Battle of Salis

1609 CE.

Shown on the map at 57.755°, 24.349°.

The Battle of Salis took place during the Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611) during the night of March 23–24, 1609. After the capture of Pärnu, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, commander of the Lithuanian army, moved towards Riga, which was besieged by the Swedes under the command of Joachim Frederick von Mansfeld. Along the way, Chodkiewicz saw a chance to destroy the Swedish squadron based in the Salis port which blocked Riga. The dominant presence of the Swedes in the Baltic region gave the Lithuanian army the upper hand, as von Mansfeld and the Swedish army did not expect the possibility of an attack in such a heavily Swedish-occupied region. Chodkiewicz's army consisted of two ships obtained in Pärnu, filled with Samogitian infantry and armed with cannons brought in from the Pärnu Castle. The squadron was additionally reinforced by a few hastily armed merchant ships (probably five) purchased from the English and Dutch, and a couple of boats and bateaux.

Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Salis, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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