Józef Sowiński
Józef Longin Sowiński (born March 15, 1777 in Warsaw ; † September 6, 1831 ibid) was a Polish major general .
Life
Youth up to the 3rd partition of Poland
Sowinski was born into the family of a royal civil servant and lawyer of new aristocratic origin. The father, Cyprian Thomas († around 1810), was a representative of the cities of Krakow and Lublin at the Polish Chancellery in Warsaw. In 1776 he was ennobled and received as a royal gift the Gawlowo estate near Zakroczym . He also owned two estates in the Sieradz area. Josef Sowinski received his training at the Warsaw Knight Academy , where he was matriculated on September 1, 1791 as a 4th grade student. On April 19, 1794, he joined the Knight Academy with other cadetsKościuszko uprising and was promoted to lieutenant . He served in the cavalry in the brigade of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski , took part in the defense of Warsaw against the Russians and the Prussians and later in the last battles of the Polish army against the Prussians in the vicinity of Bydgoszcz .
In the Prussian army
After the third partition of Poland in 1795, he was released from the disbanded army and became a Prussian subject . He spent a few years on his parents' estate near Sieradz and joined the Prussian army in 1799 (probably together with his younger brother Andreas, whose son Alexander died as a Prussian colonel in 1895), where he remained until 1811. His officer rank was initially not recognized and he served as a sergeant of the mounted artillery in the corps of General von L'Estocq . In 1801 he was promoted to second lieutenant and in 1810 to prime lieutenant. Sowinski took part in many important battles of the wars against Napoleon and won the friendship of his immediate superior, Prince August of Prussia . For his actions during the Battle of Preussisch Eylau he was named by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. subsequently awarded the order Pour le Mérite on January 12, 1821 . He was wounded in the Battle of Friedland on June 14, 1807. At the end of his career in the Prussian army, Sowinski commanded a company of mounted artillery in the Brandenburg Guard Brigade . On February 27, 1811, he received the honorable farewell from the army "for impeccable leadership during his years of service".
In the army of the Duchy of Warsaw
After leaving the Prussian army, Sowinski joined the army of the Duchy of Warsaw six months later , where he became a captain in a regiment of mounted artillery . In 1812 he took part in Napoleon's Russian campaign and was seriously wounded on September 5, 1812 during the Battle of Borodino in a partial battle near Moshaisk . His right leg was shattered to the knee by a cannonball, he continued commanding his artillery, lying on the ground between the cannons. His right leg had to be amputated . Since then he has used a wooden leg . He was brought from the battlefield near Borodino to a hospital in Moscow , where the fleeing French left him, but the Russians continued to care for him. For his bravery during the campaign he received the Order Virtuti Militari and the Legion of Honor . Until 1813 he was a Russian prisoner of war , after the entry into force of the alliance between Prussia and Russia he was released at the instigation of his old patron, Prince August of Prussia, returned on November 1, 1813 via Riga and Mitau to Warsaw and became in 1814 the Major promoted.
In the Army of Congress Poland
After the establishment of Congress Poland , Sowinski worked in the rank of lieutenant colonel until 1820 as the commander of the military construction industry and later as a colonel , he was the rector of a higher officers' school. With his clever policy, he kept the students of his “ application school ” out of all conflicts between the Russian leadership of the country under Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich Romanov and the Polish officer corps. In 1822 Sowinski received the Russian Order of Saint Anne, 2nd class with a breast star .
The November Uprising and Death
After the outbreak of the November uprising in Poland in 1830, Sowinski closed the doors of his school and forbade students to leave the building because he did not believe that the uprising would succeed. It was only later that he joined the uprising and was appointed commander of the Warsaw Artillery Garrison, but was exempted from service at the front as an invalid . He was only allowed to return to active service in the summer of 1831, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the western Warsaw suburb of Wola and promoted to Major General on August 22, 1831 .
The main Russian attack was directed against Wola on September 6th. Sowinski had 1,300 soldiers and 12 guns, the enemy had 11 battalions of infantry and 76 cannons. The resistance was hopeless. During the last battle, which was carried out with bayonets , General Sowinski also fell alongside his last soldiers. The day after, his widow went to the battlefield to look for his body, but never found it. A few days later a Russian soldier appeared and gave her the general's walking stick.
Excavations near his command post, which were carried out in the 1930s, did not produce any results. He was probably buried in a mass grave immediately after his death, or thrown into one of the numerous swamps in the vicinity of his fort.
Sowinski was married twice: until 1815 with the Pomeranian noblewoman Henriette von Brockhausen and from 1815, after the divorce from Henriette, with Katharina, née. Schraeder, used Jonas (1776-1860). Both marriages remained childless. The funeral of Catherine in Warsaw's Evangelical Reformed Cemetery on June 12, 1860, gathered thousands of mourners and became the first major national manifestation since the defeat of the November Uprising.
Cult figure
After his death, Sowinski became, like no other general of the November uprising, a symbol of soldier courage and love for the country. Rings, buttons and pendants were worn with his image, he was sung about in literature and poetry ( e.g. by Juliusz Słowacki , Maria Konopnicka and in Germany by Justinus Kerner ), there are also numerous paintings depicting his death, among others. a. by the famous battalion painter Wojciech Kossak . The park in the vicinity of his old fort , which was created around 1937, bears his name and has his monument. Several Polish cities have streets named after him.
Literary reception
- Justinus Kerner
- Sowinsky ( Complete Works , Volume II. Pp. 156–157)
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Kerner added a rhyming note to his poem: "As the brave call himself / Whether Russian, Pole or what? / Poetry pays homage to him / Because no politics knows it".
literature
- Justinus Kerner : Complete Works. Leipzig 1905.
- Polski Słownik Biograficzny. ( Polish Biographical Dictionary. ) Volume XLI, Wrocław etc. 2004.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sowiński, Józef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sowiński, Józef Longin (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish major general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 15, 1777 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Warsaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 6, 1831 |
| Place of death | Warsaw |