The Imperial Guard in Poland, October 1854.

 

(From The Times, November 2, 1854, quoting the Indépendance Belge of October 30.)

 

HAMBURG, Oct. 26.—We have received to-day letters from the capital of Poland, dated the 24th, announcing the arrival at Warsaw of the first two regiments of Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, which left St. Petersburg last August. It would appear by recent measures adopted by the Russian Government, at the suggestion of Marshal Paskiewitsch, that a strong division of the Imperial Guard is to be quartered at Wilna, that city, owing to its position and means of communication, offering great facilities for the movement of troops in whatever direction their presence may be necessary. We learn at the same time that four regiments of regular cossacks, with their artillery, who belong to the first corps of the army, concentrated at Kielce and in its neighborhood, have been ordered to the frontiers of Galicia and Cracow, where several detachments have already arrived. The plan of Russians appears to be to direct to that point none but corps of cavalry, with the artillery attached to them, until events shall assume a more decided character. The active army under he command of Marshal Paskiewitsch, whose cantonments extend from Kaminiets to Kalisch, including in the center of its operations the whole line of railway between were Warsaw and Cracow, and banks of the Vistula, has received the name of Army of the North-West. The military authorities in the Polish provinces are actively collecting in the government stores the provisions of every description necessary for the men and horses, which had been previously required from all the farmers. The latter have been assigned a term beyond which they will expose themselves to the penalties and fines enacted by the Russian military laws. All the travelers who arrive from Poland report that the agglomeration of troops in that country is considerable. Throughout the interior the movement of troops is continual., in the towns as well as the country, and they calculate that not less than 200,000 Russian soldiers are now échelonnde in Poland, independently of the corps of the Imperial Guard, which has marched from St. Petersburg, constitutes itself a formidable army. This great concentration of troops in that kingdom, and the military magazines established on different points, absorb a great portion of the necessaries of life and the territorial productions of the country. Their scarcity was accordingly beginning to be felt, and prices had considerably increased.

 

 

(Transcribed by Mark Conrad, 2003.)