Crossing of the Düna The Crossing of the Düna ( also known as Battle of Riga ) took place during the Great Northern War on July 8 ( Julian calendar ) / July 9 ( Swedish calendar ) / July 19 ( Gregorian calendar ) 1701 near the city of Riga , present - day Latvia . The Swedish king Charles XII was in hot pursuit of king Augustus II the Strong of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony . The crossing was easily made , and the coalition troops were quickly broken and retreated . Prelude . During the first year of fighting in the Great Northern War , Charles XII of Sweden had delivered two crushing defeats on his enemies . In July 1700 , he forced Frederick IV of Denmark out of the coalition against Sweden , after a brief landing on Humlebæk . He then settled to aid the besieged Narva ( which at the time belonged to the Swedish Empire ) . On his arrival , late November , he managed to decisively defeat the Russians despite being heavily outnumbered , in the battle of Narva , which led to an end of the Russian campaign for the year . Charles then turned his attention against the south and the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth to deal with his last opponent — August the Strong — before going into Russia . The combined Saxon – Russian army of totally 29 , 000 men had entrenched themselves across the 600 meter wide river of Düna under the command of Adam Heinrich von Steinau . Orders were sent from the Swedish king to the governor - general of Livonia , Erik Dahlbergh , in preparations for the crossing before the arrival of the Swedish main army . Dahlbergh was ordered to obtain around 200 landing boats of different sizes and was also instructed to build a bridge in order to transfer the cavalry across the river . The operation was supposed to be done in strict confidentiality to ensure a surprise attack on the enemies . The Swedish army of 14 , 000 men arrived at Riga on July 17 , and already by the time , preparations for the attack were completed . However , bad weather ruined the Swedish plans to attack instantly , and the assault had to be postponed . A Swedish cavalry regiment was left to threaten Kokenhusen , effectively forcing Steinau to split his forces , thus the bulk of his army stayed across Riga . The allied army was initially under the command of Otto Arnold von Paykull with Ferdinand Kettler , who were both ensured of an easy victory . In their confidence , they prioritized their numbers , advantageous position , redoubts and Saxon courage in superiority over the Swedes . Prior to the battle , Kettler pronounced : " " even a superior force of three hundred thousands Swedes , would still not be enough , to successfully achieve any progress with the crossing " " . The Saxon army was , however , deployed a distance away from the beach , to ensure only a few Swedish regiments to land , before it would massively strike with its full capacity to drive the Swedes back and capture the Swedish king ( who as they thought would be one among the few , to first step in land ) . Battle . During the evening of July 18 , a little more than 6 , 000 Swedish infantry and 535 cavalry troops started to embark their landing boats in silence ( there were about 195 boats of different structures and sizes , including four floating batteries with 10 cannons each and one corvette with 16 cannons ) . Swedish guns from Riga had continually bombarded the allied entrenchments across the river the same day and would continue doing so throughout the night and landing . After all the troops were embarked , the Swedes first torched some small boats on fire and pushed them out the river to obstruct the view for the allies with the deception ( smoke ) , then at four o ' clock in the morning of the 19th , the attack began . During their halfway reach , when the landing boats had gone around the island of Fossenholm ( which had effectively blocked the sight of the Swedes ) , they got discovered and fired at . The four Swedish floating batteries returned fire , and after half an hour the Swedes reached the beach and was immediately thrown into fight against Saxon scouting patrols . When about 3 , 000 Swedish troops were ashore , the Saxons launched their first gathered assault of 3 , 500 men . However , the Swedish force under the personal command of the king himself , would not retreat and the attack was beaten back . The Swedes then sequentially stormed and took the nearby Garras redoubt which seized them ground of at least 200 steps inshore where they managed to establish a good foothold , covering the ongoing construction of the floating bridge . After having a brief stalemate , the Swedes formed up to initiate a second attack made by the Saxon general Otto Arnold von Paykull who strictly intended to drive them back before the arrival of further Swedish reinforcements . This attack , as the previous one , was repulsed . By this time the Saxon general Adam Heinrich von Steinau returned from Kokenhusen with large reinforcements and gained the command . He ordered a third assault on the Swedish stand , which at this time had almost every man ready from the landing . Since the Swedish left flank was protected by the river , Steinau gathered his cavalry in an attempt to attack the Swedish right which was rather unprotected . The attack had some success at first , but was subsequently beaten off after an ongoing attack in the rear by the Swedish cavalry . At seven o ' clock in the morning , Saxon commander Heinrich von Steinau went for a council of war with his generals and decided to withdraw from the battle . Another wave was thrown at the Swedes in order to cover the retreat . However , bad weather prevented final constructions of the bridge which denied the crossing of the Swedish cavalry and so August II slipped away with his army . The Swedes lost 100 men dead and another 400 wounded . The allied forces lost about 1 , 300 dead and wounded and another 700 captured . 36 artillery pieces and four standards and banner s had also been conquered by the Swedes . Aftermath . After the battle Charles laid siege and took Mitau ( where he gained 8 , 000 muskets and 9 , 000 pistols to his supplies ) and then stormed the Cobron redoubt where 400 Russians were stationed , only after a massacre the redoubt was taken with as few as twenty Russians still alive . Charles later laid siege to Dünamunde and shortly after started persecuting the retreating forces who had initially been 20 , 000 men strong during the fighting . The 10 , 000 strong Russian force under Anikita Ivanovich Repnin retreated towards Russia after having scarcely been participating in the main battle . The Saxons retreated to neutral Prussia and thus left all of Courland open for Charles who seized the initiative and took Kokenhusen . In preparation for the crossing , king Charles XII had ordered to build the first bridge across the Daugava , which was made of anchored and interconnected by ropes and boats . After the Swedish victory , the city was left with the structure . In 1705 , the bridge , which had been lodged for the winter in Vējzaķsalas Bay , was washed away by the high spring waters . Later , the floating bridge was restored , but in 1710 , it was again destroyed by the Russian army during the siege of Riga . During the battle , small barges armed with cannons were used , thus combining land and sea forces as well as deception ( smoke ) to achieve a stunning victory , carefully planned and very well executed . Participants included Otto Arnold von Paykull .