3,600:[1] 10,868:[1] The Battle of Kircholm (Lithuanian: Salaspilio mūšis; Polish: Bitwa pod Kircholmem; Swedish: Slaget vid Kirkholm; 27 September [O.S.

On 27 September 1605, the Commonwealth and Swedish forces met near the small town of Kircholm (now Salaspils in Latvia, some 18 kilometres (11 mi) south-east of Riga).

[citation needed] In contrast, the Swedish cavalry were less-well trained, armed with pistols and carbines, on poorer horses and tired after a long night's march of over 10 km in torrential rain.

[citation needed] The Swedish forces seem to have been deployed in a checkerboard formation, made up of the infantry regiments formed into seven or eight well-spaced independent blocks, with intersecting fields of fire.

[1] Jan Karol Chodkiewicz deployed his forces in the traditional deep Polish battle formation--the so-called "Old Polish Order"--with the left wing significantly stronger and commanded by Tomasz Dąbrowa, while the right wing was composed of a smaller number of hussars under Jan Piotr Sapieha, and the center included Hetman Chodkiewicz's own company of 300 hussars led by Lt. Wincenty Woyna and a powerful formation of reiters sent by the Duke of Courland Friedrich Kettler.

The Commonwealth forces now gave fire with Kettlers' Courland harquebusiers while Wincenty Wojna's hussars charged at the Swedish lines, causing disorder in the infantry.

The entire force of Swedish cavalry was finally put to rout, and in their flight, disordered many of their own infantry, leaving them vulnerable to the hussars' charge.

As in all crushing victories in this period, the larger part of the Swedish losses were suffered during the retreat, made more difficult by the dense forests and marshes on the route back to Riga, many drowning crossing the Dvina.

After the defeat, the Swedish king was forced to abandon the siege of Riga and withdraw by ship back across the Baltic Sea to Sweden, and to relinquish control of northern Latvia and Estonia.