History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 7 out of 7
than ever felling wood, this Friday night; numbers of people
running about with axes, with lanterns over there, as if in the
push of hurry, and making a great deal of noise. "Intending retreat
for Zittau to-morrow!" thinks Friedrich, as the false egg-yolk had
taught him; or merely, "That poor precautionary fellow!" supposing
the false yolk a myth. In short, Daun has got through his nocturnal
wildernesses with perfect success. And stands, dreamt of by no
enemy, in the places appointed for his 30,000 and him; and that
poor old clock of Hochkirch, unweariedly grunting forward to the
stroke of five, will strike up something it is little expecting!--
The Prussians have vedettes, pickets and small outposts of Free-
corps people scattered about within their border of that Austrian
Wood, the body of which, about Hochkirch as everywhere else,
belongs wholly to Croats. Of course there are guard-parties,
sentries duly vigilant, in the big Battery to southeast of
Hochkirch,--and along southwestward in that POTENCE, or fore-arm of
Four Battalions, which are stationed there. Four good Battalions
looking southward there, with Cavalry to right; Ziethen's Cavalry,
--whose horses stand saddled through the night, ready always for
the nocturnal "Pandourade," which seldom fails them. There, as
elsewhere, are the due vigilances, watchmen, watch-fires. The rest
of the Prussian Army is in its blankets, wholly asleep, while Daun
stands waiting for the stroke of five.
That Daun, bursting in with his chosen 30,000, will trample down
the sleeping Prussian POTENCE at Hochkirch; capture its big Battery
to left, its Village of Hochkirch to rear, and do extensive ruin on
the whole right wing of Friedrich; rendering Friedrich everywhere
an easy conquest to the rest of Daun's people, who stand, far and
wide, duly posted and prepared, waiting only their signal from
Hochkirch: much of this, all of it that had regard to Hochkirch
Battery and Village, and the Prussians stationed there, Daun did
execute. And readers, from the data they have got, must conceive
the manner of it,--human description of the next Two Hours, about
Hochkirch, in the thick darkness there, and stormful sudden inroad,
and stormful resistance made, being manifestly an impossible thing.
Nobody was "massacred in his bed" as the sympathetic gazetteers
fancied; nobody was killed, that I hear of, without arms, in his
hand: but plenty of people perished, fierce of humor, on both
sides; and from half-past five till towards eight, there was a
general blaze of fiery chaos pushing out ever and anon, swallowed
in the belly of Night again, such as was seldom seen in this world.
Instead of confused details, and wearisome enumeration of
particulars, which nobody would listen to or understand, we will
give one intelligent young gentleman's experience, our friend
Tempelhof's, who stood in this part of the Prussian Line;
experience distinct and indubitable to us; and which was pretty
accurately symbolical, I otherwise see, of what befell on all
points thereabouts. Faithfully copied, and in the essential parts
not even abridged, here it is:--
Tempelhof, at that time a subaltern of artillery, was stationed
with a couple of 24-pounders in attendance on the Battalion
Plothow, which with three others and some cavalry lay to the south
side of Hochkirch, forming a kind of fore-arm or POTENCE there to
right of the big Battery, with their rear to Hochkirch; and keeping
vedettes and Free-corps parties spread out into the woods and
Devil's Hills ahead. Tempelhof had risen about three, as usual;
had his guns and gunners ready; and was standing by the watch-fire,
"expecting the customary Pandourade," and what form it would take
this morning. "Close on five o'clock; and not a mouse stirring!
We are not to have our Pandourade, then?" On a sudden, noise bursts
out; noise enough, sharp fire among the Free-corps people;
fire growing ever sharper, noisier, for the next half-hour, but
nothing whatever to be seen. "Battalion Plothow had soon got its
clothes on, all to the spatterdashes; and took rank to right and
left of the FLECHE, and of my two guns, in front of its post:
but on account of the thick fog everything was totally dark.
I fired off my cannons [shall we say straight southward?] to learn
whether there was anything in front of us. No answer: 'Nothing
there--Pshaw, a mere crackery (GEKNACKER) of Pandours and our Free-
corps people, after all!' But the noise grew louder, and came ever
nearer; I turned my guns towards it [southward, southeastward, or
perhaps a gun each way?]--and here we had a salvo in response, from
some battalions who seemed to be two hundred yards or so ahead.
The Battalion Plothow hereupon gave fire; I too plied my cannons
what I could,--and had perhaps delivered fifteen double shots from
them, when at once I tumbled to the ground, and lost all
consciousness" for some minutes or moments.
Awakening with the blood running down his face, poor Tempelhof
concluded it had been a musket-shot in the head; but on getting to
his hands and knees, he found the place "full of Austrian
grenadiers, who had crept in through our tents to rear; and that it
had been a knock with the butt of the musket from one of those
fellows, and not a bullet" that had struck him down.
Battalion Plothow, assailed on all sides, resisted on all sides;
and Tempelhof saw from the ground,--I suppose, by the embers of
watch-fires, and by rare flashes of musketry, for they did not fire
much, having no room, but smashed and stabbed and cut,--"an
infantry fight which in murderous intensity surpasses imagination.
I was taken prisoner at this turn; but soon after got delivered by
our cavalry again." [Tempelhof, ii. 324 n.]
This latter circumstance, of being delivered by the Cavalry, I find
to be of frequent occurrence in that first act of the business
there: the Prussian Battalion, surprised on front and rear, always
makes murderous fight for itself: is at last overwhelmed, obliged
to retire, perhaps opening its way by bayonet charge;--upon which
our Cavalry (Ziethen's, and others that gathered to him) cutting in
upon the disordered surprisers, cut them into flight, rescue the
prisoners, and for a time reinstate matters. The Prussian
battalions do not run (nobody runs); but when repulsed by the
endless odds, rally again. The big Battery is not to be had of them
without fierce and dogged struggle; and is retaken more than once
or twice. Still fiercer, more dogged, was the struggle in Hochkirch
Village; especially in Hochkirch Church and Churchyard,--whither
the Battalion Margraf-Karl had flung themselves; the poor Village
soon taking fire about them. Soon taking fire, and continuing to be
a scene of capture and recapture, by the flame-light;
while Battalion Margraf-Karl stood with invincible stubbornness,
pouring death from it; not to be compulsed by the raging tide of
Austrian grenadiers; not by "six Austrian battalions," by "eight,"
or by never so many. Stood at bay there; levelling whole masses of
them,--till its cartridges were spent, all to one or two per man;
and Major Lange, the heroic Captain of it, said, "We shall have to
go, then, my men; let us cut ourselves through!"--and did so, in an
honorably invincible manner; some brave remnant actually getting
through, with Lange himself wounded to death.
