Επιστροφή

Ιστορική Εκθεσις/Historical Essay 

Ἱστορική 'Εκθεσις

 Ὁ Νικόλαος Χ. Σολιώτης ἐκ Σόλου τῶν Καλαβρύτων, εἷς ὢν ἐκ τῶν εὐμοιρούντων ἀναλόγου παιδείας τῆς ἐποχῆς ἐκείνης, εἰδήμων τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς, ἀνὴρ πνέων τὰ μᾶλλον εὐγενῆ καὶ πατριωτικὰ αἰσθήματα διὰ τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν τῆς πατρίδος του, ᾐσθάνετο ἐνδομύχως διακαῆ κλίσιν καὶ ὁρμὴν πρὸς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς Ἑλλάδος. Ἐμυήθη διὰ ταῦτα καὶ ἀποδεχθεὶς προθύμως καὶ μετὰ μεγίστου του ἐνθουσιασμοῦ, ὡς ἡ ἀγαθὴ γῆ τὸν σπόρον, τὸ μυστήριον τῆς Ἑταιρείας τῶν Φιλικῶν, κατηχηθεὶς τῷ 1818 ὑπὸ τοῦ συγγενοῦς καὶ φίλου αὐτοῦ Θεοχάρου Ῥέντου. Ἔκτοτε δὲ περιέμενεν ὥρᾳ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἀνυπομόνως τὴν ἔκρηξιν τοῦ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλευθερώσεως τῶν Ἑλλήνων πολέμου, ποθῶν τὴν τῆς πατρίδος αὐτοῦ αὐτονομίαν. Μετὰ μικρὸν κατηχήθησαν καὶ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ προεστῶτες τῆς ὅλης Πελοποννήσου, ἀποστείλαντες τὸν Ἰωάννην Παπαρρηγόπουλον εἰς Ῥωσσίαν ἵνα ἀνερευνήσῃ τὰ περὶ τῆς Ἀρχῆς τῆς Ἑταιρείας κ.λ., ὃς καὶ ἐπανελθὼν τοῖς εἶπεν, ὅτι θέλει ἀποσταλῆ ἐξεπίτηδες ἐξ Ὀδησσοῦ ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα τοὺς ὁδηγήσῃ πότε πρέπει νὰ κινήσωσι τὸν πόλεμον.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὸ ἔτος 1820, μεσοῦντος τοῦ Δεκεμβρίου, ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης εὑρισκόμενος εἰς Τριπολιτζὰν μετὰ τῶν κυρίων Σωτηρίου Χαραλάμπους καὶ Ἀνδρέου Ζαΐμου ἔμαθον τὴν εἰς Ὕδραν καὶ Πέτζας ἄφιξιν τοῦ Γρηγορίου Δικαίου. Καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν ἀνεχώρησεν ἐκ Τριπολιτζᾶς εἰς τὰ Καλάβρυτα, διὰ νὰ κάμῃ τὰς ἀναγκαίας περὶ τοῦ πολέμου ἑτοιμασίας. Οἱ δὲ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης καὶ Ἀνδ. Ζαΐμης ἔμειναν διά τινας ἔτι ἡμέρας, ἕως οὗ ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος (πασᾶ) ἄδειαν.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὰς 5 Ἰανουαρίου τοῦ 1821 ὑπῆγεν εἰς τὴν ἐν Σόλῳ οἰκίαν τοῦ Ν. Σολιώτου, ὡς συστημένος ὁ γενναῖος τῆς Πατρίδος ὑπέρμαχος ἀρχιμανδρίτης Γρηγόριος Δικαῖος μετὰ τοῦ ἐπίσης φιλοπάτριδος Χαραλάμπους Μάλη, ἔνθα διαμείναντες μίαν μόνην ἡμέραν, τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν ἀνεχώρησαν διὰ Καλαμάταν καὶ ἐκεῖθεν διὰ Πάτρας, καὶ ἀπὸ Πατρῶν ἐπανῆλθον εἰς Βοστίτζαν ὡς κατηχηταί, ἐκεῖ δὲ συνελθόντες οἱ πρόκριτοι καὶ ἀρχιερεῖς τῶν τριῶν τούτων ἐπαρχιῶν τὴν 22αν Ἰανουαρίου ἐσχημάτισαν τὴν προκαταρκτικὴν ταύτην πρώτην τους μυστικοσυνεύλευσιν, ἔνθα καὶ ἀπεφάσισαν κατὰ προτροπὴν τοῦ Παλαιῶν Πατρῶν καὶ τοῦ Γρηγορίου Δικαίου, «ἵνα συνεννοηθῶσι συνάμα προηγουμένως ἅπαντες οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι, καὶ τότε νὰ κινήσωσι τὸν Πόλεμον, ὅτε ἤθελον εἶσθαι ἕτοιμοι καθ᾿ὅλας τὰς προετοιμασίας καὶ ἴδωσι προητοιμασμένοι ὄντες ἁρμόδιον τὸν καιρόν». Καὶ οὕτως ἀνεχώρησαν ἕκαστος εἰς τὰ ἴδια.

 Ἀλλὰ τί συνέβη ἐν τῷ μεταξύ; Ἐπῆλθεν ἡ τοιαύτη φήμη εἰς τὰς ἀκοὰς τῶν ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ Ὀθωμανῶν καὶ μάλιστα εἰς αὐτὸν τὸν ἡγεμόνα, ὅστις καὶ προσεκάλεσεν ἐντόνως  τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ προεστῶτας τῆς Πελοποννήσου νὰ παρουσιασθῶσιν ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ εἰς Τριπολιτζάν, ὅπερ καὶ κατ᾿ἀνάγκην καὶ ἠκολούθησαν ἅπαντες, ἐκτὸς τῶν Καλαβρυτινῶν, Πατρέων καὶ Αἰγιέων, οὓς καὶ ἐκ δευτέρου προσεκάλεσε μετὰ περισσοτέρας ἐπιμονῆς. Τέλος ἐξεκίνησαν καὶ αὐτοί, μεθ᾿ὧν καὶ ὁ ἀοίδιμος ἀρχιερεύς, ὁ μέντωρ τῶν πολιτικῶν καὶ πολεμικῶν Π. Πατρῶν Γερμανὸς καὶ οἱ Νικ. Σολιώτης καὶ Ν. Πετμεζᾶς, ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ δῆθεν τοῦ νὰ ὑπάγωσιν εἰς Τριπολιτζάν, ἔχοντες δὲ μεθ᾿ ἑαυτῶν καὶ τὸν παρὰ τοῦ Καϊμακάμη (τοποτηρητοῦ τοῦ πασᾶ) σταλέντα πρὸς αὐτοὺς ταχυδρόμον (τάταρην)  καὶ ἕνα Ὀθωμανὸν δερβίσην, ἔφθασαν κατὰ τὰς ἀρχὰς (10) Μαρτίου εἰς τὰ Καστριά, χωρίον ἐν Κατσάναις τῶν Καλαβρύτων, ἔνθα εἶχον προδιατεθειμένον χωρικόν τινα,  φέροντα αὐτοῖς ἓν γράμμα παρ᾿ αὐτῶν τούτων προσχεδιασμένον, ὡς ἀπὸ μέρους φίλου αὐτῶν Ὀθωμανοῦ ἐκ Τριπολιτζᾶς στελλόμενον, λέγον οὑτωσί: «Ἄν θέλετε νὰ ἔχετε τὴν ζωήν σας, μὴν ἔρχεσθε ἤδη εἰς Τριπολιτζάν, διότι ἐχθροὶ ὑμῶν σημαντικοί, ὡς ἐκ τῶν διασπαρεισῶν φημῶν περὶ Ἐπαναστάσεως ὠφελούμενoι, κατήγγειλαν ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν ἐξουσίαν καὶ θέλετε φονευθῆ ἀδίκως καὶ ἀναιτίως». Καὶ οὕτως ἐπέστρεψαν εἰς τὴν μονὴν τῆς Ἁγίας Λαύρας. Ἐκεῖ φθάσαντες ἔλαβον γράμματα παρὰ τῶν Δεληγιανναίων λέγοντα: «Μὴ κινηθῆτε, ἀδελφοἰ, μὴ! διότι οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἡμῶν φυλακισμένοι ὄντες εἰς Τριπολιτζὰν χάνονται!». Διασκεψάμενοι καὶ ἐν Ἁγίᾳ Λαύρᾳ ἐφ᾿ ἱκανόν, ἀπεφάσισαν τέλος, κατὰ τὴν γνώμην τῶν πλειόνων, νὰ μὴ κάμωσι κανὲν κίνημα ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος, ἕως οὗ ἴδωσι καὶ ὁδηγηθῶσι ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν πραγμάτων περὶ τοῦ πρακτέου. Μόνοι δὲ ἐδείχθησαν θερμότεροι καὶ ἀποφασιστικώτεροι ἵνα γίνῃ ἀμέσως τότε ἀρχὴ καὶ κίνησις τοῦ πολέμου μετὰ τὸν Π. Π. Πατρῶν, ὁ Ἀ. Ζαΐμης καὶ Ἀσημάκης Φωτήλας.

 Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα, διαλυθέντες ἐκ τῆς Ἁγίας Λαύρας, παρεμέρισαν διὰ τὸν φόβον εἰς ἀσφαλῆ μέρη, ὁ μὲν Παλαιῶν Πατρῶν, ὁ Καλαβρύτων Προκόπιος καὶ ὁ Ἀνδρέας Ζαΐμης εἰς Νεζερά, οἱ δὲ Ἀσημάκης Ζαΐμης καὶ Ἀ. Φωτήλας διὰ τὴν Κερπινήν, οἱ δὲ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης καὶ Σωτ. Θεοχαρόπουλος διὰ Ζαρούχλαν καὶ ὁ Ἀνδρ. Λόντος διὰ τὸ Διακοπτὸν (Βούρα).

 Ταῦτα ἰδὼν καὶ ἀκούσας ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης, ἐνῷ τὸ πρᾶγμα διαδιδόμενον ἤρχισε νὰ γίνηται κοινὸν μεταξὺ τῶν τάξεων τοῦ ὄχλου, οὐχὶ μόνον τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῶν ἀκόμη τῶν Ὀθωμανῶν, καὶ διαλογιζόμενος ὀρθῶς, μὴ δειλιασάντων τῶν πολιτικῶν μείνῃ πάλιν ἡ Ἑλλὰς εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν ζυγὸν τῆς τυραννίας μὲ γενικὴν σφαγὴν τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐκ μέρους τῶν ἐξηγριωμένων τυράννων, μάλιστα δὲ ἐκ τῶν ἐπισημοτέρων, ὡς συνέβη τῷ 1769. Ἐπικαλεσθεὶς τὴν ἐξ ὕψους βοήθειαν, ἀνεχώρησεν ἐκ τῆς Μονῆς Ἁγίας Λαύρας, μὲ τὴν ἀπόφασιν τοῦ νὰ δώσῃ αἰτίαν καὶ ἀρχὴν τῶν ἐπαναστατικῶν σκοπῶν τοῦ Ἔθνους. Ὅθεν, τύχῃ ἀγαθῇ, κατὰ τὰς 14 Μαρτίου 1821, ὅτε ἔφθασεν εἰς τὸ χωρίον του Σόλον ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης, διέβαινον τρεῖς Τοῦρκοι Τριπολιτζιῶται ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων καμπαταήδων, ἐπαπειλοῦντες αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ θάνατον εἰς τοὺς χριστιανοὺς ὡς ἀπεσταλμένοι μὲ γράμματα παρὰ τοῦ Καϊμακάμου τῆς Τριπολιτζᾶς πρὸς τὸν Χουρσὶτ πασᾶν, τοὺς ὁποίους μαθὼν διαβαίνοντας τὸν δρόμον τοῦ Ἀγριδίου, χωρίου τῆς Νωνάκριδος τῶν Καλαβρύτων, προκαταλαβὼν ἄνευ τῆς γνώσεως τῶν προκρίτων τὴν στενωπὸν τῆς ὁδοῦ ἐκείνης, εἰς θέσιν Πόρται τοῦ Ἀγριδίου μετὰ δώδεκα μόνον τῶν συμπολιτῶν του, τοὺς ἐφόνευσαν. Καὶ οὕτω πρῶτος μεταξὺ τῶν Ἑλλήνων πολεμιστῶν ὁ Νικόλαος Σολιώτης ἔβαψε τὰς χεῖράς του εἰς τὸ αἷμα τῶν τυράννων διὰ τὸν μέγαν σκοπὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας.

 Τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν 15 Μαρτίου ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης μετέβη εἰς Ζαρούχλαν, ἔνθα διέμενον ὁ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης, Ἰωάννης Παπαδόπουλος, Σ. Θεοχαρόπουλος, Νικ. Πετμεζᾶς καὶ Π. Ἀρβάλης, καὶ ἐξηγεῖται αὐτοῖς τὸ ἐν Πόρταις κίνημά του καὶ τὸν φόνον τῶν Τούρκων, παρακινῶν συγχρόνως καὶ αὐτοὺς νὰ λάβωσι τὰ ὅπλα καὶ κινηθῶσι κατὰ τῶν τυράννων. Αὐτοὶ δὲ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον τῷ ἀντιπαρατήρησαν λέγοντες: «Τί εἶναι αὐτὸ ποὺ ἔκαμες, ἀδελφέ· ἐπήραμε τὸν κόσμον ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον ἡμῶν»; «Ἔκαμα ἐκεῖνο», τοῖς ἀπαντᾷ, «ὅπερ ἀπεφασίσαμεν καὶ εἰς ὃ τείνει γενικῶς ἡ ἐπιθυμία καὶ τὰ πνεύματα ὅλου τοῦ ἔθνους», προσέθηκε δὲ ἐπὶ τέλους ὅτι, «ἂν δὲν κινηθῶσι καὶ αὐτοὶ μὲ τὸν αὐτὸν ζῆλον ἀποφασιστικῶς, θὰ πάθωσι καὶ αὐτοὶ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ παρόμοια τοῖς Τούρκοις ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνθουσιασμένου καὶ κατηγανακτισμένου λαοῦ». Τότε λαβόντες τὸν λόγον ὁ Σ. Χαραλάμπης καὶ ὁ Π. Ἀρβάλης εἶπον ὅτι «πρέπει νὰ λάβωμεν τὰ ὅπλα εἰς χεῖρας ἁπαξάπαντες κοινῶς καὶ νὰ κινήσωμεν καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους». Ὅπερ καὶ παρεδέχθησαν ἅπαντες. Κατὰ δὲ τὰς 19 Μαρτίου μαθὼν ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ὅτι διέβαινον καὶ οἱ γνωστοὶ Ὀθωμανοὶ Τζιπογλαῖοι Τριπολιτζιῶται μετὰ ὀκτὼ ἄλλων ὑπ᾿ αὐτοὺς Ὀθωμανῶν ἐκ τῶν πέριξ χωρίων Ἀρφαρῶν, ἀπέστειλέ τινας τῶν στρατιωτῶν του μετὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ του καὶ τοὺς ἐφόνευσαν καὶ αὐτούς.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὴν 21 Μαρτίου ἔφθασαν ἀπὸ τῶν Σαλώνων διὰ θαλάσσης ἀποβιβασθέντες εἰς Ἀκράταν εἰς τὸ ἐκεῖ πλησίον χωρίον Βερσοβὰν δύο μπουλουκμπασῆδες μετὰ 60 Ἀλβανῶν, διεθυνόμενοι εἰς ὀχύρωσιν τῆς Τριπολιτζᾶς. Τούτους μαθὼν ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης παρέλαβε μεθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τριακοσίους ἐκ τοῦ τμήματος Χασίων μὲ σημαίαν ἀναπεπταμένην1 , ἔνθα ἀνθισταμένων τῶν Ὀθωμανῶν καὶ μάχης γενομένης σφοδρᾶς, ἐκ μέρους τῶν Ὀθωμανῶν ἐφονεύθησαν ὑπὲρ τοὺς εἴκοσιν, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ ἀναγκασθέντες παρεδόθησαν. Οἱ περὶ τὸν Σολιώτην ἔλαβον τότε ἱκανὰ λάφυρα, ἐξ ὧν ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ἐκράτησε δι᾿ἑαυτὸν ἕνα ἵππον καλὸν τῆς Ἀραβίας, ἐκ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐπληγώθησαν ἀκινδύνως τρεῖς. Καὶ οὕτω κατὰ μικρὸν ἤρχισε νὰ γίνεται τὸ κέντρον τοῦ πολέμου καὶ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἡ ἐπαρχία τῶν Καλαβρύτων.

