Siege of Stettin (1659)

The siege of Stettin (Swedish: belägringen av Stettin; German: belagerung von Stettin) was a siege that occurred from 19 September to 5 November 1659 during the Second Northern War of 1655–1660 in the Swedish city of Stettin (modern-day Szczecin, Poland) and resulted in a Swedish victory.

In mid-September 1659, an Austrian/Imperial army of 5,000 men under Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches crossed the Oder and Reglitz rivers to besiege the city of Stettin as part of an Allied offensive into Swedish Pomerania. This was supported by 1,500–2,000 Brandenburgian reinforcements under Friedrich zu Dohna, possibly in addition to a Polish-Lithuanian force.

Having made a failed request for surrender, the Allied forces besieged the city. On 7 October, they captured a redoubt on the nearby Oberwiek Mountain, and by the middle of that month they had dug their trenches right up to the Passauer bastion and the curtain that led to the Holy Spirit bastion. On 20 October, after the Allies had been reinforced with heavy siege guns, they began a new concentrated bombardment of the city after a second failed request for surrender. The city's burghers soon became discouraged, requesting reinforcements from the Swedish commander Carl Gustaf Wrangel, in Stralsund, which were granted. On 1 November, the Swedes sortied with a force of around 900 men, catching the Austrians by surprise, killing and capturing hundreds and destroying a large number of the Allies' guns. On 3 November, two Swedish attacks were also made on depots storing the besieger's goods and equipment, to great success.

On 5 November, Wrangel departed from the city but promised continued reinforcements. Later that same day, in the evening, the Allies raised their siege of Stettin, probably as a result of a combination of heavy losses and low morale due to Swedish reinforcements and Wrangel's presence in Stettin. The Austrians and Brandenburgians withdrew to Greifenhagen and Löcknitz respectively, and later withdrew from Pomerania entirely, thus securing Sweden's dominion over it well into the 18th century.

In August 1659, the anti-Swedish coalition forces began an offensive into Swedish Pomerania with between 14,000^[3]–17,000^[4] men. They quickly captured Greifenhagen, Wildenbruch, and Damm. This offensive did not go unopposed however, as Swedish commander Carl Gustaf Wrangel landed in Pomerania from Sweden with 2,000 men sometime in October, and with these forces he liberated Greifswald and Wolgast, dispersing any troops who put up any form of resistance against him, and captured Swinemünde. The Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William, had become cautious of the Swedish threat, and consequently retreated with his forces towards Demmin. Here, he joined forces with the Brandenburgian–Prussian General Otto Christoph von Sparr and together they captured Demmin after a short month-long siege on 7 September.^[5][6]

In mid-September, Austrian General Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches crossed the Reglitz and Oder rivers, before continuing on towards Stettin with 5,000 men with the intention of capturing the city.^[7] Overall, Stettin's fortifications were generally in good condition at this time, although the star redoubt and older fortifications in the south-west were not manned. In addition to the city's immediate defences and fortifications, the Swedish commander of Stettin's garrison, Paul Würtz, had a redoubt constructed atop the north-eastern summit of the nearby Oberwiek Mountain in order to strengthen Stettin's south-western defences, and to deny a potential besieging force from occupying the advantageous heights, from which they could bombard both the city fortifications and the inner-city from above using artillery.^[6]

According to Swedish roll calls, the Stettin garrison consisted of 2,770^[2]–2,771^[7] men. In reality, there was around 2,600 able bodied men, taking into account the ones who were sick. In addition to this, the Swedes had 36 guns and 4 mortars.^[1][2] Stettin also had a militia of 11 companies, but these companies would generally only assist in guarding the ramparts. Stettin had around one month's worth of ammunition in storage. Under Würtz's instructions, a fire brigade was also raised from the city's civilian population, in an attempt to mitigate the impact of a bombardment by a potential besieging force.^[2]

On 12 September, a certain von Schwerin reported to Würtz that Imperial troops had begun marching from their camp at Damm, and upon receiving confirmation that these troops where heading towards Stettin, he employed scorched earth tactics and razed nearby villages to make a siege of Stettin more difficult, preventing his enemy from living off of the land. On 16 September, an advanced guard of Austrian cavalry arrived to the south of Stettin and blockaded the roads heading into the city, and on 19 September, de Souches himself approached Stettin with his main force. He occupied and established a camp at the unmanned star redoubt and the old fortifications, and on the following morning on 20 September, Brandenburgian reinforcements in the form of 1,500^[8]–2,000^[8][9] men under the command of Friedrich zu Dohna arrived^[8] — these reinforcements consisting of two cavalry regiments and three infantry regiments.^[9] Some sources claim that there was also a Polish force present during the siege,^[10] though this is disputed by other sources.^[11]

