The outbreak of Kościuszko Uprising in central Poland in March 1794 served as the spark for the formation of Polish military units in the Prussian partition, as Poles in Wielkopolska hoped to liberate their region.

[4] A Polish corps under Jan Henryk Dąbrowski captured Bydgoszcz on 2 October and entered Pomerania almost unopposed.

[1][4] Dąbrowski planned to winter in Bydgoszcz and then move through Toruń, but because of Kościuszko's defeat at the Battle of Maciejowice he decided instead to evacuate Wielkopolska and make his way into central Poland.

[1] Dąbrowski unsuccessfully tried to convince Kościuszko's successor, Tomasz Wawrzecki to move the insurrection from central Poland to the Prussian partition.

The uprising almost got a second life when a hero of the fighting in Warsaw and one of Kościuszko's colonels, the shoemaker Jan Kiliński (who had been born in Trzemeszno), arrived in Wielkopolska to try to reorganize the Polish forces.