Jan Henryk Dabrowski
Encyclopedia
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (ˈjan ˈxɛnrɨk dɔmˈbrɔfskʲi; also known as Jean Henri Dombrowski or Johann Heinrich Dombrowski; 29 August 1755 – 6 July 1818) was a Polish general
and national hero.
, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth He grew up in Hoyerswerda
, Electorate of Saxony
, where his father served as a Colonel in the Saxon army. He joined the Royal Saxon Horse Guards in 1770 and served as Adjutant general of King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
from 1788 to 1791.
Following the appeal of the Polish Four-Year Sejm to all Poles serving abroad to join the Polish army, he returned to Poland in 1791. As a cavalryman educated in a Dresden
military school he was asked to reform the Polish cavalry
. Under Poniatowski, he took part in the campaign of 1792 against the Russians. He was in Poland in 1794 when the Kościuszko Insurrection
erupted. He took an active part in the uprising, defending Warsaw
and leading an army corps in support of a rising in Greater Poland
. His courage was commended by Tadeusz Kościuszko
himself, the Supreme Commander of the National Armed Forces, who promoted him to the rank of general. Not only Kościuszko appreciated him; after the collapse of the uprising, he was offered commissions in the Russian and Prussian armies, but chose to fight for Poland.
Dąbrowski is remembered in the history of Poland as the organiser of Polish Legions in Italy
during the Napoleonic Wars
. He began his work in 1796, when he was summoned to Paris by Napoleon Bonaparte, and was authorised by the Cisalpine Republic
to create Polish legions, which would be part of the army of the newly created Republic of Lombardy. This was a year after the 3rd Partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia
and Austria
. Poland disappeared from the map of Europe, but Polish military formations gave the country a chance to re-enter international affairs with support of France in the Polish independence efforts. Thus, the creation of a Polish army in Italy, at a time when the Italians refused to fight under the French banner, was beneficial to both the French and the Poles.
The legions were to consist of Polish exiles. Dabrowski managed to preserve the traditional Polish uniforms, national insignia and the Polish officer corps. The only concessions he made with regard to the uniforms were the epaulettes, which bore the colours of Lombardy, and French tri-coloured bows. Dąbrowski's Manifesto addressed to Poles, and published in Italian, French and German periodicals, elicited a great response from the Polish émigré community. Soon Milan, the capital of Lombardy, began to fill up with scores of volunteers in spite of the penalties enforced by the partitioning powers. The volunteers included patriotic émigrés as well as Polish prisoners released from the Austrian army. Within a short time, the Polish general gathered seven thousand potential troops, whom he turned into a disciplined army.
Dąbrowski's Polish soldiers fought at Napoleon's side from May 1797 until the beginning of 1803. As a commander of his legion he played an important part in the war in Italy, entered Rome
in May 1798, and distinguished himself greatly at the Battle of Trebia
(June 19, 1799) as well as other battles and combats of 1799–1801. However, the legions were never able to reach Poland and did not liberate the country, as Dąbrowski had dreamed. Napoleon did, however, notice the growing dissatisfaction of his brave soldiers and their commanders. They were particularly disappointed by a peace treaty between France and Russia signed in Lunéville
, which dashed Polish hopes of Bonaparte freeing Poland. Instead, fearing rebellion, he decided to disperse the Legions. This meant the collapse of the Polish formation. A particularly harmful move was the decision to send six thousand men to Haiti
in 1803 to crush a local rebellion. Only three hundred legionnaires returned.
After the Legions were disbanded and the Treaty of Amiens
was passed, Dąbrowski became a division general in the service of the Italian republic. He was summoned again by Napoleon in 1806 to create a Polish formation, which Napoleon wanted to use to recapture Greater Poland from Prussia. Polish volunteers again turned up, albeit with much less enthusiasm. Though he distinguished himself at Gdańsk
and at Friedland
, even Dąbrowski himself became disillusioned when he was prevented from fighting against the partitioning powers in the remaining Polish territories.
In 1807 the Duchy of Warsaw
was established in the recaptured territories, essentially as a satellite of Bonaparte's France. Disappointed with the Corsican, Dąbrowski settled near Poznań
, where he had received an estate. Soon, however he set out to fight Austria under the command of Prince Józef Poniatowski in 1808. After the Battle of Raszyn
, the Polish army entered Galicia and on 15 July captured Kraków
. In June 1812 Dąbrowski commanded a Polish division in the Grande Armée
, joining Napoleon on his Moscow expedition. However, by October the Franco-Russian war was over and the French forces, decimated by a severe winter, had to retreat. Their defeat was completed by a battle
lost during the crossing of the River Berezina, in which Dąbrowski was wounded.
He fought under Marshal Auguste Marmont
at the Battle of Leipzig
(1813), but in the following year returned to Poland, unable to continue the fight any further. He was one of the generals entrusted by the tsar with the reorganization of the Polish army, and was named in 1815 general of cavalry
and senator palatine of the new Congress Kingdom
, and awarded the Order of the White Eagle. He retired in the following year to his estates in Winnogóra
in the Grand Duchy of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia
, where he died in 1818. He wrote several military historical works in Polish.
