The Battle of Kokenhausen (June 23, 1601) - the battle of the Polish-Swedish war of 1600–1611 . One of the greatest victories in the history of the Polish Hussaria .
Battle of Kokenhausen | |||
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Main conflict: Polish-Swedish war of 1600–1611 | |||
The alignment of troops before the battle | |||
date | June 23, 1601 | ||
A place | Kokenhausen | ||
Total | victory of the Polish-Lithuanian army | ||
Opponents | |||
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Commanders | |||
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Forces of the parties | |||
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Losses | |||
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Background
Kokhenhausen was one of three major fortresses that blocked the Swedish advance along the Western Dvina . On March 10, 1601, a two-thousand Swedish detachment under the command of Kokenhausen blocked, and from March 28, after the arrival of the Duke of Södermanland with heavy artillery, the correct siege began. On April 1, the Swedes seized the city, but the Lithuanian garrison was entrenched in the castle. After four unsuccessful attacks, the Swedes left a blocking force of 2,600 men, and went to Ergli ; the leadership of the troops the duke of Södermanlandsky left on his son Carl Karlsson Yullenjelma .
In the spring of 1601, the Polish Sejm raised taxes to receive funds for waging the war in Livonia. Without waiting for the leisurely magnates, Hetman Christopher Radziwill instructed Colonel Jan Sichinsky to take actions that would deprive the Swedes of food supplies and lock them in the city walls. As a result, the Swedes themselves were in the position of the besieged, but the absence of large-caliber guns did not give the Lithuanians the opportunity to do away with them. Only on June 8, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz led reinforcements, as a result of which the Lithuanian army increased to 4 thousand people with 16 guns. However, on June 23, reinforcements approached the Swedes: Yullenjelm brought 5 thousand people and tried to lift the blockade.
The course of events
The opposing sides came together in a field battle on the site north of the Western Dvina. Radziwill left 500 infantrymen under Otto Denhoff's command to continue blocking the Swedish garrison in Kokenhausen, but the rest (about 3000 men with 9 guns, including about 400 infantrymen and 1000 winged hussars ) divided into four groups: the main forces of 1000 cavalrymen commanded He placed Chodkiewicz and his son Janusz Radzivil in the center, on the right wing stood Krzysztof Dorogostaysky with hussars, on the left - Peter Stabrovsky, and the commander himself with the reserve was located on a hill behind his troops.
The Swedes put the infantry in the center, and behind it hid 17 cannons, hoping to provoke a Polish cavalry attack on the allegedly defenseless infantry; before the formation of the infantry, a protective shaft was built and Spanish slingshots were exposed. The Swedish cavalry was divided equally into two parts, which covered the flanks of the infantry formation; due to the fact that the width of the battlefield was only 600 m, this made it impossible for the forces to maneuver along the front, and when the Swedes realized that the Poles had concentrated the attack fist against their left flank, they could not change anything in the alignment of their troops. The right wing of the Swedish troops was composed of the militia from Livonia, Sweden, the left wing - Finnish raytar. The right wing of the Swedes was further strengthened by carts placed on the border with the adjacent forest.
The battle began with the fact that the Finnish Reiters of the left wing of the Swedes attacked the Lithuanian army, but were repulsed. Dusrostaisky's hussary struck back, and turned the enemy to flight. Meanwhile, the Swedish right wing struck at the Polish-Lithuanian cavalry and infantry, and forced them to begin to retreat. Christopher Radziwill sent the regiment to the aid of the left wing, and forced the Swedish cavalry to seek shelter in the forest in the north. At this time, the stubborn Swedish defense in the center, which the Polish hussaria could not break through because of Spanish slingshots, forced the Lithuanians to pull up the artillery, which decided the matter.
Results and implications
Seeing the defeat of the unblocking detachment, 1800 Swedes besieged Kokengausen castle surrendered on the same day. However, the victorious march of the Lithuanian army did not happen: the soldiers who had not received a long salary eventually began to scatter.