The Battle of Wittstock took place during the Thirty Years ' War -LRB- 1618-1648 -RRB- . It was fought on 24 September -LRB- Julian calendar -RRB- or 4 October -LRB- Gregorian calendar -RRB- 1636 . A Swedish-allied army under general commanded jointly by Johan Baner and Alexander Leslie , later 1st Earl of Leven decisively defeated a combined Imperial-Saxon army , led by Count Melchior von Hatzfeld and the Saxon Elector John George I . Leslie and Baner commanded two distinct armies : Baner commanded the Swedish main army -LRB- huvud arme , and Leslie commanded the Army of the Weser . Their subordinate officers included the Swedish Count and major General Lennart Torstenson , Lieutenant General James King -LRB- later first Lord Eythin -RRB- , and Major General John Ruthven who is usually erroneously conflated with his uncle Patrick Ruthven who was also a Lieutenant General in the Swedish army , but not present at Wittstock . The Holy Roman Emperor , with his Saxon and Roman Catholic allies , was fighting for the control of northern Germany against the Swedes and an alliance of Protestant princes opposed to Habsburg hegemony . The Swedes were also allied to the French , but they played no part in the battle . The Imperial main army was screening the Swedish army behind the Elbe while a smaller army under General Klitzing was overrunning Brandenburg . Field Marshal Johan Baner commanding the main Swedish army was joined by Field Marshal Alexander Leslie commanding the Army of the Weser which comprised German , Scottish and -LRB- at least one -RRB- English regiments . Together they crossed the Elbe with a surprise march and met their opponents in the forested hilly landscape slightly south of Wittstock . The Imperial army was larger in strength than the Swedish army , but at least one-third of it was composed of Saxon units of questionable quality . The Swedish artillery was considerably stronger , leading the Imperial commanders to maintain a largely defensive position on the hill tops . The Imperial forces decided to wait for the Swedes on a range of sandy hills , the Scharfenberg . A part of the Imperial front was further defended with six ditches and a wall of linked wagons . Their commanders waited for some time for the Swedish troops to appear on the open fields to their front . Instead , the Swedish army was turning the Imperial left flank , moving behind the cover of a series of linked hills . The Imperial troops were forced to redeploy their lines to set up a new front . The battle was begun by small forces detached in detail to secure the hills . The Swedes , under Baner and Leslie had problems moving up reinforcements through marshy ground , but battle was eventually joined along a wide front . Baner and Leslie had detached one-fourth of the army under General James King and General Torsten Stålhandske to take a long detour around the Imperial right flank . They found the traverse difficult leading Baner 's troops to take heavy casualties and begin to retreat . Alexander Leslie moved five of his regiments to his relief taking heavy casualties in the process with the Scottish and English regiments being particularly badly mauled . Nonetheless they were able to relieve Baner in time for King 's cavalry to finally outflank the Imperial troops causing a rout . With General Vitzthum in the reserve refusing to engage the Imperialists , his role was taken by Major-General John Ruthven -LRB- Leslie 's son-in-law -RRB- who had been so deployed for just such an emergency . Now attacked on two fronts and with the reserve brigades engaged , the Imperial forces , having lost all their artillery , retreated under the cover of dusk in full rout . In the accounts of the battle preserved in National Archives of Sweden , Johan Baner accredits the victory to Field Marshal Leslie . Leslie , in his personal correspondence to the Swedish Chancellor , Axel Oxenstierna , was clearly horrified at the losses sustained by his army and implies that there had been disagreement about the wisdom of Baner 's tactics before the battle . A third report , by James King conforms with Leslie 's , but also contains additional information . All three have been transcribed , translated and published in English . Nevertheless , Wittstock was a resounding victory for the Swedish forces and corrected any delusions harboured by the Imperialists that they were a spent force after the earlier battle of Nordlingen .