 Ταῦτα πάντα μαθὼν ὁ Σεϊδῆς Λαλιώτης ἀνεχώρησε μετὰ τοῦ Νικολάου Ταμβακοπούλου διὰ Τριπολιτζάν, οἵτινες καὶ ἐτουφεκίσθησαν καθ᾿ ὁδὸν ἐν Κατσάναις παρὰ τοῦ ἐκεῖ ἐνεδρεύοντος Χονδρογιάννου κ.λ. καὶ διαφυγόντες διεσώθησαν εἰς τὸ πεδίον Φενεοῦ καὶ ἐκεῖθεν ὁ μὲν Σεϊδῆς Λαλιώτης ἔφθασεν ἀβλαβὴς εἰς Τριπολιτζὰν καθότι οἱ Καρυτινοὶ καὶ Κορίνθιοι δὲν ἦσαν κινημένοι ἀκόμη εἰς τὰ ὅπλα, ὁ δὲ Ν. Ταμβακόπουλος εἰς Βυτίναν, κατόπιν δὲ τούτων τῶν διατρεξάντων, τὴν 22 Μαρτίου ἀνεχώρησε καὶ ὁ βοεβόδας τῶν Καλαβρύτων Ἰβραχὴμ Ἀρναούτογλους μετὰ τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ διὰ Τριπολιτζάν, διὰ νὰ ἀποφύγῃ τὸν κίνδυνον, ἀλλὰ τουφεκισθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν φυλαττόντων εἰς τὴν θέσιν Χελωνοσπηλιὰν Κατζανιωτῶν φονευθέντων δύο ἐκ τῶν μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀφαιρεθείσης τῆς ἀποσκευῆς του, ὑπέστρεψεν ἔντρομος εἰς Καλάβρυτα, ἔνθα καὶ συνεκλείσθη μετὰ τῶν ἐντοπίων Τούρκων εἰς τρεῖς ὀχυροὺς πύργους.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὴν 24η καὶ 25 Μαρτίου συσσωματωθέντες οἱ ἐκ τῆς ἐπαρχίας Καλαβρύτων Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης, Ἀνδρέας Ζαΐμης, Ἀσ. Φωτήλας, Νικ. Σολιώτης, Βασίλειος καὶ Νικ. Πετμεζᾶς καὶ Ἀ. Στριφτόμπολας καὶ πολιορκήσαντες στενῶς τοὺς Ὀθωμανοὺς ἐβίασαν διὰ τῶν ὅπλων νὰ παραδοθῶσι μετὰ τέσσαρας ἡμέρας. Ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ δὲ τούτων ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης, ἐφορμήσας εἰς ἐκπόρθησιν ἑνὸς τῶν εἰρημένων πύργων, ἐπληγώθη κατὰ τὸν ἀριστερὸν κάλαμον τοῦ ποδός. Οἱ πολιορκοῦντες Ἕλληνες ἦσαν περὶ τοὺς 800, οἱ δὲ ἐν τοῖς πύργοις Ὀθωμανοὶ περὶ τοὺς 400 ἐντόπιοι καὶ ξένοι. Μετὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἐν Καλαβρύτοις Τούρκων ἀνεχώρησαν οἱ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης καὶ Ν. Σολιώτης εἰς τὴν ἐπαρχίαν τῆς Κορίνθου, ὅπως ἐκκινήσωσι καὶ τοὺς Κορινθίους εἰς τὰ ὅπλα, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ καὶ μετέβησαν εἰς τὰ Τρίκαλα πρὸς συνέντευξιν μετὰ τοῦ Πανούτζου Νοταρᾶ, ἀλλ᾿ ἐστάθη ἀδύνατον νὰ τὸν πείσωσι νὰ κινηθῇ, διὰ τὸν φόβον τῆς ἀπωλείας τοῦ ἐν Τριπολιτζᾷ φυλακισμένου ἀδελφοῦ του Σωτηρίου Νοταρᾶ. Οὐδὲν δὲ κατορθώσαντες εἰς Τρίκαλα, μετέβησαν εἰς Σικυῶνα (Βόχαν) τῆς Κορινθίας, ὥστε διαλύσαντες τὰ παρὰ τῶν Νοταραίων ἐμπόδια, κινήσαντες τοὺς Κορινθίους εἰς τὰ ὅπλα κ.λ. καὶ συστήσαντες στενῶς τὴν πολιορκίαν τῆς Ἀκροκορίνθου ἀφῆκαν ὡς ἀρχηγὸν τῆς πολιορκίας τὸν Ἀναγνώστην Πετμεζᾶν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀπῆλθον μετὰ 500 εἰς τὸ χωρίον Καστανέας, ἐκεῖ δὲ παρέλαβον μεθ᾿ ἑαυτών τὸν Παπα-Νίκαν μετὰ τῶν Καστανεωτῶν καὶ  ἐκ τῶν πέριξ χωρίων Στυμφαλίας καὶ οὕτω βαθμηδὸν ἀνεστάτωσαν καὶ τὴν ἐπαρχίαν τῆς Κορινθίας εἰς τὰ ὅπλα. Ἐκ δὲ τῆς Καστανέας διηυθύνθησαν εἰς τὴν πολιορκίαν τῆς Τριπολιτζᾶς ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς 800 Καλαβρυτινῶν καὶ Κορινθίων. Φθάσαντες εἰς τὸ χωρίον Λεβίδι τὴν Τρίτην τοῦ Πάσχα 12 Ἀπριλίου, εὗρον ἐστρατοπεδευμένους τοὺς συνεπαρχιώτας αὐτῶν Κωνσταντῖνον, Βασίλειον καὶ Νικόλαον Πετμεζαίους μετὰ 600  Καλαβρυτινῶν, ὡς καὶ τὸν  Π. Ἀρβάλην μετά τινων Τριπολιτζιωτῶν, τὴν δὲ ἀκόλουθον 13 Ἀπριλίου ἐκστρατεύσαντες πανστρατιᾷ διὰ νυκτὸς ἐκ Τριπολιτζᾶς οἱ Ὀθωμανοί 5.500 τὸν ἀριθμόν, πεζοί τε καὶ ἱππεῖς, ἔφθασαν ἅμα τοῦ ἡλίου ἀνατείλαντος εἰς Λεβίδι, οὓς μακρόθεν ἰδόντες ἐρχομένους οἱ Ἕλληνες μετὰ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀρχηγῶν, ὡς ἀσυνήθιστοι ἀκόμη ὄντες εἰς τὰς μάχας ἀνεχώρησαν εἰς τὰ ὀρεινὰ μέρη, Ὁ δὲ Ν. Σολιώτης, παρατηρῶν τότε ὅτι ἂν τραπῶσιν ὅλοι εἰς φυγὴν οἱ Τοῦρκοι δὲν θὰ στήσωσιν ἀλλοῦ σημαίαν εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ ἑστίᾳ τῆς Ἐπαναστάσεως, τὰ Καλάβρυτα, ἵνα θύσωσι καὶ ἀπολέσωσι τὰ πάντα, ἀπεφάσισε νὰ κλεισθῇ ὀχυρωθεὶς ἐντὸς ἑπτὰ οἰκιῶν τοῦ χωρίου Λεβιδίου καὶ κατὰ τὸ παράδειγμα αὐτοῦ ἠκολούθησαν νὰ σταθῶσι καὶ οἱ Ἀναγ. Στριφτόμπολας, Γ. Κουλοχέρης Πετμεζᾶς καὶ Ἰωάννης μετὰ 150 στρατιωτῶν. Φθάσαντες δὲ μετ᾿ ἀκρατήτου τῆς ὁρμῆς εἰς τὸ Λεβίδι οἱ Ὀθωμανοί, παρὰ πᾶσαν ἐλπίδα εἶδον νὰ πυροβολῶνται ἀπό τινων οἰκιῶν, ἔνθα καὶ ἔπεσαν νεκροὶ ὑπὲρ τους 20, δι᾿ ὃ καὶ ὠπισθοδρόμησαν τότε, κατόπιν δὲ ἀπεφάσισαν νὰ ἐφορμήσωσι κατὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων τολμηρότερον, ὡς ὑπεράριθμοι πρὸς ὀλίγους, ἀλλ᾿ ἀποκρούονται παρὰ τῶν πολιορκημένων ἀποτομώτερον καὶ πεισματωδέστερον δι᾿ ἑπτὰ ὁλοκλήρους ὥρας μέχρι δειλινοῦ, ἔνθα καὶ ἔπεσαν πρὸ τῶν ἑλληνικῶν προμαχώνων φονευόμενοι ὑπὲρ τοὺς τριακοσίους, ἐκτὸς τῶν πληγωθέντων (καθ᾿ ἃ ὁμολόγησε μετὰ ταῦτα ὁ τότε μετὰ τῶν Ὀθωμανῶν ὢν Χατζη-Χρῆστος Βούλγαρης). Ἐκ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐφονεύθη ἀνδρείως μαχόμενος ὁ Ἀναγνώστης Στριφτόμπολας καὶ ὁ Σωτ. Σαλμενῖκος ἐκ Σόλου (ἀξιωματικοί), ἐπληγώθη δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰωάννης Πετμεζᾶς καὶ ἄλλοι τρεῖς.

 Διαρκούσης δ᾿ ἔτι τῆς μάχης ἔφθασε περὶ τὸ δειλινὸν καὶ ὁ Δημήτριος Κολιόπουλος (Πλαπούτας)  μετὰ 400 καὶ ὁ Τσαλαφατῖνος μετ᾿ ὀλίγων Λακώνων εἰς βοήθειαν τῶν πολιορκημένων Ἑλλήνων καὶ μετ᾿ ὀλίγον κατέβησαν καὶ οἱ πρὸ τῆς μάχης ἀναχωρήσαντες μετὰ τοῦ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπους καὶ τῶν Πετμεζαίων καὶ οὕτω ὁρμήσαντες ἅπαντες κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, ἐξελθόντος καὶ τοῦ Ν. Σολιώτου μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ὠχυρωμένων, ἔτρεψαν τοὺς Τούρκους εἰς ἐπονείδιστον φυγήν, φονεύσαντες ἱκανοὺς καὶ αἰχμαλωτίσαντες, ἔλαβον δὲ καὶ ἱκανὰ λάφυρα παρὰ τῶν φονευθέντων ἐχθρῶν οἱ Ἕλληνες. Τὴν δὲ ἐπιοῦσαν ἔθαψαν ἐν παρατάξει τοὺς φονευθέντας, τὸν ἀείμνηστον Ἀ. Στριφτόμπολαν, τὸν Σ. Σαλμενῖκον  καὶ λοιπούς. Εἰς αὐτὴν τὴν μάχην τοῦ Λεβιδίου νικηθέντες ἀπὸ τὸ μικρὸν σῶμα τοῦ Σολιώτου οἱ κατὰ τὴν Τριπολιτζὰν ἀκαταμάχητοι νομιζόμενοι ἐχθροί, αὐτοὶ μὲν ἐπιστρέψαντες κατῃσχυμένοι καὶ ἔντρομοι ἀπεκλείσθησαν ἐντὸς τοῦ φρουρίου, ἡ δὲ ἐπαρχία τῶν Καλαβρύτων καὶ ἡ Πελοπόννησος ἐσώθησαν ἀπὸ τῆς σφαγῆς καὶ αἰχμαλωσίας, ἕνεκα τῆς ἀξιομνημονεύτου μάχης τῶν ἑκατὸν πεντήκοντα πολεμιστῶν γενναίων τοῦ Λεβιδίου. Ἡ λαμπρὰ καὶ ἔνδοξος αὕτη πρώτη μάχη τοῦ Λεβιδίου τὴν 13 Ἀπριλίου 1821 ἀνεζωπύρησε τὰς ἐλπίδας τῶν Ἑλλήνων περὶ τῆς αἰσίας ἐκβάσεως τοῦ ὑπὲρ τῆς πίστεως καὶ πατρίδος ἀγῶνος, ὅσον ἑτέρωθεν ἐταπείνωσε τὴν ὀφρῦν τῶν ἐπηρμένων ἕως τότε  Ὀθωμανῶν.

