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Comments or corrections?

xenophon31 Mar 2011 6:32 a.m. PST

It seems that most discussion of GA's army focuses on his participation in Germany. Does anyone have any information on his army and its organization during his campaign in Poland from 1626 to 1628?

Kyle

Daniel S31 Mar 2011 8:05 a.m. PST

Yes, I have several thousand pages of original documents and indepth (unpublished)studies by later day historians covering GA's 1621-1629 campaigns against the Poles in Livonia and Prussia.

Any particular subject you have a special interest in?

xenophon04 Apr 2011 5:41 a.m. PST

Daniel:

I would be interested to know the following regarding GA's army during his Polish campaign.

First, I am curious about the organization of his infantry during these campaigns. Did he need to resort to the brigade organization? If not, did he still divide regiments into squadrons? Also, were most of his infantry in Poland Swedish or did he also have access to Germans and other? Did he incorporate battalion guns into his infantry formations in Poland? Are there any differences in equipment from these campaigns and his German campaign?

I also have similar questions regarding his cavalry during these campaigns.

Are there any orders of battles available that list the units that GA had available in Poland?

Thanks in advance for the help and comments.

Kyle

Daniel S05 Apr 2011 10:39 a.m. PST

The TYW organisation evolved out of the experiences of the war with the Polish-Lithuanain Commonwealth 1621-1629 so there are considerable similarities.

The basic infantry regiment was the same as in the TYW and usually had 8 companies though there were exceptions. Due to a shortage of pikes & armour some regiments were a number of regiments were equiped as all-musket units rather than pike & shot units.

The combat unit was the 4 company squadron, again with the same organisation as in the TYW. It was the Swedish adaption of the Dutch battalion and Swedish deployments show a extensive Dutch influence in this period thoguh Gustavus was always tinkering with deployments and tactics to fit the nature of combat in Livonia & Prussia which was rather different from the fighting in the Netherlands.

picture
shows a deployment from september 1627. The deployment is very defensive and the infantry deployment is static and focused in creating massed formationi which the units have fields of fire covering both front and flanks. The cavalry is dpeloyed in depth and largly behind the infantry. When combined with swinesfeathers and earthworks the result was a defensive postion the Poles did not want to attack. The draw back was that these deployments had almost no offensive ability which is why Gustavus began experimenting with brigades

‘Brigades' were used but in the 1620's this refered to a large combined arms force rather than an infantry combat unit. 3-5 infantry squadrons supported by a number of cavalry companies
picture
picture
The famous ‘Swedish brigade' evolved out these experiments but did not exist until 1630.

The various large scale infantry deployments never saw any action in Prussia or Livonia, the actual fighting was done mostly by musketeers & cavalry which in a few instances were supported by a few infantry squadrons. This was a war of small scale actions, ambushes, raids and surprise attack on enemy quarters as well as sieges and assaults on forts & towns. Neither side was willing to give battle on the terms offered by the enemy.

The equipment was the same as in the TYW with a few exceptions, for example Swinesfeathers were issued and used until 1628 and the all-musket regiments mentioned above did not recive the helmets which were worn by the other Swedish infantry. Dress was a mix of German style military clothing and ordinary Swedish peasant dress as there was a shortage of cloth from which to make the ‘uniforms' issued.

Gustavus began his experiments with artillery in close support of the infantry by attaching ordinary artillery pieces to his infantry squadrons in 1625. The cannon of choice were 12-pounders and "stormstycken" (a type of cannon for which I can find no English word, basicly a 24-pounder with a short and light barrel which was used to fire cannister shot to defend or clear a breach. Due to thin walls of the barrel it could only use small powder charges and thus had rather limited range.

A lack of mobility led to introduction of the infamous leather cannon with a bit more than 50 of them in the army by 1629. However they proved prone to overheating and production was halted in favour of the 3-pound regimental cannon designed by Siegroth. Two such cannon were transported to Prussia in 1629 but wether they saw any action is unknown.

The vast majority of Gustavus infantry was made up of native Swedes and Finns, whe Gustavus renewed the war with his invasion of Livonia in 1621 87% of the infantry was Swedes & Finns. Sweden always had access to mercenaries, however foreign troops were expensive and required more resources to raise. So the number of foreign troops was low to begin with but steadily increased. In 1621 there was 13 companies of German infantry. By 1625 there were 32 companies of Germans and 8 companies of Scots. By late 1628 there were 41 companies of Germans and 23 companies of Scots employed against the Poles & Lithuanians.

Basicly the Germans formed the spearhead of the infantry while the Swedes & Finns were the solid shaft of the spear. The role of the Scots is hard to pin down. They were by no means bad troops but neither were they equal in performance & reputation to the later Scots brigade.
The numbe rof Scots is often exaggerated in older English language source due the historians in questions misidentifying regiments based on the names of regimental commanders. (A number of native Swedish regiments were led by Scots officers.)

