The Battles of Frederick the Great. Abstracted from Thomas Carlyle's biography of Frederick the Great. Edited by C. Ransome

Preface

. This abstract of Mr. Carlyle's " Frederick the Great " has been prepared with a view to making more accessible the spirited and picturesque battle pieces now embedded in the ten lengthy volumes which contain the biography of Frederick the Great. Both as military studies and examples of literary workmanship they possess a special value of their own, and it is hoped that they may often prove an introduction to a know ledge of that great and interesting work. The part played by the editor has been limited to writing a brief introduction and a short outline of the operations which led to each fight, and to disencumber ing the essential parts of Carlyle's narrative from such extraneous matter as would have been out of place in such a selection. It has throughout been his chief care to preserve all that was characteristic of Carlyle — his spelling, his punctuation, his use of capitals — and he hopes that lovers of the narrative in its larger form will forgive him for what some may regard as an irreverent use of scissors and paste. A line has been introduced, in VI EDITOR'S

PREFACE.

. addition to a change of type, to distinguish Carlyle's work from editorial matter, and between these every word is Carlyle's and his only. The maps are taken, by permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall, from their edition of Carlyle's works ; a hint as to their use has been added under the list of Illustrations. The illustrations have been selected, through the courtesy of the Director-General of the Koeniglichen Museen at Berlin, from the famous drawings by Adolf Menzel in the German Imperial State edition of the works of Frederick the Great. They were chosen to illustrate the German conception of Frederick's appearance, and the uniforms and equipment of the several branches of the service. C. R. Leeds, July I, 1892. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Introductory . . . . . • • • ■ • ' II. Mollwitz . . . . . . . . • • . . 10 III.

Chotusitz .. .. .. ■■ ■■ 25 IV. Hohenfriedberg . . . . ■ . • • 34 V. SOHR .. .. .. •■ •• ..50 VI. Lobositz . . . . . . • • • ■ . . 60 VII. Prag .. .. .. .. •• ..70 VIII. KOLIN .. .. .. •• •• •■ 92 IX. Rossbach . . . . . . . ■ • • . . 106 X. Leuthen .. .. .. •• •• ..121 XI. ZORNDORF . . . . ■ • ■ • • • . . I38 XII. Hochkirch .. ■• •• ■• ..160 XIII. KUNERSDORF .. .. • . ■■ •■ *79 XIV. LlEGNITZ . . . . • • • • ■ • • • 199 XV. TORGAU . . ■ • . • ■ • ■ • ■ . . 212 XVI. Conclusion- .. •• •• •• • • 235 Index •• •■ -239 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Frederick the Great . . . . . . Frontispiece Frederick and his Father . . . . . . To face 6 The Grenadiers at Mollwitz . . . . . . ,,20 An Hussar Picket .. .. .. .. ,,52 Frederick at Kolin .. .. • .. .. ,,98 Frederick at Rossbach .. .. ,, 114 The Cuirassiers at Zorndorf .. .. .. ,, 150 Frederick at Hochkirch .. .. .. ,, 174 Storming of the Muhlberg .. .. .. ,, 188 MAPS AND PLANS.

General Map .. .. .. .. At end of book Plan of the Battlefield of — Mollwitz . . . . . . . . . . ..II Chotusitz . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Hohenfriedberg . . . . . . . . 35 Sohr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 LOEOSITZ . . . . . . . . , , . . 6l Prag . . . . . . . . . . . . ..71 Kolin.. .. .. .. .. .. ..93 Rossbach . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Leuthen . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 ZORNDORF .. .. .. .. .. .. 139 HOCHKIRCH . . . . . . . . . . . . l6l KUNERSDORF . . . . . . . . . . . . l8l LlEGNITZ . . . . . . . . . . . . 2OI TORGAU .. .. .. .. .. .. 213 If the reader has any difficulty in understanding the maps, let him while reading the text, join the different pairs of letters by dotted or straight lines in blue or red pencil, thus: Austrian position, a.... a; Prussian ditto, d d ; or mark 'solated positions thus : Ziethen's Hussars, b 1 1.

