Portrait of Adamina Kamieńska, née Potocka (1810-1894), photo Aleksander Ken, ok. 1860
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ID: OS-010172-P/190536

Adamina Kamińska

ID: OS-010172-P/190536

Adamina Kamińska

First name:

Adamina

Last Name:

Kamińska

Maiden name or alternative names:

Potocka

Parents:

Marii z Rostworowskich i Adam

Date of birth:

1809

Place of birth:

Lublin

Date of death:

18-05-1894

Place od death:

Paryż

Age:

84

Biography:

Mikołaj Władysław Korwin-Kamieński coat-of-arms Ślepowron [Mikołaj Władysław Korwin-Kamieński, coat-of-arms Ślepowron] (b. 6 December 1799, Dubien County - d. 5 February 1873, Paris), Polish officer, participant in the November Rising, emigration activist, member of the Historical and Literary Society in Paris, father of Mieczysław Kamieński. Son of Andrzej and Rozalia née Kamieńska, nephew of General Henryk Kamieński, husband of Adamina née Potocka.

In 1816 he enrolled at the preparatory school for the Polytechnic Institute, and two years later, in 1818, joined the 2nd Uhlan regiment as a cadet. In 1822 he was appointed second lieutenant, and in 1828 lieutenant of the 1st lancer regiment. He was dismissed in 1830, but returned to military service after the outbreak of the November Uprising. From December 1830, he served in the Lublin cavalry as a major, then as captain in the 5th lancer regiment and in the 2nd Lublin Cracovian regiment. From 15 June 1831, he commanded the Lithuanian-Volhynia Legion, and later the 7th lancer regiment - already in the rank of lieutenant-colonel (from 15 August 1831). He took part in the battles of Grochów and Ostrołęka.

On 6th May 1831, he was awarded the Gold Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, and on 4th October 1831 the Knight's Cross of that order.

After the fall of the uprising, he went to Galicia and was expelled from there in 1834. He spent three years in Lausanne and Florence. In 1837, he planned to establish a Polish settlement on the coast of Algeria, but settled permanently in Paris in 1838. From 1842, he was associated with the Towiań circle. During the Spring of Nations, in 1848, he was appointed commander of the Polish Legion in Lombardy, organised by Adam Mickiewicz, and promoted to the rank of colonel on 1 May that year. He took part in the Legion's 1849 campaign and was awarded the Piedmontese medal al Valore Militare.

In 1852 he again settled in Paris and became politically associated with the Hôtel Lambert camp. In February 1856, he was appointed commander of the 2nd regiment of Sultan's Cossacks, and on 2 April that year he took command of a Polish cavalry brigade formed by Władysław Zamoyski in the Balkans. However, he was soon expelled by the English command from Istanbul for political reasons and returned to France.

During the January Uprising (1863), he became involved in conspiratorial activity - organising the transport of volunteers to the country and serving as a delegate of the military commissioner of the National Government to the Polish Committee in Paris.

He remained an active member of the pro-independence émigrés until the end of his life. He was a member of the Historical and Literary Society in Paris from 1842. He died on 5 February 1873 in Paris.

Kamieński also played an important role in shaping the patriotic attitudes of his only son, Mieczysław, who died in 1859 as a soldier in the Foreign Legion in Italy. After his death, Mikołaj commemorated him with the publication Mieczysław Kamieński, tué à Magenta (Paris 1861) and the notes Short Life, Long Sorrow and Three-Month Dying of an Only Son, kept at the Polish Library in Paris.

Publication:

24.05.2025

Last updated:

25.05.2025
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Portrait of Adamina Kamieńska, née Potocka (1810-1894), photo Aleksander Ken, ok. 1860

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