Key figures in the Greek Revolutionary War

[HellenicPride]

In 1821, the Greeks, after nearly 400 years of slavery under the Ottomans decided to take up the arms and fight for their freedom. The 25th of March in 1821 marks the beginning of the Greek revolution and the 22 of March in 1829 is the day of the creation of the modern Greek state. Below are some of my favorite key Greeks of the revolt.


Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770 - 1834). He came from a family of kleftes and escaped to Zakynthos where he served in the English Army. He returned to Peloponnesos on the eve of the revolution and due to his military experience and knowledge he soon became the leading figure in organising the Greek fighters. He lead the siege of Tripolis and its surrender marked the first success of the Greek revolution. The following year (1822) with his courage, determination, patience and military acumen defeated the army of Dramalis. He was imprisoned by his political opponents but was freed when Ibrahim invaded Greece, against whom Kolokotronis applied guerrilla tactics and was able to inflict major blows to his army. Kolokotronis is considered as the most important figure of the Greek revolution.

Constantinos Kanaris (1793 - 1877). He came from the island of Psara.
He blew up the Turkish armada at Chios and at Tenedos and other Turkish ships at Mytilene and Samos (1824). He attempted to burn the Turkish ships at the port of Alexandria in order to destroy Mehmet Ali's preparations against Greece and failed only due to the fact that at the time the wind was blowing from opposite direction. He became one of the important naval figures of the revolution. With the liberation of Greece he became involved with politics opposing king Othon. He served several times as a minister and became prime minister. He was brave, courageous and modest man.

Andreas Miaoulis (1769 - 1835).
He was born in the Hydra. At the age of 17 he became captain of a commercial ship. During the Napeleonic wars he managed due to his courageous sea operations to accumulate considerable wealth. From the second year of the revolution he was appointed admiral of the Greek fleet. He defeated the Turkish navy near Patra and the Turko-Egyptian navy near Geronda, and on many occasions he was able to provide supplies for Greek cities besieged by the Turks (e.g. Mesologi).

NikitarasHe was born at Leontari, in Arcadia, the son of a poor peasant farmer. He was a nephew of Kolokotronis and he, too, served in the army of the Ionian Islands. In 1821 he became head of a band of pallikars. He fought Kiaya Bey at Kaki Scala and in March and April 1822, at Ayia Marina, Nikitas fought successfully under the leadership of Odysseus against Dramali, who was threatening Thermopylae. After Dramali's invasion of the Morea, Nikitas took up a position commanding the narrow passes on his route back to Corinth. There the Greeks inflicted a terrible defeat on the enemy, killing 3,000 Turks. The result of this battle won for him the nickname of Tourkophagos. At the siege of Mesolongi, Nikitas gave further proof of his pure and selfless patriotism. The sailors bringing reinforcements to the besieged town demeaned payment in advance. But there was no money. Then Nikitas flung down his sword, a priceless weapon which he had won from a high-ranking Turk, and cried out, "All I have is this sword. I offer it to my country!" His fine example had an immediate effect. All present stepped forward eagerly to donate whatever they could afford.

Papaflesas or Gregorios Dikaios (1788 - 1825)Papaflesas was born at Messinia in 1788. In his teens he became a monk. The Turks, knowing his revolutionary character forced him to leave Greece. At Constantinople, where he went, became one of the key members of "Filiki Etairia". Under Ypsilantis orders he returned to Peloponnesos and started preaching the ideal of freedom, preparing so the people for the revolution. He was a key figure of the Greek Revolution. When in 1825 Ibrahim landed with thousands of Turkish army in Peloponnesos, Papaflesas leading 2000 men marched against him. During the battle which took place at a place called Maniaki, on 20 May 1825, Ibrahim with 6000 Turks attacked and killed 600 Greeks and their leader Papaflesas, who fought bravely to the bitter end.

