Battle of Lier The Battle of Lier ( " Slaget ved Lier " ) was fought on 2 August 1814 between Sweden and the newly independent Norway as part of the Swedish - Norwegian War of 1814 . The battle was the first major action of the war , and the Norwegian victory served as an important part to boost morale among the Norwegian troops . This was the second time during the Napoleonic Wars that a battle had taken place at Lier , the first was in 1808 . Swedish plan . Major General Carl Pontus Gahn had been given the order to advance on the Norwegian fortress - city of Kongsvinger , without exposing his flanks , in order to draw Norwegian troops stationed other places in the country to Kongsvinger to defend the strategically placed town . This would leave other places in Norway temporarily weakened and give the Swedish troops an opportunity to initiate offensives elsewhere . The plan had been worked out by Crown Prince Jean Baptiste Bernadotte . Background . On July 31 , the Swedish troops under the command of Major General Carl Pontus Gahn crossed the Norwegian border near Eidskog . This forced Christian Frederik to order troops from Høland to head to Eidskog in order to defend against the Swedish advance . Major General Gahn ' s troops followed the main road towards Kongsvinger and faced early resistance from the Norwegian outposts at Matrand . But since the Norwegian vanguard was far weaker than the Swedish , they were quickly driven back and the Swedish forces camped by Brenna , Malmer and the road to Pramhus . The Norwegian vanguard retreated back to Kongetorp where they met with , who took the initiative that they would pull back to which was a much better defensive position . The Battle . The Swedish forces continued their advance towards Kongsvinger the 2nd of August . The main column followed Kongeveien from Skotterud , while 800 - 900 men took the road over Pramhus . The two forces met again at Åbogen where they took a break . At 15 p . m . the Swedish troops continued their advance and split up again when they reached Flygind . Two of the companies would go from there to Tarven , a company would follow the main road , and a fourth company would go to the left of the main road towards the Lier entrenchment ' s right flank . The companies that would attack Tarven quickly met the superior Norwegian troops there and had to be reinforced with a battalion . They then drove the Norwegians back until the artillery from the positions at Lier effectively intervened and the Swedish attack broke down . At the main post , the Norwegian vanguard was driven back to the Lier entrenchment , but the Swedish troops came under heavy fire when they appeared in the edge of the woods and they were too weak to attack the entrenchment . Major General Gahn then reinforced them with two companies who repeatedly tried to take the entrenchment , but were stopped every time . When the Norwegian reserves also were put in to drive the Swedish troops back the fighting died out . At 21 p . m . the Swedish troops had almost no ammunition left , and they had failed to secure any strategic location along the road to Kongsvinger . Gahn therefore decided to retreat back to Matrand . Casualties . The fighting at Lier had been hard , and there were far greater losses than there had been in 1808 . This is undoubtedly because in 1814 there were far larger forces involved in the fighting . In particular , the Swedish forces had suffered heavy losses in relation to the Norwegians ; the reason for this may be explained by the fact that most of the Norwegian forces fought either in hiding or were in reserve . Aftermath . Lt . Colonel Krebs was hailed as a hero and promoted for the victory at Lier as well as the subsequent Battle of Matrand on August 5 . His victories were the only ones in an otherwise despondent campaign and obtained the Norwegian envoys a valuable starting point for negotiations leading to the Swedes acceptance of the Norwegian Constituent Assembly of Eidsvoll .