Sweden The Battle of Oravais (occasionally Orawais; Finnish: Oravaisten taistelu; Swedish: Slaget vid Oravais) from September 14 until September 15 was one of the decisive battles in the Finnish War, fought from 1808 to 1809 between Sweden and the Russian Empire as part of the wider Napoleonic Wars.

In this battle Nikolay Kamensky, who was in charge of the Russians, displayed outstanding military qualities, showing himself a worthy disciple of Suvorov.

Russia recuperated quickly, and by the end of August the Swedish army was again retreating northwards along the coastal road.

On 13 September the army left for Oravais and it halted to await news from von Döbeln, who was fighting the Russians at Jutas.

Fighting continued with heavy losses on both sides until the situation became untenable for the Swedes, who retreated to their defensive positions at 10 a.m.

The retreat was covered by a single artillery piece commanded by the fifteen-year-old sublieutenant Wilhelm von Schwerin.

Artillery bombardment then began between the two forces, and continued for an hour until the Russians mounted a frontal assault against the Swedish positions.

It was also repelled, but this time the Swedish unexplainably left their positions and counterattacked; Adlercreutz had issued no order to that effect.

The entire Russian line was forced to retire back into the forest where the battle had begun earlier in the morning.

When this maneuver started night had fallen and the battle had already raged for fourteen hours; it became too much for the Swedish army, which hastily retreated to the north from the Russian bayonet attack.

[1] The Swedish lieutenant Carl Johan Ljunggren retold the retreat from Oravais like this: "The darkness was such that despite continuous shovings one could not recognize the shover...