Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Smolensko (Russo-Swedish Wars).

Fought September 22, 1708, when Charles XII of Sweden, with 4,000 infantry and 6 regiments of cavalry, attacked a force of 16,000 Cossacks and Tartars. The king with one regiment was in the course of the action cut off from the rest of his troops by a body of Tartars, and had a narrow escape. His immediate following was reduced to 5 men, when he was rescued by a cavalry charge. In the end the Swedes routed the Cossacks with heavy loss.