History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 19
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 2 out of 5
Snatches Bremen by one sudden stroke; RE-snatches Osnabruck by
another ('our magazine considerably INCREASED since you have had
it, many thanks!'); does lose Munster, to his sorrow;
but nevertheless sticks by his ground here;--nay detaches his
swift-cutting Nephew, the Hereditary Prince, who is growing famous
for such things, to cut out Contades's strong post to southward
(Gohfeld, ten miles up the Weser), which guards his meal-wagons,
after their long journey from the south. That is Contades's one
weak point, in this posture of things: his meal is at Cassel,
seventy miles off. Broglio and he see clearly, 'Till we can get a
new magazine much nearer Hanover, or at lowest, can clear out these
people from infesting us here, there is no moving northward!'
To both Contades and Broglio that is an evident thing:
the corollary to which is, They must fight Ferdinand; must watch
lynx-like till a chance turn up of beating him in fight. That is
their outlook; and Ferdinand knows it is,--and manoeuvres
accordingly. Military men admire much, not his movements only, but
his clear insight into Contades's and Broglio's temper of mind, and
by what methods they were to be handled, they and his own affairs
together, and brought whither he wanted them. [In MAUVILLON (ii.
41-44) minute account of all that.]
"This attempt on Gohfeld was a serious mischief to Contades, if it
succeeded. But the detaching of the Prince of Brunswick on it, and
weakening one's too weak Army, 'What a rashness, what an
oversight!' thinks Contades (as Ferdinand wished him to do):
'Is our skilful enemy, in this extreme embarrassment, losing head,
then? Look at his left wing yonder [General Wangenheim, sitting
behind batteries, in his Village of Todtenhausen, looking into
Minden from the north]:--Wangenheim's left leans on the Weser, yes;
but Wangenheim's right, observe, has no support within three miles
of it: tear Wangenheim out, Ferdinand's flank is bare!'
These things seemed to Contades the very chance he had been waiting
for; and brought him triumphantly out of his rabbit-hole, into the
Heath of Minden, as Ferdinand hoped they would do.
"And so, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 31st, things being now all ripe,
upwards of 50,000 French are industriously in motion. Contades has
nineteen bridges ready on the Bastau Brook, in front of him;
TATTOO this night, in Contades's Camp, is to mean GENERAL MARCH,
'March, all of you, across these nineteen Bridges, to your stations
on the Plain or Heath of Minden yonder,--and be punctual, like the
clock!' Broglio crosses Weser by the town Bridge, ranks himself
opposite Todtenhausen; and through the livelong night there is, on
the part of the 50,000 French, a very great marching and deploying.
Contades and Broglio together are 51,400 foot and horse.
Ferdinand's entire force will be near 46,000; but on the day of
Battle he is only 36,000,--having detached the Hereditary Prince on
Gohfeld, in what view we know.--The BATTLE OF MINDEN, called also
of TONHAUSEN (meaning TODTENhausen), which hereupon fell out, has
still its fame in the world; and, I perceive, is well worth study
by the soldier mind: though nothing but the rough outline of it is
possible here.
"Ferdinand's posts extend from the Weser river and Todtenhausen
round by Stemmern, Holzhausen, to Hartum and the Bog of Bastau (the
chief part of him towards Bastau),--in various Villages, and woody
patches and favorable spots; all looking in upon Minden, from a
distance of five or seven miles; forming a kind of arc, with Minden
for centre. He will march up in eight Columns; of course, with wide
intervals between them,--wide, but continually narrowing as he
advances; which will indeed be ruinous gaps, if Ferdinand wait to
be attacked; but which will coalesce close enough, if he be speedy
upon Contades. For Contades's line is also of arc-like or almost
semicircular form, behind it Minden as centre; Minden, which is at
the intersection of Weser and the Brook; his right flank is on
Weser, Broglio VERSUS Wangenheim the extreme right; his left, with
infantry and artillery, rests on that black Brook of Bastau with
its nineteen Bridges. As the ground on both wings is rough, not so
fit for Cavalry, Contades puts his Cavalry wholly in the centre:
they are the flower of the French Army, about 10,000 horse in all;
firm open ground ahead of them there, with strong batteries, masses
of infantry to support on each flank; batteries to ply with cross-
fire any assailant that may come on. Broglio, we said, is right
wing; strong in artillery and infantry. Broglio is to root out
Waugenheim: after which,--or even before which, if Wangenheim is
kept busy and we are nimble,--what becomes of Ferdinand's left
flank, with a gap of three miles between Wangenheim and him, and
10,000 chosen horse to take advantage of it! Had the French been of
Prussian dexterity and nimbleness in marching, it is very possible
something might have come of this latter circumstance: but
Ferdinand knows they are not; and intends to take good care of
his flank.
"Contades and his people were of willing mind; but had no skill in
'marchiug up:' and, once got across the Bastau by their nineteen
Bridges, they wasted many hours:--'Too far, am I? not far enough?
Too close? not close enough?'--and broiled about, in much hurry and
confusion, all night. Fight was to have begun at 5 in the morning.
Broglio was in his place, silently looking into Wangenheim, by five
o'clock; but unfortunately did nothing upon Wangenheim ('Not ready
you, I see!'), except cannonade a little;--and indeed all through
did nothing ('Still not ready you others!'); which surely was
questionable conduct, though not reckoned so at Versailles, when
the case came to be argued there. As to the Contades people, across
those nineteen Bridges, they had a baffling confused night;
and were by no means correctly on their ground at sunrise, nor at
7 o'clock, nor at 8; and were still mending themselves when the
shock came, and time was done.
"The morning is very misty; but Ferdinand has himself been out
examining since the earliest daybreak: his orders last night were,
'Cavalry be saddled at 1 in the morning,'--having a guess that
there would be work, as he now finds there will. From 5 A.M.
Ferdinand is issuing from his Camp, flowing down eastward,
beautifully concentric, closing on Contades; horse NOT in centre,
but English Infantry in centre (Six Battalions, or Six REGIMENTS by
English reckoning); right opposite those 10,000 Horse of
Contades's, the sight of whom seems to be very animating to them.
The English CavaIry stand on the right wing, at the Village of
Hartum: Lord George Sackville had not been very punctual in
saddling at 1 o'clock; but he is there, ranked on the ground, at 8,
--in what humor nobody knows; sulky and flabby, I should rather
guess. English Tourists, idle otherwise, may take a look at Hartum
on the south side, as the spot where a very ugly thing occurred
that day.
"Soon after 8 the Fight begins: attack, by certain Hessians, on
Hahlen and its batteries; attempt to drive the French out of
Hahlen, as the first thing,--which does not succeed at once (indeed
took three attacks in all); and perhaps looks rather tedious to
those Six English Battalions. Ferdinand's order to them was, 'You
shall march up to attack, you Six, on sound of drum;' but, it
seems, they read it, 'BY sound of drum;' 'Beating our own drums;
yes, of course!'--and, being weary of this Hahlen work, or fancying
they had no concern with it, strode on, double-quick, without
waiting for Hahlen at all! To the horror of their Hanoverian
comrades, who nevertheless determined to follow as second line.
'The Contades cross-fire of artillery, battery of 30 guns on one
flank, of 36 on the other, does its best upon this forward-minded
Infantry, but they seem to heed it little; walk right forward;
and, to the astonishment of those French Horse and of all the
world, entirely break and ruin the charge made on them, and tramp
forward in chase of the same. The 10,000 Horse feel astonished,
insulted; and rush out again, furiously charging; the English halt
and serry themselves: 'No fire till they are within forty paces;'
and then such pouring torrents of it as no horse or man can endure.
Rally after rally there is, on the part of those 10,000; mass after
mass of them indignantly plunges on,--again, ever again, about six
charges in all;--but do not break the English lines: one of them
(regiment Mestrede-Camp, raised to a paroxysm) does once get
through, across the first line, but is blown back in dreadful
circumstances by the second. After which they give it up, as a
thing that cannot be done. And rush rearward, hither, thither, the
whole seventy-five squadrons of them; and 'between their two wings
of infantry are seen boiling in complete disorder.'
"This has lasted about an hour: this is essentially the soul of the
Fight,--though there wanted not other activities, to right of it
and to left, on both sides; artilleries going at a mighty rate on
both wings; and counter-artilleries (superlative practice 'by
Captain Phillips' on OUR right wing); Broglio cannonading
Wangenheim very loudly, but with little harm done or suffered, on
their right wing. Wangenheim is watchful of that gap between
Ferdinand and him, till it close itself sufficiently. Their right-
wing Infantry did once make some attempt there; but the Prussian
Horse--(always a small body of Prussians serve in this Allied
Army)--shot out, and in a brilliant manner swept them home again.
PLAN OF BATTLE HERE--PAGE 239, BOOK X1X---------------
Artillery and that pretty charge of Prussian Horse are all one
remembers, except this of the English and Hanover Foot in the
centre: 'an unsurpassable thing,' says Tempelhof (though it so
easily might have been a fatal!)--which has set Contades's centre
boiling, and reduced Contades altogether to water, as it were.
Contades said bitterly: 'I have seen what I never thought to be
possible,--a single line of infantry break through three lines of
cavalry ranked in order of battle, and tumble them to ruin!'
[Stenzel, v. 204.]
"This was the feat, this hour's work in the centre, the essential
soul of the Fight:--and had Lord George Sackville, General of the
Horse, come on when galloped for and bidden, here had been such a
ruin, say all judges, as seldom came upon an Army. Lord
George--everlasting disgrace and sorrow on the name of him--could
not see his way to coming on; delayed, haggled; would not even let
Granby, his lieutenant, come; not for a second Adjutant, not for a
third; never came on at all; but rode to the Prince, asking, 'How
am I to come on?' Who, with a politeness I can never enough admire,
did not instantly kill him, but answered, in mild tone, 'Milord,
the opportunity is now past!' Whereby Contades escaped ruin, and
was only beaten. By about 10 in the morning all was over. When a
man's centre is gone to water, no part of him is far from the fluid
state. Contades retreated into his rabbit-hole by those nineteen
bridges,--well tormented, they say, by Captain Phillips's
artillery, till he got beyond the knolls again. Broglio, who had
never been in musket-fire at all, but had merely barked on
Wangenheim all morning, instead of biting, covered the retreat, and
withdrew into Minden. And we are a beaten Army,--thanks to Lord
George, not an annihilated one. Our loss being only 7,086 (with
heavy guns, colors, cavalry flags and the like); theirs being
2,822,--full half of it falling on those rash Six Battalions.
[Mauvillon, ii. 44-60; Tempelhof, iii. 154-179, &c. &c.:
and Proceedings of a Court-Martial, held at the Horse-
Guards, 7th-24th March and 25th March-5th April, 1760, in Trial of
Lord George Sackville (London, 1760). In Knesebeck,
Ferdinand wahrend des siebenjahrigen Krieges
(i. 395), Ferdinand's Letter to Friedrich of "July 31st;" and
(i. 398-418 and ii. 33-36) many special details about Sackville and
"August 1st."
"And what is this one hears from Gohfeld in the evening?
The Hereditary Prince, busy there on us during the very hours of
Minden, has blown our rear-guard division to the winds there;--and
we must move southward, one and all of us, without a moment's
delay! Out of this rabbit-hole the retreat by rearward is through a
difficult country, the Westphalian Gates so called; fatal to
Varus's Legions long ago. Contades got under way that very night;
lost most of his baggage, all his conquests, that shadow-conquest
of Hanover, and more than all his glories (Versailles shrieking on
him, 'Resign you; let Broglio be chief,);--and, on the whole,
jumbled homeward hither and thither, gravitating towards the Rhine,
nothing but Wesel to depend on in those parts, as heretofore.
Broglio retreated Frankfurt-way, also as usual, though not quite so
far; and at Versailles had clearly the victory. Zealous Belleisle
could not protect his Contades; it is not known whether he
privately blamed Contades or blamed Broglio for loss of Minden.
Zealous old man, what a loss to himself withal had Minden been!
That shadow-conquest of Hanover is quite vanished: and worse, in
Ferdinand's spoil were certain LETTERS from Belleisle to Contades,
inculcating strange things;--for example, 'IL FAUT FAIRE UN DESERT
DU PAYS [all Hessen, I think, lest Ferdinand advance on you] DEVANT
L'ARMEE,' and the like. Which Ferdinand saw good to publish, and
which resounded rather hideously through the general mind."
[Were taken at Detmold (Tempelhof, iii. 223); Old Newspapers full
of Excerpts from them, in the weeks following.]
Ignominious Sackville was tried by Court-martial; cashiered,
declared incapable of again serving his Majesty "in any military
capacity;"--perhaps a mild way of signifying that he wanted the
common courage of a soldier? Zealous Majesty, always particular in
soldier matters, proclaimed it officially to be "a sentence worse
than death;" and furthermore, with his own royal hand, taking the
pen himself, struck out Sackville from the List of Privy-
Councillors. Proper surely, and indispensable;--and should have
been persisted in, like Fate; which, in a new Reign, it was not!
For the rest, there was always, and is, something of enigma in
Sackville's palpably bad case. It is difficult to think that a
Sackville wanted common courage. This Sackville fought duels with
propriety; in private life, he was a surly, domineering kind of
fellow, and had no appearance of wanting spirit. It is known, he
did not love Duke Ferdinand; far from it! May not he have been of
peculiarly sour humor that morning, the luckless fool;
sulky against Ferdinand, and his "saddling at one o'clock;"
sulky against himself, against the world and mankind; and flabbily
disinclined to heroic practices for the moment? And the moment
came; and the man was not there, except in that foggy, flabby and
forever ruinous condition! Archenholtz, alone of Writers, judges
that he expressly wanted to spoil the Battle of Minden and
Ferdinand's reputation, and to get appointed Commander in his
stead. Wonderful; but may have some vestige of basis, too!