Chapter I. Introductory

Frederick the Great, King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg, hero of the Seven Years' War, ally of England and friend of Chatham, was a member of the family of Hohenzollern, and came to the throne on the 24th of May, 1740. Prussia proper, from which his title of king was derived, is the name of a district lying along the shores of the Baltic and on the confines of modern Russia and Poland,* outside the limits' of mediæval Germany. There he was king ; but in Germany his proper title was that of Elector of Brandenburg, by which is meant * See general map. 1; that he was one of nine princes who voted in the election of the emperor. The emperor, who is often, but incorrectly, spoken of as Emperor of Germany, was King of Germany and head of the Holy Roman Empire, and regarded himself as the successor of Charles the Great and of the Roman emperors of the West.

The office was not hereditary, but elective. From the emperor, as King of Germany, all the princes of Germany held their lands, and were in name his vassals. In reality, however, they were all but independent, and the power and influence of the emperor depended on the extent of his hereditary dominions. For many years the person chosen to be emperor had been the head of the family of the Austrian Hapsburgs, and, as the head of that family was also King of Bohemia and Hungary and ruler of other important territories, his influence had long been paramount in Germany. Next to the emperor ranked the electors, of whom five were laymen — viz. the King of Bohemia, and the dukes of Bavaria, Saxony, and Hanover, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine of the Rhine — and three ecclesiastics, viz. the archbishops of Koln or Cologne, Mainz or Mayence, Trier or Treves.

Of these, the head of the House of Austria was King of Bohemia ; the Elector of Bavaria had a rich and unbroken territory in South Germany ; the Duke of Saxony for two generations had been elected King of Poland ; and the Elector of Hanover since 17 ia had been identical with the King of England. The INTRODUCTORY. 3 Elector of Brandenburg was, as we saw, " King in Prussia." The other princes of Germany were compara tively insignificant, and dependent on their larger neighbours. The dominions of the King of Prussia had the disadvantage of being much scattered. Far to the east lay Prussia proper, divided from Brandenburg by a slice of Polish territory ; then Brandenburg and Hither Pomerania, lying respectively along the banks of the Elbe and the Oder ; and, lastly, away on the Rhine were the duchies of Mark and Cleve, which had been settled in the hands of the Hohenzollerns since the famous Peace of Westphalia, in 1648.

Besides these districts, which were held by the head of the House, there were also in the possession of the family the principalities of Anspach and Baireuth. The duchies of Jiilich and Berg, adjoining that of Cleve, were secured to it in reversion ; and the family also claimed the four Silesian duchies of Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau, and Jagerndorf, which, how ever, were and had long been in the hands of the House of Austria. It was the attempt to regain and keep these Silesian duchies which was the corner-stone of the whole policy of Frederick the Great. Compared with the neighbouring powers, the terri tories of the King of Prussia owed their importance entirely to the character of their sovereigns. The lands themselves were as a whole poor, scattered in situation, and possessed of no natural military advantages ; but in the genius of the reigning family there was an ample offset to these drawbacks.

The family of the Hohenzollerns is, perhaps, the most remarkable among the dynasties of Europe. Sprung from the ranks of the lesser princes, it had raised itself to its present position by its own genius. The Hohen zollerns had early perceived that if Prussia was to hold her own, it must be by the efficiency of the army ; and for many years before the accession of Frederick the Great, the attention of successive rulers had been directed to securing for it a high degree of excellence. This devotion to military affairs reached a climax in the conduct of Frederick's father, Frederick William the First, the founder of the Prussian administrative system. As a young man he had fought under Marlborough, and was convinced that the efficiency of armies in war depended upon their exertions in peace.

Accordingly, he enforced a strict system of conscription, and a discipline so rigorous that it is difficult to understand how men could be found to submit to it. He also devoted himself to economy, and set before himself an efficient army and a well filled treasury as the best legacies which he could leave to his successor. Though Frederick William was thus assiduous for the material improvement of his do minions, he proved himself a hard taskmaster, both to his family and to his subjects, and in his later years his eccentricities amounted to positive insanity. The chief victim of their baleful influence was his eldest son. The late king, Frederick I., the grand father of our hero, had been a man of some taste, addicted to French fashions and lavish display. His INTRODUCTORY. 5 son, who was German to the backbone, disliked this, and, in the education of his children, rushed to the opposite extreme.

