On 29 April 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks and their Crimean Tatar allies attacked a Polish force under Stefan Potocki at Zhovti Vody, the Yellow Waters, opening a battle that ended on 16 May with its destruction. In 1945 American troops liberated Dachau, and in 1975 the helicopter evacuation of Saigon began.
Battle of Zhovti Vody
29 April 1648 · 378 years ago
A son sent to the Sich
Early in 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky, at the head of the Zaporozhian Cossacks at the Sich, came to an agreement with the Crimean Tatars for military help. The Grand Crown Hetman, Mikołaj Potocki, decided to crush the rising at the Sich before it could spread. According to the historian Ivan Storozhenko, he sent only part of his forces at first and kept the main army back in case it was needed.1
On 21 April that force left Cherkasy in two columns. Four regiments of registered Cossacks went down the Dnieper by boat; Valerii Stepankov, in the Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine, counts them with several hundred dragoons at about 4,000 to 5,000 men, while Storozhenko gives 4,000 Cossacks and 1,200 mercenaries. The overland column, under the hetman's son Stefan Potocki, had units of the quarter army, registered Cossacks (two regiments in Stepankov, one in Storozhenko) and 10 guns. Stepankov puts it at about 6,000 men, servants included; Storozhenko at about 4,000.2
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine names Stefan Potocki and "J. Szembek" as the Polish commanders. Storozhenko writes that Stefan was 24, and that Stefan Czarniecki and the commissioner of the registered Cossacks, Jacek Szemberk, went with him as advisers. The Polish historian Marek Rogowicz also names Czarniecki as Stefan's adviser and writes that Szemberk, whose units made up most of the force, had proposed the expedition.3
Ambush at the Yellow Waters
Khmelnytsky left the Sich to meet the overland column, probably on the night before 27 April according to Stepankov, and no later than that morning according to Storozhenko. Storozhenko writes that his plan was to beat the Polish forces one part at a time. His strength is given differently: about 5,000 Cossacks and 4,000 to 5,000 Tatars under Tugay Bey in Stepankov; more than 8,000 Cossacks and at least 20,000 Tatars in Storozhenko; and in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine 8,000 Zaporozhian Cossacks, 4,000 to 5,000 registered Cossacks who joined him after his first victories, and about 4,000 Crimean Tatars under Tugay Bey.4
Storozhenko dates the battle from 29 April to 16 May 1648, and the Polish state education platform ZPE gives the same dates and has the fighting begin on 29 April with a Tatar attack on Stefan Potocki's vanguard; Rogowicz also dates the start of the fighting to 29 April. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine dates the battle to 16 May. On 29 April Stefan Potocki made camp on the upper Zhovti Vody, today the Zhovta, a tributary of the Inhulets. Around midday, Stepankov and Storozhenko write, the vanguard of Khmelnytsky's army attacked. Stepankov writes that it defeated six Polish banners. In Storozhenko's account the vanguard was Tugay Bey's Tatar cavalry, which caught the Poles on a long halt, and within about an hour the musketeers and guns of the camp had brought its attacks to a stop. Khmelnytsky came up later with his wagon camp; Storozhenko puts his arrival about four hours after the Tatars, toward evening.5
An assault on 30 April failed, and both historians put it down to a lack of artillery: Khmelnytsky had only three small guns. On the morning of 1 May the Poles attacked the trenches the Cossacks had dug near the camp; Stepankov writes that they drove the Cossacks out. Khmelnytsky then turned to a siege, from 5 May according to Storozhenko.6
A dog, a letter and a mutiny
Cut off, Stefan Potocki tried to get word to his father. Storozhenko quotes a 17th-century Tatar poem by Dzhan-Muhammed: "Potocki's son, having no news of his father [...], sent a letter there by a trained dog. But the dog was caught and the letter intercepted. The dog was sent back. This dismayed the Poles" (our translation of Storozhenko's Ukrainian). A rider sent after the dog, the poem goes on, was stopped as well.7
