Jan Henryk Dabrowski (29 August 1755-6 June 1818) was a Polish general who is known as a Polish national hero for fighting for Poland's independence from the Russian Empire and Prussia from the 1790s to the 1810s. Dabrowski led the Polish Legions under Napoleon Bonaparte from 1796 to 1814 after the Kosciuszko Uprising was crushed by the Imperial Russian Army in 1794, and he succeeded in persuading Napoleon to create an independent Polish state. After the fall of Napoleon, Dabrowski worked with the Russians to form an independent army for Congress Poland, and Dabrowski died at his estate in 1818.
Biography[]
Jan Henryk Dabrowski was born on 29 August 1755 in Pierzchow, southern Poland, and he grew up in the Electorate of Saxony, under which his father was a colonel. Dabrowski fought in the War of the Bavarian Succession in the 1770s, and he served as the Adjutant-General for King Friedrich August III of Saxony from 1788 to 1791 after becoming a Rittmeister (captain).
On 28 June 1792, Dabrowski joined the army of Poland-Lithuania after the Great Sejm called on Poles serving abroad to return to Poland to fight for independence. In January 1793, he led 200 cavalrymen against Prussian invaders near Gniezno, but the fact that he became a commissioned officer led to the dissatisfied military not informing him about Tadeusz Kosciuszko's 1794 uprising. His own brigade mutinied to join the rebels, and he joined the insurgents after they took Warsaw. Kosciuszko was impressed by his bravery, and he made him a general.
After the Third Partition of Poland between Prussia, the Russian Empire, and the Austrian Empire, Dabrowski attempted to convince France to lend its support to the Polish revolutionary cause. In 1796, he visited Paris, and he met Napoleon Bonaparte in Milan. Dabrowski became the head of the Polish Legions of the French Army during the campaign in Italy, and his legions occupied Rome; during this time, he was given some of Jan Sobieski's trophies won for his role in the 1683 Siege of Vienna. In November 1806, he led an uprising against Prussia in Greater Poland with the help of Napoleon (who was now Emperor of France), and he succeeded in restoring Polish independence. However, he was disappointed when Napoleon did not give him any position in the new Polish puppet state, but he fought alongside Jozef Poniatowski in defending Poland from the Coalition. Dabrowski was wounded at the Battle of Berezina, and he succeeded Poniatowski as commander of all Polish forces in the service of France.
The defeat of Napoleon in 1814 led to Dabrowski working with the Russian Empire to achieve the establishment of an independent army for its new "Congress Poland" region, and he helped in the formation of a Polish military under Russian rule. Dabrowski retired to his estates in Winna Gora, Grand Duchy of Posen, German Empire (in present-day Greater Poland Voivodeship). Dabrowski died in 1818.