Near Legnica, he defeated the Prussian guards’ cavalry and took many Germans prisoner. With the entire squadron, he continually carried out reconnaissance missions: he captured prisoners.
On June 4, a ceasefire takes effect. The demarcation line runs from Kamienna Góra to the Oder in the north. The front has become frozen. The lancers’ dreams of marching toward the Vistula are over... Maj. D. Chłapowski escorts the emperor’s staff to the peace talks. There, a Russian officer whispers to him that Napoleon wants to give the Duchy of Warsaw to Russia. Poland is therefore a pawn on the chessboard of the Emperor of the French. This determines that the Polish lancer officer will soon leave Napoleon.
The ceasefire was beneficial to both sides: each was preparing for further military operations. The Emperor of the French moved his headquarters from Środa to Dresden, from where he was closer to Paris. Once again, he passed through Bolesławiec. During the ceasefire, the emperor managed to increase the army’s strength to 400,000. He drew the remaining recruits from the country. Only the cavalry was small in number: after years of war, there was a shortage of horses in Europe. The preparations for war also included the Polish lancer regiment, which spent the truce with the emperor in Saxony. Only 60 lancers, under Captain Jankowski, were quartered in Kliczków on the Kwisa.
General Prince Józef Poniatowski, who had formed the Polish Army alongside Napoleon, was stationed in Galicia at that time, where he formed new light cavalry units called Krakusi. The first 1,000 Krakusi were Cracovians whose uniforms resembled traditional Krakow dress. In mid-May, the corps of Gen. Prince J. Poniatowski, pressured by the Austrians, marched toward Saxony in accordance with the wishes of the Emperor of the French, where Napoleon warmly welcomed Poniatowski’s corps. The corps paraded before the French leader, and Napoleon applauded at the sight of the Krakusi, who rode small peasant horses.
The remaining Polish lancer squadrons also arrived with Poniatowski, as did the remnants of the Lithuanian regiment of Col. J. Konopka. All the Polish lancers, numbering several squadrons, were together again. Their joy knew no bounds. They recalled those who had fallen in various corners of Europe: in Italy, on the Danube, in Spain and near Moscow. A half-squadron of Tatar cavalry under Captain Ułan also arrived from Galicia and reinforced the lancer regiment. The regiment consisted of eight squadrons, or approximately 1,700 horsemen and about 2,000 horses—the same number it had after being formed in 1807. About 4,000 of them returned from near Moscow...
The entire lancer regiment spent the spring and the beginning of summer in Saxon Switzerland. The lancers trained, broke in horses, rested, sailed boats on the Elbe, entertained themselves and seduced Saxon women.
The combined Prussian and Russian armies broke the truce on August 10, although it was supposed to last until August 16. The commander of the combined armies, Prussian Field Marshal Bluecher, nicknamed “Vorvaerts,” meaning “Forward,” wanted to surprise the French troops: “he was so eager for battle,” writes a chronicler of the time. But a few days later Napoleon gave him a sound thrashing near Lwówek, and only the sudden offensive by the Austrian army toward Saxony saved old Bluecher’s troops from complete defeat. The Prussians, allied with Austria—the former ally of Napoleon—were conspiring with the Austrian troops.
War once again erupted in Lower Silesia, involving approximately 1 million soldiers. Napoleon’s main forces were in Saxony. Weak covering forces were stationed in Silesia. In the Bolesławiec area operated the Russian corps of Gen. Osten von Sacken; in the Sudeten Foothills area, the Prussian corps of Gen. York; from the direction of Głogów advanced the corps of the former Marshal Franq'i Bernadotte, who had betrayed the emperor; and beyond the Sudetes stood the Austrian army of Field Marshal Schwarzenberg, until then an ally of the French. They were advancing toward Saxony.
Against the Austrians, the emperor sent the corps of Gen. Prince J. Poniatowski and the division of Gen. H. Dąbrowski. Napoleon, meanwhile, took command of the French army. He crossed the Lusatian Neisse and attacked the Prussian and Russian troops. He struck energetically and halted their advance along the line of the Nysa Szalona and Kaczawa, then took up a position along the Bóbr between Bolesławiec and Lwówek. The war was therefore drawing closer to Bolesławiec. Let us look at the events that followed in our town and its surroundings. The French, under Gen. Marmont, who occupied Bolesławiec during the truce, turned the town into a fortress. Because of its geographical location, the town was to play a special role. The defensive walls were dismantled, redoubts were built, a considerable part of the woodland was cut down, and several hundred cannons were placed in firing positions—about 100 of them facing Ocice alone. Approximately 1,000 sappers and the same number of townspeople took part in the fortification work.
On the third day of the Prussian-Russian offensive, a battle took place between Wilczy Las and Tomaszów, where the famous Marshal Ney defeated and halted the advance of the Russian corps of Gen. Osten von Sacken. The French nevertheless abandoned Bolesławiec, first blowing up the large powder and ammunition magazines. The explosion caused cracks in many houses, and roof tiles flew from rooftops across a large part of the town.
to be continued.