According to the historian Hrushevsky, HetmanBohdan Khmelnytsky claimed that the Poles had violated the Bila Tserkva peace agreement by razing a couple of Cossack towns and preparing for war.[7] A great Cossack council held at Chyhyryn, which also included Tatar delegates, decided that the failure of the Sejm to ratify the treaty meant that the Cossacks were released from their oaths.[8]
Kalinowski intended to use the Trans-Dnieper Crown army, which in April was ordered by John II Casimir Vasa to gather at Kalinowski's Bratslav camp, "to prevent the Cossack army's merger with the Horde" by blocking the Horde's march "into Moldavia to fight the Hospodar" Vasile Lupu.[9] "Khmelnytsky sent his son", Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, "together with the Tatars to Moldavia, to take revenge militarily on that country's ruler for having sworn he would give his daughter in marriage to Khmelnytsky's son and then later refusing."[10]
However, the Crown army had only "crossed the river to Kyiv" on 14 June on its way to Kalinowski's corps, the Cossack army was already mobilized and merged with the Horde by the end of May, and Kalinowski met them on his own.[9] "The Polish hetman had chosen a flat plain near the Boh and Sob, one so large that the small Polish army could not maintain control of it...he insisted that there had to be room for the troops that were coming to join him: for the Trans-Dnipro Poles, a detachment of the palatine of Bratslav, Stanislaw Lanckoronski, and others that in the end did not manage to join him."[11] "Khmelnytsky, who had a horde of substantial size at his disposal this time, hurried to attack him before the Polish troops from across the Dnipro and other contingents arrived."[11]
Battle
"When the relatively small Tatar vanguard regiment appeared, the Polish cavalry attacked, beginning a battle that lasted through the first day (1 June).[11] During the battle, "Khmelnytsky's main forces arrived, and during the night they bypassed the Polish camp in such a way that the Poles did not notice."[11]
On the second day, the cavalry skirmishes resumed but soon Kalinowski "saw himself surrounded by Cossack and Tatar forces on all sides."[4] "The Cossacks broke through the endless line-more than a mile long-around the camp and entered into its midst."[4] "When its predicament became clear, the Crown Army was swept by panic, insubordination, and mutiny."[4] "Some fifteen hundred of them fled", "some perished and others fell into the hands of the Cossacks and Tatars, Kalinowski himself was killed."[4]
After the battle, the Zaporozhian Cossacks paid the Crimean Tatars for possession of the prisoners, and promptly slaughtered the Polish captives to avenge Khmelnytsky’s defeat at Berestechko in June-July 1651.[6] According to Hrushevsky and Pasicznyk, Duda and Sikora, the decision to execute the prisoners was taken by Bohdan Khmelnytsky himself.[12][13][14] Khmelnytsky, commanding the unit of Zaporozhian Cossacks, offered Nuradyn Sultan 50,000 thalers for the right to execute the 10,000–15,000 Polish captives in revenge for Berestechko.[6] He also promised him the town of Kamieniec for their transfer under his command.[6] Estimated 3,000–5,000[15] to 8,000 Polish soldiers were massacred.[6]
Aftermath
"The situation that existed after Korsuń and Pyliavtsi ... now arose once more" with the Polish forces "shattered, Poland defenseless and panic-stricken".[16] (in 1648 after the first Polish defeats at the start of the rebellion)
12345Hanna Widacka (2013). "Rzeź polskich jeńców pod Batohem"[Slaugher of Polish prisoners at Batih]. Historie makabryczne (Historical macabres) (in Polish). Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie (Palace Museum in Wilanów). Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
↑Mykhailo Hrushevsky; Uliana M. Pasicznyk (2008). History of Ukraine-Rus': The Cossack age 1650-1653. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. p.34. ISBN978-1-894865-10-4. At Batih he had treated the prisoners as cruelly as he pleased, 'and furthermore - an unheard-of thing - he redeemed them from the Tatars on their way [to the Crimea] and tyrannized them, ordering them to be put to death cruelly in his presence, especially men of the more prominent families who had served the Commonwealth well...
Hrushevsky, Mykhailo; Poppe, Andrzej; Sysyn, Frank E. (2005) [1909]. The Cossack Age, 1650–1653[Kozats'ki chasy, 1650–1653]. History of Ukraine-Rus. Vol.9. Translated by Bohdan Struminski. Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. ISBN978-1895571226. JSTOR2671418.
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