| Battle of Varbovka | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Bulgarian national revival | |||||||
 Actions of the rebel detachments of Panayot Hitov and Filip Totyu in 1867. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Bulgarian rebels |
 Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Filip Totyu | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 35 men | ~1,050 – 1,200 men | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy | Heavy | ||||||
The battle of Varbovka (Bulgarian:"Битка при Върбовка") was an armed engagement between a rebel group of 35 men led by Filip Totyu and a huge Ottoman regular and irregular army near today's village of Varbovka in May 1867.
In 1867 a chetnik detachment is created in Zimnicea (today Romania) under the command of Filip Totyu, one of the most popular Bulgarian voivodes. The detachment plan is to enter deep into the occupied Bulgarian lands and led the population to general uprising.
On 17 May 1867 the detachment crossed the Danube river from Romania to Ottoman Bulgaria. Three days later the chetnik group is spotted besieged by a huge Ottoman army near the village of Vurbovka. The fierce battle lasted for 10 hours between 35 chetniks and a much larger number of Ottoman regular army and bashibazouk.[3] At the end of the clash despite suffering casualties, the detachment successfully advanced organized to the Balkans.[4]
After the battle, the number of men of the detachment decreased, and after some other serious engagements only 4 men together with the voivode managed to reach and encounter with the detachment of Panayot Hitov near Zlatitsa village. Somewhere in the Balkans, Bulgarian messengers from southern and northern Bulgaria asked the group to initiate a general uprising, but the voivodes rejected the proposal.[5]
References
edit- ^ Телевизия СКАТ (2017-04-22). Хвърковатият войвода Филип Тотю. Retrieved 2024-12-04 – via YouTube.
- ^ Зафиров, Димитър; Александров, Емил (2009). История на българите [History of Bulgaria (military history)] (in Bulgarian). TRUD Publishers. p. 273. ISBN 978-954-528-752-7.
- ^ "Знаменитата битка на Филип Тотю край с. Върбовка". Войводи (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2024-12-04.
- ^ Телевизия СКАТ (2017-04-22). Хвърковатият войвода Филип Тотю. Retrieved 2024-12-04 – via YouTube.
- ^ Iosifov, Iosif (1943). Български въстания и опити за освобождение от турско иго 1393-1878 [Bulgarian uprisings and attempts for the liberation from Turkish yoke 1393–1878] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: ГУТА-Н (published 2017). p. 44. ISBN 978-619-90656-8-6.