The little Frederick, who at the accession of his father was only a year old, was edu cated in thestrictest rigour of military discipline. All liberal accomplishments, even the learning of Latin, were denied to him. Everything was to be practical, economical, and even ascetic. To be a great captain and successful ruler was set up as the end and object of all education. Under this system Frederick soon chafed, and by slow degrees the breach between him and his father grew wider. It is true that in the son there was little to excite the pride of his parent and much to provoke displeasure. Young Frederick was small in body and of a delicate constitution. He had little taste for military affairs ; preferred music to sport, and the society of his mother and sisters to that afforded by his father's smoking room.

The father, on his side, was incapable of making allowances for differences of taste, and wished to cudgel and drill everybody into his own mould. But severity had the opposite effect to that designed. Frederick stole more and more towards philosophy and literature. His father became more than ever devoted to drillings and economies ; and the severe morality of the father produced a reaction in the son. Above all, certain interested politicians exerted themselves to widen the breach. As Frederick grew older, and the question of his marriage came to the front, a new cause of contention arose. The queen, Sophia Dorothea, a sister of George I. of England, wished to form a close alliance with the House of Hanover, and proposed that her eldest daughter, Wilhelmina, should marry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and that her son Frederick should espouse the English Princess Amelia.

This proposal was distasteful to the Austrian court, which bribed the ministers of Frederick William, and employed a certain Count Seckendorf to poison the king's mind against the English alliance. In consequence, Frederick William became completely alienated from his family ; grew more than ever tyran nical and exacting ; actually used his cane upon his son's shoulders, and threw plates at his daughters as they sat at the table. At length Frederick lost all patience, and formed a plan for escaping to England. This scheme was dis covered, and he was arrested as a deserter. The court martial which tried him found him worthy of death, and so perverted was the king's mind that the sentence narrowly escaped execution. However, even Austria felt that this was going too far. Frederick William was induced to relent, the sentence was altered to one of imprisonment in a fortress, and, on the occasion of his sister's marriage, Frederick was liberated.

He was, how ever, condemned to a term of duty as a civilian before he rejoined the army. In this employment his good conduct and attention to business gradually mollified the old king ; but the relations between the two never became very cordial, and the harsh treatment he had received permanently soured the character of the prince. To face page 6. FREDERICK AND HIS FATHER. INTRODUCTORY. 7 The old king died in May, 1740, and his son mounted the throne without opposition. At this date Frederick was twenty-eight years of age, married, but childless, a man of active and temperate habits, keen wit, and ready tongue. Thanks to his father, and almost in spite of himself, he had received an excellent training in such part of the military art as can be learned on the parade ground and from books ; but he had had next to no experience of actual fighting.

In the manage ment of finance and the conduct of affairs he was well practised ; his ideas were liberal and tolerant, so that he was well fitted to assume the position of responsi bility to which he had been called. Responsible it certainly was, for in Prussia the whole machinery of government hinged upon the king ; the ministers were simply his clerks or agents. There was not even a recognized cabinet council, far less a Parliament and ministerial responsibility. The new king began his reign well. He relaxed the censorship of the press ; disbanded a useless regiment of giants whom his father had maintained at vast expense ; abolished the use of torture; proclaimed complete toleration for all religions ; and declared that his great care would be " to further the country's well-being, and to make every one of his subjects contented and happy."

For himself he hoped to find happiness in an indulgence of his cultivated tastes ; for, like his grandfather, he was a lover of literature, philosophy, and music. For long he had been a friend of learning, and an admirer and correspondent of Voltaire ; and he hoped that as his own master he would be able to indulge his tastes with a freedom to which he had hitherto been a stranger. Plans for a new opera-house and the establishment of an academy of learned men were uppermost in hi s mind, when an unexpected event changed the whole tenor of his life, and forced him to devote his best energies to the organization of armies and their conduct in the field. This event was the death of the Emperor Charles VI., which occurred on October 20, 1740. His demise brought to a close the direct male line of the House of Hapsburg, and that family was represented by his daughter, the celebrated Maria Theresa.