 Μετὰ δέ τινας ἡμέρας εὑρισκόμενοι εἰς τὴν πολιορκίαν τῆς Τριπολιτζᾶς ὅ τε ῥηθεὶς  Ν. Σολιώτης, ὁ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης, Νικόλ. καὶ Κωνσταντῖνος Πετμεζαῖοι ἐπληροφορήθησαν ὅτι ὁ Κεχαγιάμπεης ἔφθασεν εἰς Πάτρας καὶ φοβηθέντες μήπως εἰσβάλῃ εἰς τὴν ἐπαρχίαν τῶν Καλαβρύτων ὠπισθοδρόμησαν καὶ κατὰ τὴν 21 Ἀπριλίου προκαταλαβόντες τὰ Μαῦρα Λιθάρια εἰς Ἀκράταν, τὸν ἐκτύπησαν μὲ μεγάλην αὐτοῦ ζημίαν. Τελευτῶντος δὲ τοῦ μηνὸς Μαΐου τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔτους (1821), καθ᾿ ὃν χρόνον εἰσβαλόντες εἰς τὴν Λεβαδείαν ὁ Ὀμὲρ πασᾶς Βρυώνης καὶ Μεχμὲτ πασᾶς ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς ἓξ χιλιάδων Ὀθωμανῶν ἐσκόπευον νὰ εἰσορμήσωσι διὰ τοῦ Ἰσθμοῦ εἰς Πελοπόννησον, ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης λαβὼν τοὺς ὑπὸ τὴν ὁδηγίαν του 500 ἀπῆλθεν εἰς Δερβένια τῆς Μεγαρίδος, ἔνθα ἡνώθη μετὰ τῶν Κυριακούλη καὶ Ἠλία Μαυρομιχαλῶν, Γρηγορίου Δικαίου, Πάνου Θ. Κολοκοτρώνου, Νικήτα Σταματελοπούλου καὶ Ν. Πετμεζᾶ, οἵτινες μείναντες δι᾿ ὀλίγον καιρὸν ἀνεχώρησαν ἀκολούθως διὰ τὴν πόρθησιν τοῦ φρουρίου τῆς Τριπολιτζᾶς, ἔμειναν δὲ μόνοι κατέχοντες τὰς ἐκεῖ ἀναγκαίας καὶ ἐπικινδύνους θέσεις οἱ Π. Θ. Κολοκοτρώνης καὶ Ν. Σολιώτης μετὰ τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν 800 στρατιωτῶν Πελοποννησίων καὶ ἑτέρων 400 Μεγαρέων καὶ Θηβαίων ἕως τὸ τέλος τοῦ μηνὸς Ὀκτωβρίου, ἐποχῆς καθ᾿ ἣν οἱ Ὀθωμανοὶ ὀπισθοδρομήσαντες ἀπεσύρθησαν εἰς Λάρισαν. Βλέπων δὲ ὁ Δ. Ὑψηλάντης ὅτι οἱ κατέχοντες τὴν φύλαξιν τῶν στενῶν τῶν Δερβενίων ἀνεχώρουν ὁσημέραι διὰ τὴν Πελοπόννησον, φοβούμενος μὴ εἰσβάλωσιν ἀμαχητὶ εἰς τὴν Πελοπόννησον οἱ περὶ τὸν Ὀμὲρ πασὰν Βρυώνην, ἔγραφεν ἐκ τοῦ στρατοπέδου τῆς Τριπολιτζᾶς πρὸς τὸν Ν. Σολιώτην κατὰ τον Σεπτέμβριον συχνὰ προτρέπων καὶ ἐξορκίζων αὐτὸν ἐπ᾿ ὀνόματι τῆς κινδυνευούσης πατρίδος αὐταῖς λέξεσιν: «ἵνα μένῃ φυλάττων ἀκλονήτως καὶ γενναίως τὴν θέσιν ἐκείνην ὡς γενναῖος τῆς πατρίδος ὑπέρμαχος, ἐν ὅσῳ ὁ ἐχθρὸς σῴζεται ἔξω εἰς τὴν Στερεὰν καὶ ὅτι ἀπὸ τὴν καλὴν φύλαξιν τῶν Δερβενίων κρέμαται ἡ σωτηρία καὶ ἡ ἀσφάλεια τῆς ὅλης Πελοποννήσου, ὅτι δὲ διετάγη ὁ Πανοῦτζος Νοταρᾶς νὰ στείλῃ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὡς βοήθειαν χιλίους Κορινθίους μὲ τὸν ἀνεψιόν του (Ἰωάννην Νοταρᾶν) καὶ τὸν Θεοχαράκην Ῥέντην. αὐτὸς δὲ νὰ ἐκβιάσῃ μὴ θέλοντας νὰ τὸν ἀκολουθήσωσι καὶ τοὺς Δερβενοχωρίτας καὶ τοὺς Μεγαρεῖς».

 Ὅπερ καὶ ἠκολούθησαν, ὡς ὁ καπετὰν Διονύσιος Πανούσης Μεγαρεὺς μετὰ 200 καὶ ἄλλοι πολλοί. Ἔμειναν δὲ  φυλάττοντες τὰ στενὰ τῶν Δερβενίων ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης, ὁ Π. Θ. Κολοκοτρώνης μετὰ τοῦ Ἠλία Μαυρομιχάλου ἐπανελθόντος ἐκ Τριπολιτζᾶς, πολεμήσαντες καὶ ἀποκρούσαντες γενναίως τοὺς ἐχθρούς, ἔκαμαν διαφόρους μάχας κατὰ τὰς θέσεις Πλαταιῶν (Κόκλα), Κριεκούκι, Καπαρέλλι, Βίλια καὶ Ἅγιον Μελέτιον, καθ᾿ ἃς ἐφονεύθησαν ἀλληλοδιαδόχως ὑπέρ τοὺς 800 Ὀθωμανοί. Ὁ δὲ Ὀμὲρ πασὰς Βρυώνης μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ἐμποδισθέντες παρὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ὠπισθοδρόμησαν διὰ Λάρισαν ἀπὸ τῶν Θηβῶν, περὶ τὰ τέλη τοῦ Ὀκτωβρίου

 Ἐπανερχόμενος ἐκ τῶν Δερβενίων ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ἔλαβε γράμματα προσκλητήρια  παρά τε τῆς Εφορείας καὶ τῶν προκρίτων τῆς Κορινθίας Πανούτζου Νοταρᾶ, Θεοχάρη Ῥέντου, Γ. Καλαρᾶ, Ἀ. Οἰκονομοπούλου κ.λ., δι᾿ ὧν παρεκάλουν αὐτόν, ἵνα διαμείνῃ ὡς ἀρχηγὸς τῆς πολιορκίας του φρουρίου της Κορίνθου, διότι κατ᾿ἐκείνην τὴν ἐποχὴν ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς πολιορκίας Ἀναγ. Πετμεζᾶς, δι᾿ ἔλλειψιν τῶν ἀναγκαίων καὶ διὰ τὴν μὴ πληρωμὴν  τῶν μισθῶν τῶν στρατιωτῶν αὐτοῦ παρὰ τῶν Κορινθίων, εἶχεν ἀναχωρήσει καὶ οὕτω κατὰ μικρὸν ἐκινδύνευε νὰ διαλυθῇ ἡ πολιορκία. Ἔμεινε δὲ ὡς ἀρχηγὸς τῆς πολιορκίας ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς τῶν 600 Καλαβρυτινῶν καὶ ἄλλων 800 Κορινθίων, Ὑδραίων τινῶν καὶ Ποριωτῶν ὑπὸ τὸν Χριστόδουλον Μέξην, καταλαβὼν τὴν θέσιν Πεντεσκουφίου, λόφου κειμένου ἀπέναντι τῆς Ἀκροκορίνθου πρὸς τὸ μεσημβρινοδυτικὸν μέρος, πολεμῶν καθ᾿ἑκάστην γενναίως κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, ἔνθα καὶ ἐπληγώθη ἐπικινδύνως ἀπὸ πετρῶν καὶ χωμάτων τοῦ προμαχῶνος αὐτοῦ, ἀνατραπέντος ὑπὸ τῶν σφαιρῶν τῶν κανονίων τοῦ φρουρίου, ἕως οὗ βιασθέντες οἱ ἐχθροὶ παρεδόθησαν διὰ συνθηκῶν εἰς τοὺς ἀρχηγοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων κ.λ. Κατὰ τὰς διαφόρους ταύτας μάχας καὶ ἀκροβολισμοὺς ἐφονεύθησαν περὶ τοὺς 800 ἐκ τῶν Ὀθωμανῶν κατὰ τὴν διάρκειαν τῆς πολιορκίας.

 Μετὰ δὲ τὴν σύστασιν τῆς πρώτης τῶν Ἑλλήνων Διοικήσεως ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης διὰ τὰ λαμπρά του κατορθώματα, τὴν ἱκανότητα καὶ τὸν διακεκριμένον χαρακτῆρά του διωρίσθη ἀρχηγὸς τῆς Φρουρᾶς τῆς ἐθνικῆς Διοικήσεως κατὰ τὸν Μάρτιον τοῦ 1822 μὲ βαθμὸν χιλιάρχου διὰ τοῦ ἑξῆς διπλώματος:

Ἀριθ. 528

Ὁ Μινίστρος τῶν Ἐσωτερικῶν καὶ τοῦ Πολέμου

Πρὸς τὸν Χιλίαρχον Νικόλαον Σολιώτην

Θέλουσα ἡ ὑπερτάτη Διοίκησις νὰ ἀνταμείψῃ τὰς πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα μακρὰς καὶ πιστὰς ἐκδουλεύσεις σου καὶ μάλιστα τὸν θερμὸν ζῆλον, μὲ τὸν ὁποῖον διέμεινας προσκαρτερῶν εἰς τὴν πολιορκίαν τῆς Ἀκροκορίνθου ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἕως τέλους τῆς παραδόσεως τοῦ φρουρίου, ἔνευσε διὰ ταῦτα νὰ σὲ τιμήσῃ  μὲ τὸ ἀξίωμα τῆς χιλιαρχίας,  τῆς ὁποίας τὸ δίπλωμα περικλείεται ἐν τῷ παρόντι. Διορίζεσαι δὲ μὲ ὅλους τοὺς ὑπὸ σὲ στρατιώτας νὰ παραμείνῃς ἐνταῦθα εἰς Κόρινθον καὶ νὰ εὑρίσκεσαι ὑπὸ τὰς ἐμμέσους ἐπιταγὰς τῆς Διοικήσεως. Χρεωστεῖς δὲ προσέτι νὰ εἶσαι διὰ παντὸς εὐγνώμων πρὸς τὴν ὑπερτάτην Διοίκησιν, ὑπακούων ἀδιστάκτως εἰς ὅλας τὰς προσταγὰς αὐτῆς, καὶ προσέχων ὥστε νὰ ἐκπληροῖς ἀνελλιπῶς ὅλα τὰ χρέη τοῦ νέου βαθμοῦ σου. Ὑγίοινε.

Ἐν Κορίνθῳ τῇ 9 Μαρτίου 1822
Ὁ Μινίστρος τῶν Ἐσωτερικῶν
καὶ προσωρινὸς Μινίστρος τοῦ Πολέμου.
Τ. Σ.    ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ ΚΩΛΕΤΤΗΣ

 Ἔμεινε δὲ ὡς τοιοῦτος παρὰ τῇ Διοικήσει μέχρι τέλους τοῦ Ἰουλίου εἰς Κόρινθον καὶ εἰς Ἄργος, ἔνθα καὶ διετήρησε τὴν μεγαλυτέραν ἡσυχίαν καὶ εὐταξίαν, ὅτε ἐλθόντος τοῦ πολυαρίθμου δραμαλικοῦ στρατοῦ εἰς Ἄργος, ἕδραν τότε τῆς Διοικήσεως, τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἐξησφάλισε τὰ μέλη τοῦ Ἐκτελεστικοῦ καὶ μέρος ἐκ τῶν βουλευτῶν ἐντὸς τῶν ἐν τοῖς Μύλοις ἐλλιμενισμένων ὑδραϊκῶν πλοίων καὶ ἑπομένως ἀνεχώρησεν μὲ τοὺς ὑπ᾿ αὐτὸν στρατιώτας, συνεκστρατεύσας μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ὁπλαρχηγῶν κατὰ τοῦ κοινοῦ ἐχθροῦ Δράμαλη.

 Κατὰ τὴν 2 Ἰανουαρίου 1823 εἰδοποιηθεὶς παρὰ τῆς ἐν Τριπολιτζᾷ τότε Γερουσίας ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ὅτι ὁ Δελῆ Ἀχμὲτ παςᾶς τοῦ Δράμαλη συνέλαβε τὸν σκοπὸν τοὺς μὲν ἀδυνάτους μετ᾿ ἄλλων 500 νὰ ἀφήσῃ εἰς τὸ φρούριον τῆς Κορίνθου, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς τῶν λοιπῶν 5.000 ἱππέων τε καὶ πεζῶν νὰ περάσῃ διὰ τοῦ παραλίου τῆς Ἀκράτας εἰς Πάτρας, κατέβη μετὰ 400 εἰς Ἀκράταν καὶ ὀχυρωθεὶς εἰς ἓν ξηροτείχιον (προμαχῶνα) εἰς τὰ στενὰ τοῦ δρόμου ἢ μύλον Δημ. Ζαΐμη ἀνέμενε τὸν ἐχθρόν. Ἀκολούθως ἦλθον καὶ κατέλαβον τὰς ἄλλας ὀρεινοτέρας θέσεις καὶ οἱ Σωτ. Χαραλάμπης, Ἀσημάκης Ζαΐμης, ὁ δὲ Ν. Πετμεζᾶς τὴν ἀναγκαίαν θέσιν Μαῦρα Λιθάρια. Μετὰ δὲ δύο ἡμέρας, 5 Ἰανουαρίου ἔφθασαν οἱ Ὀθωμανοὶ περὶ τὸ δειλινὸν εἰς τὸ πεδίον τῆς Ἀκράτας, θέλοντες δὲ νὰ διαβῶσι τὸν διὰ Βοστίτζης δρόμον των ἀπεκρούσθησαν εἰς τὴν θέσιν τοῦ Ν. Σολιώτου, οὖσαν ἐπικειμένην ἐπ᾿αὐτῆς τῆς διόδου, φονευθέντες ὑπὲρ τοὺς 80 ὀγδοήκοντα, ἀλλ᾿ ἀποπειρώμενοι ἀπεκρούσθησαν γενναίως καὶ παρὰ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Ν. Πετμεζᾶ, φονευθέντες ὑπὲρ τοὺς 50, ὀπισθοδρομήσαντες δὲ εἰς τὸ πεδίον τῆς Ἀκράτας διενυκτέρευσαν. Εἰς τὸ διάστημα ταύτης τῆς νυκτὸς ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης κατανοήσας τὸ πολυάριθμον καὶ δυνατὸν στράτευμα τοῦ ἐχθροῦ, καὶ στοχασθείς μίαν ἄλλην θέσιν ἐπικίνδυνον ἄνωθεν τοῦ ξενοδοχείου τοῦ Δημ. Ζαϊμη, ὅθεν ἠδύναντο οἱ ἐχθροὶ διαβάντες νὰ τοὺς πάρωσι τὰ ὀπίσθια ἀπὸ τὸ πλάγιον μέρος· ταῦτα διανοηθεὶς διέταξέ τινας τῶν ἀξιωματικῶν του, τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοῦ Δημήτριον καὶ Σωτήριον Σολιώτας, Δημ. Λάλον, Ἀγγελῆν Δελούκαν, Παπα-Γεῶργον ἐκ Περιστέρας καὶ Γιᾶννον Κερπεσιώτην μετὰ 150 στρατιωτῶν καὶ κατέλαβον τὴν ῥηθεῖσαν θέσιν, τὸ δὲ πρωῒ τῆς ἐπιούσης 6 Ἰανουαρίου ἅμα τοῦ ἡλίου ἀνατείλαντος οἱ Ὀθωμανοὶ ποιήσαντες τὰς δεήσεις (ντοβᾶν) εἰς τὸν προφήτην αὐτῶν ὥρμησαν πανστρατιᾷ γαυριῶντες καὶ ἀλαλάζοντες τυφλοῖς ὄμμασιν κατὰ τοῦ προμαχῶνος τοῦ Σολιώτου, μὲ τὴν ἀπόφασιν νὰ διέλθωσιν ἐκεῖθεν τὸν διὰ Βοστίτσης καὶ Πατρῶν δρόμον των, ἀλλ᾿ ἀποκρουσθέντες παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ μὲ ἀπελπισίαν ἔπεσαν νεκροὶ πρὸ τοῦ ταμπουρίου (προμαχῶνος) αὐτοῦ, ὑπὲρ τοὺς 300, ἐκτὸς τῶν πληγωθέντων. Ἡ δὲ θέσις αὕτη τοῦ Μύλου λαβοῦσα ἔκτοτε φέρει καὶ σήμερον τὴν ὀνομασίαν “τοῦ Σολιώτου τὸ Ταμπούρι”. Ἐκ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐφονεύθησαν τρεῖς καὶ ἐπληγώθησαν τέσσαρες. Ὥρμησαν καὶ ἐκ δευτέρου, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἀποκρούει μὲ θαυμασίαν γενναιότητα καὶ περισσότερον θάρρος μὲ μόνους διακοσίους στρατιώτας γενναίους· μὴ δυνηθέντες νὰ διαβῶσιν ἐκεῖθεν, τραπέντες μετ᾿αἰσχύνης εἰς φυγήν, ἐπειράθησαν κατόπιν νὰ διαβῶσι ἀπὸ τὴν κατεχομένην παρὰ τῶν λεχθέντων ἀξιωματικῶν του θέσιν, ἀλλ᾿ἀπαντήσαντες κἀκεῖ τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπέστρεψαν εἰς τὸ πεδίον τῆς Ἀκράτας, μὴ τολμήσαντες τοῦ λοιποῦ νὰ ἐφορμήσωσι κατὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων. Ἀκολούθως ἔφθασαν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπαρχιῶν Κορινθίας καὶ Βοστίτζης πολλοὶ Ἕλληνες, ὅτε ἔφθασαν ἐκ Μεσολογγίου καὶ ὁ Ἀνδρέας Ζαΐμης, Ἀνδρ. Λόντος καὶ ὁ Ὀδυσσεὺς καὶ ἀπέκλεισαν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τόσον δυνατά, ὥστε στερηθέντες παντὸς εἴδους τροφῆς, ἀφοῦ κατέφαγον ἅπαντας οὓς ἔφερον μεθ᾿ἑαυτῶν ἵππους καὶ ἡμιόνους, ἤρχισαν νὰ τρώγωσι καὶ ὁ εἷς τὸν ἄλλον, φονεύοντες οἱ δυνατοὶ τοὺς ἀδυνάτους.