True, this Sackville was as fit to lead the courses of the stars as
to lead armies. But such a Sackville has ambition, and, what is
fatally more peculiar to him, a chance for unfolding it;--any
blockhead has an ambition capable, if you encourage it
sufficiently, of running to the infinite. Enough of this particular
blockhead; and may it be long before we see his like again!--
The English Cavalry was in a rage with Sackville. Of the English
Infantry, Historians say, what is not now much heard of in this
Country, "That these unsurpassable Six [in industrious valor
unsurpassable, though they mistook orders, and might have fared
badly!] are ever since called the Minden Regiments; that they are
the 12th, 20th, 23d, 25th, 37th and 51st of the British Line;
and carry 'Minden' on their colors," [Kausler, Schlachter,
&c. p, 587.]--with silent profit, I hope!
Fancy how Pitt's public, lately gloomy and dubious, blazed aloft
into joyful certainty again! Pitt's outlooks have been really
gloomy all this season; nor are the difficulties yet ended, though
we hope they will end. Let us add this other bit of Synchronism,
which is still of adverse aspect, over Seas; and will be pungently
interesting to Pitt and England, when they come to hear of it.
"BEFORE QUEBEC, JULY 31st, 1759. This same Evening, at Quebec, on
the other side of the Atlantic,--evening at Quebec, 9 or 10 at
night for Contades and his nineteen Bridges,--there is a difficult
affair going on. Above and below the Falls of Montmorenci, and
their outflow into the St. Lawrence: attempt on General Wolfe's
part to penetrate through upon the French, under Marquis de
Montcalm, French Commander-in-chief, and to get a stroke at Quebec
and him. From the south side of the St. Lawrence, nothing can be
done upon Quebec, such the distance over. From Isle d'Orleans and
the north side, it is also impossible hitherto. Easy enough to
batter the Lower Town, from your ships and redoubts: but the High
Town towers aloft on its sheer pinnacles, inaccessible even to
cannon; looks down on the skilfulest British Admiral and Fleet as
if with an air of indifference,--trying him on dark nights with
fire-ships, fire-rafts, the cunningest kinds of pyrotechny, which
he skilfully tows aside.
"A strenuous thing, this of Wolfe's; though an unsuccessful.
Towards evening, the end of it; all Quebec assembled on the
southern ramparts, witnessing with intense interest; the sublime
Falls of Montmorenci gushing on, totally indifferent. For about a
month past, General Wolfe, with the proper equipments, and about
10,000 men, naval and military, who was expressly selected by Pitt
to besiege Quebec, and is dying to succeed, has been trying every
scheme to get into contact with it:--to no purpose, so lofty,
chasmy, rocky is the ground, cut by mountainous precipices and
torrent streams, branches of the grand St. Lawrence River;
so skilfully taken advantage of by Montcalm and his people, who are
at home here, and in regulars nearly equal Wolfe, not to speak of
Savages and Canadians, Wolfe's plan of the 31st was not ill laid;
and the execution has been zealous, seamen and landsmen alike of
willing mind;--but it met with accidents. Accidents in boating;
then a still worse accident on landing; the regiment of grenadiers,
which crossed below the Falls, having, so soon as landed, rushed
off on the redoubt there on their own score, without waiting for
the two brigades that were to cross and co-operate ABOVE the Falls!
Which cut Wolfe to the heart; and induced him, especially as the
tide was making again, to give up the enterprise altogether, and
recall everybody, while it was yet time. [ Gentleman's
Magazine for 1759, pp. 470-473; Thackeray, i. 488.]
Wolfe is strict in discipline; loves the willing mind, none more,
and can kindle it among those about him; but he loves discipline
withal, and knows how fatal the too willing may be. For six weeks
more there is toil on the back of toil everywhere for poor Wolfe.
He falls into fevers, into miseries, almost into broken heart;--
nothing sure to him but that of doing his own poor utmost to the
very death. After six weeks, we shall perhaps hear of him again.
Gliding swiftly towards death; but also towards victory and the
goal of all his wishes."
And now, after this flight half round the world, it is time we
return to Oder Country, and a Friedrich on the edge of formidable
things there. Next day after Beeskow, where we left him, he duly
arrived at Mullrose; was joined by Wedell there, August 6th; and is
now at Wulkow,--"encamped between Lebus and Wulkow," as we hear
elsewhere;--quite in the environs of Frankfurt and of great events.
FRIEDRICH TO GRAF VON FINKENSTEIN (Second Note).
WULKOW, 8th August, 1759.
"If you hear of firing to-morrow, don't be surprised; it is our
rejoicing for the Battle of Minden. I believe I shall have to keep
you in suspense some days yet. I have many arrangements to make;
I find great difficulties to surmount,--and it is required to save
our Country, not to lose it: I ought both to be more prudent and
more enterprising than ever. In a word, I will do and undertake
whatever I find feasible and possible. With all that, I see myself
in the necessity of making haste, to check the designs Haddick may
have on Berlin. Adieu, MON CHER. In a little, you will have either
a DE PROFUNDIS or a TE DEUM.--F." [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xxv. 305, 306.]
Chapter IV.
BATTLE OF KUNERSDORF.
Sunday, July 29th, at Frankfurt-on-Oder divine worship was broken
in upon, and the poor City thrown into consternation, by actual
advent, or as good as advent, of the Russians: "On the Crossen
road, close by; coming, come!" And they did undeniably appear, next
morning, in force; on the opposite, eastern or Kunersdorf side of
the River, on the top of the Oder-Dam there; and demanded instant
admission, under penalty of general death by fire.
Within the Town stood Major Arnim, a Veteran of those parts, with
400 militia; these, with their muskets and with two cannon, are the
only defence of Frankfurt, The Town has Gates; but its walls, I
doubt, are mainly garden-walls and house-walls. On the eastern
side, the River, especially if you have cannon on the Bridge, gives
it somethiug of protection; but on the western and all other sides,
it is overhung by heights. This Frankfurt, like its bigger Namesake
on the Mayn, is known as a busy trading place, its Fairs much
frequented in those Eastern parts; and is believed by the Russians
to be far richer than it is. The reader, as there happens to be
ocular testimony extant, [Johann Zudwig Kriele, SCHLACHT BEI
KUNERSDORF, MIT &C. (Berlin, 1801). Kriele was subsequent Pastor in
the Parish, an excellent intelligent man: has compiled in brief
form, with an elaborate Chart too, a clear account of everything,
in the Battle and before and after it.] may like to see a little
how they behaved there.
"Arnim, taking survey of the Russian Party, values it, or what he
can see of it, at 1,000 [they really were 6,000]; keeps his
Drawbridge up; and answers stoutly enough, 'No.' Upon which, from
the Oder-Dam, there flies off one fiery grenado; one and no more,--
which alighted in the house of 'Mrs. Thielicke, a Baker's Widow,
who was standing at the door;'--killed poor Mrs. Thielicke, blew
the house considerably to wreck, but did not set fire to it.
Amim, all the Magistrates entreating him for the love of Heaven to
leave them, is secretly shoving off his two cannon to the Northern
Gate; and in fact is making his packages with full speed: 'Push for
Custrin,' thinks Arnim, and save selves and cannon, since no good
is to be done here!'
"It was about 11 A.M. when the Thielicke grenado fell: obstinate
Arnim would by no means go; only packed all the faster. A second
summons came: still, No. For the third and last time the Russians
then summon: 'Grenadoes, a hundred more of them lie ready,
unless--!' 'We will, we will; O merciful servant of Czarish
Majesty!' passionately signify the Magistrates. But Arnim is still
negative, still keeps the Bridge up. One of the hundred does go, by
way of foretaste: this lighted 'near the Ober Kirche, in the
chimney of the Town Musikus;' brought the chimney crashing down on
him [fancy a man with some fineness of ear]; tore the house a good
deal to pieces, but again did not set it on fire. 'Your obstinate
Town can be bombarded, then,--cannot it?' observed the Russian
Messenger.--'Give us Free Withdrawal!' proposes Amim. 'No; you to
be Prisoners of War; Town at Czarish Majesty's discretion.'
'Never,' answers Arnim (to the outward ear).--'Go, oh, for the love
of Heaven, go!' cry all Official people.
"Arnim, deaf to clamor, but steadily diligent in getting ready,
does at last go; through the Lebus Suburb, quick march; steady, yet
at his best step;--taking the Town-keys in his pocket, and leaving
the Drawbridge up. One is sorry for poor Arnim and his 400 Militia;
whose conduct was perfect, under difficulties and alarms;
but proved unsuccessful. The terrified Magistrates, finding their
Keys gone, and the conflagrative Russians at their gates, got
blacksmiths on the instant; smote down, by chisel and mallet, the
locked Drawbridge, smote open the Gates: 'Enter, O gracious Sirs;
and may Czarish Majesty have mercy on us!' So that Arnim had small
start for marchers on foot; and was overtaken about half-way.
Would not yield still, though the odds were overwhelming;
drew himself out on the best ground discoverable; made hot
resistance; hot and skilful; but in vain. About six in the evening,
Arnim and Party were brought back, Prisoners, to Frankfurt again,--
self, surviving men, cannons and all (self in a wounded state);--
and 'were locked in various Brew-houses;' little of careful
surgery, I should fear. Poor Arnim; man could do no more; and he
has been unfortunate."
It is by no means our intention to describe the Iliad of miseries,
the agitations, terrors and disquietudes, the tribulation and utter
harrowing to despair, which poor Frankfurt underwent, incessantly
from that day forward, for about five weeks to come.
"The furnishings of victual [Russian stock quite out] were to an
inconceivable amount; surrender of arms, of linens, cloths, of
everything useful to a hungry Army; above all things, of horses, so
that at last there were but four horses left in all Frankfurt;
and"--But we must not go into details.
"On the second day, besides all this," what will be significant of
it all, "there was exacted 'ransom of 600,000 thalers (90,000
pounds), or you shall be delivered to the Cossacks!' Frankfurt has
not above 12,000 inhabitants within its bounds; here is a sudden
poll-tax of 7 pounds 10s. per head. Frankfurt has not such a sum;
the most rigorous collection did not yield above the tenth part of
it. And more than once those sanguinary vagabonds were openly drawn
out, pitch-link in hand: 'The 90,000 pounds or--!' Civic Presidency
Office in Frankfurt was not a bed of roses. The poor Magistrates
rushed distractedly about; wrung out moneys to the last drop;
moneys, and in the end plate from those that had it; went in
tearful deputation to General Soltikof,--a severe proud kind of
man, capable perhaps of being flattered,--who usually locked them
up instead. Magistrates were locked in Russian ward, at one time,
for almost a week; sat in the blazing sun; if you try for the shade
of a tree, the sentry handles arms upon you;--and were like to die.
To me, Kriele, it is a miracle how the most of us lived; nay we
never really wanted food, so kind was Providence, so generous our
poor neighbors out of all the Towns round. The utmost of money that
could be raised was 6,000 pounds; nothing but some little of plate,
and our Bill for the remainder. Soltikof, a high kind of gentleman,
saw at last how it stood; let the Magistrates out of ward; sent
back the plate--'Nothing of that!'--nay, Czarish Majesty was
herself generous; and FORGAVE the Bill, on our petition, next Year.
Cossacks, indeed, were a plunderous wild crew; but the Russians
kept them mostly without the gates. The regular Russians were civil
and orderly, officers and men,--greatly beyond the Austrians in
behavior." [Kriele, Schlacht bei Kunersdorf;
pp. 1-15 (in compressed state).] By these few traits conceive
Frankfurt: this, now forgotten in most books, is a background on
which things were transacted still memorable to everybody.
"Friday, August 3d, General Loudon came to hand: arrived early, in
the Guben (or Western) Suburb, his 18,000 and he. In high spirits
naturally, and somewhat exultant to have evaded Friedrich;
but found a reception that surprised him. The Russians had been
living in the hope of junction; but still more vividly in that of
meal. 'Auxiliaries; humph,--only 18,000 of them; how much welcomer
had been as many hundredweights of meal!' Loudon had pushed his
baggage direct into Frankfurt; and likewise a requisition of such
and such proviants, weights of meal and the like, in exuberant
amount, to be furnished straightway by the City: neither of which
procedures would the Russians hear of for a moment. 'Out with you!'
said they roughly to the baggage-people: 'quarter in the Guben
Suburb, or where you like; not here!' And with regard to the
requisition of proviant, they answered in a scornful angry key,
'Proviant? You too without it? You have not brought us meal,
according to covenant; instead of meal, you bring us 18,000 new
eaters, most of them on horse-back,--Satan thank you! From
Frankfurt be very certain you can get no ounce of meal; Frankfurt
is our own poor meal-bag, dreadfully scanty: stay outside, and feed
where and how you can!'
"All this, Loudon, though of hot temper, easily capable of rising
to the fierce point, had to endure in silence, for the common
interest. Loudon's own table is furnished from Frankfurt; no other
Austrian man's: all others have to shift how they can.
Sad requisitioning needed, and sad plunder to supplement it:
the Austrian behavior was very bad, say the Frankfurters;
'in particular, they had burnt gradually all the corn-mills in the
country; within many miles not one mill standing when they left
us,'--and four horses all the conveyance power we had.
Soltikof lodges in great pomp, much soldiery and cannon parading
before his doors; not an undignified man, or an inhuman or
essentially foolish, but very high in his ways, and distasteful to
Austrian dignitaries."
The Russian Army lies mainly across Oder; encamped on the
Judenberg, and eastward there, along the Heights, near three miles,
to Kunersdorf and beyond. They expect Friedrich at the gates of
Frankfurt shortly; know well that they cannot defend Frankfurt.
They calculate that Friedrich will attack them in their Judenberg
Encampment, but hope they are nearly ready for him there.
Loudon, from the Guben Suburb, will hasten across, at any moment;--
welcome on such fighting occasion, though ill seen when the
question is of eating! The Russians have their Wagenburg on an
Island southward, farther up the River; they have three Pontoon
Bridges leading thither, a free retreat should they be beaten.
And in the mean while are intrenching themselves, as only Daun
would,--cannon and redoubts all round those Heights;--and except it
be screwing Frankfurt to do its impossible duty, and carting
provender with all the horses except four, have not much farther to
do but wait till the King come. Which will be speedily, it
is probable!--
Wednesday, August 8th, Russian and Austrian Generals, a cheerful
party of them, had rendezvoused at FISCHERS MUHLE; a Mill not yet
burnt, and a pleasant Tavern as well; in one of the prettiest
valleys in the Western Environs;--intending to dine there, and have
a pleasant day. But the Miller's Boy runs in upon them, wide-eyed,
"HIMMEL UND ERDE, Prussian Hussars!" It was in verity Prussian
Hussars; the King of Prussia with them in person. He is come out
reconnoitring,--the day after his arrival in those parts.
The pleasuring Generals, Russian and Austrian, sprang to horseback
at their swiftest,--hope of dinner gone futile, except to the
intervening Prussian Hussars;--and would have all been captured,
but for that Miller's Boy; whose Mill too was burnt before long.
This gallop home of the undined Generals into Frankfurt was the
first news we poor Frankfurters had of the King's arrival.
The King has been punctual to his reckoning: he picked up Wedell at
Mullrose,--not too cordial to Wedell's people: "None of you speak
to those beaten wretches," ordered he; "till perhaps they wipe off
their Zullichau stain!" On the 7th, Friedrich advanced to Frankfurt
neighborhood; took Camp between Wulkow and Lebus;--and has just
been out reconnoitring. And has raised, fancy what emotion in poor
Frankfurt lying under its nightmare! "Next day, August 9th, from
Wulkow-Lebus hand, we" of Frankfurt, "heard a great firing;
cannon-salvos, musket-volleys: 'Nothing of fight,' the Russian
Officers told us; 'it is the King of Prussia doing joy-fire for
Minden,' of which we till now knew nothing."
Friedrich, on survey of this Russian-Austrian Army, some 90,000 in
number, with such posts, artilleries, advantages, judges that he,
counting only 40,000, is not strong enough. And, indeed, had so
anticipated, and already judged; and, accordingly, has Finck on
march hitherward again,--Berlin must take its risk, Saxony must
shift for itself in the interim. Finck is due in two days,--not
here at Lebus precisely, but at another place appointed; Finck will
raise him to 50,000; and then business can begin! Contrary to
Russian expectation, Friedrich does not attack Frankfurt;
seems quite quiet in his cantonments;--he is quietly (if one knew
it) making preparations farther down the River. About Reitwein,
between this and Custrin, there arrangements are proceeding, by no
means of a showy sort.
The Russian-Austrian Army quits Frankfurt, leaving only some
hundreds of garrison: Loudon moves across, Soltikof across; to the
Oder-Dam and farther; and lie, powerfully intrenched, on those
Kunersdorf Heights, and sandy Moorlands, which go eastward at
right-angles to Oder-Dam. One of the strongest Camps imaginable.
All round there, to beyond Kunersdorf and back again, near three
miles each way, they have a ring of redoubts, and artillery without
end. And lie there, in order of battle, or nearly so; ready for
Friedrich, when he shall attack, through Frankfurt or otherwise.
They face to the North (Reitwein way, as it happens); to their
rear, and indeed to their front, only not so close, are woods and
intricate wilds. Loudon has the left flank; that is to say,
Loudon's left hand is towards the Oder-Dam and Frankfurt; he lies
at the ROTHE VORWERK ("Red Grange," a Farmstead much mentioned just
now); rather to northwestward of the Jew Hill and Jew Churchyard
(JUDENBERG and JUDENKIRCHHOF, likewise much mentioned); and in
advance of the general Mass. Soltikof's head-quarter, I rather
understand, is on the right wing; probably in Kunersdorf itself, or
beyond that Village; there, at least, our highly important Russian
right wing is; there, elaborately fortified; and, half a mile
farther, ends,--on the edge of steep dells; the Russian brink of
which is strongly fringed with cannon, while beyond, on the farther
brink, they have built an abatis; so making assurance doubly sure.
Looking to the northward all these 90,000; their left rather
southward of Frankfurt Bridge, over which Friedrich will probably
arrive. Leftward, somewhat to rearward, they have bridges of their
own; should anything sinister befall; three bridges which lead into
that Oder Island, and the Russian Wagenburg there.
August 10th, Finck, punctual to time, arrives in the neighborhood
of Reitwein (which is some ten miles down stream from Lebus, from
Frankfurt perhaps fifteen); Friedrich, the same day, is there
before him; eager to complete the Bridges, and get to business.
One Bridge is of pontoons; one of "Oder-boats floated up from
Custrin." Bridges are not begun till nightfall, lest eyes be
abroad; are ready in the minimum of time. And so, during the same
night of the 10th, all the Infantry, with their artilleries and
battle-furnitures, pour over in two columns; the Cavalry, at the
due point of time, riding by a ford short way to the right. And at
four, in the gray of the August morning (Saturday, 11th August,
1759), all persons and things find themselves correctly across;
ranked there, in those barren, much-indented "Pasture-grounds of
Goritz" or of OEtscher; intending towards Kunersdorf; ready for
unfolding into order of battle there. They leave their heavy
baggage at Goritz, Wunsch to guard the Bridges and it; and, in
succinct condition, are all under way. At one in the afternoon we
are got to Leissow and Bischofsee; scrubby hamlets (as the rest all
are), not above two miles from Kunersdorf. The August day is
windless, shiny, sultry; man and horse are weary with the labors,
and with the want of sleep: we decide to bivouac here, and rest on
the scrubby surface, heather or whatever it is, till to-morrow.
Finck is Vanguard, ahead short way, and with his left on a bit of
lake or bog; the Army is in two lines, with its right on Leissow,
and has Cavalry in the kind of wood which there is to rear.
Friedrich, having settled the positions, rides out reconnoitring;
hither, thither, over the Heights of Trettin. "The day being still
hot, he suffers considerably from thirst [it is our one Anecdote]
in that arid tract: at last a Peasant does bring him, direct from
the fountain, a jug of pure cold water; whom, lucky man, the King
rewarded with a thaler; and not only so, but, the man being
intelligent of the localities, took with him to answer questions."
Readers too may desire to gain some knowledge of the important
ground now under survey.
"Frankfurt, a very ancient Town, not a very beautiful," says my
Note, "stands on an alluvium which has been ground down from
certain clay Hills on the left bank of Oder. It counted about
12,000 inhabitants in Friedrich's time; has now perhaps about
20,000; not half the bulk of its namesake on the Mayn; but with
Three great Fairs annually, and much trade of the rough kind.
On this left or west bank of Oder the country is arable, moderately
grassy and umbrageous, the prospect round you not unpleasant;
but eastward, over the River, nothing can be more in contrast.
Oder is of swift current, of turbid color, as it rolls under
Frankfurt Bridge,--Wooden Bridge, with Dam Suburb at the end;--a
River treeless, desolate, as you look up and down; which has,
evidently, often changed its course, since grinding down that
alluvium as site for Frankfurt; and which, though now holding
mainly to northward, is still given to be erratic, and destructive
on the eastern low grounds,--had not the Frankfurters built an
'Oder-Dam' on that side; a broad strong Earth-mound, running for
many miles, and confining its floods. Beyond the Dam there are
traces of an 'Old Oder (ALTE ODER);' and, in fact, Oder, in
primeval and in recent time, has gone along, many-streamed;
indenting, quarrying, leaving lakelets, quagmires, miscellaneous
sandy tumult, at a great rate, on that eastern shore. Making of it
one of the unloveliest scenes of chaotic desolation anywhere to be
met with;--fallen unlovelier than ever in our own more
recent times.
"What we call the Heights of Kunersdorf is a broad Chain of Knolls;
coming out, at right-angles, or as a kind of spur, from the eastern
high grounds; direct towards Oder and Frankfurt.
Mill-Hill (MUHLBERG) is the root or easternmost part of this spur.
From the Muhlberg, over Kunersdorf, to Oder-Dam, which is the whole
length of the spur, or Chain of Knolls, will be little short of
four miles; the breadth of the Chain is nowhere one mile,--which is
its grand defect as a Camp: 'too narrow for manoeuvring in.'
Here, atop and on the three sides of this Block of Knolls, was
fought the furious Battle of Kunersdorf [to be fought to-morrow],
one of the most furious ever known. A Block of Knolls memorable
ever since.
"To all appearance: it was once some big Island or chain of Islands
in the Oder deluges: it is still cut with sudden hollows,--KUHGRUND
(Cow-Hollow), TIEFE WEG (Deep Way), and westernmost of all, and
most important for us here, HOHLE GRUND (Big Hollow, let us call
it; 'LOUDON'S Hollow' people subsequently called it);--and is
everywhere strangely tumbled up into knolls blunt or sharp, the
work of primeval Oder in his rages. In its highest knolls,--of
which let readers note specially the Spitzberg, the Muhlberg, the
Judenberg,--it rises nowhere to 150 feet; perhaps the general
height of it may be about 100. On each side of it, especially on
the north, the Country is of most intricate character:
bushy, scraggy, with brooklets or muddy oozings wandering about,
especially with a thing called the HUNERFLIESS (Hen-Floss), which
springs in the eastern woods, and has inconceivable difficulty to
get into Oder,--if it get at all! This was a sore Floss to
Friedrich to-morrow. Hen-Floss struggles, painfully meandering and
oozing, along the northern side (sometimes close, sometimes not) of
our Chain of Knolls: along the south side of it (in our time,
through the middle of it) goes the Highway to Reppen ["From that
Highway will his attack come!" thought the Russians, always till
to-day]: on the north, to Leissow, to Trettin," where Friedrich is
now on survey, "go various wheel-tracks, but no firm road. A most
intricate unlovely Country. Withered bent-grasses, heath, perhaps
gorse, and on both sides a great deal of straggling Forest-wood,
reaching eastward, and especially southward, for many miles.
"For the rest," to our ill-luck in this place, "the Battlefield of
Kunersdorf has had a peculiar fate in the world; that of being
blown away by the winds! The then scene of things exists no longer;
the descriptions in the Old Books are gone hopelessly
irrecognizable. In our time, there is not anywhere a tract more
purely of tumbled sand, than all this between Kunersdorf and Dam
Vorstadt; and you judge, without aid of record or tradition, that
it is greatly altered for the worse since Friedrich's time,--some
rabbit-colony, or other the like insignificancy, eating out the
roots, till all vegetation died, and the wind got hold and set it
dancing;--and that, in 1759, when Russian human beings took it for
a Camp, it must have been at least coherent, more or less;
covered, held together by some film of scrubby vegetation;
not blowing about in every wind as now! Kunersdorf stands with its
northern end pushed into that KUHGRUND (Cow-Hollow); which must
then have been a grassy place. Eastward of Kunersdorf the ground
has still some skin of peat, and sticks together: but westward, all
that three miles, it is a mere tumult of sand-hills, tumbled about
in every direction (so diligent have the conies been, and then the
winds); no gullet, or definite cut or hollow, now traceable
anywhere, but only an endless imbroglio of twisted sand-heaps and
sand-hollows, which continually alter in the wind-storms.
Sand wholly, and--except the strong paved Highway that now runs
through it (to Reppen, Meseritz and the Polish Frontier, and is
strongly paved till it get through Kunersdorf)--chaotic wholly;
a scene of heaped barrenness and horror, not to be matched but in
Sahara; the features of the Battle quite blown away, and
indecipherable in our time.
"A hundred years ago, it would have some tattered skin,--of peat,
of heather and dwarf whins, with the sand cropping out only here
and there. So one has to figure it in Soltikof's day,--before the
conies ruined it. Which was not till within the last sixty years,
as appears. Kriele's Book (in 1801) still gives no hint of change:
the KUHGRUND, which now has nothing but dry sand for the most
industrious ruminant, is still a place of succulence and herbage in
Kriele's time; 'Deep Way,' where 'at one point two carts could not
pass,' was not yet blown out of existence, but has still 'a Well in
it' for Kriele; HOHLE GRUND (since called Loudon's Hollow), with
the Jew Hill and Jew Churchyard beyond, seem tolerable enough
places to Kriele. Probably not unlike what the surrounding Country
still is. A Country of poor villages, and of wild ground, flat
generally, and but tolerably green; with lakelets, bushes, scrubs,
and intricate meandering little runlets and oozelets; and in
general with more of Forest so called than now is:--this is
Kunersdorf Chain of Knolls; Soltikof's Intrenched Camp at present;
destined to become very famous in the world, after lying so long
obscure under Oder and its rages." [TOURIST'S NOTE (Autumnn, 1852).]
From the Knolls of Trettin, that Saturday afternoon, Friedrich
takes view of the Russian Camp. All lying bright enough there;
from Muhlberg to Judenberg, convenient to our glass; between us and
the evening Sun. Batteries most abundant, difficulties great:
Soltikof just ahead here, 72,000: Loudon at the Red Grange yonder,
on their extreme left, with 18,000 more. An uncommonly strong
position for 90,000 against 50,000. One thing strikes Friedrich:
On front in this northern side, close by the base of the Russian
Camp, runs--for the present away FROM Oder, but intending to join
it elsewhere --a paltry little Brook, "Hen-Floss" so called, with
at least two successive Mills on it (KLEINE MUHLE, GROSSE MUHLE);
and on the northern shore of it, spilling itself out into a wet
waste called ELSBRUCH (Alder Waste), which is especially notable to
Friedrich. ALDER Waste? Watery, scrubby; no passage there, thinks
Friedrich; which his Peasant with the water-jug confirms. "Tell me,
however," inquires Friedrich, with strictness, "From the Red Grange
yonder, where General Loudon is, if you wished to get over to the
HOHLE GRUND, or to the Judenberg, would you cross that Hen-Floss?"
"It is not crossable, your Majesty; one has to go round quite
westward by the Dam." " What, from Rothe Vorwerk to Big Hollow, no
passage, say you; no crossing?" "None, your Majesty," insists the
Peasant;--who is not aware that the Russians have made one of firm
trestles and logs, and use it daily for highway there; an error of
some interest to Friedrich within the next twenty-four hours!
Friedrich himself does not know this bit of ground: but there is
with him, besides the Peasant, a Major Linden, whose Regiment used
to lie in Frankfurt, of whom Friedrich makes minute questioning.
Linden answers confidently; has been over all this tract a hundred
times; "but knows it only as a hunter," says Tempelhof, [Tempelhof,
iii. 186.] "not as a soldier," which he ought to have done.
His answers are supposed to have misled Friedrich on various
points, and done him essential damage. Friedrich's view of the
case, that evening, is by no means so despondent as might be
imagined: he regards the thing as difficult, not as impossible,--
and one of his anxieties is, that he be not balked of trying it
straightway. Retiring to his hut in Bischofsee, he makes two
Dispositions, of admirable clearness, brevity, and calculated for
two contingencies: [Given in Tempelhof, iii. 182, 183.] That of the
enemy retaining his now posture; and That of the enemy making off
for Reppen;--which latter does not at all concern us, as matters
turned! Of the former the course will unfold itself to us, in
practice, shortly. At 2 A.M. Friedrich will be on foot again, at 3
on march again.--The last phenomenon, at Bischofsee this night, is
some sudden glare of disastrous light rising over the woods:--
"Russians burning Kunersdorf!" as neighbors are sorry to hear.
That is the finale of much Russian rearranging and tumbling, this
day; that barbarous burning of Kunersdorf, before going to bed.
To-morrow various other poor Villages got burnt by them, which they
had better have left standing.
The Russians, on hearing that Friedrich was across at Goritz, and
coming on them from the north side, not from Frankfurt by the
Reppen Highway, were in great agitation. Not thrown into terror,
but into manifold haste, knowing what hasty adversary there was.
Endless readjustments they have to make; a day of tumultuous
business with the Russians, this Saturday, llth, when the news
reached them. "They inverted their front [say all the Books but
Friedrich's own]: Not coming by the Reppen Highway, then!" think
they. And thereupon changed rear to front, as at Zorndorf, but more
elaborately;--which I should not mention, were it not that hereby
their late "right wing on the Muhlberg" has, in strict speech,
become their "left," and there is ambiguity and discrepancy in some
of the Books, should any poor reader take to studying them on this
matter. Changed their front; which involves much interior changing;
readjusting of batteries and the like. That of burning Kunersdorf
was the barbaric winding up of all this: barbaric, and, in the
military sense, absurd; poor Kunersdorf could have been burnt at
any moment, if needful; and to the Russians the keeping of it
standing was the profitable thing, as an impediment to Friedrich in
his advance there. They have laid it flat and permeable; ashes all
of it,--except the Church only, which is of stone; not so
combustible, and may have uses withal. Has perhaps served as
temporary lock-up, prison for the night, to some of those Frankfurt
Deputations and their troublesome wailings; and may serve as
temporary hospital to-morrow, who knows?
Readjustments in the Russian Camp were manifold: but these are as
nothing, in the tumultuous business of the day. Carting of their
baggage, every article of value, to that safe Wagenburg in the
River; driving of cattle,--the very driving of cattle through
Frankfurt, endless herds of them, gathered by the Cossacks from far
and wide, "lasted for four-and-twenty hours." Oxen in Frankfurt
that day were at the rate of ten shillings per head. Often enough
you were offered a full-grown young steer for a loaf of bread;
nay the Cossacks, when there was absolutely no bidder, would
slaughter down the animal, leave its carcass in the streets, and
sell the hide for a TYMPF,--fivepence (very bad silver at present).
Never before or since was seen in Frankfurt such a Saturday, for
bellowing and braying, and raging and tumulting, all through the
day and through the night; ushering in such a Sunday too!
Sunday about 3 in the morning, Friedrich is on march again,--
Russians still in their place; and Disposition FIRST, not SECOND at
all, to be our rule of action! Friedrich, in Two Columns, marches
off, eastward through the woods, as if for Reppen quite away from
the Russians and their Muhlberg; but intending to circle round at
the due point, and come down upon their right flank there (left
flank, as he persists to call it), out of the woods, and clasp it
in his arms in an impressive, unexpected way. In Two Columns;
which are meant, as usual, to be the Two Lines of Battle: Seidlitz,
with chosen Cavalry, is at the head of Column First, and will be
Left Wing, were we on the ground; Eugen of Wurtemberg, closing the
rear of Column First, will, he, or Finck and he together, be Right
Wing. That is the order of march;--order of BATTLE, we shall find,
had to alter itself somewhat, for reasons extremely valid!
Finck with his 12,000 is to keep his present ground; to have two
good batteries got ready, each on its knoll ahead, which shall wait
silent in the interim: Finck to ride out reconnoitring, with many
General Officers, and to make motions and ostentations; in a word,
to persuade the Russians that here is the Main Army coming on from
the north. All which Finck does; avoiding, as his orders were, any
firing, or serious commencement of business, till the King reappear
out of the woods. The Russians give Finck and his General Officers
a cannon salvo, here and there, without effect, and get no answer.
"The King does not see his way, then, after all?" think the
Russians. Their Cossacks go scouring about; on the southern side,
"burn Schwetig and Reipzig," without the least advantage to
themselves: most of the Cavalry, and a regiment or two of excellent
Austrian Grenadiers, are with Loudon, near the Red Grange, in front
of the Russian extreme left;--but will have stept over into Big
Hollow at a moment of crisis!
The King's march, through the Forest of Reppen, was nothing like so
expeditious as had been expected. There are thickets, intricacies,
runlets, boggy oozes; indifferent to one man well mounted, but
vitally important to 30,000 with heavy cannon to bring on.
Boggy oozings especially,--there is one dirty stream or floss
(HUNERFLIESS, Hen-Floss) which wanders dismally through those
recesses, issuing from the far south, with dirty daughters dismally
wandering into it, and others that cannot get into it (being of the
lake kind): these, in their weary, circling, recircling course
towards Oder,--FAULE LAACKE (Foul Lake, LITHER-MERE, as it were),
Foul Bridge, Swine's Nook (SCHWEINEBUCKT), and many others,--
occasion endless difficulty. Whether Major Linden was shot that
day, or what became of him after, I do not know: but it was pity he
had not studied the ground with a soldier's eye instead of a
hunter's! Plumping suddenly, at last, upon Hen-Floss itself,
Friedrich has to turn angularly; angularly, which occasions great
delay: the heavy cannon (wall-guns brought from Custrin) have
twelve horses each, and cannot turn among the trees, but have to be
unyoked, reyoked, turned round by hand:--in short, it was eight in
the morning before Friedrich arrived at the edge of the wood, on
the Klosterberg, Walckberg, and other woody BERGS or knolls, within
reach of Muhlberg, and behind the preliminary abatis there (abatis
which was rather of service to him than otherwise);--and began
privately building his batteries.
At eight o'clock he, with Column First, which is now becoming Line
First (CENTRE of Line First, if we reckon Finck as RIGHT-WING), is
there; busy in that manner: Column Second, which was to have been
Rear Line, is still a pretty way behind; and has many difficulties
before it gets into Kunersdorf neighborhood, or can (having
wriggled itself into a kind of LEFT-WING) co-operate on the Russian
Position from the south side. On the north side, Finck has been
ready these five hours.--Friedrich speeds the building of his
batteries: "Silent, too; the Russians have not yet noticed us!"
By degrees the Russians do notice something; shoot out Cossacks to
reconnoitre. Cossacks in quantity; who are so insolent, and venture
so very near, our gunners on the north battery give them a blast of
satisfactory grape-shot; one aud then another, four blasts in all,
satisfactory to the gunner mind,--till the King's self, with a
look, with a voice, came galloping: "Silence, will you!"
The Russians took no offence; still considering Finck to be the
main thing and Friedrich some scout party,--till at last,
Half-past eleven, everything being ready on the Walck Hill,
Friedrich's batteries opened there, in a sudden and volcanic way.
Volcanically answered by the Russians, as soon as possible;
who have 72 guns on this Muhlberg, and are nothing loath. Upon whom
Finck's battery is opening from the north, withal: Friedrich has 60
cannon hereabouts; on the Walckberg, on the LITTLE Spitzberg
(called SEIDLITZ HILL ever since); all playing diligently on the
head and south shoulder of this Muhlberg: while Finck's battery
opens on the north shoulder (could he but get near enough).
Volcanic to a degree all these; nor are the Russians wanting,
though they get more and more astonished: Tempelhof, who was in it,
says he never, except at Torgau next Year, heard a louder
cannonade. Loud exceedingly; and more or less appalling to the
Russian imagination: but not destructive in proportion;
the distance being too considerable,--"1,950 paces at the nearest,"
as Tempelhof has since ascertained by measuring. Friedrich's two
batteries, however, as they took the Russians in the flank or by
enfilade, did good execution. "The Russian guns were ill-pointed;
the Russian batteries wrong-built; batteries so built as did not
allow them sight of the Hollow they were meant to defend."
[Tempelhof, iii. 186, 187.]
After above half an hour of this, Friedrich orders storm of the
Muhlberg: Forward on it, with what of enfilading it has had! Eight
grenadier Battalions, a chosen vanguard appointed for the work
(names of Battalions all given, and deathless in the Prussian War-
Annals), tramp forth on this service: cross the abatis, which the
Russian grenadoes have mostly burnt; down into the Hollow.
Steady as planets; "with a precision and coherency," says
Tempelhof, "which even on the parade-ground would have deserved
praises. Once well in the Hollow, they suffer nothing; though the
blind Russian fire, going all over their heads, rages threefold:"
suffered nothing in the Hollow; nor till they reached almost the
brow of the Muhlberg, and were within a hundred steps of the
Russian guns. These were the critical steps, these final ones;
such torrents of grape-shot and musket-shot and sheer death
bursting out, here at last, upon the Eight Battalions, as they come
above ground. Who advanced, unwavering, all the faster,--speed
one's only safety. They poured into the Russian gunners and
musketry battalions one volley of choicest quality, which had a
shaking effect; then, with level bayonets, plunge on the batteries:
which are all empty before we can leap into them; artillery-men,
musketeer battalions, all on wing; general whirlpool spreading.
And so, in ten minutes, the Muhlberg and its guns are ours.
Ever since Zorndorf, an idea had got abroad, says Tempelhof, that
the Russians would die instead of yielding; but it proved far
otherwise here. Down as far as Kunersdorf, which may be about a
mile westward, the Russians are all in a whirl; at best hanging in
tatters and clumps, their Officers struggling against the flight;
"mixed groups you would see huddled together a hundred men deep."
The Russian Left Wing is beaten: had we our cannon up here, our
cavalry up here, the Russian Army were in a bad way!
This is a glorious beginning; completed, I think, as far almost as
Kunersdorf by one o'clock: and could the iron continue to be struck
while it is at white-heat as now, the result were as good as
certain. That was Friedrich's calculation: but circumstances which
he had not counted on, some which he could not count on, sadly
retarded the matter. His Left Wing (Rear Line, which should now
have been Left Wing) from southward, his Right Wing from northward,
and Finck farther west, were now on the instant to have
simultaneously closed upon the beaten Russians, and crushed them
altogether. The Right Wing, conquerors of the Muhlberg, are here:
but neither Finck nor the Left can be simultaneous with them.
Finck and his artillery are much retarded with the Flosses and poor
single Bridges; and of the Left Wing there are only some Vanguard
Regiments capable of helping ("who drove out the Russians from
Kunersdorf Churchyard," as their first feat),--no Main Body yet for
a long while. Such impediments, such intricacies of bog and bush!
The entire Wing does at last get to the southeast of Kunersdorf,
free of the wood; but finds (contrary to Linden with his hunter
eye) an intricate meshwork of meres and straggling lakes, two of
them in the burnt Village itself; no passing of these except on
narrow isthmuses, which necessitate change of rank and re-change;
and our Left Wing cannot, with all its industry, "march up,"
that is, arrive at the enemy in fighting line, without the
painfulest delays.
And then the getting forward of our cannon! On the Muhlberg itself
the seventy-two Russian guns, "owing to difference of calibre," or
artillery-men know what, cannot be used by us: a few light guns,
Tempelhof to one of them, a poor four in all, with perhaps 100 shot
to each, did, by the King's order, hasten to the top of the
Muhlberg; and never did Tempelhof see a finer chance for artillery
than there. Soft sloping ground, with Russians simmering ahead of
you, all the way down to Kunersdorf, a mile long: by horizontal
pointing, you had such reboundings (RICOCHETS); and carried
beautiful execution! Tempelhof soon spent his hundred shots: but it
was not at once that any of our sixty heavy guns could be got up
thither. Twelve horses to each: fancy it, and what baffling delays
here and elsewhere;--and how the Russian whirlpool was settling
more and more, in the interim! And had, in part, settled; in part,
got through to the rear, and been replaced by fresh troops!
Friedrich's activities, and suppressed and insuppressible
impatiences in this interval, are also conceivable, though not on
record for us. The swiftest of men; tied down, in this manner, with
the blaze of perfect victory ahead, were the moments NOT running
out! Slower or faster, he thinks (I suppose), the victory is his;
and that he must possess his soul till things do arrive. It was in
one and more of those embargoed intervals that he wrote to Berlin
[Preuss, ii. 212 n.] (which is waiting, as if for life or death,
the issue of this scene, sixty miles distant): "Russians beaten;
rejoice with me!" Four successive couriers, I believe, with
messages to that effect; and at last a Fifth with dolefully
contrary news!--
In proportion as the cannon and other necessaries gradually got in,
the Fight flamed up from its embers more aud more: and there
ensued,--the Russians being now ranked again (fronting eastward
now) "in many lines," and very fierce,--a second still deadlier
bout; Friedrich furiously diligent on their front and right flank;
Finck, from the Alder Waste, battering and charging (uphill, and
under difficulties from those Flosses and single Bridges) on their
left flank. This too, after long deadly efforts on the Prussian
part, ended again clearly in their favor; their enemies broken a
second time, and driven not only out of Kunersdorf and the
Kuhgrund, but some say almost to the foot of the Judenberg,--what
can only be very partially true. Broken portions of the Russian
left flank,--some of Finck's people, in their victorious wrath, may
have chased these very far: but it is certain the general Russian
mass rallied again a long way short of the Judenberg;--though, the
ground being all obliterated by the rabbits and the winds, nobody
can now know with exactitude where.
And indeed the Battle, from this point onwards, becomes blurred and
confused to us, only its grosser features visible henceforth.
Where the "Big Spitzberg" was (so terribly important soon), nobody
can now tell me, except from maps. London's motions too are
obscure, though important. I believe his grenadiers had not yet
been in the fire; but am certain they are now come out of Big
Hollow; fresh for the rescue; and have taken front rank in this
Second Rally that is made. Loudon's Cavalry Loudon himself has in
hand, and waits with them in a fit place. He has 18,000 fresh men;
and an eye like few others on a field of war. Loudon's 18,000 are
fresh: of the Prussians that can by no means be said. I should
judge it must be 3 of the afternoon. The day is windless, blazing;
one of the hottest August days; and "nobody, for twelve hours past,
could command a drink of water:" very fresh the poor Prussians
cannot be! They have done two bouts of excellent fighting;
tumbled the Russians well back, stormed many batteries; and taken
in all 180 cannon.
At this stage, it appears, Finck and many Generals, Seidlitz among
the others, were of opinion that, in present circumstances, with
troops so tired, and the enemy nearly certain to draw off, if
permitted, here had been enough for one day, and that there ought
to be pause till to-morrow. Friedrich knew well the need of rest;
but Friedrich, impatient of things half-done, especially of
Russians half-beaten, would not listen to this proposal; which was
reckoned upon him as a grave and tragic fault, all the rest of his
life; though favorable judges, who were on the ground, Tempelhof
for one, [Tempelhof, iii. 194.] are williug to prove that pausing
here--at the point we had really got to, a little beyond the
Kuhgrund, namely; and not a couple of miles westward, at the foot
of the Jew Hill, where vague rumor puts us--was not feasible or
reasonable. Friedrich considers with himself, "Our left wing has
hardly yet been in fire!" calls out the entire left wing, foot and
horse: these are to emerge from their meshwork of Lakes about
Kunersdorf, and bear a hand along with us on the Russian front
here,--especially to sweep away that raging Battery they have on
the Big Spitzberg, and make us clear of it. The Big Spitzberg lies
to south and ahead of the Russian right as now ranked;
fatally covers their right flank, and half ruins the attack in
front. Big Spitzberg is blown irrecognizable in our time; but it
was then an all-important thing.
The left-wing Infantry thread their lake-labyrinth, the soonest
possible; have to rank again on the hither side, under a tearing
fire from that Spitzberg; can then at last, and do, storm onwards,
upwards; but cannot, with their best efforts, take the Spitzberg:
and have to fall back under its floods of tearing case-shot, and
retire out of range. To Friedrich's blank disappointment: "Try it
you, then, Seidlitz; you saved us at Zorndorf!" Seidlitz, though it
is an impossible problem to storm batteries with horse, does charge
in for the Russian flank, in spite of its covering battery: but the
torrents of grape-shot are insufferable; the Seidlitz people, torn
in gaps, recoil, whirl round, and do not rank again till beyond the
Lakes of Kunersdorf. Seidlitz himself has got wounded, and has had
to be carried away.
And, in brief, from this point onwards all goes aback with the
Prussians more and more. Repeated attempts on that Spitzberg
battery prove vain; to advance without it is impossible.
Friedrich's exertions are passionate, almost desperate;
rallying, animating, new-ordering; everywhere in the hottest of the
fire. "Thrice he personally led on the main attack." He has had two
horses shot down under him; mounting a third, this too gets a
bullet in an artery of the neck, and is about falling, when two
Adjutants save the King. In his waistcoat-pocket some small gold
case (ETUI) has got smitten flat by a bullet, which would otherwise
have ended matters. The people about him remonstrate on such
exposure of a life beyond value; he answers curtly, "We must all of
us try every method here, to win the Battle: I, like every other,
must stand to my duty here!" These, and a second brief word or two
farther on, are all of articulate that we hear from him this day.
Friedrich's wearied battalions here on the Heights, while the
Spitzberg to left goes so ill, fight desperately; but cannot
prevail farther; and in spite of Friedrich's vehement rallyings
and urgings, gradually lose ground,--back at last to Kunersdorf and
the Kuhgrund again. The Loudon grenadiers, and exclaimed masses of
fresh Russians, are not to be broken, but advance and advance.
Fancy the panting death-labors, and spasmodic toilings and
bafflings, of those poor Prussians and their King! Nothing now
succeeding; the death-agony now come; all hearts growing hopeless;
only one heart still seeing hope. The Spitzberg is impossible;
tried how often I know not. Finck, from the Alder Waste, with his
Infantry, attacks, and again attacks; without success: "Let the
Cavalry go round, then, and try there. Seidlitz we have not;
you Eugen of Wurtemberg lead them!" Eugen leads them (cuirassiers,
or we will forget what); round by the eastern end of the Muhlberg;
then westward, along the Alder Waste; finally southward, against
the Russian flank, himself foremost, and at the gallop for
charging:--Eugen, "looking round, finds his men all gone," and has
to gallop the other way, gets wounded to boot. Puttkammer, with
Hussars, then tried it; Puttkammer was shot dead, and his Hussars
too could do nothing.
Back, slowly back, go the Prussians generally, nothing now succeeds
with them. Back to the Kuhgrund again; fairly over the steep brow
there; the Russians serrying their ranks atop, rearranging their
many guns. There, once more, rose frightful struggle;
desperate attempt by the fordone Prussians to retake that Height.
"Lasted fifteen minutes, line to line not fifty yards asunder;"
such musketry,--our last cartridges withal. Ardent Prussian parties
trying to storm up; few ever getting to the top, none ever standing
there alive one minute. This was the death-agony of the Battle.
Loudon, waiting behind the Spitzberg, dashes forward now, towards
the Kuhgrund and our Left Flank. At sight of which a universal
feeling shivers through the Prussian heart, "Hope ended, then!"--
and their solid ranks rustle everywhere; and melt into one wild
deluge, ebbing from the place as fast as it can.
It is towards six o'clock; the sweltering Sun is now fallen low and
veiled; gray evening sinking over those wastes. "N'Y A-T-IL DONC
PAS UN BOUGRE DE BOULET QUI PUISSE M'ATTEINDREE (Is there no one
b-- of a ball that can reach me, then)?" exclaimed Friedrich in
despair. Such a day he had never thought to see. The pillar of the
State, the Prussian Army itself, gone to chaos in this manner.
Friedrich still passionately struggles, exhorts, commands, entreats
even with tears, "Children, don't forsake me, in this pinch
(KINDER, VERLASSET HEUTE MICH, EUREN KONIG, EUREN VATER, NICHT)!"
[Kriele, p. 169.]--but all ears are deaf. On the Muhlberg one
regiment still stood by their guns, covering the retreat. But the
retreat is more and more a flight; "no Prussian Army was ever seen
in such a state." At the Bridges of that Hen-Floss, there was such
a crowding, all our guns got jammed; and had to be left, 165 of
them of various calibre, and the whole of the Russian 180 that were
once in our hands. Had the chase been vigorous, this Prussian Army
had been heard of no more. But beyond the Muhlberg, there was
little or no pursuit; through the wood the Army, all in chaos, but
without molestation otherwise, made for its Oder Bridges by the way
it had come. [Tempelhof, iii. 179-200; Retzow, ii. 80-115:
in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 589-598,
Bericht von der am 12 August, 1759 bey Kunersdorf vorgefallenen
Schlacht (Official); and IB. 598-603,
Beschreibung der &c. (by a Private Hand): lucidly
accurate both.]
Friedrich was among the last to quit the ground. He seemed
stupefied by the excess of his emotions; in no haste to go;
uncertain whether he would go at all. His adjutants were about him,
and a small party of Ziethen Hussars under Captain Prittwitz.
Wild swarms of Cossacks approached the place. "PRITTWITZ, ICH BIN
VERLOREN (Prittwitz, I am lost)!" remarked he. "NEIN, IHRO
MAJESTAT!" answered Prittwitz with enthusiasm; charged fiercely, he
and his few, into the swarms of Cossacks; cut them about, held them
at bay, or sent them else-whither, while the Adjutants seized
Friedrich's bridle, and galloped off with him. At OEtscher and the
Bridges, Friedrich found of his late Army not quite 3,000 men.
Even Wunsch is not there till next morning. Wunsch with his Party
had, early in the afternoon, laid hold of Frankfurt, as ordered;
made the garrison prisoners, blocked the Oder Bridge;
poor Frankfurt tremulously thanking Heaven for him, and for such an
omen. In spite of their Wagenburg and these Pontoon-Bridges, it
appears, there would have been no retreat for the Russians except
into Wunsch's cannon: Wagenburg way, latish in the afternoon, there
was such a scramble of runaways and retreating baggage, all was
jammed into impassability; scarcely could a single man get through.
In case of defeat, the Russian Army would have had no chance but
surrender or extermination. [Tempelhof, iii. 194: in Retzow (ii.
110) is some dubious traditionary stuff on the matter.] At dark,
however, Wunsch had summons, so truculent in style, he knew what it
meant; and answering in words peremptorily, "No" with a like
emphasis, privately got ready again, and at midnight disappeared.
Got to Reitwein without accident.
Friedrich found at OEtscher nothing but huts full of poor wounded
men, and their miseries and surgeries;--he took shelter, himself,
in a hut "which had been plundered by Cossacks" (in the past days),
but which had fewer wounded than others, and could be furnished
with some bundles of dry straw. Kriele has a pretty Anecdote, with
names and particulars, of two poor Lieutenants, who were lying on
the floor, as he entered this hut. They had lain there for many
hours; the Surgeons thinking them desperate; which Friedrich did
not. "ACH KINDER, Alas, children, you are badly wounded, then?"
"JA, your Majesty: but how goes the Battle?" (Answer, evasive on
this point): "Are you bandaged, though? Have you been let blood?"
"NEIN, EUER MAJESTAT, KEIN TEUFEL WILL UNS VERBINDEN (Not a devil
of them would bandage us)!" Upon which there is a Surgeon instantly
brought; reprimanded for neglect: "Desperate, say you? These are
young fellows; feel that hand, and that; no fever there: Nature in
such cases does wonders!" Upon which the leech had to perform his
function; and the poor young fellows were saved,--and did new
fighting, and got new wounds, and had Pensions when the War ended.
[Kriele, pp. 169, 170; and in all the Anecdote-Books.] This appears
to have been Friedrich's first work in that hut at OEtscher.
Here next is a Third Autograph to Finkenstein, written in that hut,
probably the first of several Official things there:--
THE KING TO GRAF VAN FINKENSTEIN (at Berlin): Third Note.
OETSCHER, "12th August," 1759.