The failure of male heirs raised the question which of the dominions of the House of Austria could rightly descend to a woman. For this contingency Charles had been careful to provide, by drawing up an instrument called the " Pragmatic Sanction," by which he enacted that in event of his death without a male heir, all his hereditary dominions were to pass to his daughter. Whether he had any legal right to do this was doubtful ; but Charles had secured the consent of most of the sovereigns of Europe, and he died in the belief that his daughter's rights were secured. No sooner, however, was he dead than objections were raised, and, though Maria Theresa at once ascended the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, and began to exercise sovereign rights over the posses sions of the House of Austria, her right to do so was disputed by Bavaria and France.

Frederick took different ground, Without objecting to her claims in INTRODUCTORY. 9 general, he questioned her claim to the four Silesian duchies, as belonging by rigltt to Prussia, and therefore not covered by the " Pragmatic Sanction," and declared his design to occupy the duchies, and hold them till his claims had been properly settled. This action brought on the first Silesian war.

Chapter II. Mollwitz

Silesia is a flat country, irrigated by the upper waters of the river Oder, and lying north of the chain of mountains which run along the northern frontier of Bohemia and Moravia. By these it is defended from attacks from the south ; but towards Prussia it lies per fectly open, and, in Frederick's time, its defences con sisted solely of the fortresses of Glogau, Brieg, and Neisse. Frederick crossed the frontier on the 13th of December, and, as the Austrian garrisons were very weak, and the inhabitants, being mostly Protestants, were friendly to Prussia, he had little difficulty in over running the country, with the exception of the three fortresses. While doing this he learned that Saxony and Hanover, his neighbours on the south and west, had decided to take part with Austria, and he had fears that Russia would join them, in which case he would be completely isolated.

In March, 1741, Frederick's troops stormed Glogau, and he was preparing for the siege of Neisse, when General Neipperg, with a strong force, crossed the Moravian frontier, with the design of MOLL IVITZ. 11 forcing a battle on Frederick. At the moment of Neip perg's arrival in Silesia, Frederick was himself in the south-west with his advanced guard, and had to con centrate his forces in order to resist the invaders. Meanwhile, Neipperg advanced on Neisse, and came so near capturing Frederick's train of siege-guns at Ohlau, that the Prussians, to save them, brought on a fight. The leading officers on the Austrian side were Neipperg and Romer : on the Prussian, Frederick himself; Schwerin, an old veteran, by whose advice he probably acted ; and Maurice of Dessau, son of the Prince of Dessau, one of the best generals of Frederick William.

On Sunday, the day before the battle, Neip perg was at Mollwitz, the Prussians at Pogarell. The weather, though it was April 9th, was very wild, and there had been a heavy fall of snow. Monday morning, the Prussians are up betimes ; King Frederick had not, or had hardly at all, slept during those two nights, such his anxieties. This morning, all is calm, sleeked out into* spotless white ; Pogarell and the world are wrapt as in a winding-sheet, near two feet of snow on the ground. Air hard and crisp ; a hot sun possible about noon season. " By daybreak " we are all astir, rendezvousing, ranking, — into Four Columns ; ready to advance in that fashion for battle, or for deployingjpto battle, wherever the Enemy turn up. The orders were all given overnight, two nights ago ; were all understood, too, and known to be rhadamanthine ; and, down to the lowest pioneer, no man is uncertain what to do.

If we but knew where the Enemy is ; on which side of us ; what doing, what intending ? * Scouts, General-Adjutants are out on the quest ; to no purpose hitherto. One young General-Adjutant, Saldern, whose name we shall know again, has ridden northward, has pulled bridle some way north of Po garell ; hangs, gazing diligently through his spyglass, there ; — can see nothing but a Plain of silent snow, with sparse bearding of bushes (nothing like a hedge in these countries), and here and there a tree, the miserable skeleton of a poplar. At break of day the ranking and arranging began. Pogarell clock is near striking ten, when the last squad ron or battalion quits Pogarell ; and the Four Columns, punctiliously correct, are all under way. Two on each side of Ohlau Highway ; steadily advancing, with pioneers ahead to clear any obstacle there may be.