 Οἱ ἐχθροὶ βιασθέντες καὶ στερούμενοι πάντων, ἤρξαντο νὰ διαπραγματεύωνται μετὰ τῶν ὁπλαρχηγῶν τῶν Ἑλλήνων περὶ παραδόσεως, ἀφοῦ ὁ Νικόλαος Σολιώτης ἀπεποιήθη νὰ παραδεχθῇ τὰς προτάσεις αὐτῶν καὶ χρηματικὰς προσφοράς, διὰ νὰ ἀφήσῃ αὐτοῖς τὴν δίοδον ἐλευθέραν, ἀλλὰ μὴ συμφωνήσαντες εἴς τινα ζητήματα δὲν ἔκλεισαν τὰς περὶ παραδόσεως συνθήκας καὶ οὕτως ἐξηκολούθη στενότερος ὁ πανταχόθεν ἀποκλεισμὸς τῶν Ὀθωμανών, μὴ δυναμένων οὔτε πρὸς τὰς Πάτρας νὰ προχωρήσωσιν οὔτε εἰς Κόρινθον νὰ ἀπέλθωσι. Καὶ οὕτω κατεκλείσθησαν εἰς τὸ ξενοδοχεῖον τοῦ Δημ. Ζαΐμη, ἀνεγείραντες καὶ δύο μικρὰ χαρακώματα εἰς τὸ πεδίον Ἀκράτας. Περὶ δὲ τὰς ἀρχὰς τοῦ Φεβρουαρίου ἀνεχώρησαν ἀπὸ τοῦ στρατοπέδου τῆς Ἀκράτας διὰ τὴν ἐν Ἄστρει τότε Ἐθνοσυνέλευσιν οἱ Ἀνδρ. Ζαΐμης, Σ. Χαραλάμπης, Β. Πετμεζᾶς καὶ ὁ Ὀδυσσεύς, ἔμειναν δὲ ἀρχηγοὶ τῆς πολιορκίας μετὰ τῶν σωμάτων αὐτῶν οἱ Ἀ. Λόντος, Ν. Σολιώτης καὶ Ν. Πετμεζᾶς. Διατηρουμένης δὲ στενοτέρας τῆς πολιορκίας, αἴφνης ἐφάνησαν εἰς τὴν παραλίαν τῆς Ἀκράτας τὴν 12 Φεβρουαρίου ὀκτὼ ὀθωμανικὰ πλοῖα ἐκ Πατρῶν ἅτινα παρέλαβον περὶ τοὺς 500, μὴ δυνηθέντα, ὡς ἐκ τῆς μεγάλης τρικυμίας, νὰ ἐλλιμενισθῶσιν ἢ νὰ παραλάβωσι περισσοτέρους. Ἐν ὧ δὲ ἐπεβιβάζοντο εἰς τὰ πλοῖα οἱ Ὀθωμανοί, ὥρμησαν οἱ Ἕλληνες πανταχόθεν μετὰ μεγάλης γενναιότητος καὶ ἐνθουσιασμοῦ, ὥστε ἀνεχαίτισαν τὴν ἐπιβίβασιν τῶν ὑπολοίπων. Ἡ δὲ μάχη τότε ἐγένετο πεισματωδεστάτη, πυροβολουμένων τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ διὰ τῶν κανονίων τῶν πλοίων καὶ τῶν πυροβόλων τῆς ξηρᾶς παρὰ τῶν Ὀθωμανῶν. Κατ᾿αὐτὴν τὴν ἡμέραν καὶ τὴν μάχην τῆς 12 Φεβρουαρίου διακριθεὶς ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ἐπληγώθη ἐπικινδύνως εἰς τὸν δεξιὸν μηρὸν ὑπὸ βολῆς ἐχθρικῆς. Οἱ δὲ ἐναπομείναντες Τοῦρκοι ἐφονεύοντο κατὰ μικρὸν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐφορμήσεων τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἕως οὗ ἀναγκασθέντες παρεδόθησαν εἰς τοὺς ὁπλαρχηγοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων.

 Κατὰ ταύτην τὴν ἔνδοξον μάχην τῆς Ἀκράτας κατεστράφησαν καθ᾿ ὁλοκληρίαν τὰ λείψανα τοῦ ἀγερώχου δραμαλικοῦ στρατοῦ, οἱ δὲ Ἕλληνες ὑπερπληρώθησαν πολυτίμων λαφύρων, ὅπλων, χρημάτων, ἵππων κ.λ. καὶ ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ἔλαβεν ἓν πολύτιμον καὶ λαμπρὸν ξίφος (σπάθην) τοῦ Δράμαλη.

 Κατὰ τὸν Σεπτέμβριον τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔτους (1823), ὅτε ὁ Ὀμὲρ πασᾶς πολιορκῶν τὸ φρούριον τῆς Ἀττικῆς κατεστενοχώρει στενῶς πανταχόθεν τοὺς πολιορκουμένους, τὸ δὲ φρούριον ἐκινδύνευε νὰ παραδοθῇ, ὁ δὲ Γούρας πολιορκούμενος ἔγραφεν ἐπιμόνως ζητῶν βοήθειαν, τότε διετάγη παρὰ τῆς Ἐθνικῆς Διοικήσεως ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης διὰ τὴν Ἀττικήν, ὃς καὶ ἐκφυγὼν τὰς φυλακὰς τῶν πολιορκούντων τὴν Ἀττικὴν Ὀθωμανών εἰσῆλθεν διὰ νυκτὸς μετὰ 400 Πελοποννησίων εἰς τὴν Ἀκρόπολιν τῶν Ἀθηνῶν, ἔνθα ἐμψυχωθέντων μεγάλως τῶν πολιορκουμένων Ἑλλήνων ἔμεινε καὶ ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης μετὰ τοῦ Γούρα συμπολιορκούμενος μέχρι διαλύσεως τῆς πολιορκίας, ὅτε καὶ ἐπανῆλθεν εἰς τὴν Πελοπόννησον.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὸν Ἰούλιον τοῦ 1825 συνεκστρατεύσας καὶ ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης διὰ τὸ κατὰ τὴν Τριπολιτζὰν συγκροτούμενον τότε στρατόπεδον μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ὁπλαρχηγῶν καὶ ἐστρατοπεδευμένος ὢν εἰς τὸ Λεβίδιον ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς 600 Καλαβρυτινῶν ἔλαβε γράμματα παρὰ τοῦ Γενικοῦ Ἀρχηγού Θ. Κολοκοτρώνου, λέγοντα: «Δρᾶμε τὸ γρηγορώτερον, ἀδελφέ, διότι οἱ ἡμέτεροι ἀποκλεισμένοι ὄντες στενὰ παρά τοῦ ἐχθροῦ κινδυνεύουσι». Τότε ἄνευ οὐδεμιᾶς ἀναβολῆς ἐξεκίνησε καὶ φθάσας ἐπὶ τῆς κορυφῆς τοῦ ὄρους Ἀπάνω Χρέπας διέσωσε πολλοὺς ἐκ τῶν καταδιωκομένων ὡς ἀπαντήσας τοὺς Ἕλληνας εἰς τὴν τροπὴν καὶ καταλαβὼν μίαν θέσιν ὀχυρὰν τῆς Ἄνω Χρέπας ἀντέκρουσε γενναίως τοὺς ἐχθρούς, ὡς τὸν ὑπαγόρευον τὰ πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα χρέη του. Ἑπομένως, τελευτοῦντος τοῦ μηνὸς Αὐγούστου τοῦ αὐτοῦ (1825) ἔτους, συνεκστρατεύσας καὶ ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης μετὰ 600 Καλαβρυτινῶν τὸ σῶμά του μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ὁπλαρχηγῶν Θ. Κολοκοτρώνου, Ἀ. Ζαΐμου, Ἰ. Θ. Κολοκοτρώνου, Δ. Πλαπούτα, Ἰ. Νοταρᾶ κ.λ. καὶ παρευρεθεὶς κατὰ τὰ Κουνουποχώρια καὶ Κοσμᾶν τοῦ Ἁγίου Πέτρου ἐπολέμησε γενναίως κατὰ τῶν Ἀράβων εἰς τὴν Κουνουπιάν, ἔνθα διέσωσε πολλὰς οἰκογενείας τῶν ἐκεῖ πλησιοχώρων χωρίων, οἵτινες εἶχον καταφύγει ἀπὸ τοῦ φόβου τῆς σφαγῆς καὶ αἰχμαλωσίας τῶν Ἀράβων εἰς τὰ ὄρη τῆς Κουνουπιᾶς, ἔνθα καὶ ἐφονεύθησαν ὑπὲρ τοὺς 100 ἐκ τῶν Ἀράβων, διασωθέντων τῶν γυναικοπαίδων τῶν χριστιανῶν.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὴν πολιορκίαν τοῦ φρουρίου τῶν Πατρῶν ἐκστρατευσάμενος καὶ ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης συμπαρευρέθη μετὰ τοῦ Θ. Κολοκοτρώνου, τοῦ Ἀνδέου Ζαΐμου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὁπλαρχηγῶν τῆς πολιορκίας, πότε μὲν μετὰ 500 καὶ ἄλλοτε περισσοτέρων, ἐξετέλεσε δεόντως τὸ πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα χρέος του.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὸ 1826 ἔτος, καθ᾿ ὃν καιρὸν ὁ ἀγέρωχος σατράπης Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶς κυριεύσας τὸ Μισολόγγιον μετέβη εἰς Παλαιᾶς Πάτρας καὶ ἐκεῖθεν λεηλατῶν, πυρπολῶν, αἰχμαλωτίζων τὰς ἐπαρχίας τῆς Πελοποννήσου, καταστρέφων πᾶν τὸ πρὸ τῶν ποδῶν του, χωρὶς νὰ ἀπαντήσῃ τὸ παραμικρὸν ἐμπόδιον ἢ ἀνθίστασιν εἰς κανὲν μέρος, ἔφθασεν εἰς τὰ Καλάβρυτα τὴν 2 Μαΐου. Φθάσας δὲ εἰς τὴν πόλιν τῶν Καλαβρύτων ὁ Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶς ἐπληροφορήθη ὅτι ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ὀχυρωθεὶς εἰς τὰς ὑπωρείας τοῦ ὄρους Κυλλήνης- (Χιελμοῦ), εἰς θέσιν Διποταμίων, κάτωθεν τῶν καταῤῥεόντων ὑδάτων τῆς Στυγός, μεθ᾿ ἱκανῶν συνεπαρχιωτῶν του Καλαβρυτινῶν  καὶ τῶν πέριξ χωρίων Βοστίτζης κ.λ.π. προετίθεται ἵνα τῷ ἀντισταθῇ, ἀπέστειλε δύο τῶν κατασκόπων καὶ ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸν Σολιώτην ὑποσχόμενος πολλὰς καὶ μεγάλας τὰς ὠφελείας καὶ λαμπρὰς τὰς τιμάς, ἂν δεχθῇ τὴν ὑποταγὴν (προσκύνημα), ὁ δὲ Σολιώτης τῷ ἀπήντησε ἑλληνικῶς διὰ τοῦ «μολὼν λαβέ». Ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης, καίτοι προβλέπων μέγαν καὶ προφανῆ τὸν κίνδυνον, ἀπεφάσισε νὰ ἀντιπολεμήσῃ κατὰ τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου ἐχθροῦ, ἵνα καταπαύσῃ τὸ διαδιδόμενον μίασμα τοῦ παρὰ τοῦ Νενέκου τουρκοπροσκυνήματος καὶ τῆς ὑποταγῆς, ἄλλως ἠδύνατο βεβαίως νὰ διασώσῃ καὶ ἑαυτὸν καὶ τὴν οἰκογένειάν του εἰς τὸ Ναύπλιον, ὡς καὶ πολλοὶ ἄλλοι τότε τῶν ἐπισήμων ἔπραξαν.

 Ὁ σατράπης λαβὼν ἀνελπίστως τοιαύτην καταφρονητικὴν ἀπάντησιν, πλήρης θυμοῦ καὶ μένεα πνέων ἐξεστράτευσε διὰ νυκτὸς ἐκ τῶν Καλαβρύτων πανστρατιᾷ μετὰ 22.000 στρατοῦ πεζῶν τε, ἱππέων καὶ Ἀλβανῶν, καὶ τὰς 5 Μαΐου μίαν ὥραν πρὸ τῆς ἀνατολῆς τοῦ ἡλίου φθάνει πρὸ τῶν ἑλληνικῶν προμαχώνων εἰς τέσσαρας πτέρυγας, ὅθεν καὶ ἤρξατο ἀμέσως πεισματώδης ἡ μάχη, τὸ κατὰ πρῶτον μὲ μίαν κολώναν ἐκ 3.000 Ἀλβανῶν. Οἱ ἐχθροὶ ἀπεκρούσθησαν διὰ γενναίας ἀντιστάσεως δὶς ἐφορμήσαντες, ὥστε βιασθέντες ἐτράπησαν εἰς φυγήν, φονευθέντες ὑπέρ τοὺς 80.

