page_title: Józef Poniatowski
section_title: Duchy of Warsaw and victory in the 1809 Austro-Polish War
hierarchical_section_title: Józef Poniatowski / Duchy of Warsaw and victory in the 1809 Austro-Polish War
caption_attribution_description: Pieczęć księcia Józefa Poniatowskiego, ministra wojny Księstwa Warszawskiego author User:Mathiasrex Maciej Szczepańczyk
context_page_description: Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski was a Polish leader, general, minister of war and army chief, who became a Marshal of the French Empire.
  A nephew of King Stanisław II Augustus, his military career began in 1780 in the Austrian army, where he attained the rank of a colonel. In 1789, after leaving the Austrian service, he joined the Polish army. Poniatowski, now in the rank of major general and commander of the Royal Guards, took part in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, leading the crown forces in Ukraine, where he fought a victorious battle of Zieleńce.
  After the king's support for the Targowica Confederation Poniatowski was forced to resign. In 1794 he participated in the Kościuszko Uprising and was in charge of defending Warsaw for which he was subsequently exiled. In 1798 Poniatowski was permitted to return, however, he refused the offer to serve in the Imperial Russian army submitted to him by Tsar Alexander I.
  In 1806, after the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw, Józef Poniatowski was appointed the minister of war.
context_section_description: Following French Emperor Napoleon I's victory at the Battle of Jena and the ensuing evacuation by Prussia of her Polish provinces, in November 1806 Poniatowski was asked by the Prussian king Frederick William III to assume the governorship of Warsaw, to which he agreed; he also assumed the command of the city's municipal guard and citizen militia forces organized by local residents. All of this turned out to be a short-lived Polish provisional authority, because quick succession of events on the European scene presented the Poles with new opportunities and forced upon them new choices.
  At the end of that year Joachim Murat and his forces entered Warsaw and Poniatowski had to define his role within this new political reality. It took protracted negotiations with Murat (they liked each other and quickly became friends) and persuasion by Józef Wybicki (who urged the Prince to get on board, before the window of historic opportunity closes), but before the year was over Poniatowski was declared by Murat to be "chief of the military force" and was leading the military department on behalf of the French authorities. Dąbrowski, who was the choice of many Polish veterans of the Polish Legions and of the Insurrection, as well as Zajączek were bypassed, even though they both had served under Napoleon when Poniatowski was inactive. On 14 January 1807, by the Emperor's decree, the Warsaw Governing Commission was created under Stanisław Małachowski, and within this structure Poniatowski became officially Director of the Department of War and set about organizing the Polish army.
  In July 1807 the Duchy of Warsaw was created. In its government Poniatowski on 7 October became Minister of War and Head of Army of the Duchy of Warsaw (minister wojny i naczelny wódz wojsk Ks. Warszawskiego), while Napoleon, not yet quite trusting him, left the supreme military command in Davout's hands until summer of 1808. Poniatowski officially became Commander in Chief on 21 March 1809. The Minister of War became completely devoted to the creation and development of this new, ostentatiously Polish army. The Duchy's army existed and operated under most difficult circumstances and its success depended largely on the military and political skills of the chief commander. For example, it was severely underfunded and most of the military units were kept by Napoleon outside of the country, to be used in numerous campaigns, which is why Prince Józef had a rather small force at his disposal during the war of 1809.
  In spring of 1809 Poniatowski led his army against an Austrian invasion under the Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este, in the war that was regarded by Austrian high command as a crucial element of their struggle with Napoleonic France. At the bloody Battle of Raszyn near Warsaw on 19 April, where he personally led his men in an infantry bayonet charge (throughout his career he did a number of these), Polish forces under Poniatowski's command fought to a standstill an Austrian force twice their number. Afterwards however decided not to defend Warsaw and withdrew with his units to the east bank of the Vistula River, to the fortified Praga suburb, which the Austrians attacked, but were defeated at Grochowo on 26 April. An Austrian division then crossed the Vistula again trying to pursue the Poles, but was routed on 2 May at Góra Kalwaria in a daring attack led by General Michał Sokolnicki. Ferdinand made a couple of attempts more, trying to establish a bridgehead on the other side of the Vistula, but those were defeated, which left the initiative in Poniatowski's hands. From there he quickly advanced south, staying close to the Vistula to control the situation and taking over large areas of Galicia, that is southern Poland that was controlled by Austria under the partitioning arrangement. On 14 May Lublin was taken, on the 18th fortified and vigorously defended Sandomierz. On the 20th the Zamość fortress was overpowered, where 2000 prisoners and 40 cannons were taken, and even further east Lwów was taken on 27 May. These military developments com
caption: Seal of Poniatowski as Minister of War of the Duchy of Warsaw
exif: {}