tive knew of the passing of this old world refugee who was buried in the soil of his new found land of liberty.

A prayer was said, four friends lowered his casket with two straps, and they stepped back respectfully. Someone asked how much any of the others knew about him. The sum total seemed to be that they knew he had been a leader of some exiled Poles; that he must have been in some kind of trouble about which he would never talk, and beyond that they could only wonder what the Count's story might be.

It was more than they ever dreamed of.

PART TWO.-A Fight For Freedom That Failed.

Ludwik Chlopicki was born in the city of Krasno, Poland, October 17, 1789,¹⁴ the son of Thaddeus and Catherine Chlopicki. Thaddeus was a brother of a famous soldier, General Jozsef Grzegorz Chlopicki,¹⁵ who became the Dictator of Poland in the early days of the 1830 Revolution against Russia in the fight for a free and independent Poland.

Ludwik was of the landed gentry and held the title of Baron, not Count, and he entered the army artillery and engineering corps in 1815. He occupied himself with mathematics and drawings, and because he spoke French, German and English in addition to his native language, he progressed rapidly. By 1817 he was a lieutenant, but because of his estate and family affairs, he applied for and received a discharge in 1820.

The fight to free Poland from Russian rule began November 29, 1830, with an attempt on the life of the Grand Duke Constantine, despot ruler and brother of Czar Nicholas I. Constantine escaped and fled, and the Polish Officer's Training Corps in Warsaw organized and gathered over 80,000 troops and 6,800 horses. It is probable Ludwick Chlopicki's part in the revolution was more political than military because of his uncle's high position and wide experience in European military and governmental circles. By the spring of 1831 we find Ludwik organizing infantry and cavalry units with Kurowski and Olszewski, and by May they joined Nagorniczewski's troops and took the city of Bar.

Powerful Russian armies soon forced their retreat under General Kolyski into Galicia. From there Ludwik Chlopicki, then a major in the Revolutionist cause, went through to Warsaw and signed the act of participation in the Revolution for citizens of Podolia and Ukrania¹⁶ and participated in the election of representatives of these areas in the Warsaw Diet. Major Chlopicki then returned to troop duty and participated in the final phases of the campaign against Russia with Ramorin's Corps, finally being forced to surrender in Galicia.

His sixty year old uncle, General Chlopicki, had early given up the struggle, resigning as Poland's Dictator on January 23, 1831. There

Page 64

Go to previous page

Go to next page

Go to El Paso Story gateway page