I think it was not till towards six o'clock that the right wing
generally became aware what the case was: "More than a Pandourade,
yes;"--though what it might be, in the thick fog which had fallen,
blotting out all vestiges of daylight, nobody could well say.
Rallied Battalions, reinforced by this or the other Battalion
hurrying up from leftward, always charge in upon the enemy, in
Hochkirch or wherever he is busy; generally push him back into the
Night; but are then fallen upon on both flanks by endless new
strength, and obliged to draw back in turn. And Ziethen's Horse, in
the mean while, do execution; breaking in on the tumultuous
victors; new Cuirassiers, Gens-d'Armes dashing up to help, so soon
as saddled, and charging with a will: so that, on the whole, the
enemy, variously attempting, could make nothing of us on that
western, or rearward side,--thanks mainly to Ziethen and the Horse.
"Had we but waited till three or four of our Battalions had got
up!" say the Prussian narrators. But it is thick mist; few yards
ahead you cannot see at all, unless it be flame; and close at hand,
all things and figures waver indistinct,--hairy outlines of blacker
shadows on a ground of black.
It must have been while Lange was still fighting, perhaps before
Lange took to the Church of Hochkirch, scarcely later than half-
past six (but nobody thought of pulling out his watch in such a
business!)--about six, or half-past six, when Keith, who has charge
of this wing, and lodges somewhere below or north of Hochkirch,
came to understand that his big Battery was taken; that here was
such a Pandourade as had not been before; and that, of a surety,
said Battery must be retaken. Keith springs on horseback; hastily
takes "Battalion Kannacker" and several remnants of others;
rushes upwards, "leaving Hochkirch a little to right; direct upon
the big Battery." Recaptures the big Battery. But is set upon by
overwhelming multitudes, bent to have it back;--is passionate for
new assistance in this vital point; but can get none: had been
"DISARTED by both his Aide-de-camps," says poor John Tebay, a
wandering English horse-soldier, who attends him as mounted groom;
"asked twenty times, and twenty more, 'Where are my Aide-de-
camps!'" ["Captens Cockcey and Goudy" he calls them--(COCCEJI whose
Father the Kanzler we have seen, and GAUDI whose self),--who both
had, in succession, struck into Hochkirch as the less desperate
place, according to Tebay: see TEBAY'S LETTER to Mitchell,
"Crossen, October 29th" (in MEMOIRS AND PAPERS, ii. 501-505);--
which is probably true every word, allowing for Tebay's temper;
but is highly indecipherable, though not entirely so after many
readings and researehings.]--but could get no response or
reinforcement; and at length, quite surrounded and overwhelmed, had
to retire; opening his way by the bayonet; and before long,
suddenly stopping short,--falling dead into Tebay's arms;
shot through the heart. Two shots on the right side he had not
regarded; but this on the left side was final: Keith's fightings
are suddenly all done. Tebay, in distraction, tried much to bring
away the body; but could by no present means; distractedly "rid for
a coach;" found, on return, that the Austrians had the ground, and
the body of his master; Hochkirch, Church and all, now
undisputedly theirs.
To appearance, it was this news of Keith's repulse (I know not
whether of Keith's DEATH as yet) that first roused Friedrich to a
full sense of what was now going on, two miles to south of him.
Friedrich, according to his habits, must have been awake and afoot
when the Business first broke out; though, for some considerable
time, treating it as nothing but a common crackery of Pandours.
Already, finding the Pandourade louder than usual, he had ordered
out to it one battalion and the other that lay handy: but now he
pushes forward several battalions under Franz of Brunswick (his
youngest Brother-in-law), with Margraf Karl and Prince Moritz:
"Swift you, to Hochkirch yonder!"--and himself springs on horseback
to deal with the affair. Prince Franz of Brunswick, poor young
fellow, cheerily coming on, near Hochkirch had his head shorn off
by a cannon-ball. Moritz of Dessau, too, "riding within twenty
yards of the Austrians," so dark was it, he so near-sighted, got
badly hit,--and soon after, driving to Bautzen for surgery, was
made prisoner by Pandours; [In ARCHENHOLTZ (i. 289, 290) his
dangerous adventures on the road to Bautzen, in this wounded
condition.] never fought again, "died next year of cancer in the
lip." Nothing but triumphant Austrian shot and cannon-shot going
yonder; these battalions too have to fall back with sore loss.
Friedrich himself, by this time, is forward in the thick of the
tumult, with another body of battalions; storming furiously along,
has his horse shot under him; storms through, "successfully, by the
other side of Hochkirch" (Hochkirch to his left):--but finds, as
the mist gradually sinks, a ring of Austrians massed ahead, on the
--MAP GOES HERE, FACING PAGE 160, BOOK XVIII------
Heights; as far as Steindorfel and farther, a general continent of
Austrians enclosing all the south and southwest; and, in fact, that
here is now nothing to be done. That the question of his flank is
settled; that the question now is of his front, which the appointed
Austrian parties are now upon attacking. Question especially of the
Heights of Drehsa, and of the Pass and Brook of Drehsa (rearward of
his centre part), where his one retreat will lie, Steindorfel being
now lost. Part first of the Affair is ended; Part second of
it begins.
Rapidly enough Friedrich takes his new measures. Seizes Drehsa
Height, which will now be key of the field; despatches Mollendorf
thither (Mollendorf our courageous Leuthen friend); who vigorously
bestirs himself; gets hold of Drehsa Height before the enemy can;
Ziethen co-operating on the Heights of Kumschutz, Canitz and other
points of vantage. And thus, in effect, Friedrich pulls up his torn
right skirt (as he is doing all his other skirts) into new compact
front against the Austrians: so that, in that southwestern part
especially; the Austrians do not try it farther; but "retire at
full gallop," on sight of this swift seizure of the Keys by
Mollendorf and Ziethen. Friedrich also despatches instant order to
Retzow, to join him at his speediest. Friedrich everywhere
rearranges himself, hither, thither, with skilful rapidity, in new
Line of Battle; still hopeful to dispute what is left of the
field;--longing much that Retzow could come on wings.