Manto MavrogenousAmongst the heroines of the Greek revolution was Manto Mavrogenous. She was educated at a college in Triestio and spoke Italian and Turkish. She studied ancient Greek philosophy and history. In 1809 her family returned to Mykonos, the island of their origin. She learned with excitement from her father that Philiki Etairia was preparing the Greek revolution. When the news arrived that the struggle for freedom began, Manto invited the leaders of Mykonos to a meeting and persuaded them to join the revolution. This was declared in April 1821.

Laskarina BoumboulinaYet another heroic woman of the Greek uprising for freedom. Boumboulina came from a rich family from the island of Spetse. This 'Archontissa' (Lady) of Spetse used her wealth to build a navy and became one of the most famous leading figures in the Greek War of Independence. After the success of the revolution in Peloponnesos and Sterea Ellada, the uprising spread in the islands. Spetse was the first of the islands to join the revolution and this was mainly due to Boumboulina's leadership and courage. The example of Spetse was followed by many other islands and therefore the freeing of the Island of Spetse was one of the initial major steps towards victory for the Greeks. Thereafter Boumboulina, with her fleet took part in many naval battles and dominated the Aegean creating probelms to the, by far superior, Turkish fleet

[terastios]

Karaiskakis Georgios

One of the most important figures of the Revolution of 1821, was born in Skulikaria, Arta in 1780 and died in Athens in 1827. At the age of 15 he became Klephtis (Rebel) under Katsantones, and made systematic raids on the Turks. During one of his raids in 1795, he was apprehended by Ali Pasha, who discerning his intelligence and bravery, kept him as a bodyguard. At the beginning of the Revolution, he joined the ranks of Greek fighters, while in March, 1821 he took part in the battle of Peta.

Karaiskakis, had bad health and was kept out of action for long period. In 1826 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of mainland Greece. He won the battles of Domvraina, Distomo. Also on 24 November 1826, Karaiskakis crashed Turkoalbanians at Arahova, killing more than 2000 including the leaders Mustafabeis and Kehagiabeis During the siege of Acropolis by Kioutahes Pasha, Karaiskakis was wounded mortally and died on April 23, 1827.

and so many others...Moutzinos,Mayromixalides, ect.

[HellenicPride]

Originally Posted by terastios

Karaiskakis Georgios

One of the most important figures of the Revolution of 1821, was born in Skulikaria, Arta in 1780 and died in Athens in 1827. At the age of 15 he became Klephtis (Rebel) under Katsantones, and made systematic raids on the Turks. During one of his raids in 1795, he was apprehended by Ali Pasha, who discerning his intelligence and bravery, kept him as a bodyguard. At the beginning of the Revolution, he joined the ranks of Greek fighters, while in March, 1821 he took part in the battle of Peta.

Karaiskakis, had bad health and was kept out of action for long period. In 1826 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of mainland Greece. He won the battles of Domvraina, Distomo. Also on 24 November 1826, Karaiskakis crashed Turkoalbanians at Arahova, killing more than 2000 including the leaders Mustafabeis and Kehagiabeis During the siege of Acropolis by Kioutahes Pasha, Karaiskakis was wounded mortally and died on April 23, 1827.

and so many others...Moutzinos,Mayromixalides, ect.

Pretty much all the Greeks that fought for what we have now during the independence and all wars are heroes in my book.

[Orphic_Hymn]

February 24, 1821
To the general military camp of Iasi.
Alexander Ypsilantis said:

The time has come, Hellines!! Long before, the peoples of Europe, fighting for their own Rights and Freedom, invited us to do alike; they, who liberated, tried with all their powers to reinforce their freedom and through it the Happiness of all. (...)
It is time to throw off this intolerable Yoke, to liberate the Country, to pull down the crescent from the clouds, to raise the symbol which always brings victory: the Cross, and thus defend the Country and our Orthodox Faith from the impious Contempt of the impious.
The most noble of us shall be the one who will defend the rights of the Country in the most brave way and serve it most effectively. When the nation assembles it will elect its Elders and all our acts shall comply with this highest Parliament. (...)
OUR COUNTRY CALLS US TO ARMS!!!