 Ὁ δὲ Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶς βλέπων τὰ γεγονότα κατεφρύαττεν ὑπὸ θυμοῦ, τεθεὶς δὲ ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς αὐτοπροσώπως τοῦ τακτικοῦ σώματος καὶ διευθύνων τὴν μάχην ὁ ἴδιος, ἔδωκε τὸ σύνθημα τῆς ἐφόδου διὰ τοῦ κρούσματος τῶν τυμπάνων. Οἱ δ᾿ Ἄραβες βιαζόμενοι καὶ ὠθούμενοι διὰ τῶν ρομφαίων τῶν ξιφῶν τῶν ἀξιωματικῶν καὶ τῶν ἱππέων ἐφώρμησαν κατὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων κλειστοῖς ὄμμασιν. Οἱ δ᾿  Ἕλληνες τοὺς ἀποκρούουσι καὶ αὖθις ἐκ τῶν προμαχώνων μὲ περισσοτέραν ὁρμὴν καὶ γενναιότητα, φονευθέντων πλέον τῶν 300 Ἀράβων.

 Προχωρούσης δ᾿ ἔτι πεισματωδεστέρας τῆς μάχης, συνεπλάκησαν καὶ αὐτοῖς ταῖς χερσίν, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ καὶ ἐφόνευσαν ἱκανοὺς ἐκ τῶν Ἀράβων διὰ τῶν πετρῶν ἀκόμη τῶν προμαχώνων. Τέλος δ᾿ ἰδόντες οἱ Ἕλληνες ἀναβάντας ἀριστερόθεν ἐπὶ τῆς κορυφῆς τοῦ ὄρους Χιελμοῦ μίαν πτέρυγα Ἀράβων καὶ ὑποπτεύσανες μὴ καταβάντες ἐκεῖθεν τοῖς καταλάβωσι τὰ ὀπίσθια, ἤρχισαν μετὰ ἑξάωρον πεισματώδη καὶ αἱματηρὰν μάχην, μὴ δυνάμενοι ἄλλως τε νὰ ἀνθέξωσι εἰς τὸ μέγα πλῆθος τῶν ἐχθρῶν, καθ᾿ ὃ ὀλίγοι, ἤρχισαν νὰ ὑποχωρῶσι πολεμοῦντες, ἕως οὗ φθάσαντες εἰς τὸ ἐκεῖ πλησίον κρημνῶδες, οὐρανόμηκες καὶ χιονοσκέπαστον πάντοτε ὄρος Καστράκι, ἔνθα ὀχυρωθέντες καὶ ἑαυτοὺς διέσωσαν καὶ τὰ πλήθη τῶν ἐκεῖ γυναικοπαίδων, ὄντα πλέον τῶν 10.000.

 Κατὰ ταύτην τὴν αἱματηρὰν καὶ πεισματωδεστάτην μάχην τοῦ Χιελμοῦ ἐφονεύθησαν ὑπέρ τοὺς 400 Ἄραβας καὶ Τουρκαλβανοί, ἐζωγρήθησαν δὲ καὶ δύο ἀξιωματικοὶ Ἄραβες, καιρίως πληγωμένοι καὶ εἷς ἐπίσημος Ἀλβανός. Ἐκ δὲ τῶν πολιορκουμένων καὶ πολεμούντων Ἑλλήνων ἐφονεύθησαν 25, ἠχμαλωτίσθησαν δὲ καὶ περὶ τὰ 250 γυναικόπαιδα, κρημνισθέντων ἑτέρων 200 ψυχῶν χριστιανῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑψηλοτάτου καὶ κρημνωδεστάτου ἐκείνου ὄρους Καστρακίου. Ἄξιον δὲ θέας, θαυμασμοῦ καὶ παντὸς οἴκτου ἦτο τὸ νὰ βλέπῃ τις κατ᾿ ἐκείνην τὴν στιγμὴν τὰς μητέρας νὰ ῥίπτωσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ στήθους αὐτῶν τὰ θηλάζοντα βρέφη ἀπὸ τοῦ κρημνοῦ, ὡς προτιμῶσαι καὶ αὐταὶ αἱ ἴδιαι τὸν διὰ τοῦ κρημνίσματος θάνατον, παρὰ τὸ νὰ παραδοθῶσιν αἰχμάλωτοι καὶ ζῶσαι εἰς τὴν διάκρισιν τῶν ἀνθρωπομόρφων ἐκείνων θηρίων, τῶν Ἀράβων. Ἐπανελθὼν πρὸς τὴν ἑσπέραν ὁ Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶς κατὰ τὰ χωρία Νωνάκριδος: Σόλον, Περιστέραν, Ζαρούχλαν κ.λ.π. πνέων μανιώδους ὁργῆς καὶ ἀκρατήτου μίσους, διέταξε νὰ τεθῇ πῦρ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑνὸς μέχρι τοῦ ἄλλου ἄκρου καὶ ἀπετέφρωσεν οὕτως ὑπὲρ τὰς 500 οἰκίας καὶ ἀμέσως ἐπανῆλθεν αὐθημερὸν εἰς τὰ Καλάβρυτα καὶ ἐκεῖθεν διευθύνθη εἰς Τριπολιτζάν. Κατ᾿ αὐτὴν τὴν μάχην τοῦ Χιελμοῦ συνετέλεσε κατὰ πολὺ εἰς τὴν καταστροφὴν τῶν Ἑλλήνων τὸ νὰ συμπέσῃ νὰ ἔλθῃ κατ᾿ἐκείνας τὰς ἡμέρας εἰς τὸ χωρίον Σόλον, ὁ Σωτήριος Θεοχαρόπουλος μετὰ 250 στρατιωτῶν, ὅστις οὐχὶ μόνον δὲν  ἔδραμεν  εἰς  βοήθειαν τῶν  ὠχυρωμένων Ἑλλήνων εἰς τὸ Καστράκι ἀλλ᾿ οἱ περὶ αὐτὸν ἔκαμαν τὰς μεγαλυτέρας καταχρήσεις, κατασκάπτοντες καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ ὑπόγεια καὶ γυμνώνοντες τὰς οἰκίας τῶν χριστιανῶν. Καὶ ὡς ἐκ τούτου πολλοὶ τῶν στρατιωτῶν τοῦ Ν. Σολιώτου καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί του Σωτήριος καὶ Δημήτριος εἶχον καταβῆ εἰς τὰ χωρία κατὰ τὴν νύκτα τῆς 4 πρὸς τὴν 5 Μαΐου, διὰ νὰ προφυλάξωσι τὰς οἰκίας ἑαυτῶν καὶ τῶν συμπολιτῶν των ἀπὸ τῆς διαρπαγῆς καὶ τῶν καταχρήσεων καὶ δὲν ἔμειναν μετὰ τοῦ Σολιώτου εἰ μὴ μόνον 400 ὁπλῖται, ἄλλως τε μὴ διαλυθέντων τῶν ὠχυρωμένων εἰς Καστράκι Ἑλλήνων, ἤθελον φθάσει ἀφεύκτως εἰς βοήθειαν τοῦ Ν. Σολιώτου ἐκ τῆς Καρυταίνης διὰ τοῦ Φενεοῦ οἱ στρατηγοὶ Ἰωάννης Θ. Κολοκοτρώνης καὶ Δημ. Πλαπούτας μετὰ 3.000, ὡς προειδοποιημένοι, τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν ἐκ δὲ τῶν Κατζάνων οἱ Β. καὶ Ν. Πετμεζαῖοι μετὰ 800, ὅτε ἦτο πολλὰ φυσικὸν νὰ ἐπέλθῃ μεγίστη φθορὰ ἢ καὶ παντελὴς καταστροφὴ εἰς τὸν στρατὸν τοῦ Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶ, κατακλειόμένον εἰς τὰ ἀπότομα καὶ κρημνώδη μέρη τῆς Νωνάκριδος καὶ στερούμενον πάντων τῶν ἀναγκαίων. Παρετηρήθη δὲ τότε ὅτι ἡ οἰκία τοῦ Σ. Θεοχαροπούλου δὲν ἐπυρπολήθη, καίτοι ἀξιόλογος, ἐν ᾧ κατεκάησαν καὶ αἱ τῶν ἐλαχίστων. Πολλοὶ δὲ ἀπέδωσαν τότε τοῦτο εἴτε εἰς προηγουμένην συνεννόησιν τοῦ Θεοχαροπούλου πρὸς τὸν Ἰβραχήμ, διὰ τοῦ παρ᾿ αὐτῷ διαμένοντος Ὀθωμανοῦ Χασάνου εἴτε διότι εὑρέθησαν συνεῤῥαμένα ἐν μαλλίνῃ ταινίᾳ πολλὰ ἀποδεικτικὰ πληρωμῆς φόρου (χαρατζοχάρτια), κρεμάμενα ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ προτεθειμένης καὶ ἀνημμένης ἐνώπιον αὐτῆς ταύτης τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ Ἐσταυρωμένου, ὑπὲρ οὗ ὁ ἀγών, ἀργυρᾶς κανδήλας. Ταῦτα δὲ εὑρεθέντα παρὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἀναχωρήσαντος τοῦ Ἰβραχὴμ τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν προσηνέχθησαν ἔπειτα εἰς τὸν Ν. Σολιώτην, ἅτινα καὶ διασῴζονται μέχρι σήμερον ὡς διηνεκὲς τεκμήριον μιᾶς τοιαύτης διαγωγῆς.

 Κατὰ δὲ τὸν Μάρτιον τοῦ 1827 προπαρασκευασθεὶς καὶ ἀναχωρήσας συνεπείᾳ διαταγῆς τοῦ Γ. Ἀρχηγοῦ Θ. Κολοκοτρώνου διὰ τὴν ἐκστρατείαν τῆς Ἀττικῆς ὁ Νικ. Σολιώτης μετὰ 600 Καλαβρυτινῶν, καθ᾿ ὁδὸν κατὰ τὸν μεγάλον Ἅγιον Γεώργιον τῆς Κορινθίας λαμβάνει διαταγὰς παρὰ τῆς Διοικητικῆς Ἐπιτροπῆς καὶ ἰδιαιτέρα ἐντονωτέρα παρὰ τοῦ προέδρου αὐτῆς Ἀνδρέου Ζαΐμου νὰ ἐπανέλθῃ εἰς τὰ Καλάβρυτα καὶ εἰς τὰ πέριξ χωρία τῶν Πατρῶν, καθ᾿ ὅσον τὰ ὑπὸ τὸν Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶν στρατεύματα προέθεντο ἵνα καὶ κατὰ τὸ ἔαρ τοῦτο φέρωσι νέας λεηλασίας κατὰ τὴν Πελοπόννησον.

 Ἐπανελθὼν δὲ ἐξεπλήρωσε πιστῶς τὰ πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα χρέη του, ἀναχαιτίσας μετὰ τοῦ Κολοκοτρώνου τὴν πρόοδον τοῦ τουρκοπροσκυνήματος, καύσαντος πρὸς τοῦτο ἱκανὰς οἰκίας τῶν τουρκοπροσκυσάντων κατὰ τὸν Ἅγιον Βλάσιον καὶ Λαπάθας καὶ Νεζερὰ εἰς τὸν Ἰβραχὴμ πασᾶν, εἰς πλήρη κατάπαυσιν τοῦ μεγάλου κακοῦ, ὅπερ καὶ ἐπέτυχε θαυμασίως.

 Ἀγωνισθεὶς καὶ κατὰ τὴν Πελοπόννησον καὶ τὴν Στερεὰν ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης περικλεῶς ἠξιώθη χάριν τῶν πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα ἐκδουλεύσεων αὐτοῦ, τὸν μὲν Μάρτιον τοῦ 1822 νὰ τιμηθῇ μὲ τὸν βαθμὸν τοῦ χιλιάρχου καὶ φρουράρχου τῆς ὑπερτάτης Διοικήσεως, τὸν Αὔγουστον τοῦ 1823 μὲ τὸν τοῦ ἀντιστρατήγου καὶ τὸν Ὀκτώβριον τοῦ 1824 μὲ τὸν τοῦ στρατηγοῦ. Ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ κυβερνήτου τῆς Ἑλλάδος Καποδιστρίου μὲ τὸν βαθμὸν τοῦ χιλιάρχου εἰς τὸ τότε σχηματισθὲν ταξιαρχικόν. Ἀπέθανε δὲ ὑπὸ τὸ βάρος τῆς ἀδικίας κατὰ τὸ 1841 ὡς μόλις λαβὼν ἐπὶ τῆς ξένης καὶ ξενιζούσης Ἀντιβασιλείας τὸν βαθμὸν τοῦ ταγματάρχου.

ΣΥΜΠΛΗΡΩΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΕΚΘΕΣΙΣ

 Ἔτι εἰδοποιηθεὶς κατὰ τὸ 1823 ἀπὸ τὴν ἐν Τριπολιτσᾷ τότε Γερουσίαν ὅτι οἱ εἰς Κόρινθον Τοῦρκοι Ἀχμὲτ πασᾶς τοῦ Δράμαλη καὶ λοιποὶ θέλουν ἀφήσει τοὺς ἀδυνάτους εἰς τὸ φρούριον καὶ αὐτοὶ ἑτοιμάζονται μὲ δύναμιν νὰ περάσουν διὰ τῆς Ἀκράτας εἰς Πάτρας, ἐκατέβη εἰς Ἀκράταν καὶ ὠχυρώθη μὲ ἓν ξηροτείχιον εἰς τὰ στενὰ τοῦ δρόμου, ὅτε ἀκολούθως ἦλθον εἰς τὰς ἄλλας θέσεις καὶ οἱ κ.κ. Ἀσημάκης Ζαΐμης, Σ. Χαραλάμπης, Σ. Θεοχαρόπουλος καὶ Ν. Πετμεζᾶς καὶ μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας, εἰς τὰς 8 τοῦ Ἰανουαρίου, ἔφθασαν οἱ Τοῦρκοι πρὸς τὸ δεῖλι εἰς τὸ πεδίον Ἀκράτας καὶ θέλοντες νὰ περάσουν διὰ Βοστίτσαν ἐμποδίσθησαν εἰς τὴν θέσιν του μὲ ἀπροσδόκητον ζημίαν του. Τότε φοβηθέντες ἐπέστρεψαν καὶ διενυκτέρευσαν εἰς τὸ πλησίον πεδίον τῆς Ἀκράτας. Ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ δὲ ταύτης τῆς νυκτὸς κατανοήσας τὸ μέγα καὶ δυνατὸν στράτευμα τοῦ ἐχθροῦ καὶ στοχασθεὶς μίαν ἄλλην θέσιν ἐπικίνδυνον εἰς τὸ πλάγιον μέρος καὶ ὑποπτευόμενος μήπως οἱ ἐχθροὶ περάσαντες ἐκεῖθεν διὰ νυκτὸς τοὺς πάρωσι τὰ ὀπίσθια ἀπὸ τὰς πλάτας, διέταξε μερικοὺς ἀπὸ τοὺς ἀξιωματικούς του, τοὐτέστι τοὺς δύο ἀδελφοὺς Δημήτριον καὶ Σωτήριον, τὸν Ἀγγελῆν Δελούκα, Δημ. Παναβῆν, Ἀναγ. Περέσην, παπα-Γεώργιον ἐκ Περιστέρας καὶ Γιάννον Κερπεσιώτην μέ τινας στρατιώτας νὰ καταλάβουν διὰ νυκτὸς τὴν εἰρημένην θέσιν, ἀπὸ τὴν ὁποίαν ἠδύνατο οἱ ἐχθροὶ νὰ διέλθωσιν. Οἱ δ᾿ ἄλλοι ὁπλαρχηγοὶ κατέλαβον τὰς ἡψηλοτέρας θέσεις· καὶ τὸ πρωῒ οἱ Τοῦρκοι, οἵτινες ἦσαν 5.000 τὸν ἀριθμόν, ὥρμησαν ὅλοι ὁμοῦ ἀποφασιστικῶς εἰς τὴν θέσιν του, νὰ περάσουν ἐκεῖθεν διὰ Βοστίτσαν καὶ Πάτρας, ἀλλ᾿ ἀποκρουσθέντες ἀπηλπισμένα παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἔπεσον ἔμπροσθεν εἰς τὴν θέσιν του ὑπὲρ τοὺς 400. Βλέποντες δὲ οἱ ἐχθροὶ πολλοὺς παρ᾿ αὐτῶν ὅτι λιποτακτοῦσιν ἐφώρμησαν τολμηρότερα· πάλιν τοὺς ἀντικρούει μὲ μόνους 90 στρατιώτας γενναίως καὶ ἀφοῦ δὲν ἠδυνήθησαν νὰ διαβῶσιν, ἐπέστρεψαν νὰ περάσωσιν ἀπὸ τὴν κατεχομένην παρὰ τῶν εἰρημένων στρατιωτῶν του θέσιν καὶ ἀπαντήσαντες κἐκεῖ τὰ αὐτά, ἐπέστρεψαν εἰς τὸ παράλιον πεδίον Ἀκράτας καὶ δὲν ἐτόλμησαν τοῦ λοιποῦ νὰ ἐφορμήσωσι κατ᾿ αὐτῶν. Ἀπὸ ταύτην τὴν εὐτυχῆ πρώτην θραῦσιν τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐμψυχωθέντες καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι Ἕλληνες συνέδραμον σωρηδὸν καὶ μετ᾿ ὀλίγας [ἡμέρας] ἔφθασαν καὶ οἱ κ.κ. Ἀνδρ. Ζαΐμης καὶ Ἀ. Λόντος καὶ ἀπέκλεισαν αὐτοὺς τόσον ὥστε, ἀφοῦ πρῶτον κατέφαγον τ᾿ ἄλογα, ἡμιόνους καὶ λοιπά των ζῶα, κατήντησαν νὰ τρώγωσι καὶ ὁ εἷς τὸν ἄλλον.