There are numerous documents surviving from the Polish war, especially from the 1625-1629 period. There is everything from company musterrolls to the army level strenght returns & order of battles used by Gustavus & the senior Swedish commanders. The level of detail unfortunately make them time consuming to transcribe into a format that can be posted online. So I'll have to restrict my self to a few samples order of battles I've written earlier

The Swedish Army in Livonia and Kurland during the summer of 1625

The Field Army (Gustav Adolf & Herman Wrangel, by sea from Sweden)
Swedish Infantry
Johan Baner's regiment, 8 companies with 1172 men
Jakob (James) Duwall's regiment, 8 companies with 1179 men
Enlisted Infantry
Hovregementet (Yellow rgt, Frans Bernhard Von Thurn), 8 companies with 1338 men
Hans Georg von Arnim's regiment (Blue rgt), 8 companies with 1239
Kaspar Sigmund von Plato's regiment (Red rgt.), 8 companies with 1271 men
Sir James Spens' regiment (Scots), 8 companies with 1336 men

Swedish Cavalry (Light Horsemen)
Isak Axelsson's company, 125 horses
Lars Larssons company, 132 horses
Nils Assersson Mannersköld's company, 132 horses
Erik Soop's company, 141 horses
Karl Jönsson's company, 136 horses
(On paper these 5 companies formed a regiment led by Nils Assersson Mannersköld, however there was no regimental staff and units mostly function as independent companies)

Enlisted Cavalry (Cuirassiers)
The Feldherr's company, Klas Wachmeister, 173 horses
Kristofer Asserson Mannersköld's company (Robert von Rosen), 157 horses
Henrik Fleming's company, (Mårten von Ahnen), 120 horses
Magnus von der Pahlen's company (at Riga) 137 horses
Georg Gustav Wetzel's company, 160 horses

Artillery
Two 48-pound cannon with 1000 shot
Eight 24-pound cannon with 5400 shot
Four 16-pound cannon with 1050 shot
Six 12-pound cannon with 300 shot
Twelve 24-pound ‘stormstycken' ("assault pieces", short & light cannon firing grape shot a short ranges used to attack or defend a breach)
Additional artillery was issued from the armoury in Riga after the army had arrived in Livonia. The cannon were not only used with the field army but also used to arm captured positions and newly constructed fortifications.

De la Gardies & Horn's detachment (By land from Estonia)
Finnish Infantry
Alexander von Essen's regiment, 8 companies with 1159 men
Hans Wrangel's regiment, 8 companies with 1074 men
Independent companies, 6 companies with 820 men

Finnish Cavalry
Gustav Horn's company, 124 horses
Reinhold Anrep's company, 123 horses
Jakob Bengtson's company, 114 horses
Klas Bertilsson's company, 114 horses
Olof Dufva's company, 128 horses
Henrik von Howen's company, 112 horses
Nils Månsson's company 113 horses
Anders Pauls' company, 127 horses
Gert Skytte's company, 114 horses
Åke Svantesson's company, 115 horses
Fabian Wrangel's company, 115 horses
Reinhold Wunsch's company, 116 horses

Estonian & Livonian Noble Levy
Bernt Taube, 2 companies, 150 horses

De la Barre's detachment (At Riga, units marked * in part or entirely by sea from Sweden)
Enlisted cavalry
The Field Marshall's company, Klas Didrik Sperreuter, 187 horses*
De la Barre's regiment of dragoons, 2 companies with 335 men*
Finnish infantry
½ Anders Munck's company, 120 men
Enlisted infantry
The Feldherr's drabants, Åke Hansson, 155 men

Riga Garrison
The King's life company, Jürgen Aderkas, 119 horses
Finnish Infantry
Kristoffer Assersson's regiment, 8 companies with 760 men
Ernst Creutz' regiment, 8 companies with 949 men
Gustav Horn's regiment, 8 companies with 1079 men
Paul Bossin's company (later in Tuckum) 132 men
Enlisted Infantry
Melchior Wurmbrandt's regiment, 8 companies with 1100 men

Garrisons of Reval, Weissenstein and Pernau
Hemming Gras' regiment (Finns), 6 companies with 817 men

Wolmar Garrison
½ Anders Munck's company (Finns), 120 men

Garrisons of Narva, Ivangorod, Jama and Kopore
Jakob Scott's regiment (Finns), 5 companies with 670 men


The Swedish army at Dirschau August 1627.

