Selånger, 25 May 1721

The Last Battle

On 25 May 1721 the last battle of the Great Northern War was fought on the coast of Västernorrland. A Russian galley fleet arrived at the Sundsvall coast as part of the Russian ravages. A small Swedish force — Jämtland's cavalry company and local farmers — faced an enemy ten times its size. They fought, then retreated at Selånger. Sundsvall was plundered and burned to the ground. Eyewitness accounts survived in the town's memory; the shoreline did not forget either.