His name, in the French version "Dombrowsky", is inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris.
between 15 and 21 July 1797, was very popular with the legionnaires. It was penned by Józef Wybicki
, a close friend of Dąbrowski. Beginning with the words, "Poland has not yet perished...", it was meant to counteract the rumours spread by the Prussians that in 1794, after the defeat at Maciejowice
, Tadeusz Kościuszko
was to have shouted, "Finis Poloniae!" ("This is the end of Poland").
in 1806. In 1815, he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle
and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir
and Order of St. Anna
.
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
and national hero.
Biography
Dąbrowski was born to Jan Michal Dąbrowski and Sophie née von Lettow in PierzchówPierzchów
Pierzchów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Gdów, within Wieliczka County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately east of Wieliczka and south-east of the regional capital Kraków. General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski was born in Pierzchów.The village has a...
, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth He grew up in Hoyerswerda
Hoyerswerda
Hoyerswerda is the largest city in the district of Bautzen in the German state of Saxony. It is located in Lusatia, a region where many people speak the Sorbian languages in addition to German.-Geography:...
, Electorate of Saxony
Electorate of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...
, where his father served as a Colonel in the Saxon army. He joined the Royal Saxon Horse Guards in 1770 and served as Adjutant general of King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Frederick Augustus I was King of Saxony from the House of Wettin. He was also Elector Frederick Augustus III of Saxony and Duke Frederick Augustus I of Warsaw...
from 1788 to 1791.
Following the appeal of the Polish Four-Year Sejm to all Poles serving abroad to join the Polish army, he returned to Poland in 1791. As a cavalryman educated in a Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
military school he was asked to reform the Polish cavalry
Polish cavalry
The Polish cavalry can trace its origins back to the days of Medieval mounted knights. Poland had always been a country of flatlands and fields and mounted forces operate well in this environment...
. Under Poniatowski, he took part in the campaign of 1792 against the Russians. He was in Poland in 1794 when the Kościuszko Insurrection
Kosciuszko Uprising
The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1794...
erupted. He took an active part in the uprising, defending Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and leading an army corps in support of a rising in Greater Poland
Greater Poland
Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...
. His courage was commended by Tadeusz Kościuszko
Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus...
himself, the Supreme Commander of the National Armed Forces, who promoted him to the rank of general. Not only Kościuszko appreciated him; after the collapse of the uprising, he was offered commissions in the Russian and Prussian armies, but chose to fight for Poland.
Polish Legions in Italy
The Polish Legions, in the Napoleonic period, were several Polish military units that served with the French Army from the 1790s to the 1810s....
during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He began his work in 1796, when he was summoned to Paris by Napoleon Bonaparte, and was authorised by the Cisalpine Republic
Cisalpine Republic
The Cisalpine Republic was a French client republic in Northern Italy that lasted from 1797 to 1802.-Birth:After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte proceeded to organize two states: one to the south of the Po River, the Cispadane Republic, and one to the north, the Transpadane...
to create Polish legions, which would be part of the army of the newly created Republic of Lombardy. This was a year after the 3rd Partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. Poland disappeared from the map of Europe, but Polish military formations gave the country a chance to re-enter international affairs with support of France in the Polish independence efforts. Thus, the creation of a Polish army in Italy, at a time when the Italians refused to fight under the French banner, was beneficial to both the French and the Poles.
The legions were to consist of Polish exiles. Dabrowski managed to preserve the traditional Polish uniforms, national insignia and the Polish officer corps. The only concessions he made with regard to the uniforms were the epaulettes, which bore the colours of Lombardy, and French tri-coloured bows. Dąbrowski's Manifesto addressed to Poles, and published in Italian, French and German periodicals, elicited a great response from the Polish émigré community. Soon Milan, the capital of Lombardy, began to fill up with scores of volunteers in spite of the penalties enforced by the partitioning powers. The volunteers included patriotic émigrés as well as Polish prisoners released from the Austrian army. Within a short time, the Polish general gathered seven thousand potential troops, whom he turned into a disciplined army.
Dąbrowski's Polish soldiers fought at Napoleon's side from May 1797 until the beginning of 1803. As a commander of his legion he played an important part in the war in Italy, entered Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in May 1798, and distinguished himself greatly at the Battle of Trebia
Battle of Trebia (1799)
The Battle of Trebbia was fought on June 19, 1799 and resulted in the victory of the Austrians and Russians under Field Marshal Suvorov against the French under General Macdonald....
(June 19, 1799) as well as other battles and combats of 1799–1801. However, the legions were never able to reach Poland and did not liberate the country, as Dąbrowski had dreamed. Napoleon did, however, notice the growing dissatisfaction of his brave soldiers and their commanders. They were particularly disappointed by a peace treaty between France and Russia signed in Lunéville
Lunéville
Lunéville is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and lies on the Meurthe River.-History:...
, which dashed Polish hopes of Bonaparte freeing Poland. Instead, fearing rebellion, he decided to disperse the Legions. This meant the collapse of the Polish formation. A particularly harmful move was the decision to send six thousand men to Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in 1803 to crush a local rebellion. Only three hundred legionnaires returned.