The Infantry:
Hovregementet (aka the Yellow regiment)
· Lieutenat-Colonel John Hepburn
· 294 pikemen
· 552 musketeers.
Blå regementet (the Blue regiment)
· Colonel Hans von der Noth
· 258 pikemen
· 600 musketeers
Gröna regementet (the Green regiment)
· Colonel Hans Kaspar von Klitzing
· 432 pikemen
· 672 musketeers
Colonel Tomas Muchamp's regiment
· Småland
· 192 pikemen
· 288 musketeers
Colonel Nils Ribbing's Regiment
· Västergötland
· 390 pikemen
· 288 musketeers
Colonel Patrick Ruthwen's regiment
· Småland
· 222 pikemen
· 288 musketeers
Lieutenant-Colonel Fritz Petrovitz Roslandin's squadron
· Norrland (Duwall's regiment)
· 228 musketeers
Officers not included in the above: 780 men in all.

Colonel Jacob Duwall's squadron
· Norrland (Duwall's regiment)
· 430 Musketeers

Johan Banér's detachment of commanded musketeers:
· 1000 men
· On August 6th Gustavus ordered Col. Johan Baner and Col. Ernreiter Von Hofreit (commander of the Red regiment) to assemble 1300 musketeers from the regiments at Danziger Haupt and march them to Dirschau at the fastest speed possible. These troops arrived at Dirschau early on the 7th of August.

Lätta ryttare (‘Light Horsemen')

Colonel Klas Kristersson Horn's squadron (406 men)
· Isak Axelsson's company (Uppland): 118
· Kristofer Jagow's company (Uppland): 103
o Commanded by Klas Kristersson Horn
· Anders Halfastsson's company (Västmanland): 100
· Erland Uddesson's company (Västmanland): 80
Lieutenat-Colonel Zakarias Pauli's squadron (387 men)
· Zakarias Pauli's company (Södermanland): 76
· Johan Johansson's company (Södermanland): 112
· Otto Sack's company (Södermanland): 100
· Karl Siggesson's company (Södermanland): 99
Lieutenat-Colonel Hans Rotkirch's squadron (510 men)
· Hans Rotkirch's company (Östergötland): 100
· Erik Grij's (Hierta) company (Östergötland): 100
· Lennart Nilsson's company (Östergötland): 100
· Adam Henrik Pentz' company (Östergötland): 100
· Otto Schulman's company (Östergötland): 110
Lieutenat-Colonel Erik Soop's squadron (550 men)
· Erik Soop's company (Västergötland): 90
· Bengt Börjesson's company (Östergötland): 105
· Jakob Klasson's company (Västergötland): 125
· Lars Larsson's company (Västergötland): 110
· Olof Stake's company (Västergötland): 120
Lieutenat-Colonel Lorenz Wagner's squadron (503 men)
· Lorenz Wagner's company (Småland): 110
· Göran Gyllenstierna's company (Småland): 88
· Karl Jönsson's company (Småland): 105
· Karl Joakim Karberg's company (Öland): 100
· Isak Lilliesparre's company (Småland): 100
Lieutenat-Colonel Åke Tott's squadron (395 men)
· Åke Tott's company (Finland): 100
· Reinhold Anrep's company (Finland): 100
· Hans Bagge's company (Finland): 95
· Sten Ivarsson's company (Finland): 100

Cuirasssiers
· Johann Ebert von Beinheim's company: 121 men
· Lassla (Laszlo?) von Oppel's company: 75 men
· Klas Didrik Sperreuters company: 119 men
· Fritz Roslandin's company: 154 men*
· Hans Wrangel's companies: 180 men in 2 companies
· Åke Tott's company: 120 men
· Jon Lilliesparre's company: 90 men
· Daniel Köhne von Jesko's company: 90 men*
· Klas Pirch's company: 56 men*
· Zakarias Pauli's company: 106 men
Notes
At least one of the above companies is actually a Harquebusier company, I found the commision issued to it's commander in a collection of Axel Oxenstiernas letters, however I've managed to misplace my notes from that research trip and I can't remember the name of the commander.
IIRC it is either Sperreuter, Rosladin or Pauli.
A May 1627 muster list (Mankell N:o 90) have Prich's, Rosladin's and Jesko's companis listed as "ryttare" (Reiters) while Beinheims company is called "curass" (Cuirassiers). However the terminology in the muster documents is far from precises and theh different German units are frequently lumped together as either "Cuirassiers" or "Ryttare"

Reiters and Harquebusiers (Arkebusieren)
· Moritz Pensen von Caldenbach's companies: 200 men in 2 companies
· Mårten von Ahnen's company: 60 men

Dragoons
· Eustakius Carnisini's company: 47 men

The Artillery:
At least two 24-pound cannon together with an unknown number of other artillery pieces.

The Dirschau garrison:
· Lars Kagg's (National Swedish) regiment: 2 squadrons
· Jacob Seatons (National Swedish) regiment: 1 reinforced squadron
A total of 1658 men.

xenophon06 Apr 2011 4:58 a.m. PST

Daniel:

Thank you very much for the information on the Swedish forces during the Polish wars. It was very informative and provided me with a great summary of the development of the army during this time.

I do have one question regarding clothing. Do you have any references to uniforms being provided to any units at this time?

Thanks again,

Kyle

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