 Ἀλλὰ μετὰ παρέλευσιν δύο μηνῶν ἐλθόντα δύο ὀθωμανικὰ πλοῖα ἀπὸ Πάτρας παρέλαβον μόνον ἕως 400, οἱ δὲ μείναντες ὠχυρώθησαν διά τινος χάνδακος εἰς τὴν ἄμμον τῆς θαλάσσης, τοὺς ὁποίους ἰδὼν αὕτω προδιαθεμένους εἰς τὴν διὰ θαλάσσης φυγήν, ὥρμησε μὲ τοὺς ὑπὸ τὴν ὁδηγίαν του κατ᾿ αὐτῶν, διὰ νὰ τοὺς ἐμποδίσῃ, ὡς οὗσα πλησίον τῶν πλοίων ἡ θέσις του καὶ νικήσας αὐτοὺς ἐξ ὁλοκλήρου ἐπληγώθη ἐπικινδύνως ἀπὸ βολὴν ἐχθροῦ εἰς τὸν δεξιὸν μηρόν του, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπαρηγορήθη ὅτι τὰ μὲν πλοῖα ἔφυγαν μὲ τοὺς ὀλιγοστούς, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ ἔμειναν καὶ ἐσκοτώνοντο κατὰ μικρὸν ἀπὸ τὰς ἐφορμήσεις τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἕως οὗ παρεδόθησαν ὅλοι ὅσοι ἔμειναν εἰς τοὺς ὁπλαρχηγοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων.

Κατὰ δὲ τὸ 1825 στρατοπεδευμένος ὢν εἰς Λεβίδιον, ἔλαβε γράμματα ἀπὸ τὴν Χρέπαν παρὰ τῶν κ.κ. Ἀ. Ζαΐμη καὶ Θ. Κολοκοτρώνη, λέγοντα: «δράμε τὸ γρηγορώτερον, διότι οἱ ἐδικοί μας ἀποκεκλεισμένοι ἀπὸ ἐχθρὸν κινδυνεύομεν». Τότε παρευθὺς ἄνευ ἀναβολῆς ἐξεκίνησε καὶ φθάσας εἰς τὴν κορυφὴν τοῦ ὅρους Χρέπας ἀπήντησε τοὺς Ἕλληνας εἰς τὴν τροπὴν καὶ καταλαβὼν μίαν θέσιν διέσωσε πολλοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἐμποδίσας τοὺς ἐχθροὺς μὲ γενναίαν ἀνθίστασιν.

 Ἑπομένως, κατὰ τὸν Σεπτέμβριον τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔτους παρευρεθεὶς μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ὁπλαρχηγῶν κ.κ. Ἀ. Ζαΐμη, Θ. Κολοκοτρώνη, Γενναίου Κολοκοτρώνη, Δημητρίου Κολιοπούλου, Ἰωάν. Νοταρᾶ, Δημ. Δεληγιάννη καὶ Στάϊκου Σταϊκοπούλου εἰς τὴν Κουνουπιὰν καὶ πολεμήσας μὲ τὸ σῶμά του κατὰ τῶν Ἀράβων, ἐγλύτωσε πολλὰς οἰκογενείας τῶν ἐκεῖ πλησιοχώρων χωρίων, αἵτινες ἀπὸ τὸν φόβον τῶν ἐχθρῶν εἶχαν καταφύγει εἰς τὰ ὅρη τῆς Κουνουπιᾶς, φονεύσας πολλοὺς ἀπὸ τοὺς ἐχθρούς, καθὼς τὸν ὑπηγόρευον τὰ πρὸς τὴν πατρίδα χρέη του, διὰ νὰ σώσῃ τοὺς ἀπηλπισμένους ἀδελφούς του.

 Περὶ δὲ τὸ 1826, ὅτε ὁ Ἰμπραὴμ πασᾶς κυριεύσας τὸ Μισολόγγιον ἐπέστρεψεν εἰς Πάτρας καὶ ἐκεῖθεν ἦλθεν εἰς Καλάβρυτα, καίων καὶ ἀφανίζων πᾶν τὸ προστυχόν, χωρὶς νὰ εὕρῃ ἀνθίστασιν εἰς κανὲν ἄλλο μέρος, καὶ πληροφορηθεὶς ἀπό τινας κατασκόπους του ὅτι ο Ν. Σολιώτης ὀχυρωθεὶς εἰς τὰς ὑπωρείας τοῦ ὅρους Κυλλήνης (Χελμοῦ) μετὰ τῶν συμπατριωτῶν του ἦτο ἕτοιμος νὰ τὸν ἀντικρούσῃ, ἐξεκίνησεν ὁ ῥηθεὶς ἡγεμὼν διὰ νυκτὸς ἀπὸ Καλάβρυτα τὴν 4 Μαΐου μ᾿ ὅλας του τὰς ἱππικὰς καὶ πεζικὰς δυνάμεις, συμποσουμένας εἰς 17.000 τὸν ἀριθμόν, καὶ τὴν αὔριον, εἰς τὰς 5, μίαν ὥρα πρὸ τῆς αὐγῆς, ὥρμησαν εἰς τέσσαρες κολῶνες κατ᾿ αὐτῶν, οἵτινες πολεμήσαντες μὲ γενναιότητα τοὺς ἀπέκρουσαν κατὰ πρώτην, δευτέραν καὶ τρίτην προσβολήν, ὅτε πλέον ὁ Ἰμπραὴμ πασᾶς ἀγανακτισμένος ἀπὸ τὴν ἐντροπήν του ἐπέταξε εἰς τοὺς Ἀλβανοὺς ἀξιωματικούς του νὰ βιάσωσι διὰ τῆς ῥομφαίας τοὺς Ἄραβας, οἵτινες ὠθούμενοι ὥρμησαν καὶ αὗθις κατὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀποτομώτερον, οἱ ὁποῖοι ἀποκρούσαντες αὐτοὺς καὶ τότε μὲ θαυμασίαν γενναιότητα ἐφόνευσαν πολλοὺς τῶν πολεμίων, ἀλλὰ τέλος μὴ δυνάμενοι νὰ ἀνθέξωσιν εἰς τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἐχθρῶν, ὑπεχώρησαν.

 Ἡ μάχη διήρκεσεν ἀπὸ τὴν πρώτην ἕως τῆς ὀγδόης. Εἰς τὴν ὁποίαν ἀπὸ μὲν τοὺς πολεμοῦντας Ἕλληνας ἐφονεύθησαν 12, ἐξαιρουμένων τῶν γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων, αἵτινες ἐπροτίμων τὸν διὰ φυγῆς θάνατον, παρὰ νὰ παραδοθῶσιν εἰς τὴν διάκρισιν τῶν ἀνθρωπομόρφων ἐκείνων θηρίων. Οἱ κρημνισθέντες ἀπὸ τὸ ὑψηλότατον ἐκεῖνο ὄρος χριστιανοὶ ἔφθασαν τοὺς 200, οἱ δὲ αἰχμαλωτισθέντες τοὺς 140. Ἀπὸ δὲ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἐφονεύθησαν ἀρκετοί, ὡς ἀκολούθως ἐπεδείχθη ἀπὸ ἕνα λάκκον εἰς τὸν ὁποῖον εὑρέθησαν ὑπὲρ τοὺς 50 χωμένους. Εὑρέθησαν δὲ μόνον φονευμένοι πρὸ τοῦ ταμπουρίου του 80. Ἐσυλλήφθησαν δὲ καὶ δύο ἀξιωματικοὶ Ἄραβες πληγωμένοι καιρίως, οἵτινες ζήσαντες μόνην ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν, τὴν ἄλλην ἐτελεύτησαν.

1Ἡ πρώτη ὑψωθεῖσα σημαία ἔφερεν ἄνωθεν σταυρὸν μὲ γραμμὰς κάτωθεν αὐτοῦ 16, κατὰ τὸ σύνθημα τῆς Ἑταιρείας τῶν Φιλικῶν μὲ ἐπιγραφὴν «ἢ ἐλευθερία ἢ θάνατος». Κατόπιν δὲ ὁ Ν. Σολιώτης ἔλαβε προσφερθεῖσαν αὐτῷ παρὰ τῆς μονῆς Ἁγίας Λαύρας τὴν χρυσοκέντητον ἐπὶ αὐτοκρατόρων χριστιανῶν σημαίαν τῆς μονῆς, φέρουσαν ἐξ ἑνὸς μέρους τὴν Ἀνάστασιν καὶ ἑτέρωθεν τὸν Ἅγιον Γεώργιον. Σῴζονται δὲ ὡς παρακατατεθεῖσαι μετὰ τὸν Ἀγῶνα παρὰ τοῦ Ν. Σολιώτου εἰς τὴν ῥηθεῖσαν μονὴν ἀμφότεραι αὗται αἱ σημαῖαι.

