Battle of Klezk

Battle of Klezk

Part of: Great Northern War

Battle of Klezk

date	April 19th jul. / April 20, Sweden / April 30, 1706 greg.
place	Kletsk , today's Belarus
output	Swedish victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Tsarism Russia Cossacks
Commander
General Carl Gustaf Creutz	General Semjon Protassjewitsch Nepljujew Danylo Apostol
Troop strength
1500 horsemen and dragoons	4,700 Russians and Cossacks
losses
15 dead 25 wounded 4 artillery pieces, 16 banners and 2000 horses captured	4025 dead 71 prisoners

The Battle of Klezk in April 1706 was a battle in the Great Northern War . It ended with a resounding victory for the Swedish army.

The parties

Battle of Klezk

Location of the battlefield

The Swedish army was led by General Carl Gustaf Creutz and fought against the Russian army under Semjon Protassjewitsch Nepljujew and the Cossacks under Danylo Apostol .

In advance

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 the 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 Georg Benedikt von Ogilvy 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.

Charles XII. had marched to Pinsk in pursuit of the Russian army . During this time Colonel Creutz had begun the siege of the fortress Lakowicze , he received a message about an approaching Russian-Cossack army with a head strength of 5000 men to rush to the aid of the besieged in Lakowicze. The army was ready three miles from Lakowicze, near the town of Klezk. They wanted to rest the following day and then stabbed the Swedish besiegers in the back at night. In order to forestall the Russians and Cossacks, Creutz rode together with his more than 1000 horsemen and a major sent by the king and his 400 dragoons to meet the Russians.

• 

  Campaign of Charles XII. Late 1705 to late 1706

• 

  Letter from General Nepljujev to the Russian Tsar

The battle

Despite every precaution to keep the venture as secret as possible, the Swedes managed to sneak up on the Russians unnoticed for only a quarter of a mile. Then she noticed an outpost and sounded the alarm. Since the Russians had enough time, the Colonel found them in battle in the morning, partly in the town of Klezk and partly on the bridge to the mud. In addition, all streets were manned by Russian foot soldiers and Cossack riders.

The Swedish colonel immediately attacked the Cossacks who were defending the bridge over the river in the direction of the morass. Despite the violent but imprecise gunfire, the Swedes managed to confuse the Cossacks after only half an hour of fighting that they withdrew. Cossack leader Apostol sent a messenger to the Russian commander. He tried to come to the aid of the Cossacks, but was pushed back into the city and defeated there.

The Russian-Cossack soldiers were all chased into the surrounding morasses and killed. After the battle was over, Colonel Creutz sent his soldiers to every house to look for Russians and Cossacks. No soldier should survive. The bridge was so clogged with dead soldiers and horses that the Swedish horsemen chasing after the fleeing Russians and Cossacks had great difficulty crossing it.

The consequences

The actions of the Swedish soldiers in and around Klezk left around 4,000 dead Russians and Cossacks in the vicinity. The Russian general Nepljujew was shot in the upper arm but managed to escape. A major and a captain along with 70 common Russian soldiers were captured in the city. Furthermore, 4 iron pieces, 16 flags and standards as well as 4 pairs of kettledrums were captured.

A messenger sent by Lieutenant Colonel Trautvetter reminded the Colonel of the situation in Lakowicze. The besieged Cossacks kept trying to break out of the fortress. After the colonel had withdrawn with a large part of the Swedish siege army, the commander of the fortress saw an opportunity to leave it with few losses.

Two hours after the battle, the Swedes were back in the saddle and rushed to the aid of the besiegers.

This success, like the capture of the fortress Lakowicze, was not of great strategic value to the Swedish king, but even more so for the morale of the Swedish troops. The Swedish soldiers had shown once again how clumsy and incompetent the Russian troops acted in the open field and in defending a fortress.

The Swedish king left Polesia in the summer and marched westwards and subsequently into Saxony .

The Russian general Nepljujew wrote a letter to Tsar Peter I, in which he accused Ivan Masepa of underestimating the troop strength of the Swedish army at Lakowicze. According to Mazepa, Nepljujew only expected 800 Swedish horsemen, but was attacked by 1500.

literature

• Gustaf von Adlerfeld: Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden, 2nd part (Histoire militaire de Charles XII., Roi de Suède, 1741). Frankfurt and Leipzig 1741 (explained with notes and continued, as well as provided with necessary abstracts by Carl Maximilian von Adlerfeld).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gustaf von Adlerfeld: Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Part Two, Frankfurt and Leipzig (1741), p. 506
2. ^ Gustaf von Adlerfeld: Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Part Two, Frankfurt and Leipzig (1741), p. 507
3. ^ Gustaf von Adlerfeld: Life of Carl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Part Two, Frankfurt and Leipzig (1741), p. 508