Battle of Gemauerthof

The Battle of Gemauerthof took place during the Great Northern War, fought south of Riga near Jelgava, in present-day Latvia in July 1705. The Swedish forces under Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt fought a Russian army under Boris Sheremetev. The Swedes were victorious, but the victory was only symbolic. In August, the Russians conquered Courland.¹

Battle

The Swedes, exhausted after forced marching, went to camp and were cooking supper when the news came of a large Russian army¹ with 16 artillery pieces nearby. The Swedes, who themselves had 17 artillery pieces² quickly deployed into battle formation and, encouraged by General Lewenhaupt, attacked the Russians. Although suffering severe setbacks on their right flank, the assault continued. On the left, the Swedish cavalry charged and broke the Russians. The infantry in the centre fired carefully at point-blank range and then charged, pushing their foes back in disorder. The battle ended in a confused melee, which was eventually won by the Swedes. The Russian cavalry withdrew while the infantry was destroyed by a combined-arms assault.

Aftermath

Field Marshal Sheremetev had received a shot in the abdomen and General Baur was wounded in the thigh. Over 5,000 Russians were killed or wounded.²³

When the defeated army reached Vilna, the tsar surveyed his newly formed 60,000 men. The tsar, Peter the Great, was far from reprimanding the field marshal for this defeat. He realized that it was possible to lose a battle against the Swedes despite being three times superior. And since he could raise a new army at any time, some of which were compulsorily recruited farmers and Livonian expellees, he knew that the campaign against the Swedes could be won.