The crossing of the Düna 1701
Topic: Archives

One of the chapters in volume 2 of Karl XII på slagfältet (1918) deals with the crossing of the Düna (Daugava) in July 1701. A surprising number of the footnotes refers to either Nordberg's Konung Carl den XII:tes historia (1740) or Adlerfelt's Histoire Militaire (1740). This indicates that major battles during the GNW have not necessarily left a big contemporary paper trail, i.e. that we would probably not have had a great deal more information about the Swedish planning for the battle of Poltava even if a lot of documents had not been burned before the army surrendered a couple of days later.

However, in the case of the Düna crossing there still exists quite a few items which to my knowledge have not been used before. On 5 July 1701 Captain Peter Andersson Preen, commander of the ship Wachtmeister, informs Erik Dahlbergh that he has received orders to collect as many boats he can find. Preen tells Dahlbergh that few are available as the Saxons are preventing all merchant ships from passing Dünamünde (LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 275). Quite a few items are in LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 316, which contains letters from Swedish commanders of detachments and redoubts in the neighbourhood of Riga. They report on Saxon movements and fortifications as well as about possible locations for a crossing. As the date of the crossing draws nearer there also appears reports of the gathering of boats (Jacob Johan Staël von Holstein, dated Wetsack 6 July) and finally the news of the success and the Saxon retreat (Staël von Holstein, dated Wetsack 9 July at 11 am).

Historical journey
Topic: Travels
Due to a two week journey through northern Poland (Gdansk, Malbork etc.), the Kaliningrad region, Lithuania (Kaunas, Vilnius etc.), Latvia (Riga) and Estonia (Tartu, Narva and Tallinn) I was forced to take a break from blogging. New posting to follow on Sunday.

Indexes again

The present status in regard to the indexes to the volumes in the archive of the Livonian Governor General: 

The Tartu volumes 

EAA.278.1.XIX-68 (Letters from Governors and garrison commanders at Narva 1691-1699)
EAA.278.1.XIX-74 (Letters to Paul von Strokirch 1699-1702)
EAA.278.1.XX-18 (Letters concerning the war in Livonia 1700-1709)
EAA.278.1.XX-19 (Letters from Livonian clergymen 1700-1707)
EAA.278.1.XX-21b (Miscellaneous letters to Erik Dahlbergh 1700-1702)
EAA.278.1.XX-31 (Miscellaneous letters about the war in Courland 1701-1708)

The Riga volumes

LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 272 (Letters from various officers 1700-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 275 (Letters from naval officers & others 1700-1709
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 290 (Letters from the border 1699-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 291 (Letters concerning the war in Livonia 1700-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1. vol. 292 (Letters concerning the war in Livonia 1703-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 293 (Miscellaneous letters 1695-1700)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 294 (Letters to Erik Dahlbergh 1700-1702)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 295 (Letters from Swedish diplomats and officers in Danzig and Elbing 1699-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 296 (Miscellaneous letters from Swedish and foreign officials and diplomats 1694-1709)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 297 (Miscellaneous letters to Charles XII and to Mårten Trotzig 1700)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 298 (Letters from Gustaf Ernst Albedyhl 1700-1702)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 299 (Letters from Gustaf Ernst Albedyhl 1703-1704)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 300 (Letters from Gustaf Ernst Albedyhl 1707-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1. vol. 301 (Letters from H. G. and H. J. von Buddenbrock 1701-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 302 (Letters from Erik Dahlbergh 1696-1699)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 303 (Letters from Erik Dahlbergh 1700-1702)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 304 (Letters from Finland 1700-1709)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 305 (Miscellaneous letters 1701-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 306 (Miscellaneous letters 1700-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 309 (Letters from Libau 1701-1709)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 310 (Letters from F. W. and J. F. von Liphardt 1700-1705)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 311 (Letters from Abraham Cronhjort and Georg Lybecker 1701-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 315 (Letters from Bauske, Mitau and Selburg 1701-1703)

This should be around 3,300 letters and documents.  

Wolmar Anton von Schlippenbach
Topic: Generals

The commander of the Swedish forces in Livonia has been much vilified by posterity and the opinion seems to have been shared by many contemporaries. On 3 December 1704 Samuel Bark wrote to his friend Olof Hermelin: "Why in God's name has Schlippenbach been placed in Reval... he is hated and mistrusted by everybody."

An intriguing piece of information concerning Schlippenbach's career can be found among his papers in Riksarkivet, Stockholm. In a letter dated  Libau 7 October 1701 Major General Carl Magnus Stuart, one of Charles XII's closest military advisors, writes that he is very pleased with Schlippenbach's success. Schlippenbach should, Stuart writes, remember who persuaded him to remain in the army. His Majesty, Stuart continues, well understands that I am not advocating you because of my personal interest but because of your merits.