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

Thanks guys for this thread. So much to learn. My only regret is that we'll like miss some, or many, but please keep them coming. :thumbs: :thumbs:

[Orphic_Hymn]

MESSOLOGGI: THE LAST DAYS BEFORE THE SORTIE

From the middle of February (1826), many families began to run out of bread. A woman from Missolonghi, named Varvarina, which took care of an ill woman and of my full brother Mitros, had run out of food and secretly, with two other families form Missolonghi, slaughtered a donkey, a foal, and ate it.
I found them eating; I asked where they had found the meat and was horrified to hear that it was a donkey.
A company of soldiers from Kravara had a dog, and, they too, secretly, slaughtered and ate it. This was also spread.
As the hunger grew day by day, the superstition about eating impure animals waned and people started openly now slaughtering horses, mules and donkeys and even selling them a pound per oka (1280 grams) with great demand. Three days later the animals had finished.
About the end of February, some soldiers had 2-3 okas of flour (each) and others nothing.
A committee was appointed to search all the houses, even in the trunks of the families and whatever flour was found to collect it so that it could be shared to everyone, soldiers and citizens, children and adults, in such a way that the food could be given out equally.
Having searched all the houses one by one, I found only 600 okas and upto 600 okas in sacks, that is 1200. This flour was given out with a tea cup as a measure. In addition, a cup of broad beans were shared out. So, they began mixing these few broad beans and flour in the pot and added crushed crabs.
The partner of the typographer Mr G. Mestheneas, who stayed at our place, slaughtered and ate a cat and made his errand boy Stornari kill another. He was the one that told the others to do the same thing and in a few days there was no cat at all. The doctor from Lefkas (P. Stephanitsis) cooked his dog with oil, of which there was plenty, and praised it as the most tasteful food.
The soldiers had become insolent and grabbed dogs or cats they found in their way. [...]
Around 15 March we began eating sea weed. We boiled them five times until the bitter taste was gone and ate them with vinegar and oil like a salad, but also mixed with crab broth.
Some people began eating mice, and whoever could catch one was satisfied. Unfortunately, there were no frogs.
The lack of food caused the increase of diseases, mouth-ache and arthritis. This was our condition when the letter of our envoys at Nauplion arrived, suggesting us to hold on for 12 days and if necessary to eat each other. [...]
That day a man from Kravara cut meat from the thigh of a murdered man and ate it".

N. Kasomouli,Enthymimata stratiotika tis epanastaseos ton Ellinon. Apo ta 1821 mechri ton 1833, vol. 2, ed. G. Vlachogiannis, Athens, 1940, p. 241-242, 242-243 and 256 respectively.

[Orphic_Hymn]

THE FIRST DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE PELOPONNESE


The declaration of the Revolution in the Peloponnese was made when the largest part of the Ottoman forces had marched out against Ali Pasha in Epirus. The few Ottoman garrisons which remained in the Morea were soon in a state of siege. However, it was not easy for the besiegers, most of which were inadequately armed farmers, to constitute an effective armed force. The aide de-camp of Kolokotronis, Photis Chrysanthakopoulos or Photakos, offers a graphic description of the difficulties during the first weeks in his memoirs.

[...]"Most of them had no arms and others had knives, some bradawls and the flags of most were their wives' kerchiefs. The simple-minded Greeks asked one another why they were concentrated there and what they would do. The chieftains told them that they had gathered to kill the Turks in order to be free themselves. In the beginning of the uprising the Greeks automatically gathered in the camps in groups, families, villages and districts. But then Kolokotronis anticipated them and assembled them on his own command or government order and did not allow them to gather automatically because he was afraid of the scheming and desertion and wanted to have them all under his supervision. [...]
So, he started defining the chieftains of the bodyguard [...] and shared out diplomas to the other officers, which he defined for the company of the bodyguards.
This went on from Palm Sunday until Wednesday morning of the Holy Week (April 6); then the Turks from Tripolitza came and dissolved us and only the diplomas remained. But Kolokotronis shouted "stay to fight, where are you going" but this wasn't effective.[...]
From here Kolokotronis sent Panos immediately to the villages of Karytaina with a written order for all the people to take up arms and come to Piana, Chrysovitsi and Diaselo to form a camp. In fact, Panos had the permission to kill, burn houses and sieze their possessions in favour of the soldiers, if anyone would to disobey. [...]
Having escaped the war and returned to the village Valtetsi we found Christians killed and none of us approached them. We had turned pale with fear because it was the first time we had seen killed people. But Kolokotronis, intending to encourage us took the pieces of each dead person and kissed them and said to the soldiers standing around that these people were saints and they would go to heaven as witnesses. Then we went near and buried them.[...]
This battle [= of Doliana, May 1821] is very important, because the battle of Valtetsi had preceded and after these battles the Greeks became audacious and were no longer afraid of the Turks. They began searching for the Turks, unlike before when they said "the Turks are coming" and fled. The Greek forces chased the Turks many times and the Greeks lost many coats before getting used to taking the Turk's coats".

