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History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18




More to our immediate purpose is this other thing: That the
Austrians have been in Council of War; and, on deliberation, have
decided to come out of their defences; to quit their strong Camp,
which lies so eligibly, ahead of Breslau and arear of Lissa and of
Schweidnitz Water yonder; to cross Schweidnitz Water, leave Lissa
behind them; and meet this offensively aggressive Friedrich in
pitched fight. Several had voted, No, why stir?--Daun especially,
and others with emphasis. "No need of fighting at all," said Daun:
"we can defend Schweidnitz Water; ruin him before he ever get
across." "Defend? Be assaulted by an Army like his?" urges
Lucchesi, the other Chief General: "It is totally unworthy of us!
We have gained the game; all the honors ours; let us have done with
it. Give him battle, since he fortunately wishes it; we finish him,
and gloriously finish the War too!" So argued Lucchesi, with
vivacity, persistency,--to his own ill luck, but evidently with
approval from Prince Karl. Everybody sees, this is the way to
Prince Karl's favor at present. "Have not I reconquered Silesia?"
thinks Prince Karl to himself; and beams applause on the high
course, not the low prudent one. [Kutzen, pp. 45-48.] In a word,
the Austrians decide on stepping out to meet Friedrich in open
battle: it was the first time they ever did so; and it was likewise
the last.

Sunday, December 4th, at four in the morning, Friedrich has marched
from Parchwitz, straight towards the Austrian Camp; [Muller,
p. 26.] he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that the
Austrians are advancing towards him, and will not need to be forced
in their strong position. His march is in four columns, Friedrich
in the vanguard; quarters to be Neumarkt, a little Town about
fourteen miles off. Within some miles of Neumarkt, early in the
afternoon, he learns that there are a thousand Croats in the place,
the Austrian Bakery at work there, and engineer people marking out
an Austrian Camp. "On the Height beyond Neumarkt, that will be?"
thinks Friedrich; for he knows this ground, having often done
reviews here; to Breslau all the way on both hands, not a rood of
it but is familiar to him. Which was a singular advantage, say the
critics; and a point the Austrian Council of War should have taken
more thought of.

Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to ride
quietly round it on both sides, and to seize that Height he knows
of. Height once seized, or ready for seizing, he bursts the barrier
of Neumarkt; dashes in upon the thousand Croats; flings out the
Croats in extreme hurry, musketry and sabre acting on them;
they find their Height beset, their retreat cut off, and that they
must vanish. Of the 1,000 Croats, "569 were taken prisoners, and
120 slain," in this unexpected sweeping out of Neumarkt.
Better still, in Neumarkt is found the Austrian Bakery, set up and
in full work;--delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot, which
little expected to go such a road. On the Height, the Austrian
stakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the ground;
so hasty had the flight been.

How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of life so far
ahead of him? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a little puffed up with
high thoughts at this time. The capture of Schweidnitz, the late
"Malplaquet" (poorish Anti-Bevern Malplaquet), capture of Breslau,
and the low and lost condition of Friedrich's Silesian affairs, had
more or less turned everybody's head,--everybody's except
Feldmarschall Daun's alone:--and witty mess-tables, we already
said, were in the daily habit of mocking at Friedrich's march
towards them with aggressive views, and called his insignificant
little Army the "Potsdam Guard-Parade." [Cogniazzo, ii. 417-422.]
That was the common triumphant humor; naturally shared in by Prince
Karl; the ready way to flatter him being to sing in that tune.
Nobody otherwise can explain, and nobody in any wise can justify,
Prince Karl's ignorance of Friedrich's advance, his almost
voluntary losing of his staff-of-life in that manner.


