On 10 February 1863, independence activist Makary Drohomirecki and some of his followers rode into Złoczew. Drohomirecki assembled in the market square and read aloud the "Manifesto of the National Government" to the residents of Złoczew, a treatise calling for Polish independence from Russia. Some volunteers from Złoczew joined the independence movement at this assemblage. On 15 February 1863, a local Russian-born peasant named Aleksander Rumowicz from Potok, betrayed the independence movement's location to the Russians. Russian Cossacks and pro-Russian Polish troops were dispatched from the garrison at Sieradz, numbering around 500 strong and under the command of Russian officers Major Hanczakowa and Major Pisanka, and soon surrounded Drohomirecki and 32 of his followers in a wooded area. In the battle, five to eight insurgents and Drohomirecki himself were killed. Some of the insurgents were captured and some were killed by after being chased down by mounted Cossacks. Only a few insurgents managed to survive and escape.