Tajno Area During the 1863 Insurrection
From my research through various secondary sources, I had not found many references to battles fought around the Tajno area during the January 1863 Insurrection. I did find an interesting excerpt in a Polish book called "Polska Wojna Partyzancka 1863-1864" or "Polish Partisan War 1863-1864" by Leonard Ratajczyk,Warsaw, 1966, pages 208-210. I had it translated into English by Ola Heska.
ORGANIZATION AND FALL ACTIVITIES IN THE PLOCK AND AUGUSTOW PROVINCES
In the fall the tsarist authorities, protecting with its army the national border in the northern part of the Kingdom, aimed to prevent transfer of people and supplies, trying at the same time to disrupt the insurgent organization and still existing detachments inside the Northern provinces.
The activity of the tsarist army in Plock province made any type of bolder action by the insurgency and establishing of new detachments impossible. To reach this goal all means were used, including sabotage, especially in the border provinces. The War Department, based on obtained information, warned on November 12 Lieutenant-Colonel Ludwik Navonne (Navone), the military commander of three districts: Mlawa, Plock and Lipno, of the new order of deputy Berg regarding organizing a spy network with the purpose of detecting insurgent camps and leading an anti insurgency propaganda campaign. The results of both methods were quick to notice. Undoubtedly, one of them was the interception of the communication map of Plock province which showed the entire system of insurgent connections and communication. It included 9 major and 24 side roads leading in all directions. All roads had insurgent post stations marked. Berg proudly boasted of this capture before the war minister D. Milutin. Based on the deciphered system the order was given to seize all postal horses, to arrest all insurgent mail carriers, and all detected stations were to pay a fine in the amount of 100 to 500 rubles. The most important though was the fact that the insurgents were unable to use the detected communication system and they had neither conditions nor resources to create a new one.
The situation was worse in the Augustow province as far as the activities of tsarist authorities and army. The commander of the Augustow war department, general Ganecki II instituted a method of plundering and burning villages, according to the orders of M. Murawiew.
At the beginning of October Murawiew sent 6 guard battalions and the Cossacks into the Augustow region and appointed General Lieutenant Baklanow to be the army commander in Augustow province. After arriving in Grodno on September 20, he got in touch with general Ganecki in regards to conducting a united operation, the purpose of which was cleansing insurgent “gangs” from the Augustow area. The first stage of this operation was to close from the north and south the narrowest part of the province with the Augustow Wilderness Forest, to cleanse the “gangs” from it and to create a barrier by the army, not letting any insurgent detachments from the Kingdom into Augustow province and Lithuania. With this purpose, part of the army sent from Grodno (4 rotas and 1 sotnia) along with the local regiments occupied Goniadz, Grajewo, Rajgrod, Tajenko, Debowo between Biebrza and the Prussian border and combed the entire rectangle the size of 26x20 meters, and found no insurgent detachments. The remaining part of the army occupied villages along the Augustow Canal between Augustow and Sopockinie, penetrating huge areas of the wilderness forest. Then, after assuring that larger “gangs” were absent in this region, part of the army was transferred to the north, successively searching each district. The entire operation was finished in the second half of October and on October 30 Murawiew boasted in his letter to minister Zielenoj that “Barely six guard battalions came into Augustow province and within three weeks the revolts were suppressed.”
Russian General Murawiew had the nickname "the Hangman" for his brutal tactics and became a pariah even in Russia.
These maps shows the area that this search covered. It was basically in the area where the Orbik villages of Tajno and Tajenko were located in and Tajenko was actually occupied by the Russians according to the article. It is interesting that one boundaries of the search was the Biebrza (Bobra) River so the Russians probably did not venture into the swampy, boggy, wilderness of the Red Bog where Polkowo existed. This area was actually used by insurgents in 1831 and 1863 to hide in and regroup because it was so difficult for the enemy to navigate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_Poland
These maps show battles in the Congress Kingdom of Poland in 1863 and 1864.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising
However a contemporary detailed map of the area shows a battle taking place in the Red Bog in 1863, so I will keep searching.