MAP TO GO HERE--FACING PAGE 48, BOOK 18 continuation----


Prince Karl's soldiers have each (in the cold form) three days,
provision in their haversacks: they have come across the Weistritz
River (more commonly called Schweidnitz Water), which was also the
height of contemptuous imprudence; and lie encamped, this night,--
in long line, not ill-chosen (once the River IS behind),--
perpendicular to Friedrich's march, some ten miles ahead of him.
Since crossing, they had learned with surprise, How their Bakery
and Croats had been snapt up; that Friedrich was not at a distance,
but near;--and that arrangements could not be made too soon!
Their position intersects the Great Road at right angles, as we
hint; and has villages, swamps, woody knolls; especially, on each
wing, good defences. Their right wing leans on Nypern and its
impassable peat-bogs, a Village two or three miles north from the
Great Road; their centre is close behind another Village called
Leuthen, about as far south from it: length of their bivouac is
about five miles; which will become six or so, had Nadasti once
taken post, who is to form the left wing, and go down as far as
Sagschutz, southward of Leuthen. Seven battalions are in this
Village of Leuthen, eight in Nypern, all the Villages secured;
woods, scraggy abatis, redoubts, not forgotten: their cannon are
numerous, though of light calibre. Friedrich has at least 71 heavy
pieces; and 10 of them are formidably heavy,--brought from the
walls of Glogau, with terrible labor to Ziethen; but with excellent
effect, on this occasion and henceforth. They got the name of
"Boomers, Bellowers (DIE BRUMMER)," those Ten. Friedrich was in
great straits about artillery; and Retzow Senior recommended this
hauling up of the Ten Bellowers, which became celebrated in the
years coming. And now we are on the Battle-ground, and must look
into the Battle itself, if we can.



Chapter X.

BATTLE OF LEUTHEN.

From Neumarkt, on Monday, long before day, the Prussians, all but a
small party left there to guard the Bakery and Army Properties, are
out again; in four columns; towards what may lie ahead.
Friedrich, as usual in such cases, for obvious reasons, rides with
the vanguard. To Borne, the first Village on the Highway, is some
seven or eight miles. The air is damp, the dim incipiences of dawn
struggling among haze; a little way on this side Borne, we come on
ranks of cavalry drawn across the Highway, stretching right and
left into the dim void: Austrian Army this, then? Push up to it;
see what it is, at least.

It proves to be poor General Nostitz, with his three Saxon
regiments of dragoons, famous since Kolin-day, and a couple of
Hussar regiments, standing here as outpost;--who ought to have been
more alert; but they could not see through the dark, and so,
instead of catching, are caught. The Prussians fall upon them,
front and flank, tumble them into immediate wreck; drive the whole
outpost at full gallop home, through Borne, upon Nypern and the
right wing,--without news except of this symbolical sort.
Saxon regiments are quite ruined, "540 of them prisoners" (poor
Nostitz himself not prisoner, but wounded to death [Died in
Breslau, the twelfth day after (Seyfarth, ii. 362).]); and the
ground clear in this quarter.

Friedrich, on the farther side of Borne, calls halt, till the main
body arrive; rides forward, himself and staff, to the highest of a
range or suite of knolls, some furlongs ahead; sees there in full
view, far and wide, the Austrians drawn up before him. From Nypern
to Sagschuitz yonder; miles in length; and so distinct, while the
light mended and the hazes faded, "that you could have counted them
[through your glasses], man by man." A highly interesting sight to
Friedrich; who continues there in the profoundest study, and calls
up some horse regiments of the vanguard to maintain this Height and
the range of Heights running south from it. And there, I think, the
King is mainly to be found, looking now at the Austrians, now at
his own people, for some three hours to come. His plan of Battle is
soon clear to him: Nypern, with its bogs and scrags, on the
Austrian right wing, is tortuous impossible ground, as he well
remembers, no good prospect for us there: better ground for us on
their left yonder, at Leuthen, even at Sagschutz farther south,
whither they are stretching themselves. Attempt their left wing;
try our "Oblique Order" upon that, with all the skill that is in
us; perhaps we can do it rightly this time, and prosper
accordingly! That is Friedrich's plan of action. The four columns
once got to Borne shall fall into two; turn to the right, and go
southward, ever southward:--they are to become our two Lines of
Battle, were they once got to the right point southward.
Well opposite Sagschutz, that will be the point for facing to left,
and marching up,--in "Oblique Order," with the utmost faculty
they have!

"The Oblique Order, SCHRAGE STELLUNG," let the hasty reader pause
to understand, "is an old plan practised by Epaminondas, and
revived by Friedrich,--who has tried it in almost all his Battles
more or less, from Hohenfriedberg forward to Prag, Kolin, Rossbach;
but never could, in all points, get it rightly done till now, at
Leuthen, in the highest time of need. "It is a particular
manoeuvre," says Archenholtz, rather sergeant-wise, "which indeed
other troops are now [1793] in the habit of imitating; but which,
up to this 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 stairwise, so
that they shall halt close to one another," obliquely, to either
hand; and so, on a minimum of ground, bring your mass of men to the
required point at the required angle. Friedrich invented this mode
of getting into position; by its close ranking, by its depth, and
the manner of movement used, it had some resemblance to the
"Macedonian Phalanx,"--chiefly in the latter point, I should guess;
for when arrived at its place, it is no deeper than common.
"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 on one another," going in rapid mazes this way and
that. "But it needs only that the Commander lift his finger;
instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops itself
in perfect order, and with a speed like that of mountain rivers
when the ice breaks,"--is upon its Enemy. [Archenholtz, i. 209.]

