On 8 June 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, the Russian corps of General Derfelden defeated the insurgent division of General Józef Zajączek outside Chełm, in eastern Poland. Zajączek's regular troops, fighting beside a peasant levy of scythemen, were forced to retreat, and the levy scattered. The defeat came two days after Kościuszko's own at Szczekociny.
Battle of Chełm
8 June 1794 · 232 years ago
Guarding the Bug
In the spring of 1794 the insurgents had to face Russian troops on several fronts. Tadeusz Kościuszko sent General Józef Zajączek to command against the Russian corps of Lieutenant General Derfelden on the Bug. Kościuszko himself was beaten at Szczekociny on 6 June.1
At the end of May Colonel Michał Chomentowski came to Chełm to raise a peasant levy, which he was to lead into battle, while Zajączek took command of the regular troops gathered near the town. Some 6,000 peasants of the Chełm and Lublin lands joined the levy.2
The battle
On 8 June Derfelden's Russians attacked Zajączek's army outside Chełm. The scythemen of the levy broke and scattered, and Zajączek had to retreat. The Bitwy polskie lexicon describes a Russian attack on the Polish right stopped by artillery fire, a failed attack by the Polish infantry and scythemen on the left, and a final Russian blow, after heavy artillery fire, that broke the Polish left.3
The strengths and losses are not known with any certainty. Bitwy polskie gives about 16,300 insurgents against a Russian corps of 13,000, and Polish losses of about 600 killed, wounded and missing, with about 1,000 scythemen scattered; Tadeusz Korzon gives Derfelden's corps as about 6,000 strong when it was first sent toward the Bug.4
After the defeat
The defeat ended the work of the insurgent order commission of the Chełm land. Its president, Porfiry Ważyński, and the plenipotentiary of the Supreme National Council, Ignacy Krzucki, fled with the commission's treasury and ended up in Zamość, beyond the Austrian border.5
The historian Tadeusz Korzon judged that Zajączek showed no talent either in command or in dealing with the order commission and the country people, who ran from the camp; Jan Lewandowski likewise writes that Zajączek failed to make skilful use of the levy. Kościuszko's life is told in our biography of Tadeusz Kościuszko, and the uprising's first victory in our article on Racławice.6
Battle of Antioch, 218: the boy emperor and the fleeing Macrinus
8 June 218 · 1808 years ago
Near Antioch, the army of Emperor Macrinus fought troops loyal to the young Elagabalus, whom the soldiers had proclaimed emperor as Caracalla's heir. Macrinus left the field and lost, which led to his fall and put Elagabalus on the throne.
Read the full story of Battle of Antioch, 218: the boy emperor and the fleeing Macrinus ›Also on this day
1941: early on 8 June, Allied troops crossed the frontier into Syria and Lebanon, held by the forces of Vichy France. As the invasion began, General Catroux, speaking for de Gaulle and the Free French, declared that they meant to end the mandate and proclaim Syria and Lebanon free and independent, and the British ambassador in Egypt associated his government with that assurance. The campaign ended when terms were signed on 14 July.7
