Battle
russo-Swedish battle
The Battle of Lälitz (Swedish: Slaget vid Lälitz; Russian: Битва при Лялице) was an engagement fought between Swedish and Russian troops in the village of Lälitz on 17 July 1657. It ended with the Russian troops being repulsed and their commander dying of his wounds sustained during the fighting.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Battle of Lälitz”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Battle of Lälitz (Swedish: Slaget vid Lälitz; Russian: Битва при Лялице) was an engagement fought between Swedish and Russian troops in the village of Lälitz on 17 July 1657. It ended with the Russian troops being repulsed and their commander dying of his wounds sustained during the fighting.
In the beginning of July 1657, Christer Horn received reports that a Russian force planned to attack his field army, which was for the time being stationed in Kaporie county by the village of Kattila. Captain lieutenant Henrik Wollmar Buck, the commander of the force, had some 150 men. He was notified of the Russian advance on 16 July and was ordered to instead attack the Russians first.
On the same day, Buck arrived in the village of Lälitz. Early in the morning, the Russian advance was spotted marching towards the village. There was a pass in front of the Swedes' position, behind which most of the Russian force had halted. In total, the Russian force amounted to either 1,600 or 2,000 men, of which 1,000 were streltsy and 400 boyars, the remainder being Cossacks and peasants.
The boyars, who had formed the Russian vanguard, advanced across the pass, behind them were 200 streltsy and 200 Cossacks. Once these had crossed, they awaited the Swedish attack. The boyars took up position on the right, the Cossacks on the left, and the infantry in the center.
Buck told his men to fight as "honorable soldiers" and then commanded them to attack. At the first clash, the Russians fell back to their main force, whose gunfire forced the Swedes to turn back, closely pursued by the Russians. This maneuver was repeated three more times. However, a Russian company was eventually flanked by two Swedes, who cut its retreat off across the pass, and as a result, through the confusion that spread, most of the company was killed. Consequently, the entire Russian force withdrew into a nearby forest, while the Swedes continued harassing them on their rear and flanks. The Russian commander had also been mortally wounded in the fighting.
As a result of the battle, 100 Russians had been killed. On the contrary, the Swedes suffered one killed and 19 wounded. While the Russians had not been fully routed, nothing at this point prevented Buck from linking with Gustav Evertsson Horn. Another source estimates the Swedish losses at 30 killed and 20 wounded, and for Russians 54 dead.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Battle of Lälitz”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.