"Your Enemy is ranked as here, in long line, three or two to one.
You march towards him, but keep him uncertain as to how you will
attack; then do on a sudden march up, not parallel to him, but
oblique, at an angle of 45 degrees,--swift, vehement, in
overpowering numbers, on the wing you have chosen. Roll that wing
together, ruined, in upon its own line, you may roll the whole five
miles of line into disorder and ruin, and always be in overpowering
number at the point of dispute. Provided, only, you are swift
enough about it, sharp enough! But extraordinary swiftness,
sharpness, precision is the indispensable condition;--by no means
try it otherwise; none but Prussians, drilled by an Old Dessauer,
capable of doing it. This is the SCHRAGE ORDNUNG, about which there
has been such commentating and controversying among military
people: whether Friedrich invented it, whether Caesar did it, how
Epaminondas, how Alexander at Arbela; how"--Which shall not in the
least concern us on this occasion.

The four columns rustled themselves into two, and turned southward
on the two sides of Borne;--southward henceforth, for about two
hours; as if straight towards the Magic Mountain, the Zobtenberg,
far off, which is conspicuous over all that region.
Their steadiness, their swiftness and exactitude were
unsurpassable. "It was a beautiful sight," says Tempelhof, an eye-
witness: "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 noble temper they were in." [Tempelhof, i. 288,
287.] I know not at what point of their course, or for how long,
but it was from the column nearest him, which is to be first line,
that the King heard, borne on the winds amid their field-music, as
they marched there, the sound of Psalms,--many-voiced melody of a
Church Hymn, well known to him; which had broken out, band
accompanying, among those otherwise silent men. The fact is very
certain, very strange to me: details not very precise, except that
here, as specimen, is a verse of their Hymn:--

"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."

"Gieb dass ich thu' mit Fleiss was mir zu thun gebuhret,
Wozu mich dein Befehl in meinem Stande fuhret,
Gieb dass ich's thue bald, zu der Zeit da ich's soll;
Und wenn ich's thu', so gieb dass es gerathe wohl."
["HYMN-BOOK of Porst" (Prussian Sternhold-and-
Hopkins), "p. 689:" cited in Preuss, ii. 107.]

One has heard the voice of waters, one has paused in the mountains
at the voice of far-off Covenanter psalms; but a voice like this,
breaking the commanded silences, one has not heard. "Shall we order
that to cease, your Majesty?" "By no means," said the King;
whose hard heart seems to have been touched by it, as might well
be. Indeed there is in him, in those grim days, a tone as of trust
in the Eternal, as of real religious piety and faith, scarcely
noticeable elsewhere in his History. His religion, and he had in
withered forms a good deal of it, if we will look well, beiug
almost always in a strictly voiceless state,--nay, ultra-voiceless,
or voiced the wrong way, as is too well known. "By no means!"
answered he: and a moment after, said to some one, Ziethen
probably: "With men like these, don't you think I shall have
victory this day!"

The loss of their Saxon Forepost proved more important to the
Austrians than it seemed;--not computable in prisoners, or killed
and wounded. The Height named Scheuberg,--"Borne Rise" (so we might
call it, which has got its Pillar of memorial since, with gilt
Victory atop [Not till 1854 (Kutzen, pp. 194, 195).];--where
Friedrich now is and where the Austrians are not, is at once a
screen and a point of vision to Friedrich. By loss of their Nostitz
Forepost, they had lost view of Friedrich, and never could recover
view of him; could not for hours learn distinctly what he was
about; and when he did come in sight again, it was in a most
unexpected place! On the farther side of Borne, edge of the big
expanse of open country there, Friedrich has halted; ridden with
his adjutants to the top of "the Scheuberg (Shy-HILL)," as the
Books call it, though it is more properly a blunt Knoll or "Rise,"
--the nearest of a Chain of Knolls, or swells in the ground, which
runs from north to south on that part.