"I attacked the Enemy this morning about eleven; we beat him back
to the JUDENKIRCHHOF (Jew Churchyard,"--a mistake, but now of no
moment), "near Frankfurt. All my troops came into action, and have
done wonders. I reassembled them three times; at length, I was
myself nearly taken prisoner; and we had to quit the Field. My coat
is riddled with bullets, two horses were killed under me;--my
misfortune is, that I am still alive. Our loss is very
considerable. Of an Army of 48,000 men, I have, at this moment
while I write, not more than 3,000 together; and am no longer
master of my forces. In Berlin you will do well to think of your
safety. It is a great calamity; and I will not survive it:
the consequences of this Battle will be worse than the Battle
itself. I have no resources more; and, to confess the truth, I hold
all for lost. I will not survive the destruction of my Country.
Farewell forever (ADIEU POUR JAMAIS).--F." [In orig. "CE 12," no
other date ( OEuvres de Frederic, xxv. 306).]
Another thing, of the same tragic character, is that of handing
over this Army to Finck's charge. Order there is to Finck of that
tenor: and along with it the following notable Autograph,--a
Friedrich taking leave both of Kingship and of life. The Autograph
exists; but has no date,--date of the Order would probably be still
OETSCHER, 12th AUGUST; date of the Autograph, REITWEIN (across the
River), next day.
FRIEDRICH TO LIEUT.-GENERAL FINCK (at OEtscher or Reitwein).
"General Finck gets a difficult commission; the unlucky Army which
I give up to him is no longer in condition to make head against the
Russians. Haddick will now start for Berlin, perhaps Loudon too;
if General Finck go after these, the Russians will fall on his
rear; if he continue on the Oder, he gets Haddick on his flank (SO
KRIGT ER DEN HADEK DISS SEIT):--however, I believe, should Loudon
go for Berlin, he might attack Loudon, and try to beat him: this,
if it succeeded, would be a stand against misfortune, and hold
matters up. Time gained is much, in these desperate circumstances.
The news from Torgau and Dresden, Coper my Secretary (COPER MEIN
SEGRETER," kind of lieutenant to Eichel [See Preuss, i. 349, iii.
442.]) "will send him. You (ER) must inform my Brother [Prince
Henri] of everything; whom I have declared Generalissimo of the
Army. To repair this bad luck altogether is not possible: but what
my Brother shall command, must be done:--the Army swears to my
Nephew [King henceforth].
"This is all the advice, in these unhappy circumstances, I am in a
condition to give. Had I still had resources, I would have stayed
by them (SO WEHRE ICH DARBEI GEBLIEBEN).
"FRIEDRICH"
[Exact Copy, two exact copies, in PREUSS (i. 450, and again,
ii. 215).]
All this done, the wearied Friedrich flung himself into his truss
of dry straw; and was seen sound asleep there, a single sentry at
the door, by some high Generals that ventured to look in. On the
morrow he crossed to Reitwein; by to-morrow night, there had 23,000
of his fugitives come in to him;--but this is now to be Finck's
affair, not his! That day, too (for the Paper seems to be
misdated), he signed, and despatched to Schmettau, Commandant in
Dresden, a Missive, which proved more fatal than either of the
others; and brought, or helped to bring, very bitter fruits for
him, before long:--
TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL VON SCHMETTAU (at Dresden).
"REITWEIN, 14th [probably 13th] August, 1759.
"You will perhaps have heard of the Check [L'ECHEC, Kunersdorf to
wit!] I have met with from the Russian Army on the 13th [12th, if
you have the Almanac at hand] of this month. Though at bottom our
affairs in regard to the Enemy here are not desperate, I find I
shall not now be able to make any detachment for your assistance.
Should the Austrians attempt anything against Dresden, therefore,
you will see if there are means of maintaining yourself;
failing which, it will behoove you to try and obtain a favorable
Capitulation,--to wit, Liberty to withdraw, with the whole
Garrison, Moneys, Magazines, Hospital and all that we have at
Dresden, either to Berlin or else-whither, so as to join some Corps
of my Troops.
"As a fit of illness [MALADIE, alas!] has come on me,--which I do
not think will have dangerous results,--I have for the present left
the command of my Troops to Lieutenant-General von Finck;
whose Orders you are to execute as if coming to you directly from
myself. On this I pray God to have you in his holy and worthy
keeping.--F." [Preuss, ii. Urkundenbuch,
p. 43.]
At Berlin, on this 13th,--with the Five Couriers coming in
successively (and not in the order of their despatch, but the fatal
Fifth arriving some time AHEAD of the Fourth, who still spoke of
progress and victory),--there was such a day as Sulzer (ACH MEIN
LIEBER SULZER!) had never seen in the world. "'Above 50,000 human
beings on the Palace Esplanade and streets about;' swaying hither
and thither, in agony of expectation, in alternate paroxysm of joy
and of terror and woe; often enough the opposite paroxysms
simultaneous in the different groups, and men crushed down in
despair met by men leaping into the air for very gladness:" Sulzer
(whose sympathy is of very aesthetic type) "would not, for any
consideration, have missed such a scene." [ Briefe der
Schweitzer Bodmer, Sulzer, Gessner; aus Gleim's literarischen
Nachlasse: herausgegeben von Wilhelm Korte (Zurich,
1804), pp. 316-319.] The "scene" is much obliged to you,
MEIN LIEBER!--
Practically we find, in Rodenbeck, or straggling elsewhere, this
Note: "On the day after Kunersdorf, Queen and Court fly to
Magdeburg: this is their second flight. Their first was on
Haddick's Visit, October, 1757; but after Rossbach they soon
returned, and Berlin and the Court were then extremely gay:
different gentlemen, French and others of every Nation, fallen
prisoners, made the Queen's soirees the finest in the world for
splendor and variety, at that time." [Rodenbeck, i. 390; &c. &c.]
One other Note we save, for the sake of poor Major Kleist, "Poet of
the Spring," as he was then called. A valiant, punctual Soldier,
and with a turn for Literature as well; who wrote really pleasant
fine things, new at that time and rapturously welcome, though too
much in the sentimental vein for the times which have followed.
Major Kleist,--there is a General Kleist, a Colonel Kleist of the
Green Hussars (called GRUNE Kleist, a terrible cutting fellow):--
this is not Grune Kleist; this is the Poet of THE SPRING;
whose fate at Kunersdorf made a tragic impression in all
intelligent circles of Teutschland. Here is Kriele's Note
(abridged):--
"Christian Ewald von Kleist, 'Poet of the Spring' [a Pommern
gentleman, now in his forty-fourth year], was of Finck's Division;
had come on, after those Eight Battalions took the first Russian
battery [that is, Muhlberg]; and had been assisting, with zeal, at
the taking of three other batteries, regardless of twelve
contusions, which he gradually got. At the third battery, he was
farther badly hurt on the left arm and the right. Took his
Colonel's place nevertheless, whom he now saw fall; led the
regiment MUTHIG forward on the fourth battery. A case-shot smashed
his right leg to pieces; he fell from his horse [hour not given,
shall we say 3 P.M.]; sank, exclaiming: 'KINDER, My children, don't
forsake your King!' and fainted there. Was carried to rear and
leftward; laid down on some dry spot in the Elsbruch, not far from
the Kuhgrund, and a Surgeon brought. The Surgeon, while examining,
was torn away by case-shot: Kleist lay bleeding without help.
A friend of his, Pfau [who told Kriele], one of Finck's Generals,
came riding that way: Kleist called to him; asked how the Battle
went; uncommonly glad to hear we are still progressive.
Pfau undertook, and tried his utmost, for a carriage to Kleist;
did send one of Finck's own carriages; but after such delays that
the Prussians were now yielding: poor Kleist's had become Russian
ground, and the carriage could not get in.
"Kleist lay helpless; no luck worse than his. In the evening,
Cossacks came round him; stript him stark-naked; threw him, face
foremost, into the nearest swampy place, and went their way. One of
these devils had something so absurd and Teniers-like in the face
of him, that Kleist, in his pains, could not help laughing at
remembrance of it. In the night some Russian Hussars, human and not
Cossack, found Kleist in this situation; took him to a dry place;
put a cloak over him, kindled a watch-fire for themselves, and gave
him water and bread. Towards morning they hastened away, throwing
an 8-GROSCHEN STUCK [ninepenny piece, shilling, say half-crown] on
his cloak,--with human farewell. But Cossacks again came;
again stript him naked and bare. Towards noon of the 13th, Kleist
contrived to attract some Russian Cavalry troop passing that way,
and got speech of the Captain (one Fackelberg, a German); who at
once set about helping him;--and had him actually sent into
Frankfurt, in a carriage, that evening. To the House of a Professor
Nikolai; where was plenty of surgery and watchful affection.
After near thirty hours of such a lair, his wounds seemed still
curable; there was hope for ten days. In the tenth night (22d-23d
August), the shivered pieces of bone disunited themselves; cut an
artery,--which, after many trials, could not be tied. August 24th,
at two in the morning, he died.--Great sorrow. August 26th, there
was soldier's funeral; poor Kleist's coffin borne by twelve Russian
grenadiers; very many Russian Officers attending, who had come from
the Camp for that end; one Russian Staff-Officer of them unbuckling
his own sword to lay on the bier, as there was want of one.
King Friedrich had Kleist's Portrait hung in the Garnison Kirche.
Freemason Lodge, in 1788, set up a monument to him," [Kriele, pp.
39-43.]--which still stands on the Frankfurt pavement, and is now
in sadly ruinous state.
The Prussian loss, in this Battle, was, besides all the cannon and
field-equipages: 6,000 killed, 13,000 wounded (of which latter,
2,000 badly, who fell to the Russians as prisoners); in all, about
19,000 men. Nor was the Russian loss much lighter; of Russians and
Austrians together, near 18,000, as Tempelhof counts: "which will
not surprise your Majesty," reports Soltikof to his Czarina;
"who are aware that the King of Prussia sells his defeats at a dear
rate." And privately Soltikof was heard to say, "Let me fight but
another such Victory, and I may go to Petersburg with the news of
it myself, with the staff in my hand." The joy at Petersburg,
striving not to be braggart or immodest, was solemn, steady and
superlative: a great feat indeed for Russia, this Victory over such
a King,--though a kind of grudge, that it was due to Loudon, dwelt,
in spite of Loudon's politic silence on that point, unpleasantly in
the background. The chase they had shamefully neglected. It is
said, certain Russian Officers, who had charge of that business
stept into a peasant's cottage to consult on it; contrived somehow
to find tolerable liquor there; and sat drinking instead. [Preuss,
ii. 217.]
Chapter V.
SAXONY WITHOUT DEFENCE: SCHMETTAU SURRENDERS DRESDEN.
Friedrich's despair did not last quite four days. On the fourth
day,--day after leaving Reitwein,--there is this little Document,
which still exists, of more comfortable tenor: "My dear Major-
General von Wunsch,--Your Letter of the 16th to Lieutenant-General
von Finck punctually arrived here: and for the future, as I am now
recovered from my illness, you have to address your Reports
directly to Myself.--F." ["Madlitz," on the road to Furstenwalde,
"17th August:" in Preuss, Friedrich der Grosse; eine
historische Portrait-Skizze (kind of LECTURE, so let
us call it, if again citing it; Lecture delivered, on Friedrich's
Birthday, to Majesty and Staff-Officers as Audience, Berlin, 24th
January, 1855), p. 18.] Finding that, except Tottleben warily
reconnoitring with a few Cossacks, no Russians showed themselves at
Reitwein; that the Russians were encamping and intrenching on the
Wine-Hills south of Frankfurt, not meaning anything immediate,--he
took heart again; ranked his 23,000; sent for General Kleist from
Pommern with his Anti-Swedish handful (leave the Swedes alone, as
usual in time of crisis); considered that artilleries and
furnishings could come to him from Berlin, which is but 60 miles;
that there still lay possibility ahead, and that, though only a
miracle could save him, he would try it to the very last.
A great relief, this of coming to oneself again! "Till death,
then;--rage on, ye elements and black savageries!" Friedrich's
humor is not despondent, now or afterwards; though at this time it
is very sad, very angry, and, as it were, scorning even to hope:
but he is at all times of beautifully practical turn; and has, in
his very despair, a sobriety of eyesight, and a fixed steadiness of
holding to his purpose, which are of rare quality. His utterances
to D'Argens, about this time and onward,--brief hints, spontaneous,
almost unconscious,--give curious testimony of his glooms and moody
humors. Of which the reader shall see something. For the present,
he is in deep indignation with his poor Troops, among other
miseries. "Actual running away!" he will have it to be; and takes
no account of thirst, hunger, heat, utter weariness and physical
impossibility! This lasts for some weeks. But in general there is
nothing of this injustice to those about him. In general, nothing
even of gloom is manifested; on the contrary, cheerfulness, brisk
hope, a strangely continual succession of hopes (mostly illusory);
--though, within, there is traceable very great sorrow, weariness
and misery. A fixed darkness, as of Erebus, is grown habitual to
him; but is strictly shut up, little of it shown to others, or
even, in a sense, to himself. He is as a traveller overtaken by the
Night and its tempests and rain-deluges, but refusing to pause;
who is wetted to the bone, and does not care farther for rain.
A traveller grown familiar with the howling solitudes; aware that
the Storm-winds do not pity, that Darkness is the dead Earth's
Shadow:--a most lone soul of a man; but continually toiling
forward, as if the brightest goal and haven were near and in view.
