An archaeological discovery made recently in the Chełm Forest District of eastern Poland uncovered a rare and historically significant military artifact believed to have belonged to the final years of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In May 2025, while performing a permitted metal-detecting search in the Góry Forestry area of Rejowiec commune, Chełm County, metal detectorists Krzysztof Fidler and Andrzej Kędzierawski discovered fragments of a 19th-century military cap called a shako. Among the remaining fragments were a stylized eagle emblem and a distinctive brᴀss plate, both likely part of a soldier’s headgear.
The find’s centerpiece is a brᴀss or tin-lead eagle badge, about 12.8 cm by 11.5 cm, originally riveted to a wide, pointed-arch brᴀss plate measuring around 15 cm by 19 cm. The eagle is shown with wings raised upwards, holding a sword in its right talon, and wearing a closed crown on the top of its head. It is supported on a highly detailed military panoply with artillery grenades, flags, and pyramids of musket balls. The reverse displays faint initials, possibly “S” and “M.”
What makes the find so intriguing, however, is that it may relate to Poland’s fight for sovereignty in the 1790s. Experts speculate the badge was most likely worn by an infantry soldier of the Crown Army and was made between 1791 and 1794 — the period when the 1792 War in Defense of the May 3rd Consтιтution and the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794 occurred.
According to Professor Maciej Trąbski of Częstochowa’s Jan Długosz University, who provided a detailed description of the item, “Eagles began appearing on Polish military headgear following uniform reforms in 1791. The badge mentioned here has some of the main features of the well-documented ones of the time, but also includes personal features that may indicate that it was specially commissioned**.”**
Dr. Trąbski’s comparison with surviving examples from insтιтutions like the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw and the National Museum in Kraków reveals that the Chełm eagle stands out for its elevated wing posture, sword-bearing talon, and absence of the royal monogram “SAR.” He posits that the badge could have belonged to elite grenadier regiments led by figures such as General Józef August Iliński or Mikołaj Czapski. “This unique form may reflect a custom ordered by the regiment’s commander to distinguish it from other Crown Army infantry units,” he said.
The site where the artifact was discovered, along a historical military route between Chełm and Lublin, further enhances the historical value of the badge. The route was used by Polish troops in the 1792 war and the Kościuszko Uprising, and therefore, it is likely the badge was lost in one of these campaigns.
The rare artifact will be transferred to the Wiktor Ambroziewicz Museum of the Chełm Region, where it will be included in the museum’s growing collection of military artifacts.
More information: Lublin Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments
