Background
Early Swedish victories at Humlebaek and at the Battle of Narva in 1700 temporarily took both Denmark and Russia out of the war. However, King Charles XII of Sweden proved unable to speedily end the war as it took eight years to deal with the remaining combatant Charles Augustus of Saxony-Poland. Meanwhile, Peter the Great rebuilt his army into modern form, concentrating on infantry trained to use linear tactics and modern firearms properly. He then achieved a stunning victory in Livonia, where he established the city of Saint Petersburg. As a reaction, Charles ordered an attack on the Russian heartland with an assault on Moscow from his campaign base in Poland.
Lewenhaupt, one of Sweden's foremost generals, was the commander of one of Sweden's best armies, based at the Baltic Sea port of Riga. In the summer of 1708, King Charles ordered him to march southward with most of his force and link up with the main army of 25,000 men, based in Poland. Lewenhaupt was to bring a fresh supply of ammunition and food to support the Swedish army in a proposed march on the Russian capital of Moscow.
However, Lewenhaupt found that gathering the needed supplies and preparing the army for an overland march took longer than expected, and on September 26, after waiting for Lewenhaupt for weeks, Charles XII abandoned his camps and decided to invade Ukraine, hoping to reach that rich granary before winter. At the time, Lewenhaupt was only about 80 miles from Charles' position.
Having observed these movements, Peter decided to attack Lewenhaupt's smaller force before Charles could support it. Menshikov moved quickly to intercept Lewenhaupt's force and prevented it from crossing the Sozh River to safety.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Lesnaya
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