Once more the world was certain of Friedrich's ruin;--Friedrich
himself we have seen certain of it, for some few desperate hours:--
but the world and he, as had been repeatedly the world's case, were
both disappointed. Intrinsically there could be little doubt but
Friedrich's enemies might now have ruined him, had they been
diligent about it. Now again, and now more than ever, they have the
winning-post in sight. At small distance is the goal and purpose of
all these four years' battlings and marchings, and ten years'
subterranean plottings and intriguings. He himself says
deliberately, "They had only to give him the finishing stroke
(COUP-DE-GRACE)." [ OEuvres de Frederic,
v. 20.] But they never gave him that stroke; could not do it,
though heartily desirous. Which was, and is, matter of surprise to
an observant public.
The cause of failure may be considered to have been, in good part,
Daun and his cunctations. Daun's zeal was unquestionable;
ardent and continual is Daun's desire to succeed: but to try it at
his own risk was beyond his power. He expected always to succeed by
help of others: and to show them an example, and go vigorously to
work himself, was what he never could resolve on. Could play only
Fabius Cunctator, it would seem; and never was that part less
wanted than now! Under such a Chief Figure, the "incoherency of
action," instead of diminishing, as Friedrich had feared, rose
daily towards its maximum; and latterly became extreme. The old
Lernean Hydra had many heads; but they belonged all to one body.
The many heads of this Anti-Friedrich Hydra had withal each its own
body, and separate set of notions and advantages. Friedrich was at
least a unity; his whole strength going one way, and at all
moments, under his own sole command. The value of this circumstance
is incalculable; this is the saving-clause of Pitt and his England
(Pitt also a despotic sovereign, though a temporary one);
this, second only to Friedrich's great gifts from Nature, and the
noble use he makes of them, is above all others the circumstance
that saved him in such a duel with the Hydras.
On the back of Kunersdorf, accordingly, there was not only no
finishing stroke upon Friedrich, but for two months no stroke or
serious attempt whatever in those neighborhoods where Friedrich is.
There are four Armies hereabouts: The Grand Russian, hanging by
Frankfurt; Friedrich at Furstenwalde (whitherward he marched from
Reitwein August 16th), at Furstenwalde or farther south, guarding
Berlin;--then, unhurt yet by battle of any kind, there are the
Grand Daunish or Mark-Lissa Army, and Prince Henri's of
Schmottseifen. Of which latter Two the hitchings and manoeuvrings
from time to time become vivid, and never altogether cease; but in
no case come to anything. Above two months' scientific flourishing
of weapons, strategic counter-dancing; but no stroke struck, or
result achieved, except on Daun's part irreparable waste of time:--
all readers would feel it inhuman to be burdened with any notice of
such things. One march of Prince Henri's, which was of a famous and
decisive character, we will attend to, when it comes, that is, were
the end of September at hand; the rest must be imagined as a
general strategic dance in those frontier parts,--Silesia to
rearward on one side, the Lausitz and Frankfurt on the other,--and
must go on, silently for most part, in the background of the
reader's fancy. Indeed, Saxony is the scene of action;
Friedrich, Henri, Soltikof, Daun, comparatively inactive for the
next six weeks and more.
Some days before Kunersdorf, Daun personally, with I will forget
how many thousands, had made a move to northward from Mark-Lissa,
60 miles or so, through Sagan Country; and lies about Priebus,
waiting there ever since. Priebus is some 40 miles north of
Gorlitz, about 60 west of Glogau, south of Frankfurt 80. This is
where the Master-Smith, having various irons in the fire, may be
handiest for clutching them out, and forging at them, as they
become successively hot. Daun, as Master-Smith, has at least three
objects in view. The FIRST is, as always, Reconquest of Silesia:
this is obstructed by Prince Henri, who sits, watchful on the
threshold, at Schmottseifen yonder. The SECOND is, as last year,
Capture of Dresden: which is much the more feasible at present,--
there being, except the Garrisons, no Prussian force whatever in
Saxony; and a Reichs Army now actually there at last, after its
long haggling about its Magazines; and above all, a Friedrich with
his hands full elsewhere. To keep Friedrich's hands full,--in other
words, to keep the Russians sticking to him,--that is the THIRD
object: or indeed we may call it the first, second and third;
for Daun is well aware that unless Soltikof can manage to keep
Friedrich busy, Silesia, Saxony and all else becomes impossible.
Ever since the fortunate junction of Loudon with Soltikof, Daun has
sat, and still sits, expectant; elaborately calculative, gathering
Magazines in different parts, planting out-parties, this way, that
way, with an eye to these three objects, all or each,--especially
to the third object, which he discerns to be all AND each. Daun was
elaborately calculative with these views: but to try any military
action, upon Prince Henri for example, or bestir himself otherwise
than in driving provender forward, and marching detachments hither
and thither to the potentially fit and fittest posts, was not in
Daun's way,--so much the worse for Daun, in his present course
of enterprise.
Prince Henri had lain quiet at Schmottseifen, waiting his Brother's
adventure; did not hear the least tidings of him till six days
after Kunersdorf, and then only by rumor; hideous, and, though
still dubious, too much of it probable! On the very day of
Kunersdorf, Henri had begun effecting some improvements on his
right flank,--always a sharply strategic, most expert creature,--
and made a great many motions, which would be unintelligible here.
[Detailed, every fibre of them (as is the soul-confusing custom
there), in Tempelhof, iii. 228 et seq.] Henri feels now that upon
him lies a world of duties; and foremost of all, the instant duty
of endeavoring to open communication with his Brother.
Many marches, in consequence; much intricate marching and
manoeuvring between Daun and him: of which, when we come to Henri's
great March (of 25th September), there may be again some hint.
For the present, let readers take their Map, and endeavor to fix
the following dates and localities in their mind. Here, in summary,
are the King's various Marches, and Two successive Encampments, two
only, during those Six Weeks of forced inaction, while he is
obliged to stand watching the Russians, and to witness so many
complicacies and disasters in the distance; which he struggles much
and fruitlessly to hinder or help:--
ENCAMPMENT 1st (Furstenwalde, August 18th-30th). Friedrich left
Reitwein AUGUST 16th; 17th, he is at Madlitz [Note to Wunsch
written there, which we read]; 18th, to Furstenwalde, and encamp.
Furstenwalde is on the Spree, straight between Frankfurt and
Berlin; 25 miles from the former, 35 from the latter. Here for near
a fortnight. At first, much in alarm about the Russians and Berlin;
but gradually ascertaining that the Russians intend nothing.
"In effect, all this while Soltikof lay at Lossow, 10 miles south
of Frankfurt, with his right on Oder; totally motionless, inactive,
except listening, often rather gloomily, to Daun's and
Montalembert's suasive eloquences and advices,--and once, August
22d, in the little Town of Guben, holding Conference with Daun [of
which by and by]. In consequence of which, AUGUST 28th, Soltikof
and his Russians and Austrians got under way again; southward, but
only a few marches: first to Mullrose, then to Lieberose:--whom,
the instant he heard of their movements, Friedrich, August 30th,
hastened to follow; but had not to follow very far.
Whereupon ensues
"ENCAMPMENT SECOND (Waldau, till September 15th). AUGUST 30th,
Friedrich, we say, rose from Furstenwalde; hastened to follow this
Russian movement, and keep within wind of it: up the valley of the
Spree; first to Mullrose neighborhood [where the Russians,
loitering some time, spoiled the canal-locks of the Friedrich-
Wilhelm Canal, if nothing more],--thence to Lieberose neighborhood;
Waldau, the King's new place of encampment,--Waldau, with Spree
Forest to rear of it: silent both parties till September 15th, when
Soltikof did fairly march, not towards Berlin, but quite in the
opposite direction."
By the middle of September, when the Russians did get on foot, and
moved eastward; especially on and after September 25th, when Henri
made his famous March westward; then it will behoove us to return
to Friedrich and these localities. For the present we must turn to
Saxony, where, and not here, the scene of action is. Take, farther,
only the following bits of Note, which will now be readable.
First, these Utterances to D'Argens; direct glimpses into the
heavy-laden, indeed hag-ridden and nearly desperate inner man of
Friedrich, during the first three weeks after his defeat
at Kunersdorf:--
THE KING TO MARQUIS D'ARGENS (at Berlin): Six Notes.
1. "MADLITZ [road from Reitwein to Furstenwalde], 16th AUGUST,
1759. We have been unfortunate, my dear Marquis; but not, by my
fault. The victory was ours, and would even have been a complete
one, when our infantry lost patience, and at the wrong moment
abandoned the field of battle. The enemy to-day is on march to
Mullrose, to unite with Haddick [not to Mullrose for ten days yet;
Haddick had already got united with THEM]. The Russian infantry is
almost totally destroyed. Of my own wrecks, all that I have been
able to assemble amounts to 32,000 men; with these I am pushing on
to throw myself across the enemy's road, and either perish or save
the Capital. That is not what you [you Berliners] will call a
deficiency of resolution.
"For the event I cannot answer. If I had more lives than one, I
would sacrifice them all to my Country. But if this stroke fail, I
think I am clear-scores with her, and that it will be permissible
to look a little to myself. There are limits to everything.
I support my misfortune; courage not abated by it: but I am well
resolved, after this stroke, if it fail, to open an outgate for
myself [that small glass tube which never quits me], and no longer
be the sport of any chance."
2. Furstenwalde, 20th AUGUST. ... "Remain at Berlin, or retire to
Potsdam; in a little while there will come some catastrophe: it is
not fit that you suffer by it. If things take a good turn, you can
be back to Berlin [from Potsdam] in four hours. If ill-luck still
pursue us, go to Hanover or to Zelle, where you can provide for
your safety.
"I protest to you, that in this late Action I did what was humanly
possible to conquer; but my people"--Oh, your Majesty!
3. FURSTENWALDE, 21st AUGUST. ... "The enemy is intrenching himself
near Frankfurt; a sign he intends no attempt. If you will do me the
pleasure to come out hither, you can in all safety. Bring your bed
with you; bring my Cook Noel; and I will have you a little chamber
ready. You will be my consolation and my hope."--
This day,--let readers mark the circumstance,--Friedrich, in better
spirits, detaches Wunsch with some poor 6,000, to try if he can be
of help in Saxony; where the Reichs Army, now arrived in force, and
with nothing whatever in the field against them, is taking all the
Northward Garrison-Towns, and otherwise proceeding at a high rate.
Too possibly with an eye towards Dresden itself! Wunsch sets out
August 21st. [Tempelhof, iii. 211.] And we shall hear of him in
those Saxon Countries before long.
4. FURSTENWALDE, 22d AUGUST. "Yesterday I wrote to you to come;
but to-day I forbid it. Daun is at Kotbus; he is marching on Luben
and Berlin [nothing like so rash!].--Fly these unhappy Countries!--
This news obliges me again to attack the Russians between here and
Frankfurt. You may imagine if this is a desperate resolution. It is
the sole hope that remains to me, of not being cut off from Berlin
on the one side or the other. I will give the discouraged troops
some brandy"--alas!--"but I promise myself nothing of success.
My one consolation is, that I shall die sword in hand."
5. SAME PLACE AND DAY (after a Letter FROM D'Argens). "You make the
panegyric, MON CHER, of an Army that does not deserve any.
The soldiers had good limbs to run with, none to attack the enemy.
[Alas, your Majesty; after fifteen hours of such marching
and fighting!]
"For certain I will fight; but don't flatter yourself about the
event. A happy chance alone can help us. Go, in God's name, to
Tangermunde [since the Royal Family went, D'Argens and many
Berliners are thinking of flight], to Tangermunde, where you will
be well; and wait there how Destiny shall have disposed of us.
I will go to reconnoitre the enemy to-morrow. Next day, if there is
anything to do, we will try it. But if the enemy still holds to the
Wine-Hills of Frankfurt, I shall never dare to attack him.
"No, the torment of Tantalus, the pains of Prometheus, the doom of
Sisyphus, were nothing like what I suffer for the last ten days
[from Kunersdorf till now, when destruction has to be warded off
again, and the force wanting]. Death is sweet in comparison to such
a life. Have compassion on me and it; and believe that I still keep
to myself a great many evil things, not wishing to afflict or
disquiet anybody with them; and that I would not counsel you to fly
these unlucky Countries, if I had any ray of hope.
Adieu, MON CHER."
Four days after, AUGUST 25th, from this same Furstenwalde, the
Russians still continuing stagnant, Friedrich despatches to
Schmettau, Commandant of Dresden (by some industrious hand, for the
roads are all blocked), a Second Letter, "That Dresden is of the
highest moment; that in case of Siege there, relief [Wunsch,
namely, and perhaps more that may follow] is on the road; and that
Schmettau must defend himself to the utmost." Let us hope this
Second Missive may counteract the too despondent First, which we
read above, should that have produced discouragement in Schmettau!
[Second Letter is given in Schmettau's Leben,
pp. 436, 437.]--D'Argens does run to Wolfenbuttel; stays there till
September 9th. Nothing more from Friedrich till 4th September, when
matters are well cooled again.
6. WALDAU, 4th SEPTEMBER. "I think Berlin is now in safety; you may
return thither. The Barbarians [Russians] are in the Lausitz;
I keep by the side of them, between them and Berlin, so that there
is nothing to fear for the Capital. The imminency of danger is
past; but there will still be many bad moments to get through,
before reaching the end of the Campaign. These, however, only
regard myself; never mind these. My martyrdom will last two months
yet; then the snows and the ices will end it." [ OEuvres de
Frederic, xix. 78, 82, 83, 85, 86.]
