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- XVI. Gustavus II. Adolphus. The Danish, Russian, and Polish Wars. A.D. 1612—1629
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1629.]
Second campaign
in Prusbia. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. POLISH WAR. Actions before
Dantzic. 249
" unreasonable furloughs to the soldiery," were
to be punished, and the offenders in this kind
to be arraigned by the fiscal before the palace
court *. In Germany and Scotland levies were
set on foot. Gustave Horn was despatched to
strengthen the defence of Livonia with the Finnish
troops. Among these are even specified
" bow-
men ^," so that in the Swedish army the bow was
not yet entirely laid aside, although it was already
remarked in the Danish war, that the Swedish
soldiers were almost universally armed with the
musket, even the cavalry having adopted it and
laid aside the lance.
Of his passage to Prussia in ]
627, the king writes
to his brother-in-law the palsgrave
*
:
" We set sail
the 4th Maj’ with a fair wind, and arrived happily
on the 8th with the whole fleet at Pillau. We have
found afTairs in this country in a towardly state,
are now landing the people, and purpose marcliing
straight against the enemy, who are in all 9000
men strong, and keep mostly to their wonted places
in Pomerania ; though they have pushed forwards to
the isle of Dantzic. Hasten the transport of cavalry
and recruits from Sweden. The elector hath caused
troops to be brought within a mile or two of Pillau,
and hath demanded it back from us, which we have
refused, and will see what he intendeth." To the
council the king shortly after writes’ :
" The
elector’s request to have back Pillau is set aside
by negotiation ;
he will do no more against us
than he is compelled to for appearance’ sake, that
Poland may not deprive him of his fief." And in
a subsequent letter :
’’
We have entered into a
treaty with our brother-in-law the elector, and at
last gotten so far that a truce until Michaelmas is
concluded between him and us in the duchy.
Thereafter we caused the sconce at Pillau to be
strengthened, and have placed in it three regi-
ments. With the others we betook us to Hoeff’t ^,
where the enemy had camped right opposite on the
isle of Dantzic, to bar our access with his artillery.
There we resolved the 25th May to attack him, he
being now very strong. The disposition was that
we sliould make the first onfall with count Thurn
and the lord John Baner, seconding them after
with the pikemen. The men were distributed in
boats, and all would have gone well if every one
had done his duty and our orders been followed.
But only one boat, under Axel Duvall, got to the
other bank ;
the rest remained lodged in the sand.
Part of them rowed to a point whither they had
not been ordered, so that all was disturbed. Then
we put ourselves into a little boat to redress mat-
ters. And because on such occasions it goeth
somewhat hotly, we were wounded by a shot in the
groin. Yet have we to thank God that it harmed
us not in life or health, but we hope after few days
to be able again to direct the work according to
our wont. Now must we cause the people to be
-
July 9, 1627, the king writes to Nicholas Stiernskbld,
then commandant in Pillau,
" And ye shall give heed, that
no part of those who are said to die off shall be put by
the officers into ships and sent to Sweden, and afterwards
placed on the rolls as dead and buried."
’ To Nicholas Bielke, upon the troops in Finland ; April
26, 1627. Reg.
^
Pillau, May 10, 1627. Reg.
5
May 15, 1627. Ibid.
6
Haupt or Hoeft was a sconce at Dantzic taken by the
Swedes in the cour.se of the past year. Shortly after the
drawn off, who had sufi"ered no particular loss.
Count Thurn was wounded and captain Axel
Duvall taken. Because we doubt not that this
affair shall be spread abroad and exaggerated,
therefore we have thought good to give you to un-
derstand the coui’se of the whole matter, that ye
may not youi-selves be perplexed, and if aught
should be spi’ead about touching our own person,
ye may know how all fell out." The letter is
written on the same day
^
; and contains likewise a
notice of the arrival of a Dutch envoy at Elbing,
" doubtless aneut peace between us and Poland,
—
writes the king,
—free trade with Dantzic, and the
opening of the Vistula." After the king’s wound
was healed, he assembled his ti’oops at Dirschau,
with intent to attack Koniecpolski, who had his
camp half a mile from the place ; but tidings
arrived that general Potocki was besieging Brauns-
berg, which by a secret understanding with the
townsmen would have fallen into his hands, had
not the king come speedily to its relief. He pur-
sued the enemy five miles to Wormditt. Mean-
while Mewe sui-rendered to Koniecpolski ; but this
loss the king compensated by a more successful
attack on the enemy’s redoubts over-against Hoefft,
which were taken on the 4th July.
" We have
advised you, wi-ites the king to the council, o the
victory through which the sconces erected by the
Dantzickers were captured without much blood-
shed. After learning the defection of the elector,
and that he would furnish a considerable reinforce-
ment to the enemy, we left the chancellor at Hcefft
and entered the principality on the I2th July, to
intercept this succour. We fell in with it at
Morungen, 1 800 foot, and four companies of horse,
with five guns. They were surrounded by count
Thurn and us, surrendered by accord, and readily
took service with us. For the elector’s sake we
have sent home a part. We have hitherto with
great difficulty, adds the king, supported the people
on what we could raise here in the country. It
surpriseth us much that we have received from
Sweden no more than some thousand dollars, which
availed little or nothing *." The king’s own letters
supply a continuous account of the military occur-
rences and his own new personal risk.
" With the
enemy," he writes to his brother-in-law, the pals-
grave,
" we have as yet played the master ;
first in
a little skirmish on the last day of July, between
Dirschau and the hostile leaguer, where we beat
two companies of hussars ^
and four of cossacks,
with a small body of our cavalry ;
then on the 7th
August, where, when we had brought all our
cavalry out of the camp and the enemy his against
us, the half of ours (for the remaining nineteen
companies did not come into action) put the foe to
flight, so that he was forced to run headforemost
into his own camp, where the general himself
(Koniecpolski) without hat and on foot took refuge.
king’s arrival at Pillau the Poles had attempted to retake
it, supported by the town of Dantzic with 1400 foot and two
companies of horse. Field-marshal Herman Wrangel re-
pulsed the assault, taking three pieces of cannon.
1 Berwalde, May 25, 1627. Reg.
" No one in the boat was
wounded except the king, but nine shots passed through it
between the king and me." Count Peter Brahe’s Minute-
book. The king himself steered.
8 To the council, July 27, 1627. Reg.
9 Or lancers (sperryttare), as the hussars are usually called
in the phrase of this time.
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