Stuart also writes (which is perhaps even more interesting) that he understands Schlippenbach's unhappiness with how things have developed. No one has more than I wished that the major part of the army had marched to that border, but other things have put a stop to this and I am not at all happy about it, Stuart writes. This of course strongly suggests that Stuart was no supporter of the decision to intervene in the Lithuanian civil war, but would have preferred a campaign against Russia. The "other things" were, if I may hazard a guess, the contacts with the Sapieha family and their appeal for assistance.

 

Sources: 

Riksarkivet, M 1402

Bark, Samuel, Bref från Samuel Bark till Olof Hermelin 1702-1708. I. - Stockholm, 1914 

Indexes thus far
Topic: Archives

The archive of the Livonian Governor General 

At present I have covered the following Tartu volumes:

EAA.278.1.XIX-68 (Letters from Governors and garrison commanders at Narva 1691-1699)
EAA.278.1.XIX-74 (Letters to Paul von Strokirch 1699-1702)
EAA.278.1.XX-18 (Letters concerning the war in Livonia 1700-1709)
EAA.278.1.XX-19 (Letters from Livonian clergymen 1700-1707)
EAA.278.1.XX-21b (Miscellaneous letters to Erik Dahlbergh 1700-1702)
EAA.278.1.XX-31 (Miscellaneous letters about the war in Courland 1701-1708)

Of the Riga volumes:

LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 272 (Letters from various officers 1700-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 275 (Letters from naval officers & others 1700-1709
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 290 (Letters from the border 1699-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 291 (Letters concerning the war in Livonia 1700-1703)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1. vol. 292 (Letters concerning the war in Livonia 1703-1708)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 293 (Miscellaneous letters 1695-1700)
LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 294 (Letters to Erik Dahlbergh 1700-1702)

All in all about 1,870 letters and other documents.  These volumes are, as I am sure I have mentioned earlier, not always what they appear to be from the old descriptions but they are all of the "miscellaneous kind". Letters from more prominent correspondents such as for example Henning Rudolf Horn in Narva, Carl Gustaf Skytte in Dorpat and Major General Schlippenbach are usually found in specific volumes. Letters from less well-known figures may turn up anywhere, despite the efforts by Bienemann & others to bring some sort of order to the collection. 

 

 

 

 

 

More indexes (again)
Topic: Archives
I have now finished LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 292 and ended up at roughly 200 documents. Next in line is vol. 293, which basically contains a lot of loose material from 1700 (a a few older ones). Most of them are of Livonian origin, but there are a few others. One is from the Duke of Holstein and dated Stockholm 12 March 1700. Duke Frederick informs Dahlbergh that the King has decided to send a few good officers to Riga, among them Col. Axel von Wangersheim. A month later Wangersheim writes from Pernau, informing Dahlbergh of his intention to try and get through to Riga despite the presence of Saxon patrols. This voulme also contains a few letters from Henrik Haij, the garrison commander at Kokenhusen.

Even more indexes
Topic: Archives

I am now working on the big LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 292. It seems to contain about 200 letters and documents, mostly of Livonian origin. Exceptions are a couple of Russian letters (one translated into German), a letter from Admiral Ankarstierna dated 1 June 1705 and a couple of letters from County Governor Stromberg in Gävle. The volume also contains the minutes of various interrogations held with Russian prisoners and a short account by an officer who served in Narva during the siege of 1704. 

Contrary to what I suggested in my previous entry it would appear that vol. 291, 292 and EAA.278.1.XX-18 do not cover the old Bienemann volume XX-18 and its 822 items. It would seem possible that they may contain as much as 500 items, but certainly not 822. So where is the rest? I have an idea, but I'll have to return to that particular subject in another entry.

More indexes
Topic: Archives

The work on a comprehensive index (or database) of the incoming letters to the Livonian Governor General during the GNW continues. After finishing LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1 vol. 275 (in the Bienemann catalogue XX-6) I have moved on to volumes 291 and 292. They present a new set of problems. In Bienemann's catalogue there is under no XX-18 "Schreiben verschiedener Offiziere und anderer Personen betr. den Krieg in Livland. 4 vol. 822 St." (Letters concerning the war in Livonia from various officers and other persons. 4 volumes. 822 items). So what has happened to these four volumes? Well, vol. 291 is still labeled XX-18:1. Vol. 292 seems to have lost the original box, but chronologically is takes over where vol. 291 ends. So is it 18:2? Well, things would appear to be more complicated than that as apart from these two Riga volumes there is also one in Tartu - EAA.278.1.XX-18. It looks like the original box is lost here as well and oddly enough this "third volume" covers the entire period 1700-1709. The fourth volume does not seem to exist anymore, but it seems entirely possible that this is a result of changes in how the three remaining are organized and not necessarily a result of losses.

