Battle of Krusi

Battle of Krusi
Date 22 September 1796 Location Krusi, Lješanska nahija Result Decisive Montenegrin victory
Belligerents
Montenegro	Pashalik of Scutari
Commanders and leaders
Petar I Petrović Njegoš Jovan Radonjić	Kara Mahmud Pasha  †
Units involved
Tribes of Old Montenegro	Albanians
Strength
6,500	30,000
Casualties and losses
Small	Great

The Battle of Krusi (Serbian: Bitka na Krusima/Битка на Крусима) was fought on 22 September 1796 between the campaigning army of Kara Mahmud Pasha, the Pasha of Scutari, and tribes under the command of Metropolitan Petar I Petrović Njegoš and Jovan Radonjić, at Krusi.

Prelude

After Kara Mahmud Pasha was defeated at Martinići (1796), he planned new operations to subdue Montenegro. With his main army in Scutari, Kara Mahmud Pasha advanced to Podgorica. In the meantime, near the Montenegrin borders, a rather large number of forces were stationed due to the concentration of attacks towards Montenegro and Brda. From Podgorica, the Pasha's Albanians moved onto Lješkopolje because his goal was to use the Lješkopolje-Krusi-Carev laz-Rijeka Crnojevića line to his advantage in order to carry out a raid toward Cetinje.

Petar I was informed of the Pasha's plans, and had managed to organize a defence. He took the larger part of his army and camped beneath the Sađavce mountain on the right bank of the Matica river. Another large unit under the command of Jovan Radonjić camped under the Busovnika mountain near the village of Krusi.

Battle

The battle occurred on 22 September 1796 when Bushatli ordered his troops to cross the right hand bank of the Sitnica River and attack Montenegrin positions. Krusi was directly in the path of his army.

Half of the Montenegrin army was led by Metropolitan Petar I, the other by Jovan.^[1]

After a whole day of fighting, the Montenegrins were able to defeat the Turks. Bushatli was killed by the Montenegrin army during the battle. Legend has it that it was a Bogdan Vukov Nikolic from Zalazi who managed to kill Bushatli. The remains of the broken Turkish army were forced to withdraw to Podgorica.^[2]

Aftermath

With the victory, the tribes of Bjelopavlići and Piperi were joined into the Montenegrin tribal assembly.

References