The Polish-Austrian War of 1809 is usually perceived as a regular military conflict between the Duchy of Warsaw, which was part of the Napoleonic Europe, and the Habsburg Monarchy. However, overthrowing the Austrian government in the lands of the Polish partition (Galicia) was largely related to the independence protests of the local Polish population. Among them, the Galician recruits played an important role. A significant number of conscripts from Galicia were involved in the rebellion against the Austrian army. It involved mass as well as individual desertions, surrender into captivity without a fight, and finally a group defection to the enemy’s side. This way, the Austrian army lost approximately 15,000 men in Galicia. This rebellion had social and anti-militaristic grounds, but also resulted from the sympathy of wider circles of Galician population towards the Napoleonic socio-political system. It was primarily perceived as “freedom” and the abolition of existing feudal relations. For Galician recruits, these were positive values, reinforced by the image of the Napoleonic army as a guarantor of modernization processes. The rebellion of Galician recruits in 1809 in the lands of the Austrian partition can therefore be assessed as a Polish independence movement, but also as a chaotic uprising against the feudal and absolutist Habsburg monarchy. The latter factor was probably more important, but it objectively contributed to Austria losing part of its territory to the Duchy of Warsaw