results of the battle of rossbach.—the attack upon breslau.—extraordinary address of the king to his troops.—confidence of the prussians in their commander.—magnificent array of the austrians at leuthen.—tactics of frederick.—the battle hymn.—the battle and the victory.—scenes after the battle.—recapture of breslau by frederick.
the battle of rossbach was fought on the 5th of november, 1757. frederick had but little time to rejoice over his victory. the austrians were overrunning silesia. on the 14th of the month, the important fortress of schweidnitz, with all its magazines, fell into their hands. then prince charles, with sixty thousand austrian troops, marched upon breslau, the principal city of silesia, situated on the oder. the prince of bevern held the place with a little over twenty thousand prussian troops. his army was strongly intrenched outside of the walls, under the guns of the city.
on the 22d of november the austrians commenced their attack from five different points. it was a terrific conflict. sixty thousand men stormed ramparts defended by twenty thousand as highly disciplined troops, and as desperate in valor, as ever stood upon a battle-field. the struggle commenced at three o’clock in the morning, and raged, over eight miles of country, until nine o’clock at night. darkness and utter exhaustion terminated the conflict. the austrians had lost, in killed and wounded, six thousand men, the prussians eight thousand.
prince bevern, aware that the battle would be renewed upon the morrow, and conscious that he could not sustain another435 such struggle, withdrew with his prussian troops in the night, through the silent streets of breslau, to the other side of the oder, leaving eighty cannon behind him. the next morning, in visiting one of the outposts, he was surprised by a party of the austrians and taken prisoner. it was reported that, fearing the wrath of the king, he had voluntarily allowed himself to be captured. general kyau, the next in rank, took the command. he rapidly retreated. breslau, thus left to its fate, surrendered, with its garrison of four thousand men, ninety-eight pieces of cannon, and vast magazines filled with stores of war. the next day was sunday. te deums were chanted by the triumphant austrians in the catholic churches in breslau, and thanks were offered to god that maria theresa had reconquered silesia, and that “our ancient sovereigns are restored to us.”
these were terrible tidings for frederick. the news reached him at gorlitz when on the rapid march toward silesia. prince charles had between eighty and ninety thousand austrian troops in the reconquered province. frederick seemed to be marching to certain and utter destruction, as, with a feeble band of but about twenty thousand men, he pressed forward, declaring, “i will attack them if they stand on the steeples of breslau.”
on the evening of the 3d of december, 1757, the king arrived at parchwitz, in the heart of silesia, about thirty miles from breslau. here the wreck of prince bevern’s army joined him. thus re-enforced, he could bring about thirty thousand men into the field. he immediately, in the night, assembled his principal officers, and thus addressed them; the words were taken down at the time. we give this characteristic address slightly abbreviated:
“my friends, the disasters which have befallen us here are not unknown to you. schweidnitz is lost. the prince of bevern is beaten. breslau is gone, and all our war-stores there. a large part of silesia is lost. indeed, my embarrassments would be insuperable were it not that i have boundless trust in you. there is hardly one among you who has not distinguished himself by some memorable action. all these services i well know, and shall never forget.
“i flatter myself that now nothing will be wanting of that valor which the state has a right to expect of you. the hour is436 at hand. i should feel that i had accomplished nothing were i to leave silesia in the hands of austria. let me then apprise you that i intend to attack prince charles’s army, which is nearly thrice the strength of our own, wherever i can find it. it matters not what are his numbers, or what the strength of his position. all this by courage and by skill we will try to overcome. this step i must risk, or all is lost. we must beat the enemy, or perish before his batteries. if there be any one who shrinks from sharing these dangers with me, he can have his discharge this evening.”
the king paused. a general murmur of applause indicated the united resolve to conquer or to die. frederick immediately added:
“yes, i knew it. not one of you will forsake me. i rely upon your help and upon victory as sure. the cavalry regiment that does not, on the instant, on order given, dash full plunge into the enemy, i will directly after the battle unhorse, and make it a garrison regiment. the infantry battalion which, meet with what it may, shows the least sign of hesitating, loses its colors and its sabres, and i cut the trimmings from its uniform.
“i shall be in the front and in the rear of the army. i shall fly from one wing to the other. no squadron and no company will escape my observation. those who act well i will reward, and will never forget them. we shall soon either have beaten the enemy or we shall see each other no more.”
after this address to the assembled generals frederick rode out to the camp, and addressed each regiment in the most familiar and fatherly, yet by no means exultant terms. it was night. the glare of torches shed a lurid light upon the scene. the first regiment the king approached was composed of the cuirassiers of the life guard.
“well, my children,” said frederick, “how do you think that it will be with us now? the austrians are twice as strong as we.”
“never you mind that,” they replied. “the austrians are not prussians. you know what we can do.”
“indeed i do,” the king responded. “otherwise i durst not risk a battle. and now, my children, a good night’s sleep to you. we shall soon attack the enemy; and we shall beat him, or we shall all die.”
437 “yes, death or victory,” they shouted. then from loving lips the cheer ran along the line, “good-night, fritz.”
and thus the king passed from regiment to regiment. perhaps no commander, excepting napoleon, has ever secured to an equal degree the love of his soldiers. it is said that a deserter was brought before him.
“what induced you to desert me?” inquired the king.
“alas! your majesty,” the man replied, “we are so few, and the austrians are so many, that defeat is certain.”
“well,” the king replied, kindly, “try it one day more. if we do not mend matters, you and i will both desert together.”
the austrian army, which outnumbered the prussian over three to one, was in a camp, very strongly fortified, near breslau. a council of war was held. some of the austrian officers, dreading the prowess of their redoubtable opponent, advised that they should remain behind their intrenchments, and await an attack. it would, of course, be impossible for less than thirty thousand men to storm ramparts bristling with artillery, and defended by nearly ninety thousand highly disciplined and veteran troops.
others, however, urged that this was ignoble and cowardly; that it would expose them to the derision of the world if they, with their overwhelming numbers, were to take shelter behind their ramparts, fearing to attack so feeble a band. prince charles, anxious to regain lost reputation, and elated by the reconquest of silesia, adopted the more heroic resolve, and marched out to meet the foe.
with great joy frederick learned that the austrians had left their camp, and were on the advance to attack him. he immediately put his little army in motion for the perilous and decisive conflict. it was four o’clock sunday morning, december 4, 1757, when frederick left parchwitz on his march toward breslau. he was familiar with every square mile of the region. the austrians were so vastly superior in numbers that many of them quite despised the weakness of the prussian army. many jokes were tossed about in the austrian camp respecting the feeble band of frederick, which they contemptuously called the “potsdam guard.”
the austrians, on the careless and self-confident march toward parchwitz, had crossed the schweidnitz river, or water, as it438 was called, when they learned that frederick, with a tiger-like spring, had leaped upon neumarkt, an important town fourteen miles from parchwitz. here the austrians had a bakery, protected by a guard of a thousand men. seven hundred of the guard were instantly sabred or taken prisoners. the rest fled wildly. frederick gathered up eighty thousand hot bread rations, with which he feasted his hungry troops.
map of the leuthen campaign.
early on monday morning the prussians advanced from neumarkt, eight miles, to borne. here they met the advance-guard of the austrian cavalry. it was a dark, foggy morning. frederick, as usual, was with his vanguard. almost before the austrians were conscious of the presence of the foe, they were assailed, with the utmost impetuosity, in front and on both their flanks. instantly they were thrown into utter confusion. the ground was covered with their dead. their general, nostitz, was fatally wounded, and died the next day. five hundred and forty were taken prisoners. the bleeding, breathless remnant fled pell-mell back to the main body, a few miles in the rear.
frederick, pressing forward directly east, toward leuthen, ascended an eminence, the height of scheuberg, whence he beheld,439 directly before him, the whole majestic austrian army. it extended for a distance of about five miles, drawn up in battle-array across his path, from the village of nypern on the north, through leuthen, to the village of sagschütz on the south. so distinctly were their military lines spread out before the eye that frederick, with his glass, could count them, man by man. carefully the king studied the position of the enemy, and formed his plan of attack. he designed, while bewildering the austrians by his man?uvres, to direct the whole concentrated strength of his army upon their extreme left wing. he hoped thus, by the desperate impetuosity of his attack, to roll that whole left wing together in utter ruin before the centre or the right could come to its aid. he would then press on, with numbers ever overpowering the austrians at the point of attack, until the whole line, five miles in length, was annihilated.
an eye-witness thus describes the tactics by which frederick executed his design: “it is a particular man?uvre which, up to the present time, none but prussian troops can execute with the precision and velocity indispensable to it. you divide your line into many pieces. you can push these forward stair-wise, so that they shall halt close to one another. forming itself in this way, a mass of troops takes up in proportion very little ground. and it shows in the distance, by reason of the mixed uniforms and standards, a totally chaotic mass of men, heaped one on another. but it needs only that the commander lift his finger, and instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops itself in perfect order, and with a speed like that of mountain rivers.”112
“it was a beautiful sight,” writes tempelhof. “the heads of the columns were constantly on the same level, and at the distance necessary for forming. all flowed on exact as if in a review. and you could read in the eyes of our brave troops the temper they were in.”
as they marched their voices burst forth simultaneously in a german hymn. the gush of their rude and many-voiced melody was borne distinctly on the wind to the eminence where frederick stood, anxiously watching those movements which were to decide his own fate, that of his family, and of his kingdom. the following is a translation of one of the verses of this hymn:
440
“grant that with zeal and skill, this day, i do what me to do behooves, what thou command’st me to; grant that i do it sharp, at point of moment fit, and when i do it, grant me good success in it.”113
these solemn tones of sacred psalmody fell impressively upon the ear of the king when his earthly all was trembling in the balance. religionless and atheistic as he was, he could not repress some visible emotion. one of his officers, aware of the king’s avowed contempt for every thing of a religious nature, inquired,
“shall we order that to cease, your majesty?”
“by no means,” the king replied. “with men like these i shall be sure of victory to-day!”114
battle of leuthen, december 5, 1757.
a a. austrian army. b b. position of saxon forepost, under nostitz. c c. advance of prussian army. d. lucchesi’s cavalry, re-enforced by daun. e. left wing, under nadasti. f. frederick’s hill of observation. g g. prussian army about to attack. h. ziethen’s cavalry. i i i. retreat of austrians.
the field of leuthen—for so this battle-field was called—was a vast undulating plain or rolling prairie, extending for miles in all directions. one or two brooks flowed sluggishly through it. here and there were expanses of marsh which neither horse nor foot could traverse. a few scraggy firs dotted the dreary landscape,441 and there were also a few hamlets of peasants’ huts scattered around. frederick concealed his movements as much as possible behind the undulations, and succeeded in deceiving the austrians into the belief that he was to make an attack upon their right wing. the austrian officers, on windmills and in church belfries, were eagerly scrutinizing his man?uvres. deceived into the conviction that their right wing was menaced, they impetuously pushed forward large re-enforcements of horse to the support of the presumed point of attack. thus the left wing was weakened.
frederick, who had taken his position upon a windmill, saw, with much satisfaction, the successful operation of his plan. suddenly, with almost miraculous swiftness of movement, his perfectly drilled troops, horse, foot, and artillery, every man reckless of life, poured forth with a rush and a roar as of a lava-flood upon the extreme left of the austrians. it was one o’clock of the day. there was neither brook, bush, fence, nor marsh to impede the headlong impetuosity of the assault. at the point of attack the prussians were, of course, most numerous. there were a few moments of terrible slaughter, and the left wing of the austrian army was annihilated. the ground was covered with the wounded and the dead, and the fugitives, in dismay, were fleeing across the fields.
the austrian centre was pushed rapidly forward to the aid of the discomfited left. it was too late. the soldiers arrived upon the ground breathless and in disorder. before they had time to form, frederick plowed their ranks with balls, swept them with bullets, and fell upon them mercilessly with sabre and bayonet. the carnage was awful. division after division melted away in the fire deluge which consumed them. prince charles made the most desperate efforts to rally his dismayed troops in and around the church-yard at leuthen. here for an hour they fought desperately. but it was all in vain. the left wing was destroyed. the centre was destroyed. the right wing was pushed forward only to be cut to pieces by the sabres, and to be mown down by the terrific fire of the triumphant prussians.
scarcely had the conflict upon the extreme left commenced ere it was evident that by the military sagacity of frederick the442 doom of the austrian army was sealed. with thirty thousand men he had attacked ninety thousand on the open field, and was utterly overwhelming them. an austrian officer, prince de ligne, describing the battle, writes:
“cry had risen for the reserve, and that it must come on as fast as possible. we ran at our utmost speed. our lieutenant colonel fell, killed, at the first. then we lost our major, and, indeed, all the officers but three. we had crossed two successive ditches which lay in an orchard to the left of the first houses in leuthen, and were beginning to form in front of the village. but there was no standing it. besides a general cannonade, such as can scarcely be imagined, there was a rain of case-shot upon this battalion, of which i had to take command. a prussian battalion at the distance of eighty paces gave the liveliest fire upon us. it stood as if on the parade-ground, and waited for us without stirring. my soldiers, who were tired with running, and had no cannon, soon became scattered. at last, when i had but two hundred left, i drew back to the height where the windmill is.”