Except the Zobtenberg, rising blue and massive, on the southern
horizon (famous mythologic Mountain, reminding you of an ARTHUR'S
SEAT in shape too, only bigger and solitary), this Country, for
many miles round, has nothing that could be called a Hill; it is
definable as a bare wide-waving champaign, with slight bumps on it,
or slow heavings and sinkings. Country mostly under culture, though
it is of sandy quality; one or two sluggish brooks in it; and reedy
meres or mires, drained in our day. It is dotted with Hamlets of
the usual kind; and has patches of scraggy fir. Your horizon, even
where bare, is limited, owing to the wavy heavings of the ground;
windmills and church-belfries are your only resource, and even
these, from about Leuthen and the Austrian position, leave the
Borne quarter mostly invisible to you. Leuthen Belfry, the same
which may have stood a hundred years before this Battle, ends in a
small tile-roof, open only at the gables:--"Leuthen Belfry," says a
recent Tourist, "is of small resource for a view. To south you can
see some distance, Sagschutz, Lobetintz and other Hamlets, amid
scraggy fir-patches, and meadows, once miry pools; but to north you
are soon shut in by a swell or slow rise, with two windmills upon
it [important to readers at present]; and to eastward [Breslau side
and Lissa side], or to westward [Friedrich's side], one has no
view, except of the old warped rafters and their old mouldy tiles
within few inches; or, if by audacious efforts at each end, to the
risk of your neck, you get a transient peep, it is stopt, far short
of Borne, by the slow irregular heavings, with or without fir about
them." [Tourist's Note, PENES ME.]

In short, Friedrich keeps possession of that Borne ridge of Knolls,
escorted by Cavalry in good numbers; twinkling about in an
enigmatic way:--"Prussian right wing yonder," think the Austrians--
"whitherward, or what can they mean?"--and keeps his own columns
and the Austrian lines in view; himself and his movements
invisible, or worse, to the Austrian Generals from any spy-glass or
conjecture they can employ.

The Austrian Generals are in windmills, on church-belfries, here,
there; diligently scanning the abstruse phenomenon, of which so
little can be seen. Daun, who had always been against this
adventure, thinks it probable the vanished Prussians are retiring
southward: for Bohemia and our Magazines probably. "These good
people are smuggling off (DIE GUTEN LEUTE PASCHEN AB)," said he:
"let them go in peace." [Muller, p. 36.] Daun, that morning, in his
reconnoitrings, had asked of a peasant, "What is that, then?"
(meaning the top of a Village-steeple in the distance, but thought
by the peasant to be meaning something nearer hand). "That is the
Hill our King chases the Austrians over, when he is reviewing
here!" Which Daun reported at head-quarters with a grin.
[Nicolai, Anekdoten, iv. 34.]

Lucchesi, on the other hand, scanning those Borne Hills, and the
cavalry of Friedrich's escort twinkling hither and thither on them,
becomes convinced to a moral certainty, That yonder is the Prussian
Vanguard, probable extremity of left wing; and that he, Lucchesi,
here at Nypern, is to be attacked. "Attacked, you?" said one
Montazet, French Agent or Emissary here: "unless they were snipes,
it is impossible!" But Lucchesi saw it too well.

He sends to say that such is the evident fact, and that he,
Lucchesi, is not equal to it, but must have large reinforcement of
Horse to his right wing. "Tush!" answer Prince Karl and Daun; and
return only argument, verbal consolation, to distressed Lucchesi.
Lucchesi sends a second message, more passionately pressing, to the
like effect; also with the like return. Upon which he sends a third
message, quite passionate: "If Cavalry do not come, I will not be
responsible for the issue!" And now Daun does collect the required
reinforcement; "all the reserve of Horse, and a great many from the
left wing;"--and, Daun himself heading them, goes off at a swift
trot; to look into Lucchesi and his distresses, three or four miles
to right, five or six from where the danger lies. Now is
Friedrich's golden moment.

Wending always south, on their western or invisible side of those
Knolls, Friedrich's people have got to about the level, or LATITUDE
as we might call it, of Nadasti's left. To Radaxdorf, namely, to
Lobetintz, or still farther south, and perhaps a mile to west of
Nadasti. Friedrich has mounted to Lobetintz Windmill; and judges
that the time is come. Daun and Cavalry once got to support their
right wing, and our south latitude being now sufficient, Friedrich,
swift as Prussian manoeuvring can do it, falls with all his
strength upon their left wing. Forms in oblique order,--horse,
foot, artillery, all perfect in their paces; and comes streaming
over the Knolls at Sagschutz, suddenly like a fire-deluge on
Nadasti, who had charge there, and was expecting no such adventure!
How Friedrich did the forming in oblique order was at that time a
mystery known only to Friedrich and his Prussians: but soldiers of
all countries, gathering the secret from him, now understand it,
and can learnedly explain it to such as are curious. Will readers
take a touch more of the DRILL-SERGEANT?

