Song of the Legions (41 page)

Babcia - Grandmother or old woman

Basia - Polish for ‘Barbara’,

can also be used for ‘old woman’

Boyar - Russian nobleman

Caisson - Two-wheeled

ammunition carriage

Caracole - Single half turn to

 
left or right on horseback

Drumhead - Carried out at speed

according to military regulations.

A Drumhead Court Martial

is a summary execution!

Glacis - Sloping defensive fortification

Hetman - Chief

Jacobin - Extremist French Revolutionary

political party
.

‘Jacobin’ was also used

as a term of abuse

as ‘communist’ is today

Jockey - Hired thug on a horse.

The modern meaning is

obviously different

Knout - A vicious Russian whip

also used in Poland

Kolpak - Brimmed or brimless

high-crowned hats of the period

Kontusz - Horseman’s long coat

Krolik - Petty king or warlord,

also means ‘small rabbit’

Mamusia-
 
Mummy (Mother)

Pan/Pani - Mr/Mrs

Pierogi - Polish dumplings

Pisanki - Easter Eggs

Pistolet - Pistol or gun,

also means ‘hothead’

Sto lat! - ‘May you live a

hundred years!’ (Cheers!)

Sukmana - Man’s overcoat,

part of the national costume

Szlachta - Polish nobility

Tynf - Polish coins of the time

were the tynf, grosz, and zloty

Uhlans - Hussars (cavalry)

Zoldu - Soldier’s pay

Zupan - Long, colourful garment

worn under the kontusz

A full guide to the Polish names and words found in this book, their alternative spellings, and to
Polish
pronunciation, can be found on the author’s website
www.songofthelegions.com
.

Polish pronunciation is tricky. In brief, where Polish words and names are used in this book –

‘c’ is pronounced ‘ts’, so the villainous Felix Potocki’s name is pronounced ‘Pot-ots-ski’. (Fortunately most people called him Felix.)

‘sz’ is pronounced ‘sh’, so kontusz (a horseman’s coat) is ‘kont-ush’.

‘w’ is pronounced ‘v’, so Dabrowski is ‘Dabrovski’, Krakow is ‘Krak-ov’ and Lwow is ‘Lvov’, Poniatowski is ‘Poniatovski’, Sierawski is ‘Sieravski’, Twardowski is ‘Tvardovski’, and Wigilia (Christmas Eve) is ‘Vigilia’, and so on.

‘i’ is usually pronounced ‘ee’.

So Targowica and Targowican are therefore ‘Targoveetsa’ and ‘Targoveetsan’.

Lastly, ‘
Kosciuszko’
deserves a note all of its own. It is pronounced ‘Kosh-choo-shko’. There are numerous towns, villages and even hills and mountains in Austrialia and the USA named after Tadeusz
Kosciuszko
, and one wonders how these are rendered in the local dialect!

IN ENGLISH

God’s Playground, Norman Davies, Oxford University Press 2005

A Concise History of Poland (Second Edition) Lukowski and Zawadzki) Cambridge 2006

Tactics and Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon, Rory Muir, Yale University Press 2000

Memoirs of the Polish Baroque, Jan Chrysostom Pasek, translated by C.S. Leach, University of California Press 1976

Poles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars, George Nafziger, Emperor’s Press 1991

Holy Madness, Adam Zamoyski, Phoenix Press 1999

The Manuscript Found In Saragossa, translated by Ian MacLean, Penguin 1995

In the Legions of Napoleon, Heinrich von Brandt, translated by Julian North, Greenhill Books 1999

Memoirs of a Polish Lancer, Dezydery Chlapowski, translated by Tim Simmons, Emperor’s Press 1992

Old Polish Traditions, Lemnis & Vitry, Hippocrene Books 2001

Napoleon’s Mercenaries, Guy C. Dempsey, Greenhill Books 2002

Reveries on the Art of War, (De Saxe) translated by General Thomas R. Phillips, Dover Publications 2007

Poland’s Caribbean Tragedy, Jan Pachonski and Reuel K. Wilson, Columbia University Press 1986

IN ENGLISH and POLISH

Pan Tadeusz (1832) Adam Mickiewicz (translated by Kenneth R. Mackenzie) Hippocrene Books 1986

IN POLISH

Jan Pachonski, Legiony Polskie, Prawda I Legenda (Polish Legions, Truth and Legend), Volumes I – IV, (Ministry of Defence, Poland) 1969

Jan Pachonski, General Jan Henryk Dabrowski, (Ministry of Defence, Poland) 1981, Jan Pachonski, Slownik Biograficzny Oficerow Polskich (Biographical Dictionary of Polish Officers) and Korpus Oficerski Legionow Polskich (Officer Corps of the Polish Legion) 1796-1807, both published by Biblioteku Centrum Dokumentacji Czynu Niepodleglosciowego 1998

Wiersz do Legiow Polskich (Poem of the Polish Legions), Cyprian Godebski, 1805, Ossolineum

Grenadier-Filozof (Grenadier Philosopher), Cyprian Godebski (1799) Universitas Krakow 2002

BETRAYED BY OUR KING,

OUR NATION DESTROYED

WE FOUGHT ON

1798. The Republic of Poland has been conquered by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

Poland’s last desperate hope is The Foreign Legion of soldiers fighting in Italy for Napoleon Bonaparte.

From the ashes of defeat, they will create a legend…

www.songofthelegions.co.uk