The Battle of Kostiantyniv (Ukrainian: Битва під Костянтиновим, Polish: Bitwa pod Konstantynowem) was fought between the Zaporozhian Host and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising took place on 26 to 28 July 1648. Near the site of the present-day town of Starokostiantyniv on the Ikopot and Sluch Rivers in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the Ukrainian peasants under the command of Maksym Kryvonis and Ivan Hyria attacked the Polish–Lithuanian army under the command of Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Janusz Tyszkiewicz Łohojski and Władysław Dominik Zasławski.
Prelude
The news of the Cossack victories at the Battle of Zhovti Vody and the Korsun caused an outbreak of rebellion against the Polish-Lithuanian authorities. Samovydets writes about this in his chronicle: "Everything that lives rose up to become a Cossack". The only significant military force of the Poland-Lithuania in the vastness of Ukraine after the loss of almost the entire crown army in the Battle of Korsun remained the court army of the prince and Rus voivode Wiśniowiecki. Having received news of the defeat at Korsun, Jeremi Wiśniowiecki left Transdniepryansk.
In Left-Bank Ukraine, large rebel detachments already in early June destroyed the residence of Wiśniowiecki in Lubny, and during the same month captured Borzna, Nizhyn and Novgorod-Siversky. In the Southern Kyiv region, Bratslav region and Podillia, burning noble estates and capturing cities and towns, detachments of Maksym Kryvonis, Ivan Ganzh, Oleksandrenko, Chuyko, Tryphon of Bershad, Neminikorchma, Koshka (Kushka), Stepko and others marched. In July–August, united peasant-bourgeois formations appeared in Volhynia and Polissya, and at the end of August—in Galicia and Pokuttia, by the fall of 1648 covering the entire Ukrainian space from Chernihiv-Siver region to the Carpathians.
Having made his way with an 8,000-strong court army from the Left Bank to Polissya, in the second half of June 1648, Prince Wiśniowiecki set out to pacify the Kyiv and Bratslav regions. The princely army passed through Kotelnya, Vchoraishe, Pogrebyshe, Vakhnivka, Nemyriv and Pryluka and brutally suppressed the uprising in all these cities.
After battles with rebel detachments at Makhnivka, which did not bring a decisive advantage to either side, Wiśniowiecki together with Kyiv voivode Janusz Tyszkiewicz learned that on July 23, the rebel detachment of Maksym Kryvonis had captured Polonne. Under Konstyantyniv, the troops of Wiśniowiecki and Tyszkiewicz joined with 1,200 soldiers of the royal guard led by obozny Samuil Osinsky and 1,200 soldiers of the ordnance cavalry and dragoons of Wladyslaw Dominik Zaslavsky-Ostrozky under the command of Krzysztof Korytsky.
On July 25, Wiśniowiecki's forces learned that Kryvonos's army was a mile and a half from Kostyantyniv. A captured Cossack said that Kryvonos intended to attack the city that very night. The voivode's troops, stationed a little west of Konstyantyniv, began to approach the city. The infantry occupied it, while the cavalry stood in the field, watching for the enemy. On the morning of July 26, all the magnate forces camped near Kostiantyniv, near the Rosolovetska crossing, on the left bank of the Sluch River. Soon, a detachment of Colonel Sukhodolsky arrived here, numbering 2,300 soldiers, of whom 500 were infantrymen. The combined noble troops, according to contemporary sources, reached 10,000–15,000 soldiers.
Battle
First Battle
On July 26, in the middle of the day, Cossack reconnaissance detachments approached the right bank of the Sluch. A reconnaissance detachment set out from the magnate's camp across the ford, which managed to capture a Cossack in a fight. During interrogation, he reported that Kryvonos had 50,000 troops, about 2/3 of which were poorly armed rebel peasants. According to Polish sources, Kryvonos was accompanied by a significant part of the rebel peasants, who played a supporting role in his army. The Cossacks themselves numbered no more than 16,000. Kryvonis marched in two columns, the first with cavalry, the second with a camp of foot Cossacks and peasants.
Prince Wiśniowiecki decided to line up his army along the Sluch River, with the Kostyantyns in the rear. The noble army lined up in the traditional way for them: on the right wing stood the cavalry of Krzysztof Korytski and Janusz Tyszkiewicz, on the left wing stood Wiśniowiecki with his cavalry, and in the center was the infantry with artillery. The prince ordered several hundred Herts hunters to cross the river and engage the Cossack cavalry.
The Cossacks across the river allowed the enemy Hertsivniks to cross. Having repelled their brief attack, the Cossacks began to ford the river. Kryvonis, confident of his numerical superiority, launched a frontal attack with all his cavalry. In the vanguard was the Bila Tserkva Regiment, commanded by Ivan Girya. The mounted Cossacks were opposed by Samuil Osinsky, defending the crossing near the mill on the river, with a company of musketeers of the royal guard and a pair of small regimental cannons, supported by battery of Wiśniowiecki's guns. The nobles suffered significant losses, but thanks to concentrated artillery fire, the Cossack attack was repelled.
Then Kryvonis threw all his forces into battle (since the camp remained in the rear, apparently the infantry, not covered by the camp, entered the field). After a fierce battle, the Cossacks retreated. The nobles immediately launched a counterattack with several banners of the magnate's cavalry. Seeing success, prince Wiśniowiecki threw all his cavalry into battle, which pursued the fugitives all the way to the Cossack camp, a mile and a half away. The prince had the clear intention of breaking into the fortified camp on the shoulders of the retreating enemy.