The blow that decided the battle came from the Poles' own side. The registered Cossacks on the Dnieper mutinied and went over to Khmelnytsky. Storozhenko writes that they killed their officers and chose Filon Dzhalalii as their leader, and Ruslan Tkachuk of ArmyInform names Dzhalalii as their commander. The commandant of the fortress of Kodak was Krzysztof Grodzicki. On 9 May he reported to Mikołaj Potocki, in the Ukrainian text Storozhenko quotes: "I report to Your Grace, my gracious lord, sad news: on 4 May at Kamianyi Zaton the whole Zaporozhian army that was going by water mutinied and killed the colonels and all the officers" (our translation).8
The two historians date what followed differently. Stepankov has the rebel regiments join Khmelnytsky on 12 May, and the registered Cossacks inside the Polish camp go over the next day. Storozhenko has the rebels march past the Polish camp at midday on 13 May, saluting Khmelnytsky with musket fire, and the registered Cossacks and court dragoons in the camp, 1,600 men in all, go over on 14 May.9
The road to Kniazhi Bairaky
Left without infantry, Stefan Potocki negotiated. On 14 May he handed over his artillery and powder in return for safe passage to Krylov. Storozhenko adds that the two sides exchanged hostages, and that Czarniecki was among those who went to the Cossack camp. On 15 May, after talks with Tugay Bey came to nothing, the fighting resumed. By evening, Stepankov writes, the Cossacks had taken part of the trenches and the royal banner. Storozhenko writes that the defenders beat the assault off, helped by rain that dampened the attackers' powder.10
That night the Poles set out for Krylov, with Tatars attacking them through the dark. Stepankov has them march under cover of a wagon camp. Storozhenko writes that they took only 40 wagons, too few for one, and moved off at one in the morning of 16 May. In the morning the Cossacks came up and destroyed them at Kniazhi Bairaky, in Stepankov's words in one of the gullies at its exit.11
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine says that about 3,000 Poles were taken prisoner, along with two commanding officers. Tkachuk writes that hundreds of Polish soldiers were killed and about 3,000 soldiers and 50 noblemen captured. Stefan Potocki died of his wounds. Storozhenko, following the Polish historian Majewski, writes that he was badly wounded, taken by the Tatars, and died of gangrene on 19 May near the Tavan crossing of the Dnieper on the way to Crimea, with Czarniecki beside him; Tkachuk says he died of a gunshot wound. Mirosław Nagielski, citing Majewski's entry in the Polish Biographical Dictionary, writes that he died of his wounds in the Cossack camp on 19 May. Czarniecki was taken prisoner as well. Szemberk, too, ended up in Tatar captivity: Storozhenko says so, and Nagielski writes that he was taken to Crimea.12
No help from Cherkasy
Mikołaj Potocki never reached his son. According to Storozhenko, he set out from Cherkasy on 7 May, learned near Chyhyryn that the registered Cossacks had gone over, decided not to go to his son's aid, and turned back on 13 May.13
Stepankov calls Zhovti Vody the first victory of the Ukrainian army in the national revolution of 1648 to 1676, and Storozhenko the first victorious battle of the Ukrainian people's Liberation War. The victory let Khmelnytsky move on against Mikołaj Potocki's main forces, and at the end of May they were defeated at Korsun. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine dates that rout to 26 May and says that more than 8,700 prisoners were taken, among them the hetmans Mikołaj Potocki and Marcin Kalinowski.14
Siege of Corinth, 1862: Halleck's month-long crawl to an empty town
29 April 1862 · 164 years ago
Union forces under Henry W. Halleck advanced slowly on Corinth, Mississippi, a vital railroad junction held by Confederates under P.G.T. Beauregard, in the American Civil War. After a month-long siege the Confederates withdrew and Union troops took the town.
Read the full story of Siege of Corinth, 1862: Halleck's month-long crawl to an empty town ›Also on this day
1945: US Army units liberated the Dachau concentration camp. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum puts the starving prisoners in the camp at that time at about 30,000. The Dachau memorial site counts more than 200,000 prisoners from over 40 nations held in the camp and its subcamps over twelve years, and at least 41,500 dead.15
1975: On the morning of 29 April artillery shells began to fall on Tan Son Nhut air base at Saigon, and the US helicopter evacuation, Operation Frequent Wind, began. Walter J. Boyne writes that some 6,236 passengers were removed to safety in the evacuation. Our article on the fall of Saigon tells the whole story.16
