Battle of Paneriai

Battle of Ponary heights
Part of November Uprising
Battle plan
Date 19 June [O.S. 7 June] 1831 Location Aukštieji Paneriai, near Vilnius, Russian Empire (modern-day Lithuania) Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Russia	Congress Poland and Lithuanian insurgents
Commanders and leaders
Dmitri Osten-Sacken	Antoni Giełgud Francis Rolland [pl]
Strength
24,000, 70 cannons	24,000, 26 cannons
Casualties and losses
364	2,000 dead, wounded and captured

The Battle of Paneriai (Russian: Сражение на Понарских высотах; Polish: Bitwa pod Ponarami), also known as Battle of Vilnius was one of the most important events of the November uprising, when on June 19, 1831, Antoni Giełgud's corps of the Army of Congress Poland and Lithuanian insurgents was defeated near Vilnius, leading to a defeat of the Uprising of 1831 in Lithuania.

Ethnically Lithuanian lands began widespread insurgency in early 1831 as they rose in support of the 1830 November Uprising that started in Warsaw. The Army of Congress Poland did not immediately advance into Lithuania after the defeat near Ostrołęka. Therefore, Giełgud went on an expedition to Vilnius with 12,000 men.^[1]

In Lithuania, 12,000 insurgents joined Giełgud's corps. However, Giełgud made several mistakes and delayed the attack. Thus, Russian reinforcements managed to arrive in Vilnius, lining up at the front and taking up convenient defensive positions, the forces were equal: 24,000 rebels against 24,000 Russians.^[2]

The Russians took up quite strong positions, but they were narrow and it was impossible to deploy enough troops, the escape routes were also blocked, which means that the slightest failure would lead to disaster.^[3]

Giełgud's inept command led to inconsistencies along the entire front, instead of a joint attack, the Polish-Lithuanian engaged in battles in parts, the infantry attacked before the artillery deployed and suffered heavy losses.

The roundabout measures also failed, Rolland stumbled upon the Russian guard and returned having lost part of the troops.^[3]

Russian gradually turned to attacks, but the actions of the cavalry were not so successful, the cavalry battle ended with a Polish-Lithuanian victory, and the Russian cavalry in a scattered form led them to the positions of the artillery, the battle could have been lost, but the infantry hit the main troops of Roland in time and the Polish-Lithuanian forces retreated.^[3]

The pursuit could not be organized due to the orders of the high command, although with it the entire corps of 20,000 could be exterminated. The main reason for the defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian forces lay in the inability to conduct joint actions, while the Russians acted with good coordination.^[4] Giełgud reached the Prussian border and wanted to cross it, but was killed by his own soldiers.^[5]

Polish-Lithuanian forces lost up to 2,000, but government army lost only 364 men.^[4][6] Most of the Lithuanian rebels dispersed after the battle, which was a heavy defeat that put an end to the uprising in Lithuania.^[7]

• Egorshina, O.; Petrova, A. (2023). История русской армии [The history of the Russian Army] (in Russian). Moscow: Edition of the Russian Imperial Library. ISBN 978-5-699-42397-2.
• Kernosovsky, Anton (1938). История русской армии [History of the Russian army].
• Kozłowski, Eligiusz; Wrzosek, Mieczysław (1984). Historia oręża polskiego 1795-1939 (in Polish). Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna. ISBN 83-214-0339-5.
• Velichko, Konstantin I.; Novitsky, Vasily F.; Schwarz, Alexey V. von; Apushkin, Vladimir A.; Schoultz, Gustav K. von (1915). Военная энциклопедия [Military Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Vol. XVIII:Паукер - Порт-Артур. Moscow: Типография Т-ва И. Д. Сытина.