After the Legions were disbanded and the Treaty of Amiens
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...
was passed, Dąbrowski became a division general in the service of the Italian republic. He was summoned again by Napoleon in 1806 to create a Polish formation, which Napoleon wanted to use to recapture Greater Poland from Prussia. Polish volunteers again turned up, albeit with much less enthusiasm. Though he distinguished himself at Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
and at Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
, even Dąbrowski himself became disillusioned when he was prevented from fighting against the partitioning powers in the remaining Polish territories.
In 1807 the Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...
was established in the recaptured territories, essentially as a satellite of Bonaparte's France. Disappointed with the Corsican, Dąbrowski settled near Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, where he had received an estate. Soon, however he set out to fight Austria under the command of Prince Józef Poniatowski in 1808. After the Battle of Raszyn
Battle of Raszyn (1809)
The first Battle of Raszyn was fought on April 19, 1809 between armies of the Austrian Empire and the Duchy of Warsaw as a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in the Napoleonic Wars. The Austrian army was defeated....
, the Polish army entered Galicia and on 15 July captured Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. In June 1812 Dąbrowski commanded a Polish division in the Grande Armée
La Grande Armée
The Grande Armée first entered the annals of history when, in 1805, Napoleon I renamed the army that he had assembled on the French coast of the English Channel for the proposed invasion of Britain...
, joining Napoleon on his Moscow expedition. However, by October the Franco-Russian war was over and the French forces, decimated by a severe winter, had to retreat. Their defeat was completed by a battle
Battle of Berezina
The Battle of Berezina took place November 26–29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina , and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a mixed outcome...
lost during the crossing of the River Berezina, in which Dąbrowski was wounded.
He fought under Marshal Auguste Marmont
Auguste Marmont
Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont, 1st Duke of Ragusa was a French General, nobleman and Marshal of France.-Biography:...
at the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
(1813), but in the following year returned to Poland, unable to continue the fight any further. He was one of the generals entrusted by the tsar with the reorganization of the Polish army, and was named in 1815 general of cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and senator palatine of the new Congress Kingdom
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, and awarded the Order of the White Eagle. He retired in the following year to his estates in Winnogóra
Winnogóra
Winnogóra is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wronki, within Szamotuły County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Wronki, north-west of Szamotuły, and north-west of the regional capital Poznań.-References:...
in the Grand Duchy of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
, where he died in 1818. He wrote several military historical works in Polish.
His name, in the French version "Dombrowsky", is inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
The following is the list of the names of the 660 persons inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris. Most of them are generals who served during the First French Empire with additional figures from the French Revolution ....
in Paris.
Polish national anthem
During the formation of the Polish Legions, the present Polish national anthem was created. The "Anthem of the Polish Legions in Italy", written to the tune of a mazurkaMazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
between 15 and 21 July 1797, was very popular with the legionnaires. It was penned by Józef Wybicki
Józef Wybicki
Józef Rufin Wybicki was a Polish general, poet and political figure.-Life:He was a close friend of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, and in 1797 he wrote Mazurek Dąbrowskiego , which in 1927 was adopted as the Polish national anthem.During the Kościuszko Uprising, he was counselor of the Military...
, a close friend of Dąbrowski. Beginning with the words, "Poland has not yet perished...", it was meant to counteract the rumours spread by the Prussians that in 1794, after the defeat at Maciejowice
Battle of Maciejowice
The Battle of Maciejowice was fought on October 10, 1794, between Poland and the Russian Empire.The Poles were led by Tadeusz Kościuszko. Kościuszko with 6,200 men planned to prevent the linking of two larger Russian armies, 12,000 under Iwan Fersen and 12,500 under Alexander Suvorov...
, Tadeusz Kościuszko
Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus...
was to have shouted, "Finis Poloniae!" ("This is the end of Poland").
Honours and awards
Dąbrowski was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari in 1807, Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honour in 1804, the Italian Order of the Iron CrownOrder of the Iron Crown
The Imperial Order of the Iron Crown was established June 5, 1805 by Napoleon Bonaparte . It took its name from the ancient Iron Crown of Lombardy, a medieval jewel with an iron ring, forged from what was supposed to be a nail from the True Cross as a band on the inside. This crown also gave its...
in 1806. In 1815, he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle
Order of the White Eagle
The Order of the White Eagle is Poland's highest decoration awarded to both civilians and the military for their merits. It was officially instituted on November 1, 1705 by Augustus II the Strong and bestowed on eight of his supporters: four Polish magnates, three Russian field marshals , and one...
and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir
Order of St. Vladimir
The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
and Order of St. Anna
Order of St. Anna
The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
.
See also
- Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, the Polish national anthem
- Greater Poland Uprising 1794 - to help the Kościuszko UprisingKosciuszko UprisingThe Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1794...
- Greater Poland Uprising 1806 - to help Napoleon INapoleon INapoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
to liberate Poland and create the Duchy of WarsawDuchy of WarsawThe Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...