Battle of Zhovti Vody

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Battle of Zhovti Vody
Part of Khmelnytsky Uprising
Death of Stefan Potocki at the Battle of Zhovti Vody.
Date April 29-May 16, 1648 Location Zhovti Vody, Ukraine Result Cossack-Tatar victory
Combatants
Zaporozhian Cossack Army Crimean Tatars	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Commanders
Bohdan Khmelnytsky Tuhaj Bej	Stefan Potocki Stefan Czarniecki
Strength
8 000 - 15 000 (growing throughout the battle)[1]	3 000 - 1 500 (half forces changed sides) [1]
Casualties
heavy	unknown

Battle of Zhovti Vody (Ukrainian: Жовтi Води, Polish: Żółte Wody, Russian: Желтые Воды; literally "yellow waters"), (April 29 to May 16, 1648^[1]) was the first significant battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day city of Zhovti Vody in present-day south-central Ukraine, advance forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army met a numerically superior (1:10) force of Cossacks and Crimean Tatars under the command of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Tuhaj Bej. After the Registered Cossacks allied with the Commonwealth arrived and unexpectedly sided with Khmelnytsky, the Commonwealth forces were vanquished while attempting to retreat following the 18-day battle, only days before reinforcements were to arrive.

[edit] Before the battle

Around the 21-22 of April, 1648, word of an uprising had spread through the Commonwealth. Either because they underestimated the size of the uprising,^[2] or because they wanted to act quickly to prevent it from spreading,^[3] the Commonwealth's Grand Crown Hetman Mikołaj Potocki and Field Crown Hetman Marcin Kalinowski sent 3,000 soldiers under the command of Potocki's son, Stefan, deep into Cossack territory, without waiting to gather additional forces from Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. Stefan's force consisted of 2 chorągiews of dragoons, 1 unit of infantry (foreign mercenaries), and 11 chorągiews of cavalry (about 1150 people, of which 1 chorągiew was composed of the elite Winged Hussars);^[1] the rest of his force was composed of registered Cossacks. While this group traveled by land, an additional group was sent down the Dniepr river in boats and was to regroup with Stefan Potocki's forces. This group, under the command of Polkovnyk (colonel) Mykhailo Krychevsky, was composed almost entirely of registered Cossacks (it also had a small number of German dragoon mercenaries) and numbered at around 4,000.^[1]

5,000 troops remained with Hetman Mikołaj Potocki while he attempted to gather local reinforcements from the various private armies of the local magnates as well as the pospolite ruszenie of the militant szlachta (Polish nobility).^[1]

Stefan's force arrived first at the rendezvous point. It is likely that Krychevsky, en route, contacted Bohdan Khmelnytsky, his old friend (who he helped to escape into Zaporizhian Sich a year earlier^[1]) and the leader of the uprising.

[edit] The battle

Example of the tabor formation.

Map of the Commonwealth during the turbulent 1640s and 1650s. Enlarge for detailed view – Zhovti Vody (Żółte Wody) is the south-easternmost battle marked.

On April 28, 1648, Stefan Potocki's forces came upon Khmelnytsky's army in an area near the present-day city Zhovti Vody. Numbering only 3,000, the Commonwealth forces were greatly outnumbered at this point in comparison to Khmelnytsky's army of 8,000, which consisted of Cossacks as well as 3,000-4,000 Crimean Tatars under the command of Tuhaj Bej. Stefan Potocki (advised by Jacek Szemberk and Stefan Czarniecki^[1]) ordered his force to retreat and take on the defensive tabor formation, which allowed for a messenger to be sent to contact Hetman Mikołaj Potocki.

On May 4, 1648, instead of doubling the Commonwealth's forces at Zhovti Vody, Mykhailo Krychevsky's 4,000 registered cossacks arrived and sided with Khmelnytsky; in the process of changing allegiances, Cossacks who elected to remain loyal to Potocki were cut down, as well as the German dragoons in their midst. The next day, Stefan Potocki saw his already undermanned force of 3,000 halved to 1,500, when the registered cossacks who arrived with Stefan also joined the uprising. Polkovnyk Ivan Hanzha is recognized as having been instrumental in swaying his fellow registered cossacks over to Khmelnytsky's side. At this point, Khmelnytsky's army swelled to 15,000 (further reinforced by local cossacks joining the uprising).^[1]

The Commonwealth army managed to hold off from being overrun; this was due in part to their superior artillery. On May 13, 1648, Khmelnytsky met with representatives of Stefan Potocki, who debated turning over their artillery in exchange for safe passage. With negotiations breaking down, Potocki decided to leave the artillery and escape under the cover of darkness on the night of May 15. The Commonwealth forces were surprised by a hail of arrows from Tuhaj Bej's Tatar forces, which diverted their escape route towards the nearby fortified village of Kniazhi Bairaky (Ukrainian: Княжі Байраки, Polish: Kryłów). There the combined forces of Tatar horsemen and cossacks under the command of Khmelnytsky's First Polkovnyk Maksym Olshansky (aka "Crook-nose", Kryvonis, or Perebyinis) overwhelmed Potocki's tabor formation and thoroughly routed the fleeing force.

Hetman Mikołaj Potocki, who had received word on May 3, 1648, of the his son's plight, could not move his forces in time to reinforce the Commonwealth's position, with his forces getting to within 100km from the site of the battle.^[1]

[edit] Aftermath

The majority of the Commonwealth forces either died in battle or were killed shortly thereafter. Stefan Potocki was wounded, taken prisoner of war and died from gangrene on May 19, 1648. His advisor, Stefan Czarniecki, was also taken prisoner, although he managed to escape soon thereafter (and went on to become one of Poland's greatest military commanders).

Bolstered by their victory, the Cossack and Tatar forces engaged and defeated the forces of Hetman Mikołaj Potocki at the Battle of Korsuń.

[edit] In popular culture

The battle was very inaccurately portrayed in the 1999 film With Fire and Sword by Polish film director Jerzy Hoffman. Although the film paid much attention to historical details, the attempt to summarize the week-long battles in few minutes meant that the battle as shown in the movie – reduced to the failed hussar's charge – had little in common with what has really happened, especially as the hussar forces in reality proved to be the backbone of Polish resistance during this 18-day battle.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (Polish) Żółte Wody 1648.
• (Ukrainian) Military strategy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky