Colonel Rutger von Ascheberg's detachment in the battle of Konitz 1656/1657

"Colonell Ashemberg marched towards Pomerell with a party of 1500 horsemen, and in the night tyme not farr from Konitz falleth into the Polls quarters, fyreth some villages, ruineth Duke Dimitre Visniovitsky his and other regiments, and retires with some losse and in great confusion to Sluchow, the trowpes haveing lost each other and their guides in the woodes, and persued hotly by the Polls."

-Diary of Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries

Rutger von Ascheberg commanded four 6-pound cannon and 950 men drawn from the following five regiments

1. Pfalzgraf Philip von Sulzbach's regiment of Horse: 4 companies
2. Karl Gustav Wrangel's regiment of Horse:               4 companies
3. Gustav Otto Stenbock's regiment of Horse:              6 companies
4. Engel's regiment of Horse:                                        4 companies
5. Rutger von Ascheberg's regiment of Horse:             4 companies
6. In total 22 companies

Given the much reported weakness of the Swedish regiments in the fall and winter of 1656 the strenght reported above is suspicously high. If Ascheberg did indeed field 950 his troops would have included a large number of "commanded" troopers drawn from other regiments in the army which are not mentioned above.

Pfalzgraf Philip von Sulzbach's regiment of Horse 

(Aka The King's Life Regiment of Horse)
Lieutenant-Colonel Angel?

A large regiment with a paper strenght of 9 companies with 108 officers and 630 men which was raised in Germany. However by the time of the intial invasion of Poland only 330 men had been mustered in Pommerania. 8 companies with 270 men were part of Wittenbergs army while a single company with 60 men marched with Karl Gustav. 

The regiment took part in the march into southern Poland and was present at the battle of Zarnow It took part in the Krakow campaign and was in the thick of the fighting during the battle of Wojnicz. In the fall into took part in the campaign against Royal Prussia where it also found winter quarters. In March 1656 one squadron with 200 men joined the Pfalzgraf's mach to Warsaw which was in much need of reinforcements due to the local population rising against the Swedes across the countryside in central Poland. In April it rejoined the main Swedish and fought in the battles of Gniezno/Kleck and Warsaw.

In June 1656 the regiment mustered a total of 470 men, 270 men with the King's field army and 200 men with Stenbock's corps in Royal Prussia. The 2nd squadron took part in Stenbock's campaign in East Prussia and fought in the battle of Filipow in October 1656. It then rejoined the King's army and the now complete regiment took part in the winter campaign in Pomerelia in late 1656. 

Karl Gustav Wrangel's regiment of Horse

Major Johan Persson Lindorm

Raised in Germany as a 8 company regiment with 400 common troopers and 93 officers and staff in September 1655. In January 1656 the regiment can found in Poland were it was quartered in Brzesc Kujawski. Badly worn down by desertion, disease and partisan warfare it was brought up to strenght using the remants of Otto von Styrum's Dutch cavalry regiment as well as trying to find new recruits in Germany and Poland.

The regiment followed Wrangel during the campaign in April-May 1656 and fought in the battle of Gniezno/Klecko. In late May the regiment was made part of Robert Douglas corps and took part in the march to Pultusk. In June it rejoined the main army and fought in the battle of Warsaw. (Where it was one of the Swedish regiments that reinforced the Brandenburg wing of the army.)

In October 1656 the regiments fortunes began to decline as Wrangel was about to leave Poland for a new command in Livonia while Lt-Col. Planting went on leave in Pommerania. This left Lindorm in command of an unsupported regiment. The regiment may have been part of Stenbock's army at Filipow were a squadron of made up of "Lindorm" and a squadron of the Royal Guards is found in one document. But Lindorm could also have been temporarily attached to the Guards without the rest of the regiment being present. In the fall of 1656 the regiment was attached to Aschebergs regiment to form a combined unit refered to as "Wrangel-Ascheberg" by Karl Gustav. (Calrbom quotes a regimental strenght of 4 companies with 96 common troopers during this period) In February 1657 the remnants of Wrangel's regiment (which by then mustered only 50 common troopers) was formaly absorbed into Ascheberg's regiment and the regiment ceased to exist.

Gustav Otto Stenbock's regiment of Horse

Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Heinrich von Wussow

Recruited as a regiment of 8 companies in 1655-1656 the regiment entered Poland January-February as Wussow marched to joined Stenbock who was in Royal Prussia.

As part of Stenbock's army the regiment remained in Royal Prussia for most of 1656 and was engaged in the war against the forces raised by Gdansk (Danzig). As result it service record is less well covered in printed sources than that of units which served with Karl Gustav in the more famous campaigns in southern Poland. The regiment was part of the army which Stenbock led into East Prussia in the fall of 1656 and saw action in the battle of Filipow were Stenbock defeated the Lithuanian army.

The regiment may have contained a company of dragoons, there are loose references to "Stenbock's dragoons" at times though this coudl also refer to temporary dragoons drawn from Stenbock's regiment of Foot or a poorly documented dragoon regiment which is also connected to Stenbock. A muster from 1660 shows the regiment with 7 companies of horse and 1 company of dragoons though it is impossible to tell if the dragoon company is a later addition.
 

Engel's regiment of Horse

A composite unit made up of the remnants of the two regiments of Horse raised in Bremen by the brothers Jochim and Hans Engell. Both were veterans of the 30 Years War and Jochim had been in Swedish service since his youth and as a lieutenant took part in the defence of Stralsund in 1628. Hans began his military service some years later in 1636.
 
The Engell regiments saw extensive service in the war from the initial invasion in 1655 when they were part of Arvid Wittenbergs army to 1657 when the two had been combined into a single regiment commanded by Jochim Engell which was part of the the army which Karl Gustav led towards Denmark. The Engell's fought in the battle of Zarnow 1655 and were part of the winter campaign against Czarniecki in 1656 were they saw action in the battle of Golab. Joachim Engell's regiment took part in the last part of the Jaroslaw campaign and after a short rest both regiments fought in the battle of Gniezno (aka Klecko) were Hans Engell was in the thick of the fighting as the commander of the Swedish vanguard.
In the autumn of 1656 both regiments were part of the small corps with which Major-General Israel Ridderhjelm reinforced the Brandenburg army in East Prussia and as a result both regiments were badly mauled in the battle of Prostken. Hans Engell was taken captive by the Tartars and would spend long years in captivity before being released.

Rutger von Ascheberg's regiment of Horse

Major Reinhard von Hornberg
 
A veteran of the 30 Years War Ascheberg reentered Swedish service in 1655 when he was commissioned to raise a regiment of Horse in Bremen. The 6 companies had a paper strenght of 72 officers and 360 men and in November the regiment muster 318 men.

In December 1655 the regiment joined a detachment of German troops led by Major-General Valdemar Christian of Schlesvig-Holstein and marched into Pomerelia were it soon began engaged in the ongoing fighting with the troops commanded by Weyhers including beating up the quarters of four Polish companies at Kaselitsky near Marienburg. In January Ascheberg's regiment was sent to reinforce Douglas army and took part in the winter campaign against Stefan Czarniecki. At the manor of Zakrzow Ascheberg's detachment of 242 German and Swedish Reiters fought of a night attack by Stanislav Witowski who led a force of 800-1500 men made up of regulars, noble volunteers and armed peasants.

Rejoining the main Swedish army 3 squadrons of Ascheberg's regiment took part in the hard fought battle of Golab were Czarniecki was defeated. Afterwards Ascheberg took part in the so called "Jaroslaw march" during which Ascheberg and his regiment won several independet actions against Polish forces. An separate detachment of the regiment were part of the Swedish troops defeated at Warka and only 39 men managed to return to Warsaw. By June 1656 the regiment had been much reduced by the hard campaigns and mustered on 150 men in a single squadron. The regiment fought in the 3 day battle outside Warsaw but no details of it's service there seem to have been recorded. In the fall the still weak regiment was reinforced by attaching Wrangel's old regiment of Horse an attachment which was to be made permanent when the two regiments were combined into one in february 1657.

The Danish army of the Kalmar War, part 2

Christian IV’s ‘Eastern’ army 1611

King Christian’s army was to besgie and capture the important Swedish town of Kalmar as the first stage of the invasion of Sweden.

Danish infantry

• King’s own regiment (1336 men)
  • Tomas Nold’s company of Guards: 314 men
  • Peder Hundemark’s company: 308 men
  • Kasper Miltnitz’company: 400 men
  • Anders Sinclair’s company: 314 men

Mercenary infantry

• Gert Rantzau’s regiment (625 men)
  • Blasius Belisarius company: 200 men
  • Paul Rantzau’s company: 200 men
  • Jakob Werkamp’s company: 225 men

• Godske von Alefeldt’s regiment (1920 men)
  • Lieutenant-Colonel Alefeldt’s company: 386 men
  • Heinrich Ernst Brüning’s company: 217 men
  • Vilhelm von Friesendorff’s company: 190 men
  • Bernt von Hagen’s company: 234 men
  • Johann Kaufman’s company: 240 men
  • Joachim Köller’s company: 202 men
  • Melkior Rantzau’s company: 203 men
  • Joachim Schultz’ company: 248 men

• Duke Georg von Braunschweig-Lüneburg’s regiment (700 men)*
  • The Dukes company: 500 men
  • Two companies: 200 men

Danish cavalry

• Hoffane, Ditlev Rantzau: 150 men (150)

• Sjaellendske fane, Peder Basse: 104 men (100)

• Skaanske fane, Anders Bille: 132 men (200)

• Fynske fane, Korfitz Rud,: 129 (200)

Mercenary cavalry

• Joachim Bülows company (King’s Lifecompany): 130 men (100)
• Jean Dupuis company of dragoons: 124 men (200)*

Notes

Some of the units assigned to Christian’s army were slow to arrive, Duke Georg’s regiment only joined the army on the 29^th of May while Dupuis’ dragoons only landed at Kalmar on August 2^nd.

These delays left Christian’s army understrenght at Kalmar, however the poorly prepared Swedish defences meant that the Swedes were unable to exploit his weakness before reinforments arrived by land and sea. Indeed Christians army was strong enough to capture the town (but not the castle) of Kalmar before any reinforcements arrived.

Fieldmarshal Sten Maltesen Sehested’s ’Western’Army 1611

The original Danish plan called for Fielmarshal Maltsen-Sehested to support and protect Christians army besieging Kalmar by advancing to Jönköping. However the border in northern Halland had been left completely unprotected and fearing a Swedish attack on the vulnerable province Sten Maltesen ignored his order to attack Jönköping and instead moved against the Swedish forces gathering around Elfsborg. This left Christian dangerously unsupported at Kalmar.

Mercenary infantry

• King’s own regiment (1202 men)
  • Kristian Friis’ company: 260 men
  • Mortiz Galde’s company: 314 men
  • Peter von Heinemark’s company: 314 men
  • Holger Rosencrantz’ company: 314 men

• Gert Rantzau’s regiment (1800 men)
  • The Colonel’s company
  • Jörgen Barolet’s company
  • Henrik Dringelberg’s company
  • Wollert Lützow’s company
  • Jakob Sehested’s company
  • Valentin Rosworm’s company
  • Markvard von der Wick’s company

• Thesen von Parsows regiment (1244 men)
  • Georg Lunge’s company: 322 men
  • Three companies: 922 men

Danish cavalry

• Aalborg fane, Ulrik Sandberg: 150 men (200)

• Aarhus fane, Knut Brahe: 164 men (200)

• Ribe fane, Albert Skeel: 161 men (200)
• Sjaellendske fane, Krister Hansen,: 100 (100)

• Hallandske fane, Tage Krabbe: 103 men (200)

Mercenary cavalry

• Gert Rantzau’s company: 351 men (350, including 150 mounted arquebusiers)
• Duke Ernst Ludwig’s company (Sachsen): 193 men (200)
• Thesen von Parsow’s company: 196men (200)
• Markvard Pentz’ company: (200)
• Jörgen Grubbe’s company: (200)
• Duke Philip’s company (Holstein-Sönderborg): (200)

Notes

Maltesen-Sehested’s army suffered from even greater delays than King Christian’s.

Intialy the Fieldmarshal only had Krabbe’s & Galde’s units on hand. By May 13^th all of the native Danish cavalry had arrived together with Georg Lunge’s company of infantry had arrived and on the 16^th the Fieldmarshal moved his small force to Kungsbacka in order to guard the border against the Swedish troops assembling at Elfsborg.

During the 27^th to 30^th of May significant reinforcements reach the Fieldmarshal in his camp at Kungsbacka:

5 companies of Gert Rantzaus’regiment

3 companies of the King’s own regiment

Rantzau’s, Duke Ernst Ludwig’s and Pentz’ companies of horse.

Von Parsow’s regiment of infantry and company of Horse joined with the army on the 11^th to 12^th of June together with Grubbe’s company.

The Danish Army of the Kalmar War part 1

The Danish army at the start of the Kalmar war

Mercenaries

The Danes made extensive use of mercenaries, infact the majority of the Danish army was made up of such troops. A very expensive way to raise an army but one which gave the Danes an advantage in troop quality over the Swedes. The units were primarily Germans with some French and there were both French and Dutch specialists in the siege train.

Native troops

Unlike Sweden Denmark had no standing national army except for the Noble levy. In times of war the King could call out levies of the pesanttry as well but such levies were considered to have little military value. “Worse than beasts” in the words of Christian himself.

However a limited number of peasants were drafted to form 4 native Danish companies for the King’s own regiment as well as a small number of garrison units.

The Danish noble levy had been given a new and more regular form by Christian IV, only the youngest of nobles now served in person, the remaining men were enlisted professional soldiers paid for by the nobles. The cornets were also given a real command staff rather than beign ad-hoc formations led by a high ranking noble. So while the noble levy of 1611-1612 may not have shown the chivalric espirit de corps present in 1563-1670 they were much better disciplined and traiend as units in 1611

The cavalry

The Danes used 3 types of cavalry, cuirassiers, ‘Light horsemen’ and mounted arquebusiers. One problem is that I so far have been unable to find out the mix of cuirassiers and Light horsemen in the Danish units. Unless a unit is marked as containing mtd arquebusiers it can be assumed to contain shock cavalry, supposedly cuirassiers but perhaps a mixture of cuirassiers and Light Horsemen.

Cuirassiers wore full ¾ harness and were armed with two pistols and a sword.

The ‘light horsemen’ were probably copies of the French chevauxlegers, they wore back and breastplates, short or no thigh defences. The helmets were burgonet and the arms were protected by spaulder style shoulder defences and iron or leather gauntlets. The burgonet and the breastplate was suppsoed to be shot proof. Weapons were the same as for the cuirassiers.

The mtd. arquebusiers were armed with sword, one pistol and a wheellock arquebus. They wore back and breastplate and an open helmet (probably a form of morion). Only the breastplate was supposed to be bulletproof.

The infantry

The Danish infantry was equipped with two firearms for each pike, clearly they had learned their lesson from the previous war were the Danes had intitialy suffered from a serious shortage of shot while the plentifull pike proved of very limited use fighting in Swedish forrest. The most common firearm was the caliver as Chrstian had over 14000 matchlock, wheellock and snaphaunce calivers in his armoury in 1609 but only a bit over 2500 muskets. More muskets were probably brought by the mercenaries or imported but it is most probble that the claiver remianed the most plentifull firearm.

Danish pikemen wore back and breastplates with collar and helmet but durign 1611 the Danes began to buy simpler “corselets” made up of only a breastplate and helmet.

Best armed, Well armed and Passably armed

The muster rolls and armoury records surviving from the 1560 to 1570 period provides detailed information about the armour worn by the Swedish soldiers during the Northern Seven Years War. When mustered the pikemen and halberdiers would be recorded as belonging to one of four categories based on the armour they possesed and paid accordingly.

To be regard as ”Best armed” the soldier had to be equipped with helmet, collar, breastplate with long tassets, backplate and complete arm harness with spaulders, couter and vambrace. 

German infantry harness from c. 1560

 The "Well armed" soldier had the same armour as above except for the arms which were only protected by the spaulders attached to the collar. As in the previous case a helmet was worn.

A German infantry harness from 1570-1580

The "Passably armed" soldier had helmet, breastplate, backplate and collar with spaulders but the breasplate was missing the tassets. 

A fourht category were the men listed as wearing ”mutser” or ”mutseharnesk” (also spelled ”mundser”, ”mundseharnesk”), the meaning of the name has been lost but from the armoury records it is clear that this type of harness was made up of breastplate, backplate and collar without either tassets or spaulders. In additon the muster lists show that the men recorded in this category lacked helmets as well. 

(I have no photo or drawing showing this level of armour I'm afraid)

The most common helmet used by the Swedish infantry  was the ”stormhufva” (Ger. ”Sturmhaube”) aka Burgonet followed by the ”Spansk hufva” (”Spanish hood”) aka Morion. 

Mid 16th Century Burgonet

German Morion from 1570

Brandenburgers, Imperialists and Poles in Denmark

The French envoy to Brandenburg have left us an interesting description of the troops of Brandenburg, the Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Denmark in 1658-1659.

“…Generalissimo Czarnecki with the bulk of his army of 6000 men, all brave men  and for the most part Polish Gentlemen, well mounted and equipped with arrows and pistols.”

The arrows were of course used together with bows and the continued usage of mounted archery by at least some Polish troops. I hope to share a Swedish first hand account of such archery in a later post on this blog. 

” The Austrian troops consisted of 6000 Horse, very well mounted and equipped with carbines and pistols, all old Reiters who had served the Emperor in Hungary some 26, others 27 years, I saw them all go through to Veilc go to Frederiksodde. In addition to this fine cavalry, there were about 5,000 infantrymen, all dressed in red cloth.”

While I doubt that all Imperial troopers had seen such lenghty service Montecuccoli's corps did contain regiment with had been in continous service since the early part of the 30-Years War. The use of uniforms by the infantry is noteworthy as is the fact that they were all of the same colour as well as the fact that the uniforms were red rather than the grey/off-white popular with the Imperial troops of the late 17th Century.  

” The troops of the Elector [of Brandenburg] totaled some 8,000 Horse that were not so well mounted as the Austrians and equipped with only pistols, and the infantry consisted of 3000 men, good soldiers, all dressed in blue cloth.”
Again the use of uniforms by the infantry is interesting, Swedish sources record the Brandenburgers using blue infantry uniforms as early as 1632 so the later blue uniforms of the Prussian army had old roots.

The uniform apperance of the Imperial & Brandenburg infantry suggests a diffrent approach than then one chosen by the Swedes with their numerous variations in the colours of the regimental uniforms.

The Swedish Army In Livonia Early 1601

The war in Livonia between Swedem and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth  saw Duke Karl raise one of the largest Swedish armies to date for the conquest of Livonia. However flawed tactics, poor equipment and overconfidence made the Swedish forces ill suited to facing the Lithuanian army in battle and Duke Karl would have very little to show for his efforts. 

*=Calculated unit strenght
**=Destroyed at Kokenhausen
   
The Infantry

Royal Guards
Hakeskyttefänikan: 319 (January 1^st )

Ångermanland

Sigvard Andersson: 200* (March)
Matts Eriksson: 200* (March)

Medelpad 

Sten Månsson: 238 (April 28^th )

Hälsingland

Lars Engelbrektsson: 200 (January 14^th)
Olof Hansson: 200* (January 7^th )

Uppland

Eskil Andersson: 147 (March 21^st)
Erik Bengtsson the Older: 241 (March 12^th )
Erik Bengtsson they Younger: 220 (March 12^th )

Dalarna and Bergslagen

Jöns Andersson: 200* ( March 14^th )
Lars Hansson: 200* (March 14^th)
Erik Mattsson: 59 (February 14^th)

Närke

Per Jönsson 175* (March 22^nd)

Västergötland

Anders Olsson (Hans Canthon): 239 (January 12^th)

Småland

Jöns Amundsson: 181 (April 1^st)
Karl Börjesson: 217 (March 12^th)
Måns Nilsson Kula: 245 (April 10^th)
Per Svensson: 130 (March 14^th)

Finland

Eriks Andersson: 400* (March 24^th)
Kristofer Andersson: 141 (April 1^st)
Lars Bengtsson: 103 (April 2^nd)
Isak Eriksson: 207 (April 3^rd)
Sven Eriksson: 200* (April 3^rd)
Ambrosius Henriksson: 134 (March 29^th)
Erik Humble (Hans Mikaelsson): 200* (March 13^th)
Lars Ingvaldsson: 172 (April 3^rd)
Sven Jönsson: 200* (February 15^th)
Per Mattsson: 200* (March 13^th)
Anders Nilsson: 296 (March 29^th)
Viborg Stadsfänika (Simon Nilsson): 200*
Per Persson: 200* (February 15th)
Per Torstensson: 33 (March 15^th)
Joakim Wentz: 200* (April 4^th)
Anders Öde: 130 (March 14^th)

German Mercenaries 

Hans Vegesack: 200* (March 22^nd)  

The Cavalry

 Royal Guards
  
Hovfanan (Anders Nilsson): 284 (Jan)

Adelsfanor (Nobel Levy)
Västergötland (Torsten Kristofersson): 160* (January)
Småland (Magnus Stolpe): 214 (January)

Uppland

Herman von Bjuren: 500 (January)

The Dukedom

Nils Germundsson (Didrik Yxkull): 300* (January)

Västergötland

Sigge Arvidsson: 329 (January)

Non-Provincial cornets

Arent Bengtsson: 150* (January 7^th)
Nils Bengtsson: 92 (March 13^th)
Bengt Nilsson: 200* (January 7^th)

Finland

Adelsfana

Anders Larsson: 250* (March 30^th)

Landsfanor

Hans Blank: 150* (January 7^th)
Göran Henriksson Horn: 150* (March 29th)
Kasten Skade (Jesper Mattson): 250* (January)
Velam Spegel (Mårten Klasson): 250* (March 29th)

Livonian, German and Scots

Heinrich von Ahnen: 300* (January 7th)
Godske von Alefeld: 110* (January)
Hans Berkhen: 60 (May 23rd)
Ewald von Meiden: 120* (January)
William Ruthven (Scots): Strenght unknown (January)
Frans Treiden: 150* (February 26^th)
Herman Wrangel: 64 (March)

Evert Horn's Campaign aginst the False Dmitry of Pskov

 

After his coup in Ivangorod False Dmitry III had been able to extend his domain to Kopore, Jama and Gdov. By July his army of 1500 was blockading Pskov. To combat ‘Dmitry’ De la Gardie formed most of his available troops into a corps led by Evert Horn

Cavalry

• Hans Boije’s regiment (6 corners of Finnish Cavalry)

• Evert Horn’s Cornet of Horse (Otto Grothusen)
• Hans Jönsson’s Cornet of Horse (Finnish Noble Levy)
• Erik Bertilsson Ljuster’s Cornet of Horse
• Lindved Klasson Hästesko’s Cornet of Horse
• Klas Kristersson Gyllenhierta’s Cornet of Horse
• Frans Strijk’s Cornet of Horse*

• Patrik Ruthwen’s Cornet of Horse (Scots)
• John Wacop’s Cornet of Horses (Scots)

Infantry

• Samuel Cobron’s regiment of Foot

• Samuel Cobron’s company (English)
• Richard Band’s company (English& Scots)
• Harry Elfingtum’s company (English& Scots)
• Jacob Frensham’s company (English& Scots)
• Nicholas Gent’s company (English& Scots)
• Robert Kinnard’s company (English& Scots)
• Robert Moore’s company (English& Scots)
• Oliver Popler’s company (English& Scots)
• Robert Popler’s company (English& Scots)  

As Horn approached Pskov ‘Dmitry’ raised his blockade and withdrew to Gdov.

After Horn’s attempt at conving Pskov to join the Swedes by diplomacy failed (the Swedish messenger was assaulted and beaten) he decided to take the city by force. However he not only lacked artillery but also men and equipment for mine warfare so a petardier had to be summoned from Novgorod. On the night of the 8^th of September the assault was begun.

The two petards not only destroyed the Zsofsky gate but also raze part of adjoining wall. The attack also came as a surprise for the Russians who were not expecting any assault at this point. The storm troops, 3 companies of Cobron’s regiment, advanced but at the breach the lead company recoiled and in the confusion was joined by the other two companies.

In a letter to De la Gardie  Horn afterwards accused the commander of the assault, Harry Elfingtum, of cowardice in face of the enemy and added that the Scots and English mercenaries were unreliable due to a lack of pay.  The failure of the assault gave the Russian defender much needed time to rally from the initial panic caused by the petard attack and to reinforce the position.

Dismayed and shamed by the failed attacks the soldiers of Cobrons demanded to be allowed to redeem themselves in a new assault. In broad daylight a full scale assault was launched with ladders against the walls. This assault too failed.

Horn decided to raise the siege and move against “Dmitry” at Gdov and on October 7^th Horn marched away from Pskov. Outside Gdov “Dmitry” made a diastrous attempt to fight the Swedes in open battle. Defeated the Pretender tried to flee to Ivangorod with remants of his force but he was caught on the road by pursuing Swedish  cavalry who scattered his weakend and demoralised troops. “Dimtry” himself barely managed to escape and reached Ivangorod with little more than s his life to show for his efforts.