Battle of Korsun | |||||||
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Part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising | |||||||
Juliusz Kossak, Meeting of Tuhaj Bej and Khmelnytsky near Korsun |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Zaporozhian Cossacks Crimean Tatars |
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Bohdan Khmelnytsky Tugay Bey |
(POW) Marcin Kalinowski (POW) |
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Strength | |||||||
15,000 Cossacks, 40,000 Tatars | 5,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | 4,500-5,000 |
Battle of Korsuń (Ukrainian: Корсунь, Polish: Korsuń), (May 26, 1648) was the second significant battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day city of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi in central Ukraine, a numerically superior force of Cossacks and Crimean Tatars under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Tugay Bey attacked and defeated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Hetmans and Marcin Kalinowski. As in the previous battle at Zhovti Vody, the outmanned Commonwealth forces took a defensive position, retreated, and were thoroughly routed by the opposing force.
On May 16, 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky's forces overwhelmed and defeated Commonwealth forces under the command of at the Battle of Zhovti Vody. Stefan's father, Grand Crown Hetman Mikołaj Potocki, was unable to send reinforcements in time to relieve him; however, with the number of defections from the force that was sent to fight Khmelnytsky (over 5,000 Registered Cossacks switched their allegiance), it is doubtful that the reinforcements could have helped defeat the combined Cossack and Tatar army of 15,000. From his fortified position beyond Chyhyryn, fifteen miles from Zhovti Vody, Mikołaj Potocki signaled a retreat on 13 May to the north. Near Cherkasy, the lone survivor from the battle at Zhovti Vody reached Potocki on 19 May with news of the disastrous defeat. Two days later, Potocki had only made it as far as the present-day city of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi when he decided to wait for Jeremi Wisniowiecki's army of six thousand.