his generosity. A dispute developed between Dąbrowski, who found out that Sokolnicki had used up the Stolper contribution entirely for his corps or for private purposes, and Sokolnicki, who was fighting for his reputation . The matter prompted Dąbrowski to write to the Pomeranian Estates "that what happened against martial law by the troops of my command in Pomerania was against my will" and to ask them to report all complaints to him.
Although Sokolnicki had to justify himself to the French General Berthier , he was given a command in the siege army outside Danzig, combined with an increase in rank. There the Polish troops again met the Krockow Freikorps. Gutzmerow had moved along the Baltic Sea beach to Neustadt in order to join the Krockow group now in Lauenburg . When Dąbrowski and Ménard succeeded in conquering Dirschau on February 23, the Prussian High Command ordered the general retreat of the troops operating in eastern Pomerania and West Prussia to the vicinity of fortress Danzig in view of the unstoppable enemy advance. Around February 25, Krockow received orders to turn back and use his corps to defend the fortress in the outpost service . After Danzig was enclosed on March 11, the corps was assigned the Neufahrwasser section at the mouth of the Vistula.
In the second half of March, the Little War in Pomerania came to an end after a few minor battles with the successful breakthrough of Schill's cavalry in the Kolberg fortress, which had now been enclosed. After that, the Lauenburg , Bütow , Schlawe , Stolp and Rummelsburg districts were forced, under the threat of occupation by the Dąbrowski Legion, to deliver food and other necessities to Oliva for the Danzig siege army . On April 8th, Sokolnicki pushed through to Stolp again because of a delivery delay in Pomerania. After the fall of Danzig on May 24, 1807, the demands ended. The episodic conquest of Stolp had no impact on the course of the campaign in the spring of 1807, but still has a place in the culture of remembrance of Słupsk today, tied to the only known fallen Pole, Bonaventure Jezierski.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Braning (see list of references) cites Garczyński's report to Dąbrowski, p. 230
- ↑ Figures, including the following, in Lettow-Vorbeck 1896 (see list of literature), pp. 199ff.
- ↑ Wording partly reproduced in: Werner Reinhold: Chronik der Stadt Stolp , Verlag von Hermann Kölling, Stolp 1861, p. 264f., Online
- ↑ Wording partly in Braning (see literature list) p. 232
- ↑ Information on the annual celebrations in honor of Jezierski on the city's website, requested on June 14, 2020.
literature
- Hans Branig : The Poles in Pomerania in the spring of 1807 . In: Baltic Studies . New episode volume XXXVII. Leon Saunier's bookstore, Stettin 1935, pp. 223–340.
- Hermann Klaje : Count Reinhold von Krockow, 1767-1821 . In: Walter Menn (arr.): Pomeranian life pictures . Volume IV (= Franz Engel (ed.): Publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania, Series V: Research on Pomeranian History, Issue 15), Böhlau-Verlag, Cologne 1966, pp. 218–227.
- Oscar von Lettow-Vorbeck (arr.): The war of 1806 and 1807, third volume, The campaign in Poland . Ernst Mittler and Son, Berlin 1893.
- Oscar von Lettow-Vorbeck (arr.): The war of 1806 and 1807, fourth volume, From Eylau to Tilsit . Ernst Mittler and Son, Berlin 1896.
- Bernhard von Poten : Krockow, Reinhold Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 176 f.