By this time (towards eight, if I might guess) Day has got the
upper hand; the Daun Austrians stand visible on their Ring of
Heights all round, behind Hochkirch and our late Battery, on to
westward and northward, as far as Steindorfel and Waditz;--
extremely busy rearranging themselves into something of line;
there being much confusion, much simmering about in clumps and
gaps, after such a tussle. In front of us, to eastward, the
appointed Austrian parties are proceeding to attack: but in
daylight, and with our eyes open, it is a thing of difficulty, and
does not prosper as Hochkirch did. Duke D'Ahremberg, on their
extreme right, had in charge to burst in upon our left, so soon as
he saw Hochkirch done: D'Ahremberg does try; as do others in their
places, near Daun; but with comparatively little success.
D'Ahremberg, meeting something of check or hindrance where he
tried, pauses, for a good while, till he see how others prosper.
Their grand chance is their superiority of number; and the fact
that Friedrich can try nothing upon THEM, but must stand painfully
on the defensive till Retzow come. To Friedrich, Retzow seems
hugely slow about it. But the truth is, Baden-Durlach, with his
20,000 of Reserve, has, as per order, made attack on Retzow, 20,000
against 12: one of the feeblest attacks conceivable; but sufficient
to detain Retzow till he get it repulsed. Retzow is diligent as
Time, and will be here.
Meanwhile, the Austrians on front do, in a sporadic way, attack and
again attack our batteries and posts; especially that big Battery
of Thirty Guns, which we have to north of Rodewitz. The Austrians
do take that Battery at last; and are beginning again to be
dangerous,--the rather as D'Ahremberg seems again to be thinking of
business. It is high time Retzow were here! Few sights could be
gladder to Friedrich, than the first glitter of Retzow's vanguard,
--horse, under Prince Eugen of Wurtemberg,--beautifully wending
down from Weissenberg yonder; skilfully posting themselves, at
Belgern and elsewhere, as thorns in the sides of D'Ahremberg (sharp
enough, on trial by D'Ahremberg). Followed, before long, by Retzow
himself; serenely crossing Lobau Water; and, with great celerity,
and the best of skill, likewise posting himself,--hopelessly to
D'Ahremberg, who tries nothing farther. The sun is now shining;
it is now ten of the day. Had Retzow come an hour sooner;--
efore we lost that big Battery and other things! But he could
come no sooner; be thankful he is here at last, in such an
overawing manner.
Friedrich, judging that nothing now can be made of the affair,
orders retreat. Retreat, which had been getting schemed, I suppose,
and planned in the gloom of the royal mind, ever since loss of that
big Battery at Rodewitz. Little to occupy him, in this interim;
except indignant waiting, rigorously steady, and some languid
interchange of cannon-shot between the parties. Retreat is to
Klein-Bautzen neighborhood (new head-quarter Doberschutz, outposts
Kreckwitz and Purschwitz); four miles or so to northwest. Rather a
shifting of your ground, which astonishes the military reader ever
since, than a retreating such as the common run of us expected.
Done in the usual masterly manner; part after part mending off,
Retzow standing minatory here, Mollendorf minatory there, in the
softest quasi-rhythmic sequence; Cavalry all drawn out between
Belgern and Kreckwitz, baggage-wagons filing through the Pass of
Drehsa;--not an Austrian meddling with it, less or more; Daun and
his Austrians standing in their ring of five miles, gazing into it
like stone statues; their regiments being still in a confused
state,--and their Daun an extremely slow gentleman. [Tempelhof, ii.
319-336; Seyfarth, Beylagen, i. 432-453;
Helden-Geschichte, v. 241-257; Archenholtz,
&c. &c.]
And in this manner Friedrich, like a careless swimmer caught in the
Mahlstrom, has not got swallowed in it; but has made such a
buffeting of it, he is here out of it again, without bone broken,--
not, we hope, without instruction from the adventure. He has lost
101 pieces of cannon, most of his tents and camp-furniture;
and, what is more irreparable, above 8,000 of his brave people,
5,381 of them and 119 Officers (Keith and Moritz for two) either
dead or captive. In men the Austrian loss, it seems, is not much
lower, some say is rather a shade higher; by their own account, 325
Officers, 5,614 rank and file, killed and wounded,--not reckoning
1,000 prisoners they lost to us, and "at least 2,000" who took that
chance of deserting in the intricate dark woods. [Tempelhof, ii.
336; but see Kausler, p. 576.]
Friedrich, all say, took his punishment in a wonderfully cheerful
manner. De Catt the Reader, entering to him that evening as usual,
the King advanced, in a tragic declamatory attitude; and gave him,
with proper voice and gesture, an appropriate passage of Racine:--
"Enfin apres un an, tu me revois, Arbate,
Non plus comme autrefois cet heureux Mithridate,
Qui, de Rome toujours balancant le destin,
Tenait entre elle et moi l'univers incertain.
Je suis vaincu; Pompee a saisi l'avantage
D'une nuit qui laissait peu de place au courage;
Mes soldats presque nus, dans"-- ...
Not a little to De Catt's comfort. [Rodenbeck, i. 354.] During the
retreat itself, Retzow Junior had come, as Papa's Aide-de-Camp,
with a message to the King; found him on the heights of Klein
Bautzen, watching the movements. Message done with, the King said,
in a smiling tone, "Daun has played me a slippery trick to-day!"
"I have seen it," answered Retzow; "but it is only a scratch, which
your Majesty will soon manage to heal again."--"GLAUBT ER DIES, Do
you think so?" "Not only I, but the whole Army firmly believe it of
your Majesty."--"You are quite right," added the King, in a
confidentially candid way: "We will manage Daun. What I lament is,
the number of brave men that have died this morning." [Retzow, i.
359 n.] On the morrow, he was heard to say publicly: "Daun has let
us out of check-mate; the game is not lost yet. We will rest
ourselves here, a few days; then go for Silesia, and deliver
Neisse." The Anecdote-Books (perhaps not mythicalIy) add this:
"Where are all your guns, though?" said the King to an
Artilleryman, standing vacant on parade, next day. "IHRO MAJESTAT,
the Devil stole them all, last night!"--"Hm, well, we must have
them back from him." [Archenholtz, i. 299.]
Nothing immoderately depressive in Hochkirch, it appears;--though,
alas, on the fourth day after, there came a message from Baireuth;
which did strike one down: "My noble Wilhelmina dead; died in the
very hours while we were fighting here!" [On a common Business-
Letter to Prince Henri, "Doberschutz, 18th October, 1758," is this
sudden bit of Autograph: "GRAND DIEU, MA SOEUR DE BAREITH!"--
(Schoning, Der siebenjahrige Krieg, nach der Original-
Correspondens &c. aus den Staats-Archiven: Potsdam,
1851: i. 287.)] Readers must conceive it: coming unexpected more or
less, black as sudden universal hurricane, on the heart of the
man; a sorrow sacred, yet immeasurable, irremediable to him; as if
the sky too were falling on his head, in aid of the mean earth and
its ravenings:--of all this there can nothing be said at present.
Friedrich's one relief seems to have been the necessity laid on him
of perpetual battling with outward business;--we may fancy, in the
rapid weeks following, how much was lying at all times in the
background of his mind suppressed into its caves.
Daun, it appears, was considerably elated; spent a great deal of
his time, so precious just at present, in writing despatches, in
congratulating and being congratulated;--did an elaborate TE-DEUM,
or Ambrosian Song, in Artillery and VOX HUMANA,--which with the
adjuncts, say splenetic people, as at Kolin, sensibly assisted
Friedrich's affairs. Daun was by no means of braggart turn; but the
recognition of his matchless achievement by the gazetteer public,
whether in exultation or in lamentation, was loud and universal;
and the joy, in Vienna and the cognate quarters, knew no bounds for
the time being. Thus, among other tokens, the Holiness of our Lord
the Pope, blessing Heaven for such success against the Heretic, was
pleased to send him "a Consecrated Hat and Sword,"--such as the old
Popes were wont, very long ago, to bestow on distinguished
Champions against the Heathen,--(much jeered at, and crowed over,
by a profane Friedrich [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xv. 122, 124, 126, &c. &c.: in PREUSS, ii. 196, compiete List of
these poor Pieces; which are hearty, not hypocritical, in their
contemptuons hilarity, but have little other metit.]): "the effect
of which miraculous furnishings," says Tempelhof, "turned out to be
that the Feldmarschall never gained any success more;" in fact,
except that small thing on Finck next Year, never any, as it
chanced. Daun had withdrawn to his old Camp, on the day of
Hochkirch; leaving only a detachment on the field there: it was not
for six or seven days more that he stept out to the Kreckwitz and
Purschwitz neighborhood; more within sight of his vanquished
enemy,--but nothing like vigilant enough of what might still be in
him, after such vanquishing!--We must spare this Note, for the sake
of a heroic kind of man, who had not too much of reward in
the world:--
"Tebay could not recover Keith's body: Croats had the plundering of
Keith; other Austrians, not of Croat kind, carried the dead General
into Hochkirch Church: Lacy's emotion on recognizing him there,--
like a tragic gleam of his own youth suddenly brought back to him,
as in starlight, piercing and sad, from twenty years distance,--is
well known in Books. On the morrow, Sunday, October 15th, Keith had
honorable soldier's-burial there,--'twelve cannon' salvoing thrice,
and 'the whole Corps of Colloredo' with their muskets thrice;
Lacy as chief mourner, not without tears. Four months after, by
royal order, Keith's body was conveyed to Berlin; reinterred in
Berlin, in a still more solemn public manner, with all the honors,
all the regrets; and Keith sleeps now in the Garnison-Kirche:--far
from bonnie Inverugie; the hoarse sea-winds and caverns of Dunottar
singing vague requiem to his honorable line and him, in the
imaginations of some few. 'My Brother leaves me a noble legacy,'
said the old Lord Marischal: 'last year he had Bohemia under
ransom; and his personal estate is 70 ducats, (about 25 pounds).
[Varnhagen, p. 261.]
"In Hochkirch Church there is still, not in the Churchyard as
formerly, a fine, modestly impressive Monument to Keith; modest Urn
of black marble on a Pedestal of gray,--and, in gold letters, an
Inscription not easily surpassable in the lapidary way: ... 'DUM IN
PRAELIO NON PROCUL HINC INCLINATAM SUORUM ACIEM MENTE MANU V0CE ET
EXEMPLO RESTITUERAT PUGNANS UT HEROAS DECET OCCUBUIT. D. XIV.
OCTOBRIS' These words go through you like the clang of steel.
[In RODENBECK, i. 149. Given also (very nearly correct) in
CORRESPONDEENCE OF SIR ROBERT MURRAY KEITH (London, 1849), i. 151.
This is the junior of the two Diplomatic Roberts, genealogical
cousins of Keith; by this one (in 1771, not 1776 as German Guide-
books have it) the Hochkirch Monument was set up. A very
interesting Collection of LETTERS those of his;--edited with the
usual darkness, or rather more.] Friedrich's sorrow over him
('tears,' high eulogies, 'LOUA EXTREMEMENT') is itself a monument.
Twenty years after, Keith had from his Master a Statue, in Berlin.
One of Four; to the Four most deserving: Schwerin (1771),
Winterfeld (1777), Seidlitz (1779, Keith (when?), [Nicolai
(Beschreibung der Residenzstadte, i. 193, 194) gives
these dates for the Three, and for Keith's no date.]--which still
stand in the Wilhelm Platz there.
"Hochkirch Church has beeu rebuilt in late years: a spapious airy
Church, with galleries, and requisites, especially with free air,
light and cleanliness. Capable perhaps of 1,500 sitters: half of
them Wends. 'Above 700 skeletons, in one heap, were dug out, in
cutting the new foundations. The strong outer Door of the old
Church, red oak, I should think, is still retained in that
capacity; still shows perhaps half a dozen rough big quasi-
KEYHOLES, torn through it in different parts, and daylight shining
in, where the old bullets passed. The Keith Monument, perhaps four
feet high, is on the flagged floor, left side of the pulpit, close
by the wall,--'the bench where Keith's body lay has had to be
cased in new plank [zinc would be better] against the knives
of tourists.'"
Old Lord Marischal--George, "MARECHAL D'ECOSSE" as he always signs
himself--was by this time seventy-two; King's Governor of
Neufchatel, for a good while past and to come (1754-1763).