Thus at Furstenwalde, then at Waldau, keeping guard, forlorn but
resolute, against the intrusive Russian-Austrian deluges, Friedrich
stands painfully vigilant and expectant,--still for about a
fortnight more. With bad news coming to him latterly, as we shall
hear. He is in those old moorland Wusterhausen Countries, once so
well known under far other circumstances. Thirty years ago, in fine
afternoons, we used to gallop with poor Duhan de Jandun, after
school-tasks done, towards Mittenwalde, Furstenwalde and the furzy
environs, far and wide; at home, our Sister and Mother waiting with
many troubles and many loves, and Papa sleeping, Pan-like, under
the shadow of his big tree:--Thirty years ago, ah me, gone like a
dream is all that; and there is solitude and desolation and the
Russian-Austrian death-deluges instead! These, I suppose, were
Friedrich's occasional remembrances; silent always, in this
locality and time. The Sorrows of WERTER, of the GIAOUR, of the
Dyspeptic Tailor in multifarious forms, are recorded in a copious
heart-rending manner, and have had their meed of weeping from a
sympathetic Public: but there are still a good few Sorrows which
lie wrapt in silence, and have never applied there for an idle
tear!--Let us look now into Daun's side of things.
DAUM, AFTER NEGOTIATION, HAS AN INTERVIEW WITH SOLTIKOF (at Guben,
August 22d).--"Daun, who had moved to Priebus, with a view to be
nearer Soltikof, had scarcely got his tent pitched there {August
13th), when a breathless horseman rode in, with a Note from Loudon,
dated the night before: 'King of Prussia beaten, to the very bone,
beyond mistake this time,--utterly ruined, if one may judge!'
What a vision of the Promised Land! Delighted Daun moves forward,
one march, to Triebel on the morrow; to be one march nearer the
scene of glory, and endeavor to forge this biggest of the hot irons
to advantage.
"At Triebel Soltikof's own account, elucidated by oral messengers,
eye-witnesses, and, in short, complete conspectus of this ever
memorable Victory, await the delighted Daun. Who despatches
messengers, one and another; Lacy, the first, not succeeding quite:
To congratulate with enthusiasm the most illustrious of Generals;
who has beaten King Friedrich as none else ever did or could;
beaten to the edge of extinction;--especially to urge him upon
trampling out this nearly extinct King, before he gleam up again.
Soltikof understands the congratulations very well; but as to that
of trampling out, snorts an indignant negative: 'Nay, you, why
don't you try it? Surely it is more your business than my Imperial
Mistress's or mine. We have wrenched two victories from him this
season. Kay and Kunersdorf have killed near the half of us: go you
in, and wrench something!' This is Soltikof's logic; which no
messenger of Daun's, Lacy or another, aided by never such melodies
and suasions from Montalembert and Loudon, who are permanently
diligent that way, can shake.
"And truly it is irrefragable. How can Daun, if himself merely
speculative, calculative, hope that Soltikof will continue acting?
Men who have come to help you in a heavy job of work need example.
If you wish me to weep, be grieved yourself first of all.
Soltikof angrily wipes his countenance at this point, and insists
on a few tears from Daun. Without metaphor, Soltikof has shot away
all his present ammunition, his staff of bread is quite precarious
in these parts; and Soltikof thinks always, 'Is it my business,
then, or is it yours?'
"Soltikof has intrenched himself on the Wine-Hills at Lossow,
comfortably out of Friedrich's way, and contiguous to Oder and the
provision-routes; sits there, angrily deaf to the voice of the
charmer; nothing to be charmed out of him, but gusts of
indignation, instead of consent. A proud, high-going, indignant
kind of man, with a will of his own. And sees well enough what is
what, in all this symphony of the Lacys, the Montalemberts and
surrounding adorers. Montalembert, who is here this season, our
French best man (unprofitable Swedes must put up with an inferior
hand), is extremely persuasive, tries all the arts of French
rhetoric, but effects nothing. 'To let the Austrians come in for
the finishing stroke,---Excellence, it will be to let them gain, in
History, a glory which is of your earning. Daun and Austria, not
Soltikof and Russia, will be said to have extinguished this
pestilent King; whom History will have to remember!' [Choiseul's
Letter (not DUC de Choiseul, but COMTE, now Minister at Vienna) to
Montalembert, "Vienna, 16th August;" and Montalembert's Answer,
"Lieberhausen [means LIEBEROSE], 31st August, 1759:" in
Montalembert, Correspondance, ii. 58-65.]
'With all my heart,' answers Soltikof; 'I make the Austrians and
History perfectly welcome! Monsieur, my ammunition is in Posen;
my bread is fallen scarce; in Frankfurt can you find me one horse
more?' Indignant Soltikof is not to be taken by chaff; growls now
and then, if you stir him to the bottom: 'Why should we, who are
volunteer assistants, take all the burden of the work? I will fall
back to Posen, and home to Poland and East Preussen, if this last
much longer.'
"Austria has a good deal disgusted these Soltikofs and Russian
Chief Officers;--who are not so stupid as Austria supposes.
Austria's steady wish is, 'Let them do their function of cat's-paw
for us; we are here to eat the chestnuts; not, if we can help it,
to burn our own poor fingers for them!' After every Campaign
hitherto, Austria has been in use to raise eager accusations at
Petersburg; and get the Apraxins, Fermors into trouble: this is not
the way to conciliate Russian General Officers. Austria, taught
probably by Daun, now tries the other tack: heaps Soltikof with
eulogies, flatteries, magnificent presents. All which Soltikof
accepts, but with a full sense of what they mean. An unmanageable
Soltikof; his answer always,--'Your turn now to fight a victory!
I will go my ways to Posen again, if you don't.' And, in these
current weeks, in Soltikof's audience-room, if anybody were curious
about it, we could present a very lively solicitation going on,
with answers very gruff and negatory. No suasion of Montalembert,
Lacy, and Daun Embassies, backed by diamond-hilted swords, and
splendor of gifts from Vienna itself, able to prevail on the
barbarous people.
"Daun at length resolves to go in person; solicits an Interview
with the distinguished Russian Conqueror; gets it, meets Soltikof
at Guben, half-way house between Frankfurt and Triebel;
select suite attending both Excellencies (August 22d); and exerts
whatever rhetoric is in him on the barbarous man.
The barbarous man is stiff as brass; but Daun comes into all his
conditions: 'Saxony, Silesia,--Excellenz, we have them both within
clutch; such our exquisite angling and manoeuvring, in concert with
your immortal victory, which truly gives the life-breath to
everything. Oh, suffer us to clutch them: keep that King away from
us; and see if they are not ours, Saxony first, Silesia next!
Provisions of meal? I will myself undertake to furnish bread for
you [though I have to cart it from Bohemia all the way, and am
myself terribly off; but fixed to do the impossible]; ration of
bread shall fail no Russian man, while you escort us as protective
friend. Towards Saxony first, where the Reichs Army is, and not a
Prussian in the field; the very Garrisons mostly gone by this time.
Dresden is to be besieged, within a week; Dresden itself is ours,
if only YOU please! Come into the Lausitz with us, Magazines are
there, loaves in abundance: Saxony done, Dresden ours, cannot we
turn to Silesia together; besiege Glogau together (I am myself
about trying Neisse, by Harsch again); capture Glogau as well as
Neisse; and crown the successfulest campaign that ever was?
Oh, Excellenz--!'"
In a word, Excellenz, strictly fixing that condition of the loaves,
consents. Will get ready to leave those Frankfurt Wine-Hills in
about a week. "But the loaves, you recollect: no Bread, no
Russian!" Daun returns to Triebel a victorious man,--though with an
onerous condition incumbent. Tempelhof, minutely computing, finds
that to cart from Bohemia such a cipher of human rations daily into
these parts, will surpass all the vehiculatory power of Daun.
[Tempelhof, iii. 225.]'
THE "REICHS ARMY" 80 CALLED HAS ENTERED SAXONY, UNDER FINE OMENS;
DOES SOME FEATS OF SIEGING (August 7th-23d),
--WITH AN EYE ON DRESDEN AS THE CROWNING ONE.
The Reichs Army, though it had been so tumbled about, in Spring,
with such havoc on its magazines and preparations, could not wait
to refit itself, except superficially; and showed face over the
Mountains almost earlier than usual. The chance was so unique:
a Saxony left to its mere Garrisons,--as it continued to be, for
near two months this Year. On such golden opportunity the Reichs
Army--first, in light mischievous precursor parties, who roamed as
far as Halle or even as Halberstadt; then the Army itself, well or
ill appointed, under Generalissimo the Prince von Zweibruck,--did
come on, winding through Thuringen towards the Northwestern Towns;
various Austrian Auxiliary-Corps making appearance on the Dresden
side. Eight Austrian regiments, as a permanency, are in the Reichs
Army itself. Commander, or part Commander, of the eight is (what
alone I find noteworthy in them) "Herr General Thomas von
Blonquet:" Irish by nation, says a foot-note; [Seyfarth, ii.
831 n.]--sure enough some adventurous "Thomas PLUNKET," visible
this once, soldiering, in those circumstances; never heard of by a
sympathetic reader before or after. It was while the King was
hunting the Haddick-Loudon people in Sagan Country in such vehement
fashion, that Zweibruck came trumpeting into Saxony,--King, Prince
Henri and everybody, well occupied otherwise, far away!
The Reichs Army has a camp at Naumburg (Rossbach neighborhood):
and has light troops out in Halle neighborhood; which have seized
Halle; are very severe upon Halle, and other places thereabouts,
till chased away. August 7th, the Reichs Army begirt Leipzig;
summoned the weak garrison there. It is a Town capable of ruin, but
not of defence: "Free-withdrawal," proposes the Reichs Army,--and
upon these terms gets hold of Leipzig, for the time being.
Leipzig, Torgau, Wittenberg; in a fortnight or less, all the
Prussian posts in those parts fall to the Reichs Army.
Its marchings and siegings, among those Northwestern places, not
one of them capable of standing above a few days' siege, are worth
no mention, except to Parish History: enough that, by little after
the middle of August, Zweibruck had got all these places, "Free-
withdrawal" the terms for all; and that, except it be the following
feature in their Siege of Torgau, feature mainly Biographic, and
belonging to a certain Colonel Wolfersdorf concerned, there is not
one of those Sieges now worth a moment's attention from almost any
mortal. This is the Torgau feature,--feature of human nature,
soldiering under difficulties:--
COLONEL VON WOLFERSDORF BEAUTIFULLY DEFENDS HIMSELF IN TORGAU
(August 9th-14th). Two days after Leipzig was had, there appeared
at Torgau a Body of Pandours, 2,000 and more; who attempted some
kind of scalade on Torgau and its small Garrison (of 700 or so),--
where are a Magazine, a Hospital and other properties: not capable,
by any garrison, of standing regular siege; but important to defend
till you have proper terms offered. The multitudinous Pandours, if
I remember, made a rush into the Suburbs, in their usual vociferous
way; but were met by the 700 silent Prussians,--silent except
through their fire-arms and field-pieces,--in so eloquent a style
as soon convinced the Pandour mind, and sent it travelling again.
And in the evening of the same day (August 9th), Colonel
Wolfersdorf arrives, as new Commandant, and with reinforcements,
small though considerable in the circumstances.
Wolfersdorf, one dimly gathers, had marched from Wittenberg on this
errand; the whole force in Torgau is now of about 3,000, still with
only field-cannon, but with a Captain over them;--who, as is
evident, sets himself in a very earnest manner to do his utmost in
defence of the place. Next morning Reichs General Kleefeld
("Cloverfield"), with 6 or 8,000 Pandour and Regular, summons
Wolfersdorf: "Surrender instantly; or--!" "We will expect you!"
answers Wolfersdorf. Whereupon, same morning (August 10th), general
storm; storm No. 1: beautifully handled by Wolfersdorf; who takes
it in rear (to its astonishment), as well as in front; and sends it
off in haste. On the morrow, Saturday, a second followed; and on
Sunday a third; both likewise beautifully handled. This third
storm, readers see, was "Sunday, August 12th:" a very busy stormful
day at Torgau here,--and also, for some others of us, during the
heats of Kunersdorf, over the horizon far away! Wolfersdorf tumbles
back all storms; furthermore makes mischievous sallies:
a destructive, skilled person; altogether prompt, fertile in
expedients; and evidently is not to be managed by Kleefeld. So that
Prince von Stolberg, Second to supreme Zweibruck himself, has to
take it in hand. And,
MONDAY, 13th, at break of day, Stolberg arrives with a train of
battering guns and 6,000 new people; summons Wolfersdorf: "No," as
before. Storms him, a fourth time; likewise "No," as before:
attacks, thereupon, his Elbe Bridge, and his Redoubt across the
River; finds a Wolfersdorf party rush destructive]y into his rear
there. And has to withdraw, and try battering from behind the Elbe
Dam. Continues this, violently for about two hours; till again
Wolfersdorf, whose poor fieldpieces, the only artillery he has,
"cannot reach so far with leaden balls" (the iron balls are done,
and the powder itself is almost done), manages, by a flank attack,
to quench this also. Which produces entire silence, and
considerable private reflection, on the part of indignant Stolberg.
Stolberg offers him the favorablest terms devisable: "Withdraw
freely, with all your honors, all your properties; only withdraw!"
Which Wolfersdorf, his powder and ball being in such a state of
ebb, and no relief possible, agrees to; with stipulations very
strict as to every particular. [In Anonymous of Hamburg
(iii. 350) the Capitulation, "August 14th." given
IN EXTENSO.]
COLONEL VON WOLFERSDORF WITHDRAWS, ALSO BEAUTIFULLY (August 15th).
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