Swedish Uniforms in
the battle of Narva

At the battle of Narva the Swedish Regiments probably had the following uniforms and strengths. The uniform information comes from Lars-Eric Höglund's book while the strength reports comes from the work by the Swedish General Staff "Karl XII på slagfältet" and Margus Laidre's book "Segern vid Narva". Höglund's book only mentions the colours on the uniforms and not so much about how they were cut. Most likely, they did not look like the classic Carolean uniform, i.e. tricorne hats and turnbacks. Turnbacks existed among cavalrymen at this time but do not seem to have been common and there is no indication that the infantry had begun to adopt turnbacks. The tricorne fashion was established in France by this time. However, judging by battle paintings, it seems that the Swedish troops were still in a transitional stage with usually only two sides folded up, which appeared in various combinations, some of which could look very much like a tricorne depending on the angle from which it was viewed

Infantry (5,889 men)

Livgardet	Dal-regiment	Hälsinge	Västmanland	Närke-Värmland	Tiesenhausen	Lode	Combined Finnish Regiment
1,700 men 6 battalions	661 men 2 battalions	568 men 2 battalions	556 men 3 battalions	732 men 2 battalions	360 men 1 battalion	379 men 1 battalion	933 men 4 battalions
Tiesenhausen's Regiment = Åbo, Björneborg & Nyland 3-männings. Lode's Regiment = Tavastehus, Viborg & Savolax 3-männings. Combined Finnish Regiment = Contingents from Åbo, Björneborg, Nyland, Tavastehus, Viborg and Savolax regiments.						Artillery 334 men, 37 guns
Cavalry (4,314 men)
Drabant Corps	Liv-dragoons	Åbo & Björneborg	Nyland Cavalry	Karelska Cavalry	Karelska Dragoons	Nyland 3-männings	Estonian Adelsfana		Estonian Cavalry
158 men 2 squadrons	514 men 8 squadrons	750 men 7 squadrons	650 men 9 squadrons	700 men 7 squadrons	302 men 2 squadrons	340 men 2 squadrons	400 men 3 squadrons		500 men 3 squadrons

Narva Garrison

Ingermanland Garrison Regiment 1,400 men

Estonian Cavalry Regiment 150 men 2 companies

Ingermanland Adelsfana "a small number" 2 captains in command

Narva's garrison was estimated by themselves to be between 1 800 and 1 900 men. Apart from the units above this force also included 400 armed townspeople. The commandant could also dispose of over 300 peasants who had been sent there from Viborg County as labour to improve the fortifications.

The Ingermanland Garrison Regiment was originally recruited from the formerly Danish province of Scania (Skåne) and at the muster in June 1699 there were still 216 Scanians serving in the regiment. The main part was however composed of 592 Finns and 416 Ingrians. Apart from these there were also 84 "Swedes", 74 Livonians and 53 Estonians as well as a few Reich-Germans, Courlanders, Danes and finally one person each from Norway, Prussia and Poland. The average age was as high as 36 years (The Scanians were probably among the more older soldiers).

Swedish Order of Battle at Narva

Note that four battalions belonged to a temporary Finnish regiment consisting of contingents from six provincial Finnish regiments. Because the exact composition of these four battalions is not known it is difficult to determine what uniforms they wore. I have however made educated guesses based on which regiments the battalion commanders belonged to. Gustaf Adolf Mellin was a recently appointed colonel of Viborg Regiment, Ernst Lode was lieutenant colonel of Björneborg Regiment and Patrik Sass was a captain of Savolax Regiment. Which regiment the fourth battalion commander, major Otto Reinhold Berg, belonged to have I not been able to determine so I have arbitrarily chosen to represent his battalion with the uniforms of Nyland Regiment (thus enabling all Finnish colour combinations to be represented here).

Left (North) Wing

Estonian Adelsfana and Estonian Cavalry Regiment (6 squadrons in total)	Left Column	Karelska Dragoons (2 squadrons)	Nyland 3-männing Cavalry (2 squadrons)	(Left Column)     Cavalry 736 men in 10 squadrons     (Right Column)
	Reserve Cavalry 1,650 men in 13 squadrons	Liv-dragoon Regiment (4 squadrons)	Drabant Corps (2 squadrons)
Åbo & Björneborg Cavalry Regiment (7 squadrons)	Right Column	Tavastehus, Viborg & Savolax 3-männing Reg.	Dal-regiment (first battalion)	Left Infantry Group 516 men in 2 battalions (headed by a grenadier platoon from Dal-regiment)
Finns (Berg's battalion)	Finns (Lode's battalion)	Finns (Mellin's battalion)	Dal-regiment (second battalion)	Right Infantry Group 2,375 men in 8 battalions (headed by two grenadier platoons)
Finns (Sass' battalion)	Västmanland Regiment (Feilitzen's battalion)	Närke-Värmland Regiment (Fock's battalion)	Närke-Värmland Regiment (Roos' battalion)
Centre Artillery 334 men, 37 guns   Right (South) Wing Infantry 2,998 men distributed on 11 battalions (one guard grenadier platoon led the charge)
Västmanland Regiment (Kurck's battalion)	Västmanland Regiment (Wrangel's battalion)	Livgardet  (Sparre's battalion)	Livgardet (Ehrensteen's battalion)	Livgardet's grenadier battalion
Åbo, Björneborg & Nyland  3-männing Regiment			Livgardet's first battalion
Hälsinge Regiment (second battalion)	Hälsinge Regiment (first battalion)	Livgardet (Posse's battalion)	Livgardet (von Numers' battalion)
Cavalry 1,928 men distributed on 24 squadrons
	Karelska Cavalry Regiment (7 squadrons)	Nyland Cavalry Regiment (9 squadrons)	Liv-dragoon Regiment (4 squadrons)	Left Column
		Karelska Dragoons (2 squadrons)	Nyland 3-männing Cavalry (2 squadrons)	Right Column

Read also about Russian uniforms.