The Siege of The Cossack Wagons
The Polish army stood on alert for several days, intending to prevent the Cossack wagon-fort from moving off. Initially, the Cossacks were commanded by Colonel Filon Dzhalalii, but after a few days he was replaced by Ivan Bohun. On July 10, the Cossacks fell into a panic, believing that their commanders had run off in the night, leaving them to their fate. The Polish forces attacked the panicked Cossacks and the battle turned into a slaughter. There were 30,000 dead in the camp, including some women and children.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Berestechko
Famous quotes containing the words siege, cossack and/or wagons:
“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The Cossack eats Poland,
Like stolen fruit;
Her last noble is ruined,
Her last poet mute:
Straight, into double band
The victors divide;
Half for freedom strike and stand;—
The astonished Muse finds thousands at her side.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My father and mother in 1817 were forty-nine days on the road with their emigrant wagons [from Vermont] to Ohio. More than two days for each hour that I spent in the same journey.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)