Polish Legions (Napoleonic period)
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Polish Legions of the Napoleonic Period (also reffered to with less correct name Polish Legions in Italy) is the name applied to the several different Polish units serving in the French army from the 1790s to 1810s. After the third partition of Poland in 1795 many Poles believed that revolutionary France and its allies would come to the aid of Poland, as France's enemies included the partitioners of Poland (Prussia, Austria and Imperial Russia). Therefore many Polish soldiers, officers and volunteers emigrated from Poland to other countries, especially Italy and France, where they joined local military forces. The number of Polish recruits soon reached many thousands, and so with support from Napoleon Bonaparte special Polish military units, commanded by Polish officers and with Polish military ranks were created. They became known as the Polish Legions and were considered to be a Polish army 'in exile' under command of France. Those units were commanded, among others, by Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Karol Kniaziewicz, Józef Wybicki and Antoni Amilkar Kosiński. Polish Legions serving alongside the French army during the Napoleonic Wars saw combat in most of Napoleon's campaigns, from the West Indies, through Italy and Egypt, to Russia.
Although Polish support for Napoleon eventually resulted in the creation of the small Polish state (Duchy of Warsaw, 1807-1815) it is now considered highly unlikely[1] that Napoleon entertained any serious plans for recreating an independent and strong Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Rather he gave Poles vague promises in order to ensure the flow of Polish volunteers to his troops. He skilfully manipulated all sides and capitalized upon the anxieties of Russia, Prussia and Austria, with the intimidating threats of a French-Polish alliance and the recreation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the second-largest state in Europe until the first partition of Poland, in 1772). Nonetheless Polish volunteers flocked to the Polish Legions under Napoleon's banner and throughout the entire period of Napoleon's career and even today the memory of the Polish Legions of Napoleon is strong, with Napoleon himself often regarded in Poland as a hero and liberator.
[edit] History of the legions
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, a former high-ranking officer in the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, began his work in 1796 - a year after the total destruction of the Commonwealth - when he was summoned to Paris by Napoleon Bonaparte. He was soon authorised by the French-allied Cisalpine Republic to create Polish legions, which would be part of the army of the newly created Republic of Lombardy. He was also authorised to sign an agreement with the new government of the Republic of Lombardy, where the Republic agreed to create a second legion. Dąbrowski's Legions were first used against Austrians in Italy, where Poles who had a natural sympathy for people fighting for their own independence saw the Italian cause for independence as similar to that of their own. Early on, the Legions, numbering about 6,000 and including many Polish deserters from the Austrian army, proved to be a valuable military asset; in March 1797 they garrisoned Mantua, later they quelled peasant unrest in Rimini and retook Verona. In May 1798 the Poles helped the French to capture and later, garrison, Rome. Later they fought the anti-French forces from Kingdom of Naples, defeating them at Magliano on 1 December and Civita Castellana at 4 December. Later, the Polish Legion would take Gaeta fortress.
In 1798 general Józef Zajączek organized the second Polish Legion under the French; and in 1799 Karol Kniaziewicz organized the third (Polish Danube Legion) to fight against the Germans in the Balkans.
However the Poles could not choose all their fights, and their morale became weaker when instead of being sent against the partitioners of Poland they were used by the French to put down uprisings (like that in the Papal States). Particularly during treaty negotiations between French and Austrians the French were finding the Polish issue to be a problem. It was also then that the future Polish national anthem, Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, was created by Józef Wybicki, with words promising 'the return of the Polish army from Italy to Poland'.
During the War of the Second Coalition the First Legion fought against Russians at Trebbia (17 - 19 June 1799) were it acted as the rear guard of retreating French forces. The Second Legion suffered heavily; particulary in the first battles on the Adige (26 March, 4 April 1799) - where it also acted as the rear guard to the retreating French - and finally after the battle of Mantua (April-July), when French commander Foissac-Latour decided to release Polish soldiers under general Wielhorski into Austrian custody as Austrians claimed them to be deserters[2]. Polish forces also fought in the battle of Hohenlinden on 3 December 1800.
Eventually in 1802 the legions (5,280 strong) were sent to Haiti to put down the Haitian Revolution (on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, known then as French West Indies or Santo Domingo). Napoleon wanted to regain the colony of Saint Domingue, but had no wish to deplete his main French army any more than he had to. Polish legions were accompanied by contingents of Germans and Swiss French allies, as well as by the less favoured units of Napoleon's French army. Many Polish soldiers became sympathetic to the natives' cause and in Haiti it was (and still is) widely believed that Poles supported Jean-Jacques Dessalines in significant numbers, with entire units changing sides. The actual desertion rate was much lower (about 150 Polish soldiers joined the Haitian rebels). Eventually combat casualties and tropical diseases (like the yellow fever) reduced the 5,280 strong Legion to a few hundred survivors in the space of less than two years. By the time French forces retreated from the island in 1803 about 4,000 Poles were dead (either from disease or combat), about 400 remained on the island, a few dozen dispersed to the nearby islands or to the United States and about 700 returned to France
