More than 200 years ago in Eibau, Polish hussars were bestially killed by Russian Cossacks. The brutality so moved the Saxons that they decided not only to bury the slain Poles, but also to commemorate their deaths. Few people remember this story today, however, and the barbarity of the Russian soldiers is now repeated in Ukraine.

The little-known battlefield of Eibau
Eibau, is a small village in Saxony lying on the border with the Czech Republic, along a stretch of road 96 from Zittau to Bautzen. The average tourist does not find any special attractions here. The exception may be the dozen or so buildings from the turn of the 18th/19th century, but there is, after all, no shortage of much older monuments throughout Saxony. The village, however, hides some history from the Napoleonic era, which the present inhabitants know little about, let alone tourists. It is therefore hardly surprising that until autumn 2013 it was also unknown to Polish researchers documenting the armed efforts of the Duchy of Warsaw's cavalry regiments in the Saxon campaign of 1813. The story was brought to light by a local expert in regional history and he pointed out a place hallowed by the blood of Polish cavalrymen killed in a clash with Russian light cavalry.

Tombstone of Polish hussars in Eibau
Knowledge of the heavy losses suffered by Poles in the area in 1813 was not new, but the very fact of the clash at Eibau and the form of commemoration of its victims came as quite a surprise. On the western outskirts of the village, between Ebersbacher Weg and Bahnhofstrasse, there is a small stone memorial, the so-called Husarenstein or Polenstein. It is a commemoration made of granite in the form of a stele rounded at the top. It is 100 cm high, 55 cm wide and 25 cm thick.

On the front side of the gravestone is an engraved inscription in German (secondarily authenticated in white paint): "Hier liegen / 2 Poln.[ischen] Husar.[en] / Sie fielen durch / Russ.[ischer] Krieger / d. 3. Sept.[ember] 1813 / G.S.I.S.G. / C.G.B.". The back wall of the monument is decorated with a modest convex wrought-iron cross. The Polish translation of the main part of the inscription reads: "Here rest / two Polish hussars / died at the hands / of Russian soldiers / on 3 September 1813".

Indeed, two, anonymous hussars from a cavalry patrol of the Duchy of Warsaw that encountered a strong detachment of Cossacks suffered death at Eibau. The clash was not some random skirmish detached from the actions Napoleon's corps took against the Russian-Austrian-Prussian coalition armies. On the contrary, it belonged to a series of several dozen fierce battles fought by cavalry groups of both sides just after the battle of Dresden fought on 26-27 August 1813.

The battle of the Polish hussars at Eibau
The clash at Eibau was one of exceptional drama. The Polish hussars died in a horrific manner in front of villagers shocked by the incredible bestiality of the Cossacks. The brutality of the Russian savagery moved the Saxons to such an extent that they decided not only to bury the slain Poles, but also to commemorate their deaths. They erected a small commemoration on the grave at their own expense.

An eyewitness, the then postmaster Carl Gottfried Bartsch, chronicler of local history, described the event as follows:

"[...] Through the window of the house, from behind the curtains, my wife and I saw a mounted patrol appear nearby, a dozen Polish hussars. Suddenly they were attacked by a detachment of Cossacks, clearly anxious to surround them. Most escaped, two failed. The Cossacks closed the circle and began stabbing them with spades and chopping them with sabres. The two fell off their horses, but continued to be chopped with such ferocity that only a bloody mass remained of the bodies.

The first lost his life instantly. The second, wounded, they captured, dragged him a few paces, but he could not walk, so they killed him near the gate of the nearest farm, in a field. They killed him with a pistol shot to the chest, and then grazed him in a barbaric manner, with sabres almost cutting off his head.

When the Cossacks drove away, we, horrified by what had happened, and above all by the terrible work of the Cossacks, decided to bury the two poor men. An hour later we left the house. Their beautiful Hussar uniforms were drenched in blood. We saw that one was older [in age], the other was quite young, grown up, of solid build. It was him that they shot and cut in the neck with sabres, and then, still in the custom of war, they pulled down his trousers and left him in his pantaloons; he lay stretched out by the road, still bleeding.

We buried them on the border of two fields, and to commemorate this incident, we placed a stone on the grave."

Carl Gottfried Bartsch wrote in the plural, but the initiator of the burial and commemoration of the fallen was himself, as a deeply believing Catholic. Under the inscription he ordered the letters: "G.S.I.S.G." presumably meaning: "Gott sei Ihrer Stele gnädig" ("May God have mercy on their souls"), and below modestly, only the initials of his surname ("C.G.B.").

Polish hussar units in Saxony
The Polish troops found themselves in Saxony as a result of Napoleon's defeat in Russia in 1812 and the retreat of the remnants of his army to the west, and the consequent impossibility of defending the Duchy of Warsaw against the advancing Tsarist army. Prince Józef Poniatowski was aware of the weakness of the remnants of his own units. He therefore replenished their ranks with recruits and, over time, withdrew from the Duchy to join Napoleon. This was in the winter and spring of 1813. By this time, the French Emperor was already beating the Russians and Prussians at Lützen and Bautzen and at Reichenbach with his reconstituted corps. Polish troops marched towards him from Krakow through the Czech lands, Cieszyn, Frýdek, Přerov, Brno, Iglawa, Kolin, Poděbrady, Mnichovo and Gabel. The marching columns finally reached the designated concentration area in Žitava in mid-June 1813. The infantry, cavalry and artillery camped on a wide plateau next to the town, almost 250 officers were given individual quarters in the surrounding villages, including 20 in Eibau. Who knows, perhaps a few of these officers ended up under the roof of the home of the enlightened Carl Gottfried Bartsch?

The troops of the Duchy of Warsaw transformed into the VIII Army Corps fought in Saxony until 19 October 1813. - the day of the final defeat of Napoleon's armies at the Battle of Nations at Leipzig.