Siege of Lyachavichy

Siege of Lyachavichy

Part of: Great Northern War

Siege of Lyachavichy

date	Mid-March - May 2, 1706
place	Lyachavichy , today's Belarus
output	Swedish victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Cossack hetmanate Poland-Lithuania
Commander
Colonel Carl Gustaf Creutz Lieutenant Colonel Johan Reinhold von Trautvetter	Colonel Ivan Mirovich ( prisoner of war )
Troop strength
1,950 horsemen and dragoons	1,100 Cossacks 300 Poles, Lithuanians and Saxon soldiers
losses
no dead, very few injured	1,361 prisoners 9 cannons 9 banners and flags

The siege of Lachowicze was a military intervention in the Great Northern War . It began in mid-March 1706 and ended with the unconditional surrender of the allied troops under the command of the Cossack Mirovich on May 2, 1706.

In advance

Siege of Lyachavichy

Location of the battlefield

The Swedish King Charles XII. went in his Polish campaign against the elected Polish king August II . He tried everything in his power to depose August II as king and replace him with Stanislaus I. Leszczyński , who was loyal to Sweden . After the battle of Fraustadt , in which the Russian-Saxon army was crushed, August II divided his army and sent one part to Grodno and marched with the other part to Krakow . After the news of the defeat at Fraustadt in Grodno arrived, the Russian commander Olgivy decided to break out to Kiev with the remaining 10,000 combat-capable men. They escaped the Swedish persecutors and were able to save themselves across the border.

After winning the battle in Nyasvish , the Swedish troops marched further south-west under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Johan Reinhold von Trautvetter . In the town of Lachowicze , four miles from Nyasvish, they met Cossacks. These entrenched themselves in the fortress Lachowicze.

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  Campaign of Charles XII. Late 1705 to late 1706

The siege

The Swedish troops lacked artillery , so they only enclosed the fortress in mid-March, hoping that their occupation would surrender due to the lack of food deliveries.

At the end of March, the Swedish Colonel Carl Gustaf Creutz , with his 1500 men and some Polish-Lithuanian troops under the command of Christopher Urbanowicz Cyprian , reached the besiegers. Creutz had also brought four iron pieces (cannons) with him. These were aimed at the fortress and began with a light artillery fire towards the fortress.

The fortress' garrison quickly suffered from the siege . The Cossacks began to kill and eat their horses. In an attempt to break out, some Cossacks managed to get back to their homeland.

Support

The Cossack hetman Ivan Masepa sent his close friend, Colonel Mirowitsch, 4,700 men under the command of Danylo Apostol . These were defeated by the energetic action of the Swedish Colonel Creutz in the battle of Klezk . The Cossack commander in chief died in this battle.

The end of the siege

When the Swedish colonel returned with his troops from the Battle of Klezk and the besieged saw that the Swedes were carrying 70 captured Cossack horsemen and four cannons, the commander Mirovich asked the colonel to negotiate surrender. When the four captured cannons were aimed at the fortress and the Swedish colonel had refused the surrender request, the Cossacks surrendered unconditionally. The 1361-strong crew was taken prisoner of war on May 2nd . Nine cannons and nine banners and flags were also captured.

The consequences

Three days after the conquest, the Swedish King Charles XII visited. the fortress and ordered it to be completely destroyed.

literature

• Gustaf Adlerfelt : Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Part Two, Frankfurt and Leipzig (1741)
• Knut Lundblad: History of Charles the Twelfth King of Sweden , Volume 1, Hamburg (1835)

Web links

• www.arkivcentrum.se

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gustav von Adlersfeld: Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Part Two, Frankfurt and Leipzig (1741), p. 506