Battle of Rajovka

Battle of Rajovka
	Part of the Swedish invasion of Russia
Date	September 9, 1708 (O.S.); September 10, 1708 (Swedish calendar); September 20, 1708 (N.S.)
Location	Rajovka, Smolensk Oblast
Result	Swedish victory
Belligerents
Swedish Empire	Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders
Charles XII of Sweden	Christian Felix Bauer
Strength
2,400 cavalry	8,000–10,000 dragoons; 1,000 Cossacks and Kalmyks
Casualties and losses
100 killed	375 killed

The Battle of Rajovka took place on September 20, 1708 near Rajovka during the Swedish invasion of Russia in the Great Northern War. The Swedish army of about 2,400 men under the command of Charles XII defeated the Russian army of 10,000 men under Christian Felix Bauer after a fierce cavalry skirmish where the king himself was in great danger.

Prelude

After having fought the battle of Malatitze the victorious Swedish army marched towards Tatarsk (Smolensk Oblast) in order to fight the Russians under tsar Peter I. However, after a while a great number of Russian horse were spotted, having stalked the Swedish units. To draw their attention towards himself, rather than the supply convoy under general Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt which Charles presumed was close, he decided to force the Russians away.^[1]

Battle

Charles immediately put himself in charge of the Östgöta kavalleriregemente to persecute the fleeing Russians. Unknown to the Swedes, a great number of other Russian horse were concealed behind some small woods near the exposed Russian cavalry in order to ambush Charles and his Östgöta cavalry who were running straight into the trap. For the moment, the Swedes had less than 1,000 men against close to 10,000 Russians and Charles' small squadron was quickly surrounded. The Swedes fought valiantly and Charles got his horse shot dead under him, however, they managed to halt the Russian attacks long enough for further Swedish reinforcements to arrive in form of Norra Skånska kavalleriregemente and Smålands kavalleriregemente and so all the Russians were driven away.

Aftermath

The Russians suffered a loss of 375 men killed.^[5] The Swedish losses were 100 men killed.^[4] Charles XII achieved his goals with the battle, having forced Bauer away from the southern bank of Horodnia, and Lewenhaupt's convoy.^[1] The Swedes reached Tatarsk the following day, where they awaited his arrival. On September 25, with no news from the convoy and no hopes of reaching Moscow without it, Charles XII instead marched his hungry army into fertile Ukraine.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Bennedich, Carl. Karolinska förbundets årsbok 1911: Karl XII:s krigföring 1707–1709 och krigsskådeplatsens natur och kultur, I. (1912) Lund, Karolinska förbundet. p 102. OCLC 936696934
^ Bengt Liljegren, Karl XII: En biografi. (2000) Lund, Historiska media. pp 159. ISBN 91-85377-14-7
^ ^a ^b Dorrell, Nicholas. The Dawn of the Tsarist Empire: Poltava & the Russian Campaigns of 1708—1709, Partizan Press (2009). pp 98, 101
^ ^a ^b Gordon A. The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia: To which is Prefixed a Short General History of the Country from the Rise of that Monarchy: and an Account of the Author's Life, Volume 1. Aberdeen. 1755. p. 272
^ ^a ^b Тарле Евгений Викторович Северная война и шведское нашествие на Россию. — Сочинения. — Москва: Издательство Академии Наук СССР, 1959. — Т. 10. — С. 363—800. — 841 с.