Likewise, the events gave rise to a polarised debate over the role of quartermaster general Erik Dahlbergh in the king's decision to march across the Great Belt.

During the conference, most of its participants agreed the Swedes would conduct a landing operation on Funen, with a small squadron of five warships from Wismar led by skeppsmajor Tönnes Specht.

The infantry, under the command of Lieutenant General Jakob Kasimir De la Gardie, advanced behind the cavalry and took a different and longer route across the ice, carrying both the artillery and baggage train.

200 detached dragoons who used sleds to carry beams, boards, ladders, barrels, and straw to build bridges across gaps and weaker ice sections accompanied Borneman.

Charles X Gustav halted his wing as a tactical reserve in case the Danes conducted a counterattack across the ice against the Swedish baggage train in Brandsø.

Shortly afterwards, the king rode up to a small hill to monitor the Swedish cavalry attacks, and a few Danes surrounded him, but Dahlbergh quickly gathered support to drive them off.

On 2 February the Danish sailors managed to saw open a gap in the ice, pull the ships out of range of the Swedish cannons, and sail back to Copenhagen, ending the hostilities on Funen.

He arrived at Køng, where Dahlbergh established the Swedish units' night quarters, and a vicarage belonging to Vicar Henning Clausen Bang accommodated the royal company.

On 31 January, the king arrived in Odense, where Bishop Laurids Jacobsen Hindsholm, Mayor Thomas Brodersen Risbrich and several priests and civil servants received him.

[54][55] From the monastery, Charles X Gustav sent letters with the news of the successful conquest of Funen to Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp, Philip Florinus of Sulzbach, and Mathias Biörenclou, the Swedish minister in Frankfurt am Main.

There, Uggla regrouped with the main part of the cavalry, while Dahlbergh and 40 cavalrymen under Niethoff crossed the 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) wide Great Belt and arrived ashore at Grimstedt's mansion.

The Danish coastguard of a dozen horsemen withdrew, but one of them was captured along with two farmers: Dahlbergh transported the prisoners across the Great Belt as living proof of their crossing.

[64] On the evening of 4 February, while the king received the proposal for a ceasefire from the English envoy, Dahlbergh returned to Odense and reported the ice conditions in Lolland were good.

[73][74][71][75] Concluding he could not cross the ice from Nyborg, Wrangel marched to the king's starting point in Svendborg, bringing 3,000 men, of which 1,700 were infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and 200 artillerymen with 16 guns.

On 15 February Swedish units passed Køge tavern and reached Torslunda Magle, only 22 kilometres (14 mi) from Copenhagen, while the Danish troops withdrew.

[7] Despite their numerical superiority, the morale in the capital waned, and on the evening of 15 February, Charles X Gustav received a message from Ambassador Meadows that Frederick III was ready to negotiate everything with no fixed conditions.

'1658: March Across the Belt'), the Swedish historian Lars Ericson Wolke explained that several factors led to Charles X Gustav's victory in his first war with Denmark.

But for the king and the Swedish command, Denmark was a higher priority than Poland, and the march towards Jutland gave Sweden an opportunity to withdraw from what they called the "Polish swamp" with their honor intact.

[96] The march across the Belts, including the resulting Roskilde Treaty, has long been viewed as a success story in the history of Sweden and an admirable achievement, since Charles X Gustav and the Swedish army carried out the campaign with relatively few losses.

[97] The first historian to portray the campaign and Charles X Gustav's actions was the historical writer Samuel von Pufendorf in his work De rebus a Carolo Gustavo gestis (lit.

Pufendorf used various sources to describe the course of events, including reports from Hugu Terlon and Philip Meadow and notes written by Swedish secretary Edvard Ehrenstéen.

Writing in 1855, Carlson emphasized how Wrangel and Ulfeldt argued against a march across the ice and almost convinced Charles X Gustav to call off his campaign until Dahlbergh, in a single deliberation, persuaded the king to change his mind.

[104] Carlson regarded Charles X Gustav as the man who gave Sweden its natural borders, and as an early proponent of Scandinavism whose war policy strove for the unity of and prosperity for the entire Nordic region.

Though he rejected calling Charles X Gustav a proponent of a united Scandinavia, Fridericia was of the same opinion as Carlson that "it was Erik Dahlbergh whose counsel came to decide the fate of the Nordic nations".

Stade's view was expressed in a large research project on Charles X Gustav, conducted by the historical department of the Swedish Armed Forces Staff College between 1965 and 1979.

[117] Concurrently with the Nordic industrial and handicraft exhibition in Malmö in 1896, an equestrian statue depicting Charles X Gustav was erected on Stortorget ("Main Square") in the city.

John Börjeson created the statue, and the driving force behind its construction was politician Carl Herslow, along with historian Martin Weibull, who gave the ceremonial speech on 28 June 1896.

War artist Johann Philip Lemke and Carl Andreas Dahlström portrayed Charles X Gustav and his army on the ice in dense, square formations, when in reality, they were spread several meters apart and led their horses on foot.

Gustaf Cederström made a painting unveiled in 1912 in the stairwell of the House of Nobility, depicting Charles X Gustav on horseback with Dahlbergh showing the way across the ice-covered Great Belt on foot.

[126] After the Treaty of Roskilde, Charles X Gustav struck a medal, created by Johan Georg Breuer, with the inscription in Latin: "Natura hoc debuit uni" ("This aid nature was obliged to give to a single man").