As for the content in volume 291: It covers the period late December 1700 to December 1702. It's heavy on reports from Marienburg (Alūksne), probably about 45 letters out of 165. To some of them are attached spy reports from someone occasionally called "the famous Jurrenski", who seems to have gone to Polish Livonia quite often in order to pick up information from Russia. The volume also contain a few items of relevance to the Swedish attempts on Russian border posts during the winter of 1700-1701, such as letters from Jacob Spens who commanded the expedition to Pechory. Some other famous names are also represented - Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld, Johan August Meyerfeldt and the clergyman Adrain Vergin. The volumes in addition contains copies of a few letters from Major General Horn in Narva, written to the secretary Johan Haal in Dorpat. 

The Daniel Cameen papers
Topic: Archives

In the Bienemann catalogue of the archive of the Livonian Governor General there is a curious item: "XIX:1 1644-1686 Papiere des Stockholmschen Bürgermeisters Daniel Caméen. 1 vol. 141 Stücke".

This volume still exists, but now only consists of 99 leaves. How can 141 items have turned into just 99 leaves? The answer is quite astonishing. During the Soviet era quite a few volumes were "restored", in this particular case apparently by adding items with absolutely no connection to Cameen. According to the modern finding aid the first 28 leaves may possibly have something to do with Cameen and the last three clearly has it, but everything in-between is dated 1637-38 and apparently just common letters to the Governor General. So what has happened to the "141 items"? Well, a good guess seems to be that they were taken by Ernst Malmberg in 1909-1910, because in his collection in Uppsala University Library there are two fairly thick bundles of Caméen papers. 

This habit of "restoring" volumes by adding loose material with no obvious connection to the existing items seems to have been quite popular. I don't know if the idea was to make them look right from the outside (correct size) in the hope that no one who could actually read the content would turn up, but it seems possible. Otherwise the Soviet era archivist could just have created entirely new volumes and called them "miscellaneous".  

In regard to my indexes (see previous post) I have finished LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol 272 (the old Bienemann XX-3) and moved on to vol. 275 (the old XX-6). This is also a curious case. According to Bienemann's catalogue it contains letters from the Swedish naval officers Henck, Fontin, Boy, Lindskiöld, Palmgreen, Preen, Rahl, Siöstierna "and others". Some of these names have been seriously distorted. "Fontin" is "Pontin" and "Rahl" is "Raab". Others weren't naval officers (Boy, Lindskiöld), so the reasoning behind the creation of this volume seems to have been that everybody who writes a letter while on a ship must be a naval officer. Some mistakes are understandable given the few tools at their disposal, but Bienemann & co should have reacted when they saw the name "Lindskiöld" as the first bearer of the name was a prominent advisor to Charles XI.

More about indexes
Topic: Archives

Since my previous post about a project to make an index (or database) of the letters in the archive of the Livonian Governor General I have finished EAA 278.1.XX-31 (The war in Courland 1701-1708) and started on LVVA, fond 7349, op. 1, vol. 272 (the old XX-3) . According to the modern heading it's supposed to contain letters from the officers of the regiment "Livländska Adelsfanan", but this is a distortion of Bienemann's "Schreiben des Ob. der livländischen Adelsfahne O. Brakel, des Oberstl. H. J. von Brandt, des Ob. Joachim v. Cronmann, Christer Horn's, des Oberstl. Hans Hinrich von Liewen, des Ob. Andr. v. Zöge.". Of these officers only Brakel belonged to "Livländska Adelsfanan. Brandt commanded dragoons and Cronman a Finnish infantry regiment, while Horn belonged to Governor General Dahlbergh's regiment. Liewen and Zöge commanded battalions of infantry and the latter was also deputy garrison commander at Dorpat.

XX-31 is perhaps most interesting for the letters from 1708 (about 100 of 260) and the light they shed on the situation in Lewenhaupt's corps in the weeks leading up to the arrival of the King's order to gather supplies for three months. This was a period which Hugo Uddgren didn't really analyze in the second volume of his Lewenhaupt biography (he used just about 10 pages for describing the events during the first six months, while he spent 50 on the last days of June 1709) and I don't think any Swedish historian has even looked at the volume since. 

As is often the case XX-31 contains a rather haphazard collection of letters and documents. Notable correspondents include Lt. Col. Mathias Gustaf Staël von Holstein (1666-1720), stationed at Bauska (about 35 letters) and Lt. Col. Ernst Carl von Glasenapp (about 30).