The European Civil War, Eastern Theatre, August-September 1862
It is no small surprise that with the announcement of the creation of the new Polish state, that the Prussian government took immediate action. Rearming the IV. Armee with an additional 20,000 regulars, numbering a total 60,000 regulars and 20,000 conscripts, and the V. Armee with an additional 10,000 regulars, numbering a total 50,000 regulars and 10,000 conscripts, the Prussian military staff began operations to dislodge the new Polish forces from the area of Posen. Rising from their trenches, and marching forward 15 miles, the Prussian army caught the rag-tag Polish regiments by surprise. Using the fast forests to their tactical advantage, the Prussian forces were able to do a sizable amount of damage with the aid of artillery, leveling several villages and one small town in the process of routing the Polish forces. When the battle was well and done, an approximate 10,000 casualties were suffered by the combined Prussian forces, with an unknown amount of Polish military and civilian deaths. [-1000 regulars and -4000 conscripts from the IV. Armee, -1000 regulars and -4000 conscripts from the V. Armee for Prussia.]
(Prussian forces advancing on Polish regiments.)
The carnage did not end there. The Russian Staff had granted an additional 40,000 regulars to aid the 35,000 regulars assaulting the city of Allenstein. However, the Prussians had other plans in mind. Using there two battle hardened Armee's to reinforce the garrison at Allenstein, the Prussian forces launched a counterattack. Numbering a total of 130,000 soldiers, the newly arrived Prussian forces moved to the sides of the city, in an attempt to flank the Russian force of 75,000. Charging cavalry into the newly arrived infantry regiments, the Prussian force soon overwhelmed the recently recruited Russian forces, forcing them to pull back, with an estimated 12,000 casualties. The Prussian armee's are estimated to have sustained 4,000 casualties themselves. The Russians quickly re-organized themselves however, and were able to set up defensive lines a bit forward of the Neman River.[-4000 regulars and -8000 conscripts for Russia. -4000 conscripts for Prussia.]
(Prussian cavalry assaulting a Russian flank.)
The Prussians, instead of moving to attack the Russian force once more, proceeded south, in an attempt to capture the self-proclaimed Capital of the new Polish State. Facing minimal resistance, the Prussians paved a path towards Warsaw, coming to the outskirts of the city. Upon arrival, the Prussian force sent a message to the Polish government holed up in the city; "Fight for us, and you shall have your own state out of Russian and Austrian lands." Needless to say, the Poles were hardly convinced, and refused to give up their centuries old claims on Prussian land. The Prussian force, numbering 126,000 men, proceeded to bomb the city with a hailstorm of artillery fire. Upon sending regular infantry and cavalry to advance into the suburbs, and then the city proper, the Prussian command was in for a rude awakening. Instead of a desolated, destroyed, and morale crushed rag-tag group of Polish peasants wielding rifles, they encountered Polish guerrillas, fighting from every house, ally way, and street that was visible in the suburbs themselves. The Poles resistance to the advancing Prussian force was so fierce, that Prussian soldiers would refer to them as the "Satan spawns." After several attempts to secure a foothold in the suburbs, Prussian command ordered the assault be called off, and the forces set up a siege on the outskirts. What seemed like an easy attempt to knock a pesky nuisance out of the war, turned into a living hell for every Prussian soldier to step foot inside the city. Needless to say, the Prussian public was less then satisfied with losing to a people so avidly noted as inferior in almost every central European society. Prussian nationalists began to become disillusioned with the current government, even that of Otto Von Bismark himself. The public, forced to deal with a two-front war on their home soil, and constant Bavarian propaganda, was less then happy. [-4000 regulars, -4000 conscripts, -1 stability for Prussia.]
(Prussian regiments, taking the first steps into the Warsaw suburbs.)