Following the return of Poland as a sovereign national entity he was recognized for his service, after decades of being censored by Imperial Russian authorities.

[3] According to some sources, prior to joining the Russian army Traugutt unsuccessfully attempted to gain admission to the Institute of Railway Engineers[Notes 1] in St.

Serving under Ivan Paskevich, he took part in the Russian intervention in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848,[6] earning a promotion to the rank of lieutenant.

There he suffered a mental breakdown following the successive deaths of his family members: his grandmother (November 1859), infant daughter Justyna (December 1859), wife Anna (January 1860) and son Konrad (May 1860).

Traugutt was eventually discharged from the army on 14 June 1862, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, while retaining the right to wear the uniform and earning a pension of 230 rubles.

Adopting the nom de guerre Michał Czarnecki, he led the uprising from his apartment at Smolna Street 3 and pretended to be a merchant from Galicia to further obscure his identity.

As dictator, Traugutt attempted to reform guerrilla units into a professional army and – on 23 December 1863 – summoned representatives from Congress Poland to discuss the abolition of serfdom.

Recognizing the difficult financial situation of the uprising, Traugutt attempted to take loans from domestic and foreign banks, with no success.

After failing to garner foreign states' support for a military intervention, he turned to revolutionaries, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi, for help.

Despite his noted religious devotion and correspondence with Pope Pious IX, Traugutt blocked sending funds to Rome, meant for the beatification of Josaphat Kuntsevych.

[19] Traugutt was hanged at the Warsaw Citadel on 5 August 1864, alongside rebel commanders Rafał Krajewski, Józef Toczyski, Roman Żuliński and Jan Jeziorański.