The Polish Legions were Polish volunteer formations that fought for Polish independence as part of the French Army from 1797 to 1815 and the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1918. The first Polish Legions were raised following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, with many Polish officers, soldiers, and volunteers joining France's military during its wars with Poland's partitioners - Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Thousands of Poles fought for the French Republic and the First French Empire, most notably in Italy under the command of Jan Henryk Dabrowski, and also in Haiti, where the Poles were used as cannon fodder by Emperor Napoleon I, and many of them died of disease. Many of the veteran legionaries formed the core of the army of the Duchy of Warsaw on its creation in 1807, and the Poles won the Austro-Polish War of 1809 before the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812 led to the destruction of the Duchy of Warsaw. Polish legions went on to fight in Portugal during the Liberal Wars, in Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, in Italy during the Italian Wars of Independence, in the Union Army's 58th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War, and in Turkey during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. The next major formation of Polish Legions occurred at the start of World War I, when, in August 1914, Austria-Hungary raised a Polish force in Eastern Galicia to aid in Austria's war with the Russian Empire. The Legions fought against the Russians in Galicia and the Carpathians, suffering heavy losses throughout their existence. By June 1916, the Polish Legions had a strength of 25,000 troops. In November 1916, the German Empire agreed to create the Regency Kingdom of Poland to reward the Polish Legions' bravery, and the Polish Legions of Austria-Hungary transformed into the Polish Auxiliary Corps. After the Oath Crisis, however, many of the legionaries were arrested and either drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and sent to the Italian front, merged into the Austrian Polish Auxiliary Corps, or merged into the Royal Polish Army.
