Battle of Wenden ( 1626 ) Battle of Wenden ( also known as Battle of Kieś ) was a battle fought during the Polish – Swedish War ( 1626 – 1629 ) , between Sweden and the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth on December 3 , 1626 at Wenden ( Cēsis , Kiesia ) in present day Latvia . Swedish forces were led by Gustav Horn and Hans Wrangel . Lithuanian forces were led by Aleksander Gosiewski . The Swedes won the battle . Opposing forces . The Swedish army of 1 , 900 infantry ( mainly musketeers ) and 1 , 780 cavalry under the command of Gustav Horn had reached Drobbusch late on December 2 , and there decided to establish a camp for the troops to rest . However , as there were not enough houses for the whole army , only the infantry was quartered within the village , and the cavalry instead rested in nearby woods . During this time , unbeknownst to the Swedes , the Polish field marshal Aleksander Gosiewski approached in their direction with his army of 4 , 000 ( according to previously captured Lithuanian prisoners ) . Gosiewski ' s aim was to evict the Swedish troops from the village via a surprise attack . At dawn of the next day , November 3 , Gosiewski reached the village and executed the attack . Battle of Wenden . The Lithuanians tried to sweep through the entrances of the roads leading to the village , but were repulsed by Swedish sentry detachments long enough for further Swedish support to arrive from the village . Meanwhile , two banners of Cossack ( Kozacy ) cavalry attempted to cross through the woods in order to outflank the Swedes but were engaged and stopped by a detachment of musketeers . After some fierce fighting in hand - to - hand combat the Lithuanian infantry was repulsed after having suffered several killed and captured . Horn , then took the initiative and with some musketeers , forced the Lithuanian cavalry away from their advantageous position which had been preventing the Swedish cavalry from participate in the battle . Then , being able to deploy , one Swedish squadron of Finnish cavalry managed to charge and rout , according to letters of Swedish generals , five squadrons of Lithuanian hussars who lost four banners . After a short but fierce fighting the remains of the Lithuanian army were defeated . The Swedish casualties of the battle were light . The Lithuanians however , lost 400 men dead , 40 captured and eight banners . Aftermath . After the battle the Swedes remained at Drobbusch for two days in order to gather supplies before moving south to push Gosiewski out of Livonia and into Courland . After Gosiewski crossed the Düna river at Yxkull De la Gardie and Horn had to halt their pursuit due to the lack of winter clothing which caused a lot of casulties amogn the troops from sickness and frostbite . Horn assembled a small force of some 300 cavalry and 200 musketeers , with which he intended to clear out the Lithuanian positions west of the river Ewst . On the march there , the Swedish cavalry encountered a force of 3 banners of cossack style cavalry who were escorting the Lithuanian baggage and artillery train which had been left behind at Laudon . A fierce action followed in which the " cossacks " fought with great bravery , though losing some 70 men they were able to push their way through with the baggage train but had to leave the cannon behind due to the bad roads . Horn continued his operation and was able to take Berson but Laudon proved to strong from him which effectively ended the winter campaign of 1626 - 1627 .