Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1848-01-26

to consume the Oppressor. -
The Battle of Grokow, the greatest in Eu-
rope, since that of Waterloo, was fought on the
25th of February 1881, and the place where
stood commanded a view of the whole ground.
The Russian army was under the command oil
Diebitsch, and consisted of one hundred and for
~ two thousand infantry, forty thousand cav
airy and three hundred and twelve pieces of
cannon. This enormous furce was arranged
i'm two lines of combatants, and third of res
erve. Its left wing, between Warsaw andthe
marshes Of the Vistua, consisted of four divis-
ions of infantry, of forty-seven thousand men,
three of cavalry, thee Of cavalry of ten thous-
and five hundred. and eighty pieces of cannon:
the right consisted of three and half divisions
of infantry, of thirty one thousand nen-four
divisions o. cavalry, of fifteen thousand seven
hundred and fifty men, and fifty-two pieces of
cannon. Upon the borders of the great Forest
of Elders, conspicuous from where stood. was
placed the reserve, commanded by the Grand
Duke Constantine. Against this vast army
the Poles opposed less than fifty thousand men
and hundred pieces of cannon, under the COM
mand of Gen. Skuiznecki.
At break of day the whole force OF the Rus
sian right wing, with a terrible fire of fifty pie
ged the Polish left, with the determination of
earring it by single and overpowering effort.
The Poles, with six thousand five hundred men
and twelve pieces of artillery, not yielding
foot of ground, and knowing they could hope
for no srccor, resisted this attack for several
hours until the Russians slackened their fire.
About ten o'clock the plain was suddenly COW
cred with the Russian forces issuing from tie
cover of the forest, seeming, like one undivided
mass of troops. Two hundred pieces of can
non posted on single line, commenced fire
which made the earth tremble, and was more
terrible than the Oldest officers, manv of whom
had fought at Marengo and Austerlitz, had ev-
'er beheld. The Russians now made an attack
upon the right wing, but failed in this as on the
left. Diebitsch ordered the strength of his ar
my against the Forest of Elders, hoping to d.
vide the Poles in two parts. One hundred and
twenty pieces of cannon were brought to bear
on this one point, and fifty battallions ncessant-
ly pushed to the attack, kept up a scene of mas
sacre unheard of in the annals of war. A Po-
lish officer who was in the battle, told me that
the small streams which intersected the forest
were so choked with dead that the infantry
marched directly ever their bodies. The hero
ic Poles, with twelve battaIiions, for four hours
defended the forest against the tremendous at
tack. Nine times they were driven out, and
nine times, by series of admir- ably executed
manoeuvres, they repulsed the Russians with
immense loss. Batteries now concentrated on
one point, were in a faement hurried to another
and the artillery advanced like cavalry to the
charge, sometimes to within hundred feet of
the encmy's columns, and there epeaed a muir
derous fire of grape.
At three o'clock the Generals, many of whom
were wounded,--the most of whom had their
horses shot under, and fought on foot at the
head OF their Divisions, on retrog-
rade movement. so as to draw the Russians out
on the open plain. The Russian troops then
debouched from the forest, a cloud of Russian
cavalry, with several regiments of heavy cuiras-
siers at their head, to the attack. Col. Pient-
ka, who had kept up an unremitting FIRE for 5
hours, with perfect sang froid, upon disabled
piece of cannon, remained to give another effec-
tive fire, then left at full gallop post which he
had so long occupied under the terrible fire Of
the enemy's artillery. This rapid movement of
his battery animated the Russian forces. The
cavalry advanced at trot upon the line of a
battery of rockets. A terrible discharge was
poured into their ranks, and the horses, CALLED
TO madness BY the flashes of fire, became who'll
ly ungovernable, and broke away, spreading dis
order in every direction: the whole body swept
helplessly along the fire Of the Polish infantry.
and in a few minutes was so completely ami
hilated that of a regiment of cuirassiers, who
bore inscribed on their helmets the snvincbles'
not man escaped. The wreck of the routed
cavalry pursued by the lancers, carried along in
its flight, the columns of infantry. general
retreat commenceds and the cry of Poland forev-
er, reached the walls of Wsrsaw to cheer the
hearts Gifts anxious inhabitants. Sa terrible
was the fire of that day, that in the Polish Army
there was no. single general or staff officer
who had not his horse killed or wounded under
him two thirds of the officers, an. perhaps of
the soldiers, had their clothes, pierced with balls
and more than tenth part of the army were
wounded. Thirty thousand Russians and ten
thousand Poles were left on the field of battle
rank upon rank lay PROSTATE on the ground, and
the Forest of Elders was so strewed with bod
les that it received the name of the forest oil
the dead" The Gar heard with dismay, and
all Europe with establishment, that the crosser
of the Balkan had been foiled under the walls oil
Warsaw.
All day, my companion said, the connonad-
ing was terrible. Crowds of citizens, of both
sexes and ali ages, were assembled on the spot
where we stood, earnestly watching the pro-
gress of the battle, sharing in all its vicissi-
tudes, IN the highest state of excitement, as the
clearing UP of the columns of smoke showed
when the Russians or Poles had fed and he
described the entry of the remnant of the Polish
army into Warsaw, as sublime and terrible -
their hair and faces were begrmmed with pow.
der and blood their armor shattered and bro
ken, and all, even dying men, were singing pat
riotic songs and when the fourth regiment
among whom was brother of nv companloa
and who had particularly distinguished them
selves in the battle, crossed the bridge and flef
slowly through the streets, their lances SILVER
ed against the cuirasses of the guards, their hel
NETS broken, their faces black and spotted will
blood, some erect, some tottreing, and some
barely able to sustain themselves in the saddle