In "James," the junior, but much the stronger and more solid, he
has lost, as it were, a FATHER and younger brother at once;
father, uuder beautiful conditions; and the tears of the old man
are natural and affecting. Ten years older than his Brother;
and survived him still twenty years. An excellent cheery old soul,
he too; honest as the sunlight, with a fine small vein of gayety,
and "pleasant wit," in him: what a treasure to Friedrich at
Potsdam, in the coming years; and how much loved by him (almost as
one BOY loves another), all readers would be surprised to discover.
Some hints of him will perhaps be allowed us farther on.
SEQUEL OF HOCHKIRCH; THE CAMPAIGN ENDS IN A WAY
SURPRISING TO AN ATTENTIVE PUBLIC
(22d October-20th November, 1758).
There followed upon Hochkirch five weeks of rapid events; such as
nobody had been calculating on. To the reader, so weary of
marchings, manoeuvrings, surprisals, campings and details of war,
not many words, we hope, may render these results conceivable.
Friedrich stayed ten days, refitting himself, in that Camp of
Klein-Bautzen, on one of the branches of the Spree. Daun, who had
retired to his old strong place, on the 14th, scarcely occupying
Hochkirch Field at all, came out in about a week; and took a strong
post near Friedrich; not attempting anything upon him, but watching
him, now better within sight. Friedrich's fixed intention is, to
march to Neisse all the same; what probably Daun, under the shadow
of his laurels and his new Papal Hat, may not have considered
possible, with the road to Neisse blocked by 80,000 men.
Friedrich has refitted himself with the requisite new cannon and
furnitures, from Dresden; especially with Prince Henri and 6,000
foot and horse,--led by Prince Henri in person; so Prince Henri
would have it, the capricious little man; and that Finck should be
left in Saxony instead of him. All which weakens Saxony not a
little. But Friedrich hopes the Reichs Army is a feeble article;
ill off for provision in those parts, and not likely to attempt
very much on the sudden. Accordingly:--
FRIEDRICH MARCHES, ENIGMATICALLY, NOT ON GLOGAU, BUT ON
REICHENBACH AND GORLITZ; TO DAUN'S ASTONISHMENT.
SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 22d, Convoy of many wagons quit Bautzen
(Bautzen Proper, not the Village, but the Town), laden with all the
wounded of Hochkirch; above 3,000 by count, to carry them to
Dresden for deliberate surgery. Keith's Tebay, I perceive, is in
this Convoy; not ill hurt, but willing to lie in Hospital a little,
and consider. These poor fellows cannot get to Dresden: on the
second day, a Daun Detachment, hussaring about in those parts, is
announced ahead; and (by new order from head-quarters) the Convoy
turns northwards for Hoyerswerda,--(to Tebay's disgust with the
Commandant; "shied off," says Tebay, "for twelve hussars!" [Second
LETTER from Tebay, in Mitchell, ubi supra.])--and, I think, in the
end, went on to Glogau instead of Dresden. Which was very fortunate
for Tebay and the others. The poor wounded being thus disposed of,
Friedrich next night, at 10 o'clock, Monday, 23d, in the softest
manner, pushes off his Bakery and Army Stores a little way,
northward down the Spree Valley, on the western fork of the Spree
(fork farthest from Daun); follows, himself, with the rest of the
Army, next evening, down the eastern fork, also northward.
"Going for Glogau," thinks Daun, when the hussars report about it
(late on Tuesday night): "Let him go, if he fancy that a road TO
Neisse! But, indeed, what other shift has he," considers Daun, "but
to try rallying at Glogau yonder, safe under the guns?"--and is not
in the slightest haste about this new matter. [Tempelhof, ii.
341-347.]
United with his baggage-column, Friedrich proceeds northeastward;
crosses Spree still northward or northeastward; encamps there, in
the dark hours of Tuesday; no Daun heeding him. Before daylight,
however, Friedrich is again on foot; in several columns now, for
the bad country-roads ahead;--and has struck straight
SOUTHeastward, if Daun were noting him. And, in the afternoon of
Wednesday, Daun is astonished to learn that this wily Enemy is
arrived in Reichenbach vicinity; sweeping in our poor posts
thereabouts; immovably astride of the Silesian Highway, after all!
An astonished Daun hastens out, what he can, to take survey of the
sudden Phenomenon. Tries it, next day and next, with his best
Loudons and appliances; finds that this Phenomenon can actually
march to Neisse ahead of him, indifferent to Pandours, or giving
them as good as they bring;--and that nothing but a battle and
beating (could we rashly dream of such a thing, which we cannot)
will prevent it. "Very well, then!" Daun strives to say. And lets
the Phenomenon march (FROM Gorlitz, OCTOBER 30th); Loudon harassing
the rear of it, for some days; not without counter harassment, much
waste of cannonading, and ruin to several poor Lausitz Villages by
fire,--"Prussians scandalously burn them, when we attack!" says
Loudon. Till, at last, finding this march impregnably arranged,
"split into two routes," and ready for all chances, Loudon also
withdraws to more promising business. Poor General Retzow Senior
was of this march; absolutely could not be excused, though fallen
ill of dysentery, like to die;--and did die, the day after he got
to Schweidnitz, when the difficulties and excitement were over.
[Retzow, i. 372.]
Of Friedrich's march, onward from Gorlitz, we shall say nothing
farther, except that the very wind of it was salvatory to his
Silesian Fortresses and interests. That at Neisse, on and after
November 1st,--which is the third or second day of Friedrich's
march,--General Treskow, Commandant of Neisse, found the
bombardment slacken more and more ("King of Prussia coming," said
the Austrian deserters to us); and that, on November 6th, Treskow,
looking out from Neisse, found the Austrian trenches empty,
Generals Harsch and Deville hurrying over the Hills homewards,--
pickings to be had of them by Treskow,--and Neisse Siege a thing
finished. [TAGEBUCH, &c. ("Diary of the Siege of Neisse," 4th
August, 26th October, 6th November, 1758, "1 A.M. suddenly"), in
Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 468-472: of Treskow's
own writing; brief and clear. Helden-Geschichte,
italic> v. 268-270.] It had lasted, in the way of blockade and
half-blockade, for about three months; Deville, for near one month,
half-blockading, then Harsch (since September 30th) wholly
blockading, with Deville under him, and an army of 20,000;
though the actual cannonade, very fierce, but of no effect, could
not begin till little more than a week ago,--so difficult the
getting up of siege-material in those parts. Kosel, under
Commandant Lattorf, whose praises, like Treskow's, were great,--had
stood four months of Pandour blockading and assaulting, which also
had to take itself away on advent of Friedrich. Of Friedrich, on
his return-journey, we shall hear again before long; but in the
mean while must industriously follow Daun.
