The town was annexed by Austria in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, in 1809 regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw, in 1815 it fell to the Russian Partition of Poland. During the January Uprising, two battles took place in Opatów between Russians and II Corps of General Józef Hauke-Bosak. Poles captured the town on November 25, 1863, and withdrew with seized Russian guns and ammunition. On February 21, 1864, the second battle took place. It was one of the largest skirmishes of the uprising, and it ended in Polish defeat. Polish commander was executed by the Russians at the market square on February 23, 1864. Poland eventually regained independence in 1918, after World War I. In 1924 a monument to Ludwik Zwierzdowski was erected at the market square.