Siege of Pärnu
1609 CE.
Shown on the map at 58.384°, 24.499°.
The siege of Pärnu (Polish: Parnawa) took place between February 28 and March 2, 1609 during the Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611). The Grand hetman of Lithuania Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, while resting his forces in Birże (Biržai), learned of Swedish deployments from Pärnu (present-day Estonia) moving towards Daugavgrīva (in present-day Latvia) and set out to cut these off. However the Swedish units managed to enter Daugavgrīva before Chodkiewicz's arrival and as a result the hetman turned back and moved towards Pärnu, hoping to take the defenders there under command of Daniel von Wochen by surprise. Chodkiewicz's forces arrived on February 28, 1609 but when his troops tried to creep up to the city's walls unnoticed the Swedish garrison fired their cannons which established that a surprise attack was not going to work. Chodkiewicz then, feigning a withdrawal, hid his forces in nearby woods forbidding his soldiers to even light camp fires, despite the freezing cold of the Estonian winter. After a night's wait he raised his troops and marched them back against the city and this time managed to surprise the defenders.
Text from the Wikipedia article Siege of Pärnu, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.