THE  BATTLE  OF  POLTAVA  
    History Dates and events Persons  Poltava Sights Photo gallery Maps  Virtual Museum Armament Uniforms Coins and medals Flags Paintings
Poltava photographs News About us Acknowledgments
Main page


   
Carl Gustaf Creutz
 


    Carl Gustaf Creutz (1660-1728) was a Swedish General of Cavalry, one of the most gifted and experienced commanders of the King Charles XII who took part in 16 battles. He was born in Täckhammar (county Södermanland) in the family of General Lorentz Creutz (1615-1676) and Elizabeth Duval. Two years old he was registered in Life Guard Cavalry Regiment. At the age of 10 he was admitted as a page to the court of King Charles XI. In the rank of Lieutenant-Captain with Karelian cavalry regiment he was ingaged in Swedish-Danish war (1677-1679). During the reign of Charles XII he made a fast military career showing courage in many battles. By the beginning of Russian campaign launched by Charles XII in 1708 Carl Creutz got a rank of Major-General of Cavalry for the successful military actions on Baltic and in Poland-Saxony. During the first stage of the battle of Poltava (June 28th, 1709) cavalry units under the command of Carl Creutz were fighting on the left wing of Swedish battle formation. At the very beginning of the second stage of the battle he was ordered to help to the Swedish infantry units on the left flank. So Carl Creutz was forced to leave his main units and rush to the left flank with small cavalry detachment. When Russians outflanked the left flank of Swedish army he was doing his best to shield the King and to prevent a turning the battle into massacre. Although Carl Gustaf Creutz avoided taken prisoner in the battle of Poltava, he and remnants of his cavalry were taken prisoners at Perevolochna on Dnieper River on June 30th, 1709. He and his son Lorentz Creutz (1690-1733) who also was taken prisoner were sent to Tobolsk where many captured Swedes were held from 1709 till 1721. After the death of the first minister of Charles XII, count Carl Piper, who headed the union of all Swedish prisoners in Russia, Carl Creutz took up his post. When a peace treaty that put an end to the Great Northern war was finally signed in Neustad on August 30, 1721 , Carl Creutz returned to Sweden (1722). Soon he was promoted general and given a command of a new Life Guard Cavalry Regiment created instead of perished in the battle of Poltava. Carl Creutz was married to Sofia Kristina Natt och Dag, daughter of commissioner of land revenue Gustav Persson. This marriage gave him an estate Täckhammar near Nyköping. After the death of Creutz’s son Lorentz the estate passed to his sister Beata and her husband Fredrik Rosenhane. They moved Carl Creutz and his wife remains from Riddarholm church in Stockholm to Husby-Oppunda church in Södermanland. Creutz’s letters written to his wife Sofia from Swedish army and later on from Russian captivity are of interest of historians because they depict many events of the Russian campaign of Charles XII.


 top  ...back