Historical Essay

   Nikolaos Ch.[Christodoulou] Soliotis, of Solos in the province of Kalavryta, was a man who enjoyed a decent education by the standards of his time, with knowledge of Ancient Greek, and who, inspired by the most noble and patriotic desires for the happiness of his homeland, felt in the depths of his being a burning tendency and urgency towards the liberation of Greece. On account of this, he was initiated into the Friendly Society, having accepted the mystery eagerly and with the greatest enthusiasm, and received his catechism from his relative and friend Theocharos Rentis. From that time, he waited with impatience hour by hour for the outbreak of the war for the liberation of Greece, desiring autonomy for his homeland. After a short time, both the chief clergy and the overseers of the whole Peloponnese had been initiated, and they sent Ioannis Paparrigopoulos to Russia to sound out the opinion of the Leadership of the Society, etc.; on his return, he told them that a man would be sent from Odesa with the express purpose of instructing them when they ought to set the war in motion.
   In the middle of December in the year 1820, N. Soliotis found himself in Tripoli with  Sotirios Charalambis and Andreas Zaïmis when they learned of the arrival at Ydra and Spetses of Grigorios Dikaios; he therefore withdrew from Tripoli to Kalavryta in order to make the necessary preparations for war, while Sot. Charalambis and And. Zaïmis remained there for a few days longer, until they had received leave from the pasha to quit the place.
   On the 5th of January, 1821, the noble champion of his homeland, Archimandrite Grigorios Dikaios, along with the equally patriotic Charalambos Malis, went as a guest to N. Soliotis’s house in Solos, where they stayed for just one day, before on the following day moving on to conduct their catechizing work in Kalavryta, and thence to Patras, and from Patras returning to Vostitsa; there, the local governors and chief clergy of those three provinces convened on the 22nd of January that first preliminary secret congress, where they decided, following the encouragement of the Metropolitan of Old Patras and of Grigorios Dikaios, “that all the Peloponnesians should first reach some mutual agreement, and then set the war in motion, at a time when all preparations would be complete, and they, being prepared, could see that the time was suitable.” And thus each delegate returned to his own town.
   But what came about in the intervening time? Rumour of this meeting reached the ears of the Ottomans in the Peloponnese, and even travelled as far as the pasha, who issued a strongly worded summons to the chief clergy and overseers of the Peloponnese, instructing them to present themselves before him at Tripoli, to which place they all traveled of necessity, apart from those from the provinces of Kalavryta, Patras, and Aigaio, whom he summoned for a second time, in even stronger terms. Eventually, they too set out, counting among their number the reverend prelate Germanos of Old Patras, and Nik. Soliotis and N. Petmezas, on the pretext of travelling to Tripoli; with them, they had the courier who had been sent to them by the Kaymakam (local representative of the pasha) and an Ottoman dervish; they arrived in early March (10) at Kastria, a village in Katsanes, in the province of Kalavryta, where they had a friendly villager bring them a letter, which they themselves had already prepared to look like it had been sent by an Ottoman friend of theirs in Tripoli, which said the following: “If you want to preserve your lives, do not come yet to Tripoli, because powerful enemies of yours, seizing on the opportunity provided by the rumours which have been circulated concerning a revolution, have denounced you to the authorities, and you will be slaughtered unjustly and without cause.” They therefore returned to the monastery of Agia Lavra. When they arrived there, they received a letter from the Deligiannis family, saying: “Do not forsake your position, brothers, we beg you! Our brothers are imprisoned in Tripoli and are lost.” After devoting considerable thought to this matter at Lavra, they eventually decided, following the opinion of the majority, not to make any move for the present, until they were in a position to be guided by events themselves about what was to be done; the only men who showed themselves more eager and decided that the war should see its initial movement were, along with the prelate of Old Patras, A. Zaïmis and Asimakis Fotilas.
   Following this, they dispersed from Agia Lavra and scattered out of fear across safe locations – the prelate of Old Patras, Prokopios of Kalavryta, and Andreas Zaïmis in Nezera, while Asimakis Zaïmis and A. Fotilas made for Kerpini, Sot. Charalambis and Sot. Theocharopoulos made for Zarouchla, and Andreas Lontos made for Diakopto (Voura).
   N. Soliotis saw and heard all of this. The affair was made public and was beginning to become common knowledge among the lower classes, not only of Greeks but even of Ottomans, and he rightly judged that, if the political classes lost their nerve, Greece would once more remain under the same tyrannical yoke, with indiscriminate slaughter of Christians, and especially the most prominent ones, on the part of the enraged tyrants, as had occurred in 1769. Invoking assistance from on high, he withdrew from the Monastery of Agia Lavra, determined to provide a cause and a beginning to the revolutionary intentions of the Nation. Now, by a stroke of good fortune, on the 14th of March 1821, when N. Soliotis arrived at his own village of Solos, three Turks from Tripoli, of the sort who are counted ruffians, were passing, threatening the Christians with imprisonment and death; they had apparently been sent with letters from the Kaymakam of Tripoli to Hurşid Pasha. When N. Soliotis learned that they were passing by the crossing at Agridi, a village of Nonakris in the province of Kalavryta, he, along with just twelve of his fellow-villagers, took hold of that road at its narrowest point, at the place called Portes, without the knowledge of the local governors, and slaughtered them. And thus Nikolaos Soliotis was the first of the Greek fighters to stain his hands with the blood of the tyrants for the noble cause of liberty.
   On the following day, the 15th of March, N. Soliotis went to Zarouchla, where Sot. Charalambis, Ioannis Papadopoulos, S. Theocharopoulos, N. Petmezas, and P. Arvalis were stationed, and related to them his action at Portes and his slaughter of the Turks, at the same time encouraging them to take up their weapons and move against the tyrants. Now at first they resisted his arguments, saying: “What is this that you have done, brother? Have we taken the whole world on our shoulders?” “I carried out,” he replied, “the action we had decided, and towards which the general yearning and feelings of the entire nation inclines,” adding in conclusion that, “if they too did not set the war in motion with this same decisive zeal, they would suffer at the hands of the people, who were brimming with enthusiasm and bristling with resentment, the very same fate as the Turks.” At that point, S. Charalambis and P. Arvalis took the floor, and said that, “We must, each and every one of us, take up arms as one, and stir the others on to action.” This proposal was approved by all. On the 19th of March, N. Soliotis learned that the well-known Ottomans from Tripoli, the Cipoğlu family, along with eight other Ottomans under their command from the surrounding villages of Arfara, were passing, and he sent some of his men with his brother, and they slaughtered them too.
   On the 21st of March two commanders of the janissaries with sixty Albanians arrived from Amfissa at the nearby village of Chrysanthio, directed to fortify Tripoli. N. Soliotis, having learned of their presence, took with him three-hundred men from the region of Chasia and unfurled his flag1; he met with Ottoman resistance and a fierce battle ensued, and over twenty of the Ottomans were slaughtered, with the remainder forced to surrender. On that day, Soliotis’s men seized considerable spoils, among which N. Soliotis kept for himself a fine Arabian horse; of the Greek force, three sustained minor injuries. In this way, little by little, the province of Kalavryta began to become the centre of the war and of liberation.
   When Seïdis Laliotis learned of all this, he made with Nikolaos Tamvakopoulos for Tripoli. On the way, they received gunfire in Kastanes from Chondrogiannis and others, who were waiting in ambush for them there, and, making their escape, they sought refuge on the plain of Feneos; from there, Seïdis Laliotis safely reached Tripoli, since the men of Karytaina and Corinth had not yet taken up arms, and N. Tamvakopoulos reached Vytina. Following these events, on the 22nd of March, the Voivode of Kalavryta, Ibrahim Arnautoğlu, along with his household, withdrew to Tripoli in order to escape the danger, but he received gunfire from the men of Katsanes who were maintaining a position at Chelonospilia; two of those with him were slaughtered, and he abandoned his luggage and returned in terror to Kalavryta, where he actually shut himself away with the local Turks in three fortress houses.
   On the 24th and 25th of March, Sot. Charalambis, Andreas Zaïmis, As. Fotilas, N. Soliotis, Vasileios and Nik. Petmezas, and A. Striftombolas from the province of Kalavryta joined forces and launced a concerted siege on the Ottomans, forcing them to surrender at gunpoint after four days. During the course of these events, N. Soliotis, who had sallied forth to take one of the said fortress houses, was wounded in his left shin. The Greek besiegers numbered about 800, and the Ottomans in the fortresses about 400, both locals and foreigners. Following the surrender of the Turks in Kalavryta, Sot. Charalambis and N. Soliotis travelled to the province of Corinth, with a view to rousing the Corinthians to arms, for which purpose they also made for Trikala for an audience with Panoutzos Notaras, but it was impossible to persuade him to fight, out of his fear of the execution of his brother Sotirios Notaras, who was imprisoned in Tripoli. Having accomplished nothing in Trikala, they travelled to Sikyona (Vocha) in the province of Corinth, and having thus removed the impediments placed by the Notaras family and roused the Corinthians to take up arms, etc., and having initiated a suffocating siege to the Acrocorinth, they left Anagnostis Petimezas to oversee the battle, and departed with 500 men for the village of Kastanea, where they added to their number Fr. Nikas, along with the men of Kastanea and the surrounding villages of Stymfalia, and in this way they roused the province of Corinth to take up arms also in earnest.   From Kastanea, they set out for the siege of Tripoli at the head of 800 men of Kalavryta and Corinth. Reaching the village of Levidi on the Tuesday following Easter (12th of April), they found their fellow Kalavrytans Konstantinos, Vasileios, and Nikolaos Petmezas encamped with 600 men of Kalavryta, as well as P. Arvalis with some men of Tripoli. On the following day, the 13th of April, the massed ranks of Ottomans, 5,500 men in number, both infantry and cavalry, made a night-time sally from Tripoli, and arrived at sunrise at Levidi; the Greeks, with their said commanders, saw them coming from afar and since they were still unaccustomed to battle, they retreated into the mountainous parts. But N. Soliotis, who realized at that point that, were they all to take flight, the Turks would plant their flag in the very hearth of the Revolution, Kalavryta, where they would ravage and lay waste to everything they found, decided to barricade himself inside seven houses in the village of Levidi, and Anag. Striftombolas, G. Koulocheris, and Ioannis Petmezas followed his example by staying, along with 150 men. When the Ottomans arrived with unbridled strength at Levidi, they saw that, contrary to all expectations, they were sustaining fire from a few houses, at which point over twenty of their number actually fell dead, and for this reason they then retreated but later decided to launch an even fiercer attack against the Greeks, since they were innumerable against a small enemy; nevertheless, they received an even more merciless and determined rebuff from the besieged Greeks for seven straight hours, until the late afternoon, at which point more than three hundred had fallen in the slaughter before the Greek fortifications, not counting the wounded (according to what Hadji-Christos, a Bulgarian, who was then with the Ottomans, admitted after the fact), while of the Greeks, Anagnostis Striftombolas and Sotirios Salmenikos from Solos (officers) were killed after  fighting bravely, while Ioannis Petmezas and three others were wounded.
   In the late afternoon, while the battle was still raging, D. Koliopoulos (Plapoutas) arrived with 400 men, as did Tsalafatinos with a few Lakonians, to aid the besieged Greeks, and shortly thereafter, those who had retreated before the battle with Sot. Charalambis and the Petmezas clan descended from the mountains and they all mounted a charge against the enemy, and N. Soliotis emerged with the remaining men barricaded in the houses, and they put the Turks to a most shameful flight, slaughtering a considerable number and taking others prisoner, and the Greeks took considerable spoils from their slaughtered enemies. On the following day, they buried the slaughtered men, A. Striftombolas of eternal memory, S. Salmenikos, and the others, with due respect. Having been defeated in the Battle of Levidi by the small army of Soliotis, the enemy based at Tripoli, which had been regarded as undefeatable, returned in great shame and fear to barricade themselves inside their garrison, while the province of Kalavryta and the Peloponnese were saved from bloodshed and imprisonment on account of the battle worthy of commemoration given at Levidi by those one hundred and fifty brave warriors. This distinguished and glorious first Battle of Levidi of the 13th of April 1821 encouraged the hopes of the Greeks regarding the bright outcome of their struggle for faith and homeland, just as, on the other hand, it humbled the brows of the hitherto haughty Ottomans.
   N. Soliotis, Sot. Charalambis, and Nikol. and Konstantinos Petmezas, finding themselves a few days later at the siege of Tripoli, were informed that Kehayia bey had arrived at Patras; taking fright at the prospect of his invading the province of Kalavryta, they retreated, and on the 21st of April, having first occupied Mavra Litharia at Akrata, they attacked him with great losses on his side. At the end of the month of May of that same year (1821), at the time when Omer Pasha Vryonis and Mehmet Pasha had attacked Levadeia at the head of six-thousand Ottomans and intended to storm into the Peloponnese by way of the Isthmus [of Corinth], N. Soliotis took the 500 men under his command and went to Derveni in the Megarid, where he joined with Kyriakoulis and Ilias Mavromichalis, Grigorios Dikaios, Panos Th. Kolokotronis, Nikitas Stamatelopoulos, and N. Petmezas, who remained there for a short time before subsequently withdrawing to take the garrison at Tripoli, leaving just P. Th. Kolokotronis and N. Soliotis, along with the 800 Peloponnesian men and another 400 Megarans and Thebans under their command, to hold the vital and dangerous positions there until the end of the month of October, the time at which the Ottomans sounded their retreat and withdrew to Larisa. D. Ypsilantis, seeing that the men guarding the straits at Derveni were withdrawing every day into the Peloponnese and fearing that the forces of Omer Pasha Vryonis might enter the Peloponnese without so much as a fight, wrote to N. Soliotis often throughout September from the camp at Tripoli to encourage and beseech him in the name of their embattled homeland with these words: “That he might continue to hold that position with unwavering bravery like the brave champion of his homeland that he was for as long as the enemy remained outside the Peloponnese in the Greek mainland, and that on the proper maintaining of Derveni hung the salvation and safety of the whole Peloponnese, that Panoutzos Notaras had been instructed to send to his aid a thousand Corinthians with his nephew (Ioannis Notaras) and Theocharakis Rentis, and that he should compel the villagers of Derveni and the Megarians to follow him, even against their will.” These instructions men such as Captain Dionysios Panousis of Megara with his 200 men, and many others, did follow. N. Soliotis and P. Th. Kolokotronis, along with Ilias Mavromichalis, who had returned from Tripoli, remained in position holding the straits of Derveni and fighting and repelling bravely the attacks of the enemy, taking part in various battles in locations such as Plataion (Kokla), Kriekouki, Kaparelli, Villia, and Agios Meletios, in the course of which over 800 Ottomans were slaughtered in succession. Omer Pasha Vryonis and the others, seeing that their way was blocked by the Greeks, retreated for Larisa by way of Thebes around the end of October.
   Upon his return from Derveni, N. Soliotis received a letter of invitation from the administration and governors of Corinth, Panoutzos Notaras, Theocharis Rentis, G. Kalaras, A. Oikonomopoulos, etc., in which they begged him to act as commander of the siege. Anag. Petmezas had withdrawn on account of the lack of necessary supplies and the failure of the Corinthians to pay his men’s wages, and thus the siege was in imminent danger of collapse. N. Soliotis acted as commander of the siege at the head of 600 men of Kalavryta and another 800 Corinthians, and some men from Ydra and Poros under Christodoulos Mexis, and having taken Penteskoufios, a hill lying opposite the Acrocorinth to the southwest, he fought bravely against the enemy every day, and there he was severely wounded by the stones and soil of his own fortification, which had been thrown up by cannon balls from the fort, until the enemy was forced to surrender on terms to the Greek leaders. Over the course of these various battles and sparrings, around 800 of the Ottomans were slaughtered during the siege.
   After the establishment of the first National Committee of the Greeks, N. Soliotis was appointed captain of the guard of the National Committee on account of his brilliant achievements, capability, and his distinguished character in March 1822, with the rank of “chiliarch” [major] through the following articles.

No. 528

The Minister for Internal Affairs and War

To Chiliarch Nikolaos Soliotis

The supreme Committee, wishing to reward your lengthy and faithful services towards the homeland, and particularly the hearty zeal, with which you remained patiently at the siege of Acrocorinth, from its beginning to the end when the garrison surrendered, has assented on account of these deeds to honour you with the rank of chiliarch, the articles for which are enclosed in the present missive. You are assigned, along with all the men in your command, to remain here at Corinth and to answer to the immediate orders of the Committee. In addition, you are under an obligation of perpetual gratitude towards the supreme Committee, obeying without hesitation all its commands and taking care to fulfil without fail all the obligations of your new rank. Salutations.

