Verkių mūšis (1658 10 21)

The period of 26 September – 19 October 1658 saw peace talks between representatives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. At that time, the Russian Army had for three years held Lithuania’s capital Vilnius under occupation. The Lithuanian party was represented by commissioners who acted on behalf of the king: Lithuanian Grand Hetman and Vilnius Waywode Pawel Sapieha, and Lithuanian Field Hetman and Grand Treasurer Wincenty Gosiewski. Both hetmans came to the talks with their own troops. W. Gosiewski built his camp at Verkiai near Vilnius, while P. Sapieha’s units encamped on the opposite southern side of Vilnius, in the vicinity of Rudamina. On 21 October 1658, the Russian army broke the peace talks and carried out an unexpected attack on W. Gosiewski’s camp. The field hetman had about 1,500 soldiers under his command. During the battle, W. Gosiewski himself was taken prisoner by the enemy. His unit lost about 200 soldiers in total. Misfortunes of the Lithuanian soldiers were determined by the Russians' sudden attack. Another factor contributing to the defeat was that W. Gosiewski’s unit mostly included cavalrymen who failed to offer effective resistance to the attack of the Russian infantrymen. The loss of soldiers was a large misfortune, but the taking into captivity of W. Gosiewski, a good commander and statesman, was even a greater misfortune. He was taken to Moscow. W. Gosiewski’s duties of the treasurer were temporarily passed to Chancellor Kristupas Pacas, while the military functions were taken over by Samuel Komorowski and Jerzy Karol Hlebowicz, the Elder of Samogitia