before the sun went down the austrian army was every where flying from the field in hopeless confusion. their rush was in four torrents toward the east, to reach the bridges which crossed the schweidnitz water. there were four of them. one was on the main road at lissa; one a mile north at stabelwitz; and two on the south, one at goldschmieden, and the other at hermannsdorf. the victory of frederick was one of the most memorable in the annals of war. the austrians lost in killed and wounded ten thousand men. twenty-one thousand were taken prisoners. this was a heavier loss in numbers than the whole army of frederick. the victors also took fifty-one flags, and a hundred and sixteen cannon.
as the king cast his eye over the blood-stained field, covered with the wounded and the dead, for a moment he seemed overcome with the aspect of misery, and exclaimed, “when, oh when will my woes cease?”
“my children,” said frederick that night at parole, “after such a day’s work you deserve rest. this day will send the renown of your name and that of the nation down to the latest posterity.”
443 he did not order the exhausted troops to pursue the foe. still, as he rode along the line after dark, he inquired,
“is there any battalion which has a mind to follow me to lissa?”
three volunteered. it was so dark that the landlord of a little country inn walked with a lantern by the side of frederick’s horse. lissa was on the main road to breslau. the landlord supposed that he was guiding one of frederick’s generals, and was very communicative.
“yesterday noon,” said he, “i had prince charles in my parlor. his adjutants and people were all crowding about. such a questioning and bothering. hundreds came dashing in, and other hundreds were sent out. in and out they went all night. no sooner was one gone than ten came. i had to keep a roaring fire in the kitchen all night, so many officers were crowding to it to warm themselves. they talked and babbled. one would say that our king was marching upon them with his potsdam parade guard. another would say, ‘no, he dare not come. he will turn and run.’ but my delight is that our king has paid them for their fooleries so prettily this afternoon.”
“when did you get rid of your guests?” inquired the king.
“about nine this morning,” was the reply, “the prince got to horse. not long after three he came back again with a swarm of officers, all going full speed for lissa. they were full of bragging when they came; now they were off wrong side foremost! i saw how it was. close following after him the flood of them ran. the high road was not broad enough. it was an hour and more before it ended. such a pell-mell, such a welter! cavalry and infantry all jumbled together. our king must have given them a terrible flogging.”
when the king reached lissa he found the village full of austrian officers and soldiers in a state of utter disorganization and confusion. had the austrians known their strength or the weakness of the king, they might easily have taken him captive. frederick was somewhat alarmed. he, however, assumed a bold front, and rode to the principal house in the town, which was a little one side of the main street. the house was crowded with austrian officers, bustling about, seeking lodgings for the night. the king stepped in with a slight escort, and said gayly,
444 “good evening, gentlemen, good evening. can you make room for me here, do you think?”
the king in search of lodgings.
the astounded austrians bowed to the dust before him, escorted him to the best room, and, stealing out into the darkness, made their way as rapidly as possible to the bridge, which at the east end of the street crossed the schweidnitz water. at the farther end of the bridge austrian cannon were planted to arrest the pursuit. the officers hurried across, and vanished in the gloom of night, followed by the river-guard. the prussian cannoneers steadily pursued, and kept up through the night an incessant fire upon the rear of the foe.
the night was very dark and cold. a wintry wind swept the bleak, frozen fields. still the routed austrians pressed on. still the tireless prussians pursued. the prussian soldiers were protestants.445 many of them were well instructed in religion. as they pressed on through the gloom, sweeping the road before them with artillery discharges, their voices simultaneously burst forth into a well-known church hymn, a sort of protestant te deum—
“now thank god, one and all, with heart, with voice, with hands, who wonders great hath done to us and to all lands.”115
early in the morning frederick’s whole army was on the rapid march for breslau, which was scarcely twenty miles distant from the battle-field. the austrians had collected immense military stores in the city. prince charles, as he fled through the place with the wreck of his army, left a garrison of seventeen thousand men for its defense. in a siege of twelve days, during which there was an incessant bombardment and continual assaults, the city was carried. a few days after this, liegnitz, which the austrians had strongly fortified, was also surrendered to the victor. frederick had thus reconquered the whole of silesia excepting the single fortress of schweidnitz.