Stettin was soon issued a request to surrender, which was quickly refused. The loyalty of the city's burghers surprised de Souche, who had incorrectly believed that they would see the Brandenburgians as liberators and the Swedes as occupiers. The burghers likely feared damage or looting of their property in the immediate aftermath of the event of the city's capture. Consequently, despite lacking in heavy siege guns, de Souche was forced to besiege the city. Over the following month, the Allies began creating siege works around Stettin, despite Swedish bombardment and continuous sorties, and on 29 September, the Allied batteries of field guns began opening fire, though this was to little effect and did not cause notable damage. The Austrians captured the redoubt on Oberwiek Mountain on 7 October, and by mid-October their siege trenches, which were being dug closer and closer towards Stettin, were only some 30–80 paces from the Passauer bastion and the curtain wall going from it to the Holy Spirit bastion.^[12]

On the night of 18 October, the Swedes launched a powerful sortie through Fruporten, one of the city's gates, against the foremost Allied siege works, managing to destroy them after fierce fighting. The Allied success on the south-western front with the fall of the redoubt on Oberwiek Mountain worried the Swedes somewhat, but the Allies had not yet been able to completely block the waterways, which came from this direction and flowed into the city.^[12]

On 20 October, the Allies created 13 batteries with newly arrived heavy siege artillery,^[13][14] and after another failed request for surrender, they began bombarding Stettin. This bombardment quickly began to damage parts of the city and its defences, but any fires that broke out were quickly quelled by the Stettin's newly formed fire brigade, thus preventing catastrophic damage to the city. In late-October, the Austrians managed to take control over two points in the wall in front of the Passauer bastion after fierce fighting. At the captured points in front of the Passauer bastion, de Souches established multiple breach batteries to direct concentrated fire on specific parts of the walls in order to create breaches that could be exploited by his men. The new prospect of this made the situation critical on this front for the Swedes. By this point, the city's garrison had suffered a significant reduction in strength from combat losses and from disease.^[14]

As early as early-October, the city's burghers had become demoralised after the loss of the redoubt on Oberwiek Mountain, and the Allied bombardment only helped to exacerbate this. They told Würtz that they believed the city's only hope was in receiving reinforcements.^[13][15] Würtz initially tried to calm them, but was eventually inclined to allow a delegation to be sent to the Swedish commander Carl Gustaf Wrangel, in the Baltic coastal city of Stralsund, some 85 miles (137 km) to the north-west of Stettin, to request for reinforcements. On 25 October, the delegation returned with news that Wrangel had agreed that reinforcements would indeed be sent to the besieged city. Despite this, the burghers requested yet another delegation to be sent to Wrangel to insist on urgency when the Austrians finally broke through the main fortifications on the south-western front. Würtz once more tried to calm the burghers as he was acutely aware of the Allies' heavy losses, but allowed another delegation to be sent anyway.^[15]

On 27 October, Wrangel was finally able to send reinforcements to the city (and would arrive later himself). This was in the form of a squadron from the Västgöra-Dal Regiment. By 31 October, 150^[16]–160^[9][17] men from the squadron had already arrived. Würtz took advantage of the morale boost brought by the reinforcements, and began preparing for a major sortie, or as Würtz put it: "I judged it best to strike something significant against the enemy, the sooner the better.".^[18] The trenches in front of the Passauer bastion along with the breach batteries there would be the main target of this sortie, and it was planned to commence on 1 November, Saint Martin's day in the Julian Calendar, in hopes to catch the Allies off-guard while celebrating the holy day. Würtz gathered a force of 600–700 infantry and 130 cavalry for the sortie, along with some artillery personnel, 40 volunteers, and 100 armed peasants.^[18]

On 1 November, before sunrise, he ordered two small units to position themselves on either side of the Passauer bastion. The main force (with an infantry unit commanded by von Schwerin) advanced under the command of Würtz and moved along a moat towards the ravelin between the King's bastion and the Passauer bastion. At around 11:30AM, the attack was then launched. The Austrian troops were taken by surprise, either being killed or captured. The Swedes then advanced towards the Austrian camp, buying time for the guns and works to be destroyed, but after the Austrians regrouped, the Swedes were soon forced to withdraw back into Stettin. During the sortie, the Swedes only managed to destroy a few of the Austrian guns,^[19][16] but also killed 150^[16]–200^[17] men and captured 100^[17]–130^[16] men, all while suffering minimal casualties themselves.^[16] During the sortie, the Swedes also destroyed the majority of the Brandenburgian artillery, and thus it was declared a success.^[9]