"You go stairwise (EN ECHELON)," says he: "first battalion starts,
second stands immovable till the first have done fifty steps;
at the fifty-first, second battalion also steps along;
third waiting for ITS fifty-first step. First battalion [rightmost
battalion or leftmost, as the case may be; rightmost in this
Leuthen case] doing fifty steps before the next stirs, and each
battalion in succession punctually doing the same:" march along on
these terms,--or halt at either end, while you advance at the
other,--it is evident you will swing yourself out of the parallel
position into any degree of obliquity. And furthermore, merely by
halting and facing half round at the due intervals, you shove
yourself to right or to left as required (always to right in this
Leuthen case): and so--provided you CAN march as a pair of
compasses would--you will, in the given number of minutes, impinge
upon your Enemy's extremity at the required angle, and overlap him
to the required length: whereupon, At him, in flank, in front, and
rear, and see if he can stand it! "A beautiful manoeuvre" says
Captain Archenholtz; "devised by Friedrich," by Friedrich
inheriting Epaminondas and the Old Dessauer; "and which perhaps
only Friedrich's men, to this day, could do with the
requisite perfection."

Nadasti, a skilful War-Captain, especially with Horse, was
beautifully posted about Sagschutz; his extreme left folded up EN
POTENCE there (elbow of it at Sagschutz, forearm of it running to
Gohlau eastward); POTENCE ending in firwood Knolls with Croat
musketeers, in ditches, ponds, difficult ground, especially towards
Gohlau. He has a strong battery, 14 pieces, on the Height to rear
of him, at the angle or elbow of his POTENCE; strong abatis, well
manned in front to rightwards: upon this, and upon the Croats in
the firwood, the Prussians intend their attack. General Wedell is
there, Prince Moritz as chief, with six battalions, and their
batteries, battery of 10 Brummers and another; Ziethen also and
Horse: coming on, in swift fire-flood, and at an angle of forty-
five degrees. Most unexpected, strange to behold! From southwest
yonder; about one o'clock of the day.

Nadasti, though astonished at the Prussian fire-deluge, stands to
his arms; makes, in front, vigorous defence; and even takes, in
some sort, the initiative,--that is, dashes out his Cavalry on
Ziethen, before Ziethen has charged. Ziethen's Horse, who are
rightmost of the Prussians: and are bare to the right,--ground
offering no bush, no brook there (though Ziethen, foreseeing such
defect, has a clump of infantry near by to mend it),--reel back
under this first shock, coming downhill upon them; and would have
fared badly, had not the clump of infantry instantly opened fire on
the Nadasti visitors, and poured it in such floods upon them, that
they, in their turn, had to reel back. Back they, well out of
range;--and leave Ziethen free for a counter-attack shortly, on
easier terms, which was successful to him. For, during that first
tussle of his, the Prussian Infantry, to left of Ziethen, has
attacked the Sagschutz Firwood; clears that of Croats;
attacks Nadasti's line, breaks it, their Brummer battery potently
assisting, and the rage of Wedell and everybody being extreme.
So that, in spite of the fine ground, Nadasti is in a bad way, on
the extreme left or outmost point of his POTENCE, or tactical KNEE.
Round the knee-pan or angle of his POTENCE, where is the abatis, he
fares still worse. Abatis, beswept by those ten Brummers and other
Batteries, till bullet and bayonet can act on it, speedily gives
way. "They were mere Wurtembergers, these; and could not stand!"
cried the Austrians apologetically, at a great rate, afterwards;
as if anybody could well have stood.

Indisputably the Wurtembergers and the abatis are gone; and the
Brandenburgers, storming after them, storm Nadasti's interior
battery of 14 pieces; and Nadasti's affairs are rapidly getting
desperate in this quarter. Figure Prince Karl's scouts, galloping
madly to recall that Daun Cavalry! Austrian Battalions, plenty of
them, rush down to help Nadasti; but they are met by the crowding
fugitives, the chasing Prussians; are themselves thrown into
disorder, and can do no good whatever. They arrive on the ground
flurried, blown; have not the least time to take breath and order:
the fewest of them ever got fairly ranked, none of them ever stood
above one push: all goes rolling wildly back upon the centre about
Leuthen. Chaos come on us;--and all for mere lack of time:
could Nadasti but once stretch out one minute into twenty! But he
cannot. Nadasti does not himself lose head; skilfully covers the
retreat, trying to rally once and again. Not for the first few
furlongs, till the ditches, till the firwood, quagmires are all
done, could Ziethen, now on the open ground, fairly hew in;
"take whole battalions prisoners;" drive the crowd in an altogether
stormy manner; and wholly confound the matter in this part.

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