FELDMARSCHALL DAUN AND THE REICHS ARMY TRY SOME SIEGE OF DRESDEN
(9th-16th November).
OCTOBER 30th, Daun, seeing Neisse Siege as good as gone to water,
decided with himself that he could still do a far more important
stroke: capture Dresden, get hold of Saxony in Friedrich's absence.
Daun turned round from Reichenbach, accordingly; and, at his slow-
footed pace, addressed himself to that new errand. Had he made
better despatch, or even been in better luck, it is very possible
he might have done something there. In Dresden, and in Governor
Schmettau with his small garrison, there is no strength for a
siege; in Saxony is nothing but some poor remnant under Finck, much
of it Free-corps and light people: capable of being swallowed by
the Reichs Army itself,--were the Reichs Army enterprising, or in
good circumstances otherwise. It is true the Russians have quitted
Colberg as impossible; and are flowing homewards dragged by hunger:
the little Dohna Army will, therefore, march for Saxony; the little
Anti-Swedish Army, under Wedell, has likewise been mostly ordered
thither; both at their quickest. For Daun, all turns on despatch;
loiter a little, and Friedrich himself will be here again!
Daun, I have no doubt, stirred his slow feet the fastest he could.
NOVEMBER 7th, Daun was in the neighborhood of Pirna Country again,
had his Bridge at Pirna, for communication; urged the Reichs Army
to bestir itself, Now or never. Reichs Army did push out a little
against Finck; made him leave that perpetual Camp of Gahmig, take
new camps, Kesselsdorf and elsewhere; and at length made him shoot
across Elbe, to the northwest, on a pontoon bridge below Dresden,
with retreating room to northward, and shelter under the guns of
that City. Reichs Army has likewise made powerful detachments for
capture of Leipzig and the northwestern towns; capture of Torgau,
the Magazine town, first of all: summon them, with force evidently
overpowering, "Free withdrawal, if you don't resist; and if you
do--!" At Torgau there was actual attempt made (November 12th),
rather elaborate and dangerous looking; under Haddick, with near
10,000 of the "Austrian-auxiliary" sort: to whom the old Commandant
--judging Wedell, the late Anti-Swedish Wedell, to be now near--
rushed out with "300 men and one big gun;" and made such a firing
and gesticulation as was quite extraordinary, as if Wedell were
here already: till Wedell's self did come in sight; and the
overpowering Reichs Detachment made its best speed else-whither.
[Tempelhof, &c.; "Letter from a Prussian Officer," in
Helden-Geschichte, v. 286.] The other Sieges remained things of
theory; the other Reichs Detachments hurried home, I think, without
summoning anybody.
Meanwhile, Daun, with the proper Artilleries at last ready, comes
flowing forward (NOVEMBER 8th-9th); and takes post in the Great
Garden, or south side of Dresden; minatory to Schmettau and that
City. The walls, or works, are weak; outside there is nothing but
Mayer and the Free Corps to resist, who indeed has surpassed
himself this season, and been extraordinarily diligent upon that
lazy Reichs Army. Commandant Schmettau signifies to Daun, the day
Daun came in sight, "If your Excellenz advance farther on me, the
grim Rules of War in besieged places will order That I burn the
Suburbs, which are your defences in attacking me,"--and actually
fills the fine houses on the Southern Suburb with combustible
matter, making due announcements, to Court and population, as well
as to Dann. "Burn the Suburbs?" answers Daun: "In the name of
civilized humanity, you will never think of such thing!" "That will
I, your Excellenz, of a surety, and do it!" answers Schmettau.
So that Dresden is full of pity, terror and speculation. The common
rumor is, says Excellency Mitchell, who is sojourning there for the
present, "That Bruhl [nefarious Bruhl, born to be the death of us!]
has persuaded Polish Majesty to sanction this enterprise of
Daun's,"--very careless, Bruhl, what become of Dresden or us, so
the King of Prussia be well hurt or spited!
Certain enough, NOVEMBER 9th, Daun does come on, regardless of
Schmettau's assurances; so that, "about midnight:" Mayer, who "can
hear the enemy busily building four big batteries" withal, has to
report himself driven to the edge of those high Houses (which are
filled with combustibles), and that some Croats are got into the
upper windows. "Burn them, then!" answers Schmettasu (such the dire
necessity of sieged places): and, "at 3 A.M." (three hours' notice
to the poor inmates), Mayer does so; hideous flames bursting out,
punctually at the stroke of 3: "whole Suburb seemed on blaze [about
a sixth part of it actually so], nay you would have said the whole
Town was environed in flames." Excellency Mitchell climbed a
steeple: "will not describe to your Lordship the horror, the terror
and confusion of this night; wretched inhabitants running with
their furniture [what of it they had got flung out, between 12
o'clock and 3] towards the Great Garden; all Dresden, to
appearance, girt in flames, ruins and smoke." Such a night in
Dresden, especially in the Pirna Suburb, as was never seen before.
[Mitchell, Memoirs and Papers, i. 459.
In Helden-Geschichte, v. 295-302, minute
account (corresponding well with Mitchell's); ib. 303-333, the
certified details of the damage done: "280 houses lost;" "4 human
lives."] This was the sad beginning, or attempt at beginning, of
Dresden Siege; and this also was the end of it, on Daun's part at
present. For four days more, he hung about the place, minatory,
hesitative; but attempted nothing feasible; and on the fifth day,--
"for a certain weighty reason," as the Austrian Gazettes express
it,--he saw good to vanish into the Pirna Rock-Country, and be out
of harm's way in the mean while!