For some time, Würtz had been aware of a large quantity of Allied siege supplies stored at Nieder-Zahden and Curow, and planned to either capture or destroy them. He soon gained more information of these supplies from the prisoners taken during the recent sortie on 1 November, and he decided to act on this information the following day on 2 November. However, von Schwerin, who had been delegated with the mission, was not able to gather the necessary amount of boats, and the attack was delayed until the next day. On the night of 3 November, von Schwerin and a couple hundred infantry boarded circa thirty rowing boats and sailed towards Curow, while Captain Gustav Adolf Horn took the remaining troops towards Nieder-Zahlen. Once von Schwerin and his men arrived at Curow, he attacked the redoubt built to protect the supplies, capturing its entire garrison in the process. The supply depot within contained some 300 large barrels of flour and various merchant goods. The Swedes destroyed most of the barrels, greatly reducing the besieging forces' food stores just before winter, and loaded the rest onto their boats before rowing away and back to Stettin.^[20]

Meanwhile, once Horn and his men arrived at Nieder-Zahlen, 11 boats were spotted along the shore, loaded with gunpowder, fuses, grenades, and some more basic goods. In addition to this, there was a long column of horse-drawn wagons present to bring the supplies and goods back to the beseiging Austrian camp. Here at Nieder-Zahlen, there was yet another redoubt that had been erected in order to defend the goods, but Horn landed his men ashore without the knowledge of the redoubt's garrison and attacked it, unarming its garrison. The Swedes again destroyed several hundred barrels of flour and loaded the remaining cargo onto their boats before leaving for Stettin. Both Schwerin's and Horn's force arrived back to Stettin successful on 4 November.^[21]

Carl Gustaf Wrangel departed Stettin on 5 November, promising the burghers continued reinforcements along with compensation for damage to their property incurred during the siege. Later that evening, the Austrians and Brandenburgians abandoned their positions and raised the siege, with the Austrians departing to Greifenhagen, and the Brandenburgians to Löcknitz. Wrangel speculated that this was due to the besieging infantry having been "ruined"^[17] by heavy material and manpower losses, and therefore having been made unsuitable to continue the siege into the winter. Other speculations proposed that the Austrians had lost their morale due to Swedish reinforcements, or simply because of Wrangel's presence in Stettin alone, although the reason was likely a combination of all of these factors.^[17] Later, the Allies withdrew from Pomerania entirely,^[9] thus securing Sweden's dominion over the province until 1720 after the Great Northern War when much of it was lost to Brandenburg-Prussia, with the remainder being lost to Denmark in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars.^[17]

• von Essen, Michael Fredholm (2023). The Danish Wars, 1657-1660. Charles X's Wars. Vol. 3. Helion & Company. ISBN 9781915113603.
• Englund, Peter (2000). Den oövervinnerlige: om den svenska stormaktstiden och en man i dess mitt [The invincible: about the era of Swedish great power and a man in its midst] (in Swedish). Atlantis. ISBN 9789174869996.
• Barkman, Bertil C:son; Lundkvist, Sven; Tersmeden, Lars (1966). Kungl. Svea livgardes historia: 1632(1611)-1660 [History of the Royal Swedish Life Guards: 1632(1611)-1660] (in Swedish). Vol. 3:2. Stockholm: Stift. för Svea livgardes historia.
• Isacson, Claes-Göran [in Swedish] (2015). Karl X Gustavs krig: Fälttågen i Polen, Tyskland, Baltikum, Danmark och Sverige 1655-1660 [Wars of Charles X Gustav: The campaigns in Poland, Germany, the Baltics, Denmark and Sweden 1655-1660] (in Swedish). Historiska Media. ISBN 9789175450117.
• Fryxell, Anders (1851). Konung Karl den tionde Gustaf [King Charles the tenth Gustav]. Berättelser ur svenska historien (in Swedish). Vol. 12. Stockholm: L. J. Hjertas förlag.

• Hildebrand, Bengt (1956). "Johan (Johann) Faltzburg, von". sok.riksarkivet.se. National Archives of Sweden.