Napoleon's Polish Legions
The unfortunate result of the glorious revolution of Poland in 1794, and the third and final partition of that unhappy country in 1795, filled Europe with Polish refugees from the army and all classes of society, who fled from their beloved homes and dear ones as a last resort for life, and eagerly joinud the armies of republican France, under their great captain, Napoleon, who had undertaken the job of fighting through the battles of freedom, and of chastising tyrants throughout the world.
In October, 1797, General Dombrowski submitted to the directory a plan for raising a legion of Polish patriots, to serve under the French against the common enemies of France and Poland. The directory approved of the plan, but as a matter of policy alvised him to lay his plan before the Cisalpine republic ; and, with the approbation of Napoleon, the government of that republic agreed, in 1797, January 7th, to take a body of Poles into pay, who were allowed to retain their national costume, but were to adopt the French cockade. In April following, the Polish troops, who had organized under Dombrowski, amounted to five thousand. This fearless army served in Italy against the Austrians and Russians, where they distinguished themselves in several severe engagements, and did honor to the Polish forces in the glorious days of Sobi2ski.
After General Bonaparte became consul, two Polish legions entered the French service - the Italian legion, commanded by Dombrowski, and the German legion under Kniaziewicz. To the latter is due the principal honor of gaining the victory of Hohenlinden. After the peace of Luneville, both legions, numbering fifteen thousand men, were sent to Italy. The situation of France in relation to Russia, Austria, and Prussia-the powers who had destroyed Poland-being changed by the fate of war against France, and the services of the legions being no longer needed, all the promises which had been made by France to the Polish patriots were either forgotten or could not be fulfilled, and they were obliged to serve in St. Domingo, Spain, and elsewhere, as the mutable profession of arms required.
These gallant and unfortunate legions, however, aided in keeping up a nominal national existence for their country long after the Polish state had actually expired. A civil committee, the ghost of the Polish government, continued its sessions either at Paris or Italy, in strict conformity to the minutest rules of the Diet, in order that the constitutionality of their acts might not be questioned. They were therefore literally a nation without a country, constantly looking forward with great anxiety to the remuneration of their services which France had promised them, or at least encouraged them to hope for, in the re-establishment of the Polish nation and government. So sanguine were the Poles of Napoleon's aid in their restoration, that whenever the thanks of the French nation were voted to these gallant legions, Dombrowski invariably in his answers reminded the French emperor of his engagements towards Poland.
At last their expectations were partially realized in 1807 and 1808, when Napoleon organized the grand duchy of Warsaw, with four millions of inhabitants, containing Polish provinces torn from the grasp of Austria and Prussia, and established under the sovereignty of Frederic Augustus, king of Saxony, as grand-duke.
These unfortunate legions, what few survived their hard fought battles, were left to perish in poverty and obscurity, cursing with their last breath the infamy of those who had partitioned and destroyed their beloved country, and the bad faith of France, who had guaranteed its restoration as a reward for their services. It is due to Napoleon and his government to say, that had the emperor been successful in his Russian campaign, he would undoubtedly have humbled the Czar and his government, by restoring Poland at the expense of Russia, the common enemy of Poland and France ; but his failure in conquering their worst enemy placed it beyond the power of France to redeem their pledges to unfortunate Poland.
Bonaparte tried his gigantic military powers in vain to resuscitate and restore the Polish army. Seventy thousand Poles marched in the colossal army which Bonaparte led against Russia in 1812; but they soon perished in the Muscovite snows, and fell with little distinction in fighting the visionary battles of the French revolution.
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