Photakos, Apomnimonevmata. Peri tis ellinikis epanastaseos tou 1821, vol. 1, Athens, Vergina, 1996, pp. 87, 92, 93, 117 and 148 respectively (first edition: Athens 1899).
__________________

[Orphic_Hymn]

The proclamation of the First National Assembly


For us the descendants of the wise and philanthropic Greek Nation, contemporary with the enlightened and favoured countries of Europe and spectators of the good acts which the latter enjoy under the unbreakable aegis of the laws, it was no longer possible for us to bear until heartlessness and credulity the hard plague of the Ottoman State which already about four centuries oppressed us harshly and was opposed to reason pretending that it knew of the law, persecuted and ordered everything in a tyrannical and arbitrary manner. After a long slavery we were finally forced to take up arms and defend ourselves and our country from such a horrifying and unjust -from the beginning- oppression, similar or capable of being compared to no other.

Our war against the Turks, far from being based on demagogic and mutinous or selfish principles of the Greek Nation, is a national war, a sacred war, the sole purpose of which is the regaining of the rights of our personal liberty, property and honour. Despite the fact that today all the favoured and neighbouring peoples of Europe enjoy these rights, only the harsh and unprecedented oppression of the Ottomans attempted violently to eliminate and stifle these. As if we had less reasons from the other nations to be deprived of those rights or as if we were by nature inferior and more infamous to be considered unworthy of these rights and condemned to eternal slavery, to crawl like animals and automatically to the irrational desire of a unrelenting tyrant which had come from far away as a brigand and with no term to subjugate us. Rights which nature sowed deep in the heart of people and which the laws in accordance with nature established cannot be eliminated by three neither four, not even thousands and millions of centuries of tyranny. And if the violence or power crushes them temporarily, these, still new and indelible, can be restored and elevated by power, that is those which existed previously and centuries ago, rights that we did not cease defending with the arms within Greece as the times and conditions permitted.

Motivated by these principles of the natural rights, and intending to be equated with our other confreres, the European Christians, we started a war against the Turks. United we gave all together all the wars, we unanimously went to war against the Turks, after having decided either to succeed in our objective and be ruled by just laws or to be entirely perished, judging unworthy living, we, the descendants of the glorious Nation of the Greeks, under this slavery, which resembles that of the dumb animals than that of rational beings. [...]

This is what the National Assembly declares to all Greeks, concluding to one point: that the work of the Assembly is completed and that the Assembly dissolves today. Moreover, the work and duty of the Greek people is to appear docile and submissive to the Laws and the executive Ministers of the Laws. The Greeks, you previously said that you do not want slavery and that the tyranny fades everyday from your heart. But the only peace among you and the true subjection to the Administration can consolidate your independence. May the almighty God elevate the ruled and the rulers, the entire Greek state, with His wisdom, so that they could acknowledge their true mutual interests. And to consolidate the much desired happiness of our common Country the first by providence, and the people by docility.

Epidauros, January 15. First National Assembly of Independence. 1822".

The complete text of the declaration of the First National Assembly is published, among others, in: D. Kokkinos, I elliniki epanastasis, vol. 2, Athens, Melissa Publications, 1974, p.383-385.