Corinth, 9th March 1822
The Minister for Internal Affairs and
temporary Minister of War
Ioannis Koletis.
  He remained until the end of July in this role with the Committee in Corinth and in Argos, where he preserved the greatest calm and order, when, with the arrival of the large army of Dramalı to Argos, the then seat of the Committee, he first ensured the safety of the Executive and a portion of the delegates within one of the ships from Ydra moored at Myloi  and subsequently departed with the men under his command to take part in the expedition against the common enemy Dramalı with the other military commanders.
   On the 2nd of January 1823 N. Soliotis was informed by the Council that was then in Tripoli that Deli Ahmet Dramalı Pasha had conceived a plan to leave his wounded, along with another 500 men, in the garrison at Corinth, while he would make his way at the head of his remaining 5000 cavalry and infantry along the coastal path at Akrata to Patras. So he [Soliotis] went down with 400 men to Akrata and barricaded himself in a fortification at the narrowest point of the way (or the mill of Dim. Zaïmis) and awaited the enemy. Sot. Charalambis and Asimakis Zaïmis followed and took control of the other positions higher up in the mountains, while N. Petmezas took the vital position of Mavra Litharia. After two days, on the 5th of January, the Ottomans arrived in the late afternoon at the plain of Akrata, intending to pass over it on their way to Vostitsa, but they were repelled at the position held by N. Soliotis, which lay at precisely this point; over 80 of them were slaughtered, but on their second attempt they were repelled bravely also by the forces of N. Petmezas, with over 50 killed, so they retreated to the plain of Akrata to spend the night. During the course of this night, N. Soliotis comprehended how numerous and strong the enemy’s army was and realized that there was another dangerous position above the inn of Dimitrios Zaïmis through which the enemy could pass to take their rear from the flank. When he had understood this, he ordered some of his officers, namely his brothers Dimitrios and Sotirios Soliotis, Dim. Lalos, Angellis Deloukas, Fr. Georgos of Peristera, and Giannos Kerpiesotis, along with 150 men, to occupy the said position.  And on the morning of the following day, the 6th of January, at sunrise, the Ottomans first said their prayers to their false prophet and then blindly attacked with their full force, in the full flush of intoxication and uttering war cries, Soliotis’s fortification, determined to pass by that route on their way to Vostitsa and Patras, but they were repelled by him and more than 300 of them fell dead in despair before his fortification, not counting the wounded. This position at the Mill then gained a name which it has borne up to this day, that of “Soliotis’s Bastion.” Of the Greeks, three were slaughtered and four were wounded. They launched a second attack, but he repelled them with wondrous bravery and greater courage, with just two-hundred brave men; the Ottomans, unable to pass by that way, shamefully took flight, and subsequently made an attempt to pass by the position held by the said officers, but there too they met with the same resistance, so they returned to the plain of Akrata, not daring to make any further assaults on the Greek positions. Following this, many Greeks arrived from the provinces of Corinth and Vostitsa, and then Andreas Zaïmis, Andr. Lontos, and Odysseas arrived from Mesolonghi and cut off the enemy so tightly that they were deprived of any sort of sustenance, and once they had consumed all the horses and mules they had brought with them, they actually began to eat each other, with the strong murdering the weak.
   The enemy, being deprived of everything, was forced to begin negotiations with the Greek commanders about a surrender, but N. Soliotis refused to accept their propositions and offers of money in return for allowing them free passage, and failing to reach an agreement on certain questions, they did not come to terms regarding the surrender, and thus the blockade of the Ottomans on all sides continued even more suffocatingly, since they could neither proceed to Patras nor return to Corinth; they were therefore confined to the inn of Dim. Zaïmis, having constructed also two long trenches in the plain of Akrata. At the beginning of February, Andr. Zaïmis, S. Charalambis, V. Petmezas, and Odysseas withdrew from the encampment at Akrata for the National Assembly which was to take place at Astros, and so A. Lontos, N. Soliotis, and N. Petmezas remained as leaders of the siege, along with their forces. While the siege was still maintained rather tightly, eight Ottoman ships from Patras suddenly appeared at the shore of Akrata on the 12th of February, and they took around 500 men, but were unable on account of the great storm to put into harbour or take on board more. While the Ottomans were embarking, the Greeks launched an attack on all sides with the utmost bravery and enthusiasm, with the result that they prevented the remaining Ottomans from embarking. A battle of the utmost tenacity then ensued, with the Greeks sustaining Ottoman fire from the ships’ cannons and guns on land. On that day, and during that battle of the 12th of February, N. Soliotis distinguished himself, but was seriously wounded in his right thigh by enemy fire. The Turks who had remained in place were slaughtered in short order by the Greek assaults, until they were forced to surrender to the Greek commanders.
   During that glorious Battle of Akrata, the remnants of the proud army of Dramalı were utterly destroyed, while the Greeks received a great reward in the form of valuable spoils, weapons, money, horses, etc. and N. Soliotis received from this a precious and bright sword belonging to Dramalı.
   In September of the same year (1823), as Omer Pasha was laying siege to the garrison in Attica and placing intense pressure on the defenders from all sides, and the garrison at Athens was in danger of surrender, when the besieged Gouras wrote continually with insistent requests for assistance, N. Soliotis was sent by the National Committee to Attica; he, avoiding imprisonment by the Ottoman besiegers of Attica, entered the Acropolis of Athens by night with 400 Peloponnesians; thus the besieged Greeks were greatly encouraged, and N. Soliotis fought together with Gouras until the dissolution of the siege, at which point he returned to the Peloponnese.
   In July of 1825, N. Soliotis marched out to the camp which had then been constituted at Tripoli along with the remaining commanders, and while he was encamped at Levidi at the head of 600 men from Kalavryta, he received a letter from General Th. Kolokotronis, which said: “Make the greatest haste, brother, because our men are in danger under a heavy enemy siege.” Then, without delay, he set out, and when he arrived at the summit of the mountain of Apano Chrepa, he saved many of the pursued Greeks whom he met during their rout and captured a strong mountain position on Ano Chrepa to rebuff the enemy bravely, as his obligations to his homeland compelled him. Subsequently, at the end of the month of August of that same year (1825), N. Soliotis marched at the head of a corps of 600 men from Kalavryta with the other commanders Th. Kolokotronis, A. Zaïmis, I. Th. Kolokotronis, D. Plapoutas, I. Notaras, etc., and found himself at Kounoupia and Kosmas in the Agios Petros region; he fought bravely against the Arabs in Kounoupia, where he saved many families from the nearby villages who had fled from fear of slaughter and capture by the Arabs to the mountains of Kounoupia, where in fact over 100 of the Arabs were slaughtered, following the rescue of the Christian women and children.
   During the siege of the garrison at Patras, N. Soliotis marched out together with Th. Kolokotronis, Andreas Zaïmis, and the other leaders of the siege, sometimes with 500 men and at other times with more, and dutifully executed his obligations towards his homeland.
   In the year 1826, at the time when the haughty satrap Ibrahim Pasha had overwhelmed Mesolonghi, Ibrahim traveled to Old Patras, whence he began to pillage, shoot, and imprison the people of the various provinces of the Peloponnese, destroying everything in his path, without encountering the slightest impediment or resistance in any place, reaching Kalavryta on the 2nd of May. And when Ibrahim Pasha reached the city of Kalavryta, he was informed that N. Soliotis was lying in wait in the foothills of Mount Kyllini (Chelmos), at Dipotamia, near the waterfall of the river Styx, together with an appreciable number of his fellow men of Kalavryta and the surrounding villages (Vostitsa, etc.); he made to resist him, and sent two of his spies to Soliotis to promise many important services and splendid honours if he should agree to submit, but N. Soliotis responded to him in Ancient Greek saying “μολών λάβε/come and take it.” N. Soliotis, although he could foresee how great and clear the danger was, decided to fight against the Egyptian enemy in order to put to rest the rumoured disgrace of the submission and surrender to the Turks by Nenekos; otherwise, he could of course have brought himself and his family to safety in Nafplio, as many other high-ranking revolutionaries did.
   When the satrap unexpectedly received such a disdainful reply, he marched full of anger and wrath by night from Kalavryta with his whole force of 22,000 infantry, cavalry, and Albanians, and on the 5th of May, one hour before sunrise, he reached the Greek fortifications in four wings, from which point a fierce battle was joined immediately, in the first instance on the part of a single column of 3,000 Albanians. The enemy was repelled through brave resistance to their two attacks, so that they were forced to turn to flight, with more than 80 of their number slain. Ibrahim Pasha, seeing what had taken place, seethed with rage, and placed himself personally at the head of his regular army and directed the battle himself, giving the command to attack through a beat of the drums. The Arabs were forced onwards and pushed forward by the sabres and swords of the officers and cavalry and charged against the Greeks with their eyes shut. The Greeks repelled them once more from their fortifications with yet more bravery, with more than 300 Arabs slain. As the battle continued even more fiercely, they began to attack with their bare hands, at which point they slaughtered many of the Arabs with the very stones of their fortifications. Eventually, the Greeks saw a wing of Arabs ascending from the left up to the summit of Mount Chelmos and feared that they would climb down from there to capture their rear, and so they began, after a fierce and bloody six-hour battle, being unable in any case to withstand the great number of the enemy, since they were few in number, to retreat while still fighting, until they reached the sheer, sky-high, and always snow-capped mountain of Kastraki, where they hid and saved both themselves and the masses of women and children there, who numbered more than 10,000.
   During that bloody and exceedingly fierce battle of Chelmos, over 400 Arabs and Muslim Albanians were slaughtered, while two Arab officers who had been seriously wounded and one important Albanian were captured alive. Of the besieged and battling Greeks, 25 were slaughtered, while around 250 women and children were taken prisoner, although another 200 Christian souls threw themselves from that exceedingly high and sheer peak of Kastraki. It was a sight worthy of admiration and absolute pity to watch mothers tearing their suckling infants from their breasts and casting themselves from the cliff at that moment, since they themselves preferred to leap to their deaths rather than surrender to imprisonment and live according to the dictates of those Arab beasts in human form. Towards evening, Ibrahim Pasha returned to the villages of Solos, Peristera, Zarouchla, etc., in the region of Nonakris, seething with maniacal rage and unbridled hatred which caused him to order that a fire be set from one end of the village to the other; in this way, he reduced over 500 homes to ash before immediately returning that same day to Kalavryta, and from there he set off for Tripoli. In that battle of Chelmos, the catastrophe experienced by the Greeks was greatly augmented by the coincidence that Sotirios Theocharopoulos happened to arrive during those days at the village of Solos at the head of 250 men, and he not only did not rush to the aid of the besieged Greeks on Kastraki, but the men with him committed the greatest abuses by digging down into the foundations of the very cellars and stripping the Christian homes of their goods. Because of this, many of N. Soliotis’s men, and even his own brothers Sotirios and Dimitrios, went down to their villages during the night of the 4th and 5th of May, in order to guard their own and their fellow villagers’ homes from their pillaging and abuses, and so just 400 infantry remained with Soliotis; this was especially unfortunate, since if the Greeks encamped on Kastraki had not dispersed, Generals Ioannis Th. Kolokotronis and Dim. Platousas would inevitably have arrived on the following day to the aid of N. Soliotis from Karytaina by way of the Feneos with 3,000 men, if warned, and V. and N. Petmezas with 800 men from Katsanes, at which time it would have been highly probable for the greatest harm or even utter destruction to have come to the army of Ibrahim Pasha, which was enclosed in the sheer, rocky regions of Nonakris, deprived of all they required. It was observed at that point that the house of S. Theocharopoulos had not been burned, although he was a noteworthy resident of the area, while even the houses of the most insignificant citizens were razed; many attributed this fact either to a pre-existing agreement of Theocharopoulos with Ibrahim through the Ottoman Hasan who was in his company, or because many receipts of tax payments were found sewn into a woollen belt hanging in his house, with a silver candle placed and lit before it, instead of before the icon of the Crucified Christ, for whom the struggle was fought. These discoveries were made by the Greeks when Ibrahim retreated on the following day, and were then brought to N. Soliotis, and they are kept still today as an everlasting proof of such behaviour.
   During March of 1827, N. Soliotis made the necessary preparations and set out following an order from General Commander Th. Kolokotronis on the expedition to Attica with 600 men of Kalavryta, but on the way to the great church of St. George in Corinth, he received orders from the Governing Committee, and even more insistently from its President, A. Zaïmis, to return to Kalavryta and the villages around Patras, since the forces of Ibrahim Pasha were in position to inflict new pillaging on the Peloponnese that spring also. When he returned, he faithfully performed his duties to his homeland and joined Kolokotronis in disrupting the progress of the submission to the Turks; to that end, Kolokotronis had burned many houses of those who had submitted in Agios Vlasios and Lapathes and Nezera to Ibrahim Pasha in the hope of putting a final stop to this great evil, in which aim he was marvellously successful.
   N. Soliotis fought both in the Peloponnese and in Mainland Greece and was showered with honors on account of his services performed on behalf of his homeland. In March of 1822, he was honored with the rank of chiliarch and captain of the guard of the Supreme Committee; in August of 1823, with the rank of lieutenant general; and in October of 1824, with that of general. During the Greek Government of Capodistrias, he was honored with the rank of chiliarch in the then established regular brigade. He died suffering under a weight of injustice in 1841, having received from the foreign and foreignizing Regency the plain rank of major.
SUPPLEMENTARY ESSAY

   Already informed in 1823 by the Council that was then in Tripoli that the Turks in Corinth – Dramali’s Ahmet Pasha and others – would leave their wounded in the garrison while they themselves prepared to travel with a force by way of Akrata to Patras, Soliotis went down to Akrata and barricaded himself in a fortification in the narrowest part of the road, following which Asimakis Zaïmis, S. Charalambis, S. Theocharopoulos, and N. Petmezas came to the other positions; after two days, on the 8th of January, the Turks arrived in the late afternoon at the plain of Akrata and wishing to pass through by way of Vostitsa, were prevented from doing so at his position with unexpected losses on their side. Then they turned in fear and passed the night in the nearby plain of Akrata. During that night, he comprehended how large and powerful the enemy army was and perceived another dangerous position at the flank and, fearing that the enemy would pass by that way during the night and take their rear from behind, he ordered some of his officers, namely his two brothers, Dimitrios and Sotirios, Angelis Deloukas, Dim. Panavis, Anag. Peresis, Fr. Georgios of Peristera, and Giannos Kerpiesiotis, along with some men, to occupy by night the said position, by which the enemy might be able to pass. The other commanders occupied the higher positions; in the morning, the Turks, who were 5,000 in number, launched a unified and decisive assault against his position, so that they could pass by that way making for Bostitsa and Patras, but they were repelled with no hope of passing by him and over 400 of them fell before his position. When the enemy saw many of their number deserting, they launched an even bolder assault; once more, he fought them off with just 90 brave soldiers, and since they could not pass, they turned back to pass by the position occupied by the said soldiers, and when they met with the same treatment there, they returned to the coastal plain of Akrata and did not dare to launch any further assaults against them. Encouraged by this first successful crushing of the enemy, the other Greeks flocked there en masse and a few days later, Andr. Zaïmis and A. Londos also arrived and encircled [the Turks] so that, once they had first consumed their horses, mules, and other animals, they sank to the point of eating one another.
   But after the passage of two months, two Ottoman ships arrived from Patras and picked up just 400 men, while those who remained behind fortified themselves with a ditch in the sand on the shore; he saw them preparing to flee by sea and attacked them with the men under his command in order to prevent them from doing so, since his position was near the ships, and he defeated them utterly, but was seriously wounded by an enemy bullet in his right thigh, although he drew comfort from the ships leaving with the smallest number, while the majority remained behind and began to be killed shortly afterwards in the Greek assaults, until all those who had remained surrendered to the Greek commanders.
   In 1825, as he was encamped at Levidi, he received a letter from Chrepa from A. Zaïmis and Th. Kolokotronis, Gennaios Kolokotronis, Dimitrios Koliopoulos, Ioan. Notaras, Dim. Deligiannis, and Staïkos Staïkopoulos in Kounoupia, and he fought with his company against the Arabs and saved many families from the surrounding villages, who had fled for fear of the enemy into the mountains of Kounoupia, slaughtering many of the enemy, as his duty to his homeland commanded him to do, in order to save his despairing brothers.
   In 1826, when Ibrahim Pasha had overwhelmed Mesolonghi, he returned to Patras and went from there to Kalavryta, burning and destroying everything at hand, without encountering resistance in any place; he was informed by his spies that N. Soliotis had fortified a position in the foothills of Mount Kyllini (Chelmos) with his fellow villagers and was ready to withstand him, so the said leader set out by night from Kalavryta on the 4th of May with all his cavalry and infantry power, which numbered 17,000 altogether, and the following day, on the 5th, one hour before dawn, he launched an attack with four columns against them, who, fighting bravely, repelled their first, second, and third attacks, at which point Ibrahim Pasha was frustrated by this shame and ordered his Albanian officers to force the Arabs forward by the points of their swords; they were pushed forward to attack the Greeks once more and even more fiercely, but the Greeks repelled them then also with marvellous bravery and slaughtered many of the combatants, although eventually they were unable to withstand the enemy numbers and retreated.
   The battle continued from the first hour of the day until the eighth. During the battle, 12 of the Greek combatants were slain, not counting the women and children, who preferred death by fleeing to surrendering to the judgement of those beasts in human form. The Christians who cast themselves off the highest point of the mountain reached 200 in number, with 140 taken prisoner. Many of the enemy were slain, as was subsequently demonstrated by a ditch into which more than 50 of them were crammed. Only 80 were found slain before his fortification. Two Arab officers were captured with serious wounds, but they lived only for that day and passed away on the following.

1The first raised [revolutionary] flag had on it a cross with 16 lines beneath it, according to the custom of the Friendly Society, with the phrase “freedom or death.” Afterwards, N. Soliotis received from the Monastery of Agia Lavra the gold-embroidered banner bestowed by the Christian emperors with the resurrection on one side and Saint George on the other. These banners were preserved as treasures at the monastery thanks to the good graces of Soliotis.

Translated by Christopher Jotischky