TURKS DEFEATED IN THE BATTLE OF MIŠAR

BIJELJINA, AUGUST 12 /SRNA/ - On August 13, 1806, the Serbs decisively defeated a much larger Turkish army in the Battle of Mišar, near Šabac.

Seeking to suppress the uprising, the Ottoman Porte sent an army from occupied Bosnia, led by Suleiman Pasha Skopljak. The leader of the uprising, Đorđe Petrović Karađorđe, confronted the Turks at Mišar, where he had built a fortified trench, while the cavalry remained hidden in the forest, ready to strike the enemy’s flank and rear. The first Turkish attack was repulsed, after which the cavalry and the entrenched insurgents went into action. The Turks retreated in panic after suffering heavy losses, with many drowning in the Sava River as they attempted to cross into Srem. This battle was one of the greatest victories of the Serbian insurgents during the First Serbian Uprising. The battle was immortalised by Serbian gusle player Filip Višnjić in the epic folk poem The Battle of Mišar, and by Russian painter Afanasy Ivanovich Shelkumov in a monumental oil-on-canvas painting of the same title.