Hakkapellites?

Can anyone tell me what they were? Is the name spelled right? Can anyone tell me anything about their battle tactics? Their equipment?

Search for info on Swedish 17th century cavalry. "Hakkapellitta", from hakka päälle, "hit on" or similar, is just an old Swedish/German nickname for the Finnish cavalrymen. Their equipment (pistols fired at closed range, and swords) and tactics were no different then from the rest of the national cavalry.

Hackapeliittas were the finnish regiments of light cavalry in the swedish empire betwen 1630-1700s.
They were i might say one of the most usseles cavalry regiments in the world. While sweden experienced its most glorious achievments in their history and largest empire in the time of their history they had to increase the amount of of soldiers to fit in to their great empire.
One thing they came up with was to put a use to the people from the eastern borders of what was called österlanded (now finland) to their army att the time of Gustav Adolf. But the problem was that the people from the eastern border were few in numbers and had much worser living standards compared to the rest of the swedes in that time. it was planed that They would be trained to become a highly diciplined army but failed to obey some simple comands taught by some of the best officers in sweden. Instead they solved the problem by ussing them in something that is much cheaper and more cost effective in a army, first they put a use to the horses in the nearby lands called finnhorses, wich wasn't as impresive like the warhorses (mentioned above) ussed in the rest of european armies. They were also equiped with cheap weaponry, for example a cheap sabre wich had lesser amount of steel in it than a ordinary sabre.

Armors were comon to but not as much common like the other cavalry regiments outside of finland. they were commonly ussed for scouting, and in some occasions canon fodder. To bad these kind of cavalry regiments are way overated in finland, just to have some national pride for their young nation.

Of course by that i mean not all people are meant to be equal, like finns who never got their oportunity to create a own nation, like some famous historians say let the wise and powerfull be rewarded with glory and respect, and the weak be punished with oppresion and shame. Hackapellitas where an example of the second thing and so was/is the rest of the eastern border of scandinavia. To be immune from opresion is to be strong, and for the finns its the oposite.


Edited by rapala - 13-Jan-2010 at 16:36

thanks for the detailed information on these horsemen! Not that I was terribly interested in these horsemen before ( even though I am a fan of Gustav's achievements), but the way you explained to us is very interesting!

Although today they are glorified to some degree they were propably a more reliable force than most of the mercenaries of the thirty years war.

For example they couldnt switch sides as easily as many of the mercenaries did (sometimes multiple times). Whereas the mercenaries would fight for their own profit, the national swedish (and finnish) forces as a whole had a religious protestant background that was a large part of their everyday lives and bound them to the person of the king, so loyalty was very important to them.

For the finnish in particular there also was a language barrier, as they mostly only spoke finnish, and had even the swedish commands and curch services translated into finnish for them, so they were to some degree a seperate group inside the swedish forces.
Leading their own negotiations with the german troops was difficult for them, and they were propably pretty much dependent on their swedish comrades to interact with the german forces.
Because of this they also depended on each other and where thus more cohesive than many of their enemies.

Although there arent many sources of their actual fighting qualities I remember reading in an old history book about the history of prussia from 1860 or so ( "Preußische Geschichte" of Leopold von Ranke), that in a siege, where the forces of the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William I. (who was more or less the founding father of the later state of prussia) took a northern german city back from the swedes, the national swedes managed to retreat, leaving back the finnish regiment which was trapped in the city and didnt manage to get away in time.

I cant find the book right now, but according to the author the finnish were
"Tapfer kämpfend bis zum letzten Mann niedergemacht"
so roughly translated :
"fighting bravely until cut down to the last man"

It might be that simply none of them spoke german, so they couldnt negotiate about surrender, but I cant say this for sure. I also read somewhere that they didnt shout at their enemies while fighting, which was very uncommon, so they had a very grim appearance on the battlefield.
But despite some claims they where not really widely feared or even really recognised as a single entity by the catholics.
However according to wikipedia there is one prayer preserved saying:

"A horribile Haccapaelitorum agmine libera nos, Domine."
"O Lord, deliver us from the terrible army of the Haccapelites"

But they propably where very busy praying throughout the war, so this doesnt prove that much.

you are, rapala, telling something that has nothing to do with truth. and yes, im finn, and im not being ultra nationalist right now but i see you know nothing about haccapelites