The Truth is, Daun's was an intricate case just now; needing, above
all things, swiftness of treatment; what, of all things, it could
not get from Daun. His denunciations on that burnt Suburb were
again loud; but Schmettau continues deaf to all that,--means "to
defend himself by the known rules of war and of honor;" declares,
he "will dispute from street to street, and only finish in the
middle of Polish Majesty's Royal Palace." Denunciation will do
nothing! Daun had above 100,000 men in those parts. Rushing forward
with sharp shot and bayonet storm, instead of logical denunciation,
it is probable Daun might have settled his Schmettau. But the hour
of tide was rigorous, withal;--and such an ebb, if you missed it in
hesitating! NOVEMBER 15th, Daun withdrew; the ebbing come.
That same day, Friedrich was at Lauban in the Lausitz, within a
hundred miles again; speeding hitherward; behind him a Silesia
brushed clear, before him a Saxony to be brushed. "Reason weighty"
enough, think Daun and the Austrian Gazettes! But such, since you
have missed the tide-hour, is the inexorable fact of ebb,--going at
that frightful rate. Daun never was the man to dispute facts.
November 20th, Friedrich arrived in Dresden; heard, next day, that
Daun had wheeled decisively homeward from Pirna Country; that the
Reichs Army and he are diligently climbing the Metal Mountains;
and that there is not in Saxony, more than in Silesia, an enemy
left. What a Sequel to Hochkirch! "Neisse and Dresden both!" we had
hoped as sequel, if lucky: "Neisse OR Dresden" seemed infallible.
And we are climbing the Metal Mountains, under facts superior
to us.
And Campaign Third has closed in this manner;--leaving things much
as it found them. Essentially a drawn match; Contending Parties
little altered in relative strength;--both of them, it may be
presumed, considerably weaker. Friedrich is not triumphant, or
shining in the light of bonfires, as last Year; but, in the mind
of judges, stands higher than ever (if that could help him much);
--and is not "annihilated" in the least, which is the
surprising circumstance.
Friedrich's marches, especially, have been wonderful, this Year.
In the spring-time, old Marechal de Belleisle, French Minister of
War, consulting officially about future operations, heard it
objected once: "But if the King of Prussia were to burst in upon us
there?" "The King of Prussia is a great soldier," answered M. de
Belleisle; "but his Army is not a shuttle (NAVETTE),"--to be shot
about, in that way, from side to side of the world! No surely;
not altogether. But the King of Prussia has, among other arts, an
art of marching Armies, which by degrees astonishes the old
Marechal. To "come upon us EN NAVETTE," suddenly "like a shuttle"
from the other side of the web, became an established phrase among
the French concerned in these unfortunate matters. [Archenholtz, i.
316; Montalembert, SAEPIUS, for the phrase "EN NAVETTE."]
"The Pitt-and-Ferdinand Campaign of 1758," says a Note, which I
would fain abridge, "is more palpably victorious than Friedrich's,
much more an affair of bonfires than his; though it too has had its
rubs. Loss of honor at Crefeld; loss of Louisburg and Codfishery:
these are serious blows our enemy has had. But then, to temper the
joy over Louisburg, there was, at Ticonderoga, by Abercrombie, on
the small scale (all the extent of scale he had), a melancholy
Platitude committed: that of walking into an enemy without the
least reconnoitring of him, who proves to be chin-deep in abatis
and field-works; and kills, much at his ease, about 2,000 brave
fellows, brought 5,000 miles for that object. And obliges you to
walk away on the instant, and quit Ticonderoga, like a--surely like
a very tragic Dignitary in Cocked-hat! To be cashiered, we will
hope; at least to be laid on the shelf, and replaced by some Wolfe
or some Amherst, fitter for the business! Nor were the Descents on
the French Coast much to speak of: 'Great Guns got at Cherbourg,'
these truly, as exhibited in Hyde-Park, were a comfortable sight,
especially to the simpler sort: but on the other hand, at Morlaix,
on the part of poor old General Bligh and Company, there had been a
Platitude equal or superior to that of Abercrombie, though not so
tragical in loss of men. 'What of that?' said an enthusiastic
Public, striking their balance, and joyfully illuminating.--
Here is a Clipping from Ohio Country, 'LETTER of an Officer
[distilled essence of Two Letters], dated, FORT-DUQUESNE, 28th
NOVEMBER, 1758:--
"'Our small Corps under General Forbes, after much sore scrambling
through the Wildernesses, and contending with enemies wild and
tame, is, since the last four days, in possession of Fort Duquesne
[PITTSBURG henceforth]: Friday, 24th, the French garrison, on our
appearance, made off without fighting; took to boats down the Ohio,
and vanished out of those Countries,'--forever and a day, we will
hope. 'Their Louisiana-Canada communication is lost; and all that
prodigious tract of rich country,'--which Mr. Washington fixed upon
long ago, is ours again, if we can turn it to use. 'This day a
detachment of us goes to Braddock's field of battle [poor
Braddock!], to bury the bones of our slaughtered countrymen;
many of whom the French butchered in cold blood, and, to their own
eternal shame and infamy, have left lying above ground ever since.
As indeed they have done with all those slain round the Fort in
late weeks;'--calling themselves a civilized Nation too!"
[Old Newspapers (in Gentleman's Magazine for
1759, pp. 41, 39).]
LOWER RHINE, JULY-NOVEMBER, 1758. "Ferdinand's manoeuvres, after
Crefeld, on the France-ward side of Rhine, were very pretty:
but, without Wesel, and versus a Belleisle as War-Minister, and a
Contades who was something of a General, it would not do.
Belleisle made uncommon exertions, diligent to get his broken
people drilled again; Contades was wary, and counter-manoeuvred
rather well. Finally, Soubise" (readers recollect him and his 24 or
30,000, who stood in Frankfurt Country, on the hither or north side
of Rhine), famed Rossbach Soubise,--"pushing out, at Belleisle's
bidding, towards Hanover, in a region vacant otherwise of troops,--
became dangerous to Ferdinand. 'Making for Hanover?' thought
Ferdinand: 'Or perhaps meaning to attack my 12,000 English that are
just landed? Nay, perhaps my Rhine-Bridge itself, and the small
Party left there?' Ferdinand found he would have to return, and
look after Soubise. Crossed, accordingly (August 8th), by his old
Bridge at Rees,--which he found safe, in spite of attempts there
had been; ["Fight of Meer" (Chevert, with 10,000, beaten off, and
the Bridge saved, by Imhof, with 3,000;--both clever soldiers;
Imhof in better luck, and favored by the ground: "5th August,
1758"): MAUVILLON, i. 315.]--and never recrossed during this War.
