Battle of Dubienka The Battle of Dubienka occurred during the Polish – Russian War of 1792 ( War of the Second Partition of Poland ) where on July 18 , 1792 , the Polish army under the command of General Tadeusz Kościuszko defended the Bug River crossing against the Russian army under General Michail Kachovski . Although the Russians had a numerical advantage of 5 : 1 over the Polish defenders , their attacks were stymied by field fortifications raised by the Poles , leading to a Polish tactical victory . Subsequent Russian flanking forced the Poles to retreat to avoid being encircled . After the Polish - Lithuanian forces left their forward positions , the Russian army occupied the area . Background . When the Russian army invaded Poland in May 1792 , they had a nearly 3 : 1 numerical advantage , forcing the Polish forces to retreat . General Tadeusz Kościuszko has been tasked with commanding the rear guard and delaying the Russian advance . The Bug river was the last natural obstacle before the Russian army and the Polish capital of Warsaw , about 250 km away . Kościuszko had been tasked by the Polish commander - in - chief , Prince Józef Poniatowski , with stopping a much larger Russian army attempting to cross the river near the village of Dubienka . Opposing forces . Kościuszko had about 5 , 300 forces under his command , while Russian general Michail Kachovski had about 25 , 000 . Kachovski had also an advantage with artillery , commanding 56 cannons to Kościuszko ' s fewer than 10 pieces . Battle . Kościuszko , an experienced engineer who had only recently designed the fortifications of West Point in the United States , had to secure the Bug at about 50 km of its length , on one end touching the Austrian border . He chose an advantageous position , protected by dense forests and swamps , and ordered construction of field fortifications , underwater traps , as well as burning of a nearby bridge . Around 15 : 00 on 18 July the Russians reached the river , and attempted to cross it in small boats near the burned bridge , while another part of their forces crossed in the north . The initial Russian attack got bogged down in difficult terrain , and they took heavy casualties from the Polish artillery , while their own was less effective shelling the Polish fortified positions . A Russian cavalry unit made it to the Polish artillery emplacements but were pushed back , and their commanding colonel Palembach killed . After five hours of repeated assaults , the Russians retreated , leaving about 4 , 000 dead . The Poles took about 900 casualties , mostly from the Russian artillery fire . After nightfall , Polish scouts reported Russians crossing to the south , through neutral Austrian territory . As the Poles were running low on supplies , Kościuszko decided that his army could not withstand a prolonged siege , and ordered a retreat towards Chełm to avoid being encircled . Aftermath . While Kościuszko was criticized for retreating by some officers , he was rewarded by king Stanisław August Poniatowski with a Virtuti Militari order . He was also praised by his opponent , General Michail Kachovski , who in his official report noted that this was the most difficult battle of the campaign so far . One week after this battle Poland capitulated .