“Here in Greece, may our martial fate bloom again, which was destroyed in France. Just like at the beginning of our military career, may our youthful courage revive, our age, and then, when our bodies are full of wounds, let the Turks cut off our ears and noses and heads together and send them to Constantinople.

But let them give the Sultan the message: here are two heads of French warriors who killed a hundred faithful, but remained faithful to honor and freedom until the end. Then they can plant our gray heads on the walls of the capital to have an example, not of our death, but that one can die for their faith.”

-Polish captain Franciszek Mierzejewski.

Cover photo: Elba Squadron of the 1st Light Horse Regiment Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard by Jan Chełmiński.

He truly was a son of the god of war. Born on October 22, 1786, he was enlisted on September 26, 1807, and served as a cavalryman in the 1st Regiment of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon. On November 1, 1811, he served in the 5th division, and on January 1, 1812, he led the 3rd division. He returned with Napoleon to France on March 1, 1815, and on May 22, 1815, he became a sub-lieutenant of the 1st division of the Cheval Legers-Lancers Guard Regiment.

With immense military action, he participated in the campaigns of 1808-15 in the following battlefields: Wagram (July 5-6, 1813), Vitebsk (July 26-27, 1812), Mozhaysk (September 5-7, 1812), Berezina (November 26-29, 1812), Lützen (May 2, 1813), Bautzen (May 20-21, 1813), Dresden (August 26-27, 1813), Leipzig (October 16-19, 1813), and also at Hanau (October 30-31, 1813), Montmirail (February 11, 1814), Château-Thierry (February 12, 1814), Laon (March 9, 1814), Arcis-sur-Aube (March 20-21, 1814), Ligny (June 16, 1815), and Waterloo (June 18, 1815).

He was awarded the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor on May 14, 1813, for his participation in the Battle of Lützen on May 2, 1813, where he captured the son of the Prussian general Blücher.

After 1815, Mierzejewski left his homeland again and went to South America, where he fought under the command of Bolivar for the independence of the Spanish colonies. After that, he returned to Europe and took part in the uprisings of the Italian Carbonari in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (07.1820) and in Piedmont (01-03.1821).

Just before his final battle at Peta (4 July 1822) in Epirus, he made the following confession to his immediate commander, Italian Colonel A. Danya: “Everywhere I have fought, under the command of Napoleon and Bolivar, in France, in Russia, in Piedmont, in Naples, and South America, I have seen how poorly the world is organized. But I am at peace, my conscience is clear, because from my youth I have fought for the rights of the oppressed. Remaining true to my creed, I have only one desire: to die for the Freedom of the Greeks. May God grant me rest in this heroic land.”

Mierzejewski made this statement while being calmly and with such confidence that the Greek soldiers present, though they did not fully understand what was said, bowed their heads and crossed their hands over their chests, as in church.

The combination of two tactically incompatible troops in a unified battle formation, namely the irregular Greek units on one side and the Tarella Battalion (120 men) and the Philhellene Corps on the other, resulted in a heavy defeat for the Greek revolutionaries. Approximately 600 Greeks and foreign Philhellenes fell dead, as did around 1,000 Ottoman Turks. The primary objective of the Ottomans, which was the surrender of the Souliotes¹, was achieved.

Sources:

Johan Daniel Elster, “Das Bataillon Der Philhellenen: Dessen Errichtung, Feldzug Und Untergang”, publ. Nabu Press, 2010.

X. Stasinopoulos, “Dictionary of the Greek Revolution of 1821”, publ. Dedemadis, 1970.

L. Koutsonikas, “General History of the Greek Revolution,” publ. D. Karakatsanis, Athens, 1863, Volume IV.

www.eefshp.org

Footnotes:

1. The Souliotes were a community of Orthodox Christians who inhabited the historical region of Souli in Epirus during the period of Ottoman rule. Greek Arvanites, they were particularly known for their armed resistance against Ali Pasha of Ioannina, who, after three fierce wars, managed to expel them from Souli in 1803.They participated in the Greek War of Independence in 1821, with notable leaders such as Marcos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas. ↩︎