Judges even say his first crossing had never much solidity of
outlook in it; and though so delightful to the public, was his
questionablest step.
"On the 12,000 English, Soubise had attempted nothing.
Ferdinand joined his English at Soest (August 20th); to their great
joy and his; [Duke of Marlborough's heavy-laden LETTER to Pitt,
"Koesfeld, August 15th:" "Nothing but rains and uncertainties;"
"marching, latterly, up to our middles in water;" have come from
Embden, straight south towards Wesel Country, almost 150 miles
(Soest still a good sixty miles to southeast of us).
CHATHAM CORRESPONDENCE (London, 1838), i. 334, 337. The poor Duke
died in two months hence; and the command devolved on Lord George
Sackville, as is too well known.] 10 to 12,000 as a first
instalment:--Grand-looking fellows, said the Germans. And did you
ever see such horses, such splendor of equipment, regardless of
expense? Not to mention those BERGSCHOTTEN (Scotch Highlanders),
with their bagpipes, sporrans, kilts, and exotic costumes and ways;
astonishing to the German mind. [Romantic view of the BERGSCHOTTEN
(2,000 of them, led by the Junior of the Robert Keiths above
mentioned, who is a soldier as yet), in ARCHENHOLTZ, i. 351-353:
IB. and in PREUSS, ii. 136, of the "uniforms with gold and silver
lace," of the superb horses, "one regiment all roan horses, another
all black, another all" &c.] Out of all whom (BERGSCHOTTEN
included), Ferdinand, by management,--and management was needed,--
got a great deal of first-rate fighting, in the next Four Years.
"Nor, in regard to Hanover, could Soubise make anything of it;
though he did (owing to a couple of stupid fellows, General Prince
von Ysenburg and General Oberg, detached by Ferdinand on that
service) escape the lively treatment Ferdinand had prepared for
him; and even gave a kind of Beating to each of those stupid
fellows, [1. "Fight of Sandershausen" (Broglio, as Soubise's
vanguard, 12,000; VERSUS Ysenburg, 7,000, who stupidly would not
withdraw TILL beaten: "23d July, 1758," BEFORE Ferdinand had come
across again). 2. Fight of Lutternberg (Soubise, 30,000;
VERSUS Oberg, about 18,000, who stupidly hung back till Soubise was
all gathered, and THEN &c., still more stupidly: "10th October,
1758"). See MAUVILLON, i. 312 (or better, ARCHENHOLTZ, i. 345);
and MAUVILLON, i. 327. Both Lutternberg and Sandershausen are in
the neighborhood of Cassel;--as many of those Ferdinand fights
were.]--one of which, Oberg's one, might have ruined Oberg and his
Detachment altogether, had Soubise been alert, which he by no means
was! 'Paris made such jeering about Rossbach and the Prince de
Soubise,' says Voltaire, [ Histoire de Louis XV.
italic>] 'and nobody said a word about these two Victories of his,
next Year!' For which there might be two reasons: one, according to
Tempelhof, that 'the Victories were of the so-so kind (SIC WAREN
AUCH DARNACH);' and another, that they were ascribed to Broglio, on
both occasions,--how justly, nobody will now argue!
"Contades had not failed, in the mean while, to follow with the
main Army; and was now elaborately manoeuvring about; intent to
have Lippstadt, or some Fortress in those Rhine-Weser Countries.
On the tail of that second so-so Victory by Soubise, Contades
thought, Now would be the chance. And did try hard, but without
effect. Ferdinand was himself attending Contades; and mistakes were
not likely. Ferdinand, in the thick of the game (October 21st-
30th), 'made a masterly movement'--that is to say, cut Contades and
his Soubise irretrievably asunder: no junction now possible to
them; the weaker of them liable to ruin,--unless Contades, the
stronger, would give battle; which, though greatly outnumbering
Ferdinand, he was cautious not to do. A melancholic cautious man,
apt to be over-cautious,--nicknamed 'L'APOTHECAIRE' by the
Parisians, from his down looks,--but had good soldier qualities
withal. Soubise and he haggled about, a short while,--not a long,
in these dangerous circumstances; and then had to go home again,
without result, each the way he came; Contades himself repassing
through Wesel, and wintering on his own side of the Rhine."
How Pitt is succeeding, and aiming to succeed, on the French
Foreign Settlements: on the Guinea Coast, on the High Seas
everywhere; in the West Indies; still more in the East,--where
General Lally (that fiery O'MulLALLY, famous since Fontenoy),
missioned with "full-powers," as they call them, is raging up and
down, about Madras and neighborhood, in a violent, impetuous, more
and more bankrupt manner:--Of all this we can say nothing for the
present, little at any time. Here are two facts of the financial
sort, sufficiently illuminative. The much-expending, much-
subsidying Government of France cannot now borrow except at 7 per
cent Interest; and the rate of Marine Insurance has risen to 70 per
cent. [Retzow, ii. 5.] One way and other, here is a Pitt clearly
progressive; and a long-pending JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION in a fair
way to be settled!
Friedrich stays in Saxony about a month, inspecting and adjusting;
thence to Breslau, for Winter-quarters. His Winter is like to be a
sad and silent one, this time; with none of the gayeties of last
Year; the royal heart heavy enough with many private sorrows, were
there none of public at all! This is a word from him, two days
after finishing Daun for the season:--
FRIEDRICH TO MYLORD MARISCHAL (at Colombier in Neufchatel).
"DRESDEN, 23d November, 1758.
"There is nothing left for us, MON CHER MYLORD, but to mingle and
blend our weeping for the losses we have had. If my head were a
fountain of tears, it would not suffice for the grief I feel.
"Our Campaign is over; and there has nothing come of it, on one
side or the other, but the loss of a great many worthy people, the
misery of a great many poor soldiers crippled forever, the ruin of
some Provinces, the ravage, pillage and conflagration of some
flourishing Towns. Exploits these which make humanity shudder:
sad fruits of the wickedness and ambition of certain People in
Power, who sacrifice everything to their unbridled passions! I wish
you, MON CHER MYLORD, nothing that has the least resemblance to mv
destiny; and everything that is wanting to it. Your old friend,
till death."--F. [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xx. 273.]
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