Battle of Lesnaya

Battle of Lesnaya
	Part of the Great Northern War
	; Battle of Lesnaya by Jean-Marc Nattier, painted 1717
Date	September 28, 1708 (O.S.); September 29, 1708 (Swedish calendar); October 9, 1708 (N.S.)
Location	Lesnaya / Lesna, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; (present day Lyasnaya in Belarus)
Result	Russian victory
Belligerents
Swedish Empire	Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders
General Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt	Tsar Peter the Great
Strength
About 13,000 infantry and cavalry (about 6,000 engaged), 16 cannons. Total engaged: About 6,000	About 5,200 infantry, about 8,000 dragoons (all engaged) 30 cannons. A further 5,000 dragoons engaged in the end of the battle. Total engaged: About 18,200 (Cossack and Kalmyk cavalry were also engaged but their figures are unknown)
Casualties and losses
About 2,500 killed and wounded. About 1,000 captured and about 3,000 missing (about 1,500 of those made their way back to Courland). Additionally all supply wagons were destroyed and abandoned.	At least 1,192 killed and 2,924 wounded Total: about 4,116 killed and wounded (Cossacks and Kalmyks not included)

The Battle of Lesnaya (Russian: Битва при Лесной, Swedish: Slaget vid Lesna), was one of the major battles of the Great Northern War. It took place on September 28, 1708 (O.S.) / September 29, 1708 (Swedish calendar) / October 9, 1708 (N.S.) between a Russian army of 18,000 men commanded by the Princes Repnin and Menshikov, and a Swedish force of about 13,000 men^[1], under the command of General Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, at the village of Lesnaya, located close to the border between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia (now the village of Lyasnaya, south-east of Mogilev in Belarus).

Background

Early Swedish victories at Copenhagen and at the Battle of Narva in 1700 temporarily took both Denmark and Russia out of the war. However, King Charles XII of Sweden proved unable to speedily end the war as it took eight years to deal with the remaining combatant Charles Augustus of Saxony-Poland. Meanwhile, Peter the Great rebuilt his army into modern form, concentrating on infantry trained to use linear tactics and modern firearms properly. He then achieved a stunning victory in Livonia, where he established the city of Saint Petersburg. As a reaction, Charles ordered an attack on the Russian heartland with an assault on Moscow from his campaign base in Poland.

Lewenhaupt, one of Sweden's foremost generals, was the commander of one of Sweden's best armies, based at the Baltic Sea port of Riga. In the summer of 1708, King Charles ordered him to march southward with most of his force and link up with the main army of 25,000 men, based in Poland. Lewenhaupt was to bring a fresh supply of ammunition and food to support the Swedish army in a proposed march on the Russian capital of Moscow.

However, Lewenhaupt found that gathering the needed supplies and preparing the army for an overland march took longer than expected, and on September 26, after waiting for Lewenhaupt for weeks, Charles XII abandoned his camps and decided to invade Ukraine, hoping to reach that rich granary before winter. At the time, Lewenhaupt was only about 80 miles from Charles' position.

Having observed these movements, Peter decided to attack Lewenhaupt's smaller force before Charles could support it. Menshikov moved quickly to intercept Lewenhaupt's force and prevented it from crossing the Sozh River to safety. As no Swedish army had yet been defeated by the Russians in eight years of war, Lewenhaupt was not impressed and moved to fight Peter's army.

Battle

The battle itself was closely contested and both forces suffered heavy casualties. Late in the day a snow storm, rare for September even in Russia, set in. This disorganized the Swedish troops and Lewenhaupt ordered a tactical retreat to follow his main orders not to risk the supplies. He was forced though to leave many much-needed supply wagons behind due to the muddy terrain. The Swedes used the abandoned supply wagons to make a wagon fort in order to cover the retreat across the bridge over Lesnjanka.

The Swedish forces fought off heavy Russian attacks against the wagon fort and the attackers received heavy losses before withdrawing for the day.^[2]

During the rest of the day the remaining Swedish supply wagons were moved across the bridge and most of them were over by the evening together with the main bulk of the army.

Several thousand Swedish soldiers had been scattered during the battle or the retreat and many of them were either killed or captured by Russian cossack cavalry.

Results

The Swedes lost 1,000 men dead and wounded and 4,000 missing in the battle. Russian casualties totaled 1,111 killed and 2,856 wounded, about one third of those engaged (Lewenhaupt, probably basing himself on the account of a Russian prisoner-of-war, in his diary claimed 16,000 rather than 12,000 Russian combatants)

In his hurry to rejoin Charles' main army, Lewenhaupt decided to abandon the cannon, the cattle and most of the food, driving part of his soldiers to mutiny. After stealing the alcohol, some of the Swedish soldiers got drunk, and Lewenhaupt was forced to leave about 1,000 of them in the woods. By the time they finally reached Charles and the main force on October 19 (October 8 OS), virtually no supplies and only 6,000 men remained, only increasing Charles' victuals problem.

This is seen as the greatest significance of the battle.

Another effect of the battle of Lesnaya was that it convinced the Russian army that they could stand a match against Sweden's soldiers. This new-found confidence would aid them morally during the 1709 campaign in which they destroyed Charles' main Swedish army. Peter referred to Lesnaya as "the mother of the Battle of Poltava."

Note on the exact date of the battle

Sweden had its own calendar between 1700 and 1712, so in the Swedish calendar the battle of Lesnaya took place on September 29, 1708. According to the Julian Calendar used at that time in Russia, the battle took place on September 28, 1708.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Konovaltjuk & Lyth, Pavel & Einar (2009). Vägen till Poltava. Slaget vid Lesnaja 1708 (in Swedish). Svenskt Militärhistorisk Biblioteks Förlag. p. 229–235. ISBN 978-91-85789-14-6.
^ Svenska slagfält p.290

Literature

History of the Art of War - История военного искусства / Под общ. ред П.Д. Ротмистрова. — М., 1963. - T.I. - С. 132-135.
History of the Northern War - История Северной войны. 1700—1721. / Отв. ред. И.И. Ростунов. — М., 1987. С. 73-76.
The Book of Marsov or of Affairs of War - Книга Марсова или воинских дел. — Изд.2. — СПб., 1766.
Kresnovsky's History of the Russian Army, from Narva to Paris: 1700-1814 - Кресновский А.А. История русской армии: В 4-х т. — М., 1992. — T.I. От Нарвы до Парижа 1700—1814. — С. 35—36.
Letters and papers by Emperor Peter the Great - Письма и бумаги императора Петра Великого. — Т.5. — СПб., 1907.
Soviet War Encyclopaedia - Советская военная энциклопедия: В 8-й т. / Гл. ред. комис. Н.В. Огарков (пред.) и др. — М., 1977. — Т.4. — С. 624.
Strokov's History of the Art of War - Строков А.А. История военного искусства. —М., 1955. —T.I. — С. 496.

External links

[konovaltjuk-1] Konovaltjuk & Lyth, Pavel & Einar (2009). Vägen till Poltava. Slaget vid Lesnaja 1708 (in Swedish). Svenskt Militärhistorisk Biblioteks Förlag. p. 229–235. ISBN 978-91-85789-14-6.

[2] Svenska slagfält p.290

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