page_title: Battle of Warsaw (1831)
section_title: Fort 56
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Warsaw (1831) / Battle / 6 September / Fort 56
caption_attribution_description: English: Death of General Józef Sowiński during Russian assault on Warsaw in 1831
context_page_description: The Battle of Warsaw was fought in September 1831 between Imperial Russia and Poland. After a two-day assault on the city's western fortifications, the Polish defences collapsed and the city was evacuated. It was the largest battle and the final episode of the Polish–Russian War of 1830–31, a conflict that became better known as the November Uprising.
  After almost a year of heavy fighting, a large Russian force crossed the Vistula and besieged the capital of Poland on 20 August. Although the siege was partially lifted soon afterwards and a successful sortie allowed a communication route between the city and the rest of Poland, a large Russian force remained on the left bank of the Vistula and continued to threaten the city. Russian commander Ivan Paskevich counted on Polish surrender as his Polish counterpart, Jan Krukowiecki, was known to be a member of the moderate political forces, willing to negotiate with Russian tsar Nicholas I, who had been deposed from the Polish throne in January 1831 by the Sejm.
context_section_description: Despite the loss of forts 54, 55 and 57, Krukowiecki was still convinced that the attack on Wola was a diversion, and refused to grant General Dembiński more reinforcements. Only General Ludwik Bogusławski, commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Division, disregarded his orders and sent a single battalion of the 10th Line Infantry Regiment to Fort 56 as reinforcements. The battalion was led by Col. Piotr Wysocki, the officer who started the entire November Uprising. Dembiński abandoned Fort 58. Its artillery, along with 12 cannons and six rocket launchers from his reserves, was ordered to take positions between the first and second lines of defence, in front of Forts 21, 22 and 23. Around 9:00, when Russian forces were preparing to push further into the second line of Polish defences, Brigadier Józef Bem arrived to Wola with his 12 cannon and positioned them not far from the recently-lost Fort 54, right on the flank of Kreutz's infantry and Russian artillery shelling Fort 56. Eight more guns and four rocket launchers arrived to the northern flank of Wola and joined the defence of Fort 58. Around that time the combined artillery forces of both Russian infantry corps shifted their fire to Forts 56, 59 and 23. This time the Poles won the artillery duel. Despite Russian numerical superiority in guns and mortars, the Russian artillery suffered losses and was forced to withdraw, followed by infantry, likewise forced back into hiding behind the captured earthworks. Dembiński did not take advantage of this success, and the Polish infantry remained hidden behind fixed defences.
  Seeing no activity, the commander of the Russian II Corps ordered all his cannons to shift fire onto the 14 guns under Józef Bem. Heavily pressed, Polish artillery withstood the fire for over half an hour before switching to new positions to the right of the road to Kalisz. It resumed fire on the II Corps, but was again targeted by enemy guns. The artillery duel continued, but the situation of Fort 56 was becoming critical. Shelled from three sides, the largest Polish fort around Warsaw was now isolated. Including reinforcements brought by Col. Wysocki, the crew of the fort included approximately 1,660 infantrymen and ten pieces of artillery. By 10:00 most artillerymen had been killed or wounded (including the fort's artillery commander, Capt. Krzywicki) and had to be replaced with untrained infantrymen, which seriously limited the Polish guns' rate of fire and accuracy. All ramparts were successively damaged by Russian artillery, and there was a 30-metre breach in one of its sides.
  Paskevich, who observed the artillery duel from Fort 55, became convinced that his Polish counterpart would not come to the rescue of Fort 56. Initially hesitant, he finally ordered Russian infantry to attack Fort 56 around 10:00. The attack was carried out by 13 infantry battalions (ca. 6,900 men) from columns commanded by General Lüders and Martinov. The forces of Lüders stormed the obstacles and crossed the stockade, but Polish defenders met them with rifle volleys from within the fort, and the attack was repelled. Lüders quickly ordered his second line (2,300 men) to advance as well. The new forces were twice pushed back into the moat by the commander of the northern wing, Maj. Franciszek Biernacki, but in the end the Polish defenders were overpowered and had to withdraw further into the fort. The Russians followed, but their battalions lost cohesion, which allowed the numerically inferior force under Biernacki to hold out inside the fort and cover the flank of the central wing.
  Forces under General Martinov assaulted the central wing of Fort 56. Here the obstacles were intact, and 200 Polish soldiers repelled three consecutive assaults by a famed Moscow Guards Regiment. The Russians lost two regimental commanders before their forces managed to reach the moat. When a force of 2,900 Russians reached the top of the rampart, they were surprised by a staunch defence of a second rampart behind it. Russian infantry retreated and hid under the first rampart. Biernacki, fighting in
caption: "Death of General Sowiński", a contemporary engraving by Gustave Janet-Lange
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