The magnate cavalry occupied the surrounding hills, waiting for the arrival of infantry and artillery, necessary for the assault on the camp. The infantry crossed the Sluch only in the evening. Given the twilight, the significant numerical superiority of the Cossack army and the strong rifle and cannon fire from the camp, the nobles abandoned their attempt to capture it and retreated to their own bank of the river. Wiśniowiecki, who insisted on immediate assault on the camp, was unable to convince other magnate commanders, primarily Tyshkevych, of his rightness. That day, the Cossack troops lost 2,000–3,000 people. Some sources, such as Diary of Mashkevych, give estimates up to 10,000 dead rebels. This may be considered an exaggeration, but if the magnate cavalry pursued the fleeing Cossacks and rebels for a mile and a half (and before that, some of them must have been trapped between the noble ranks and the river), the losses of Kryvonos's army must have been very significant, not counting the Polonyans, including centurion Poluyan, who may have commanded the cavalry of the Cossack vanguard. From Poluyan, who, according to the Polish side, was familiar with information at the level of the Hetman's Cossack councils, it became known that Khmelnytsky had set out with a huge army and Kryvonos had the task of holding Wiśniowiecki for as long as possible.
Ceasefire
On July 27, no fighting took place, the sources do not even mention minor skirmishes. Apparently, Kryvonis conducted reconnaissance of the area during the day, considered a plan to fight in Sluch the next day and waited for the Korsun Regiment, which arrived in the area of fighting in the evening. In addition, about 10,000 rebel peasants approached Kryvonis. There is also information that in the evening Kryvonis crossed the river, above Kostyantyniv, part of his cavalry with the intention of striking the rear of the nobles.
It is also believed that on this day Kryvonis challenged Wiśniowiecki to a duel, but he did not accept the challenge.
The rebel army enjoyed the full support of the local population. On the night of July 26 to 27, the inhabitants of Kostyantyniv brought a significant amount of provisions and gunpowder to Kryvonis's camp. Wiśniowiecki became aware of this on July 27, and as a result, more than 40 townspeople were executed.
Having received news of the approach of Khmelnytsky's army, the magnate's military council, convened by Wiśniowiecki, decided to break away from the enemy and retreat to the west. Wiśniowiecki continued to insist on storming the camp, Tyshkevych also insisted on retreat, the other commanders hesitated, but since the prince, Wiśniowiecki, did not have the authority to order other commanders to do as he saw fit, it was decided to retreat.
Preparing for the retreat, Wiśniowiecki ordered the commander of the infantry regiment Osinsky to take up positions near the ford on the left bank of the Sluch River by dawn and to hold off the Cossacks during the day July 28, ensuring the retreat of the army to the west. As soon as the first signs of dawn appeared, the magnate's convoy, the guards regiment and Sukhodolsky's infantry moved towards Kulchyn (west of Konstyantyniv), followed by the cavalry at a walk.
Meanwhile, the Cossack camp advanced in the direction of the magnate camp and appeared near the river on the morning of July 28, forcing a new battle on Wiśniowiecki, which the nobles did not expect.
Second Battle
When Kryvonis began his attack, the magnate camp, infantry, and artillery had retreated to a distance of two miles from Kostyantyniv. The Ford across the Sluch was initially covered by a company of infantry (120 soldiers) under Osinski, but it was soon replaced by the dragoons of Dominik Zaslavsky.
When dawn broke, the nobles saw a Cossack army on the right bank of the Sluch, lined up in battle formation. At a signal, the Cossacks began to cross the river. Kryvonis advanced with all his forces, and the noble rearguard could not withstand such an onslaught. The Cossacks began to cross the Sluch with a wide front.
There is an interesting report about the battle order of the Cossack army before the offensive on July 28. It says that Kryvonis set up a camp on the right flank, cavalry on the left, and artillery in the center. This construction of the Cossack army was caused by the insufficient presence of cavalry, which created a tactical advantage in favor of Wiśniowiecki's army in this type of army. The insurgent army had a battle order built on the principle of strong mutual support of its individual tactical units, but it lost in an important parameter of battle — maneuverability. The lack of the necessary number of cavalry did not allow Kryvonis to line up his army according to the scheme of a counter-battle (or a battle with a retreating enemy), as Khmelnytsky did at the Battle of Zhovti Vody and near Korsun. There, an advanced detachment of mobile Tatar cavalry was allocated, which met (Zhovti Vody) or overtook (Korsun) the noble army and delayed it until the approach of the main forces, while simultaneously creating conditions for surrounding the enemy. The fact that after the Battle of Makhnivka it was not possible to catch up with Wiśniowiecki's army, although it moved at the speed of its own convoy, indicates that it was pursued by an infantry Cossack detachment, built as a camp of carts. By the way, the insufficient presence of cavalry in the Cossack army can also explain Wiśniowiecki's impunity and daring raid on Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine in June–July 1648. Since during the Cossack advance to Konstyantyniv, an infantry detachment was in the vanguard (under the protection of the camp), its marching guard consisted of infantry units, which, apparently, moved on horseback.
Quickly orienting himself in the situation, prince Wiśniowiecki turned back the cavalry. The magnate army was as follows: Krzysztof Korycki and Janusz Tyszkiewicz occupied the right wing, Prince Wiśniowiecki — the left. In the center were Sukhodolski, Osynski's infantry and artillery. Wiśniowiecki decided to use the favorable conditions and attack the Cossacks, who had just crossed and had not yet lined up in a deployed battle formation, with cavalry.
Kryvonis began crossing the Sluch with the left wing of the army. Wiśniowiecki held back the artillery fire and ordered his troops to feign retreat, allowing the Cossacks to cross. Kryvonis took this as a sign of panic among the nobility. When more than 10,000 Cossacks crossed, the entire magnate cavalry attacked them at once. The Cossacks were driven back across the river to the camp with heavy losses, and the magnate cavalry returned to their previous positions. This maneuver was repeated three times.