Ukrainian Cossacks Late 16th - Early 18th Century

The first detailed English-language study of Ukrainian Cossacks' attire, equipment, and tactics from the late 16th to early 18th century. This is the first book about Ukrainian Cossacks for English-speaking readers. Based on historical sources, the book will relate and show in detail the appearance, clothing and equipment of the Ukrainian Cossacks and their methods of warfare. This book shows in detail the evolution of the Ukrainian Cossacks' appearance. The author reconstructs the clothing, equipment, and weaponry of Ukrainian Cossacks from the late 16th to the early 18th century. Numerous historical sources, references, documents, pictorial sources, and descriptions left by eyewitnesses have been consulted. Archaeological finds from battlefields related to the Ukrainian Cossacks were also examined. The author considers both the clothing and equipment of ordinary Cossacks and separately the clothing and military equipment of the officer corps - Cossack petty officers and hetmans. Special attention is paid to banners and various accouterments. The reader will learn about the variations between the Cossacks, the difference between the Registry and Sichev Cossacks, how they fought, and what tactics were used on the battlefield. Also considered are the separate formations of Ukrainian hetmans modeled on Western European armies and mercenary formations of the last quarter of the seventeenth to early eighteenth century - the Serdyuk and Kompanitsa. The book contains over 170 illustrations, iconographic sources, images of battles, archaeological artifacts and various types of clothing and equipment. There are also color plates of the author's reconstructions of banners, images of banners from the collection of the Swedish Army Museum, and 20 colored figures of Cossacks and representatives of Cossack elders in the author's style familiar to readers of the Helion series.