The King of Sweden made his appearance in Prussia in 1627, at the head of a brave and well-appointed army, of which Colonel Hepburn's regiment formed a part; he took Kesmark by assault, and defeated, on the same day, a division of Polish troops marching to its relief. He afterwards besieged and captured Marienberg; and defeated the Poles at Dirschan.
1628
The army was joined in 1628 by nine thousand Scots and English soldiers, and from this period the British troops took an important part in the military operations of the Swedish monarch, who was now at the head of 2,000 cavalry, 24,000 infantry, and 3,000 archers. He repulsed the Poles in a sharp skirmish, and captured four field-pieces and fourteen colours; and he subsequently besieged Dantzic, but he afterwards relinquished his design on this place, and captured, by surrender, Newburg, Strasberg, and Dribentz, and took Sweitz and Massovia by storm.
This year Stralsund was besieged by the Imperialists, and two Scots regiments in the service of the King of Denmark, with a detachment from the King of Sweden's army, under the Scots Colonel, Sir Alexander Lesley, assisted in the defence of the town; after a siege of three months, the Emperor's General, Albert Count Walstein, having half-ruined a numerous army, retired from before the place.
1629
In the succeeding year the Emperor Ferdinand II. commenced measures for the extirpation of the protestant religion in Germany, where it had taken deep root for about a century; he also sent troops to the assistance of the Poles in their war with Sweden; but Gustavus was enabled to oppose the united armies, and to hold them in check. In a partial action between the advance-guards, a few miles from Thorn, Gustavus's hat was knocked off in a personal encounter with one of the enemy's officers named Sirot, who afterwards wore the hat without knowing to whom it belonged. On the succeeding day, two prisoners (one a Scots officer named Hume) seeing Sirot wearing the King, their master's, hat, wept exceedingly, and with exclamations of sorrow, desired to be informed if the King was dead. Sirot, being thus made acquainted with the quality of his antagonist in the preceding day's skirmish, related the manner in which he became possessed of the hat, upon which they recovered a little from their anxiety and surprise. Soon afterwards the King of Poland, having nearly exhausted his resources, became disposed to enter into pacific relations with Sweden, and a treaty was concluded in the summer of this year.
This peace gave the King of Sweden an opportunity of executing his design of interposing in behalf of the persecuted protestants of Germany, in which he was abetted by England, France, and Holland, and the Scots in his service had the honour of taking part in this glorious enterprise.
1630
Preparations were made for this great undertaking with perseverance and judgment. It is recorded in history that the King of Sweden had in his service ten thousand English and Scots soldiers, well nurtured and experienced in war, in whom "he always principally confided, conferring on them the glory of every critical and trying adventure." Amongst these forces, Colonel John Hepburn's Scots Regiment appears to have held a distinguished character for gallantry on all occasions; and no troops appear to have been found better calculated for this important enterprise than the Scots, who proved brave, hardy, patient of fatigue and privation, frugal, obedient, and sober soldiers. In addition to the British troops already in his service, Gustavus afterwards entered into a treaty with the Marquis of Hamilton, who engaged to raise eight thousand English and Scots for the service of the Swedish monarch.
When the King sailed with his main army for Pomerania, where he arrived towards the end of June, 1630, Colonel Hepburn's Regiment was stationed under the renowned Chancellor Oxenstiern in Polish Prussia; but it was soon afterwards engaged in operations in Outer Pomerania; and was subsequently again stationed in Prussia, from whence it was suddenly ordered to Rugenwald, in consequence of the following extraordinary occurrence.