Few obstacles ; here and there a little ditch, no fences, smooth wide Plain, nothing you would even call a knoll in it for many miles ahead and around. Mollwitz is some seven miles north from Pogarell ; intermediate lie dusty fractions of Villages more than one ; two miles or * It was found that the Austrians were in Mollwitz then. MOLLWITZ. 13 more from Mollwitz we come to Pampitz on our left, the next considerable, if any of them can be counted considerable.* Neipperg, all this while, is much at his ease on this white resting-day.t He is just sitting down to dinner at the Dorfschulze's (Village Provost, or miniature Mayor of Mollwitz), a composed man ; when — rockets or projectiles, and successive anxious sputterings from the steeple-tops of Brieg, are hastily reported : what can it mean ?

Means little perhaps ; — Neipperg sends out a Hussar party to ascertain, and composedly sets himself to dine. In a little while his Hussar party will come galloping back, faster than it went ; faster and fewer ; — and there will be news for Neipperg during dinner ! Better have had one idle fellow, one of your 20,000, on the Belfry-top here looking out, though it was a rest-day !— The truth is, the Prussian advance goes on with punctilious exactitude, by no means rapidly. Colonel Count von Rothenburg is warily leading the Vanguard of Dragoons ; warily, with the Four Columns well to rear of him : the Austrian Hussar party came upon Rothenburg, not two miles from Mollwitz ; and sud denly drew bridle. Them Rothenburg tumbles to the right-about, and chases ; — finds, on advancing, the Austrian Army totally unaware.

It is thought, had Rothenberg dashed forward, and sent word to the rear ward to dash forward at their swiftest, the Austrian Army might have been cut in pieces here, and never * Villages made up of groups of homesteads, showing little from the outside but dead clay walls and wooden gates. The chief military strength lay in the churches and churchyards. The whole country was two feet deep in snow. t He had designed not to fight that day. have got together to try battle at all. But Rothenburg had no orders ; nay, had orders Not to get into fighting; — nor had Frederick himself, in this his first Battle, learned that feline or leonine promptitude of spring which he subsequently manifested. Far from it ! Indeed this punctilious deliberation, and slow exactitude as on the review-ground, is wonderful and noteworthy at the first start of Frederick ; — the faithful apprentice-hand still rigorous to the rules of the old shop.

Ten years hence, twenty years hence, had Frederick found Neipperg in this condition, Neipperg's account had been soon settled ! — Rothenburg drove back the Hussars, all manner of successive Hussar parties, and kept steadily ahead of the main battle, as he had been bidden. Pampitz Village being now passed, and in rear of them to left, the Prussian Columns halt for some in stants ; take to deploying themselves into line. Fancy Neipperg's state of mind, busy beginning dinner in the little Schulze's, or Town-Provost's house, when the Hussars dashed-in at full gallop, shouting, " Der Feind, the Enemy ! All in march there ; vanguard this side of Pampitz ; killed forty of us ! " — Quick, your Plan of Battle, then ? Whitherward ; How ; What ? answer or perish ! Neipperg was infinitely struck ; dropt knife and fork: "Send for Romer, General of the Horse !

" Romer did the indispensable : a swift man, not apt to lose head. Romer's battle-plan, I should hope, is already made ; or it will fare ill with Neipperg and him. But beat, ye drummers ; gallop, ye aides-de-camp, as for life ! The first thing is to get our Force together ; and it lies scattered about in Three other Villages besides Mollwitz, miles apart. Neipperg's trumpets clangour, his aides-de-camp gallop : he has his left wing formed, and the other parts in a state of rapid MOLL WITZ. 15 genesis, Horse and Foot pouring-in from Laugvvitz, Barzdorf, Griiningen, before the Prussians have quite done deploying themselves, and got well within shot of him. Romer, by birth a Saxon gentleman, by all accounts a superior soldier and excellent General of Horse, commands this Austrian left wing ; General Goldlein, a Swiss veteran of good parts, presiding over the Infantry in that quarter.

Neipperg himself, were he once complete, will command the right wing. Neipperg is to be in two lines, as the Prussians are, with horse on each wing, which is orthodox military order. His length of front, I should guess, must have been something better than two English miles*: a sluggish Brook, called of Laugwitz, from the Village of that name which lies some way across, is on his right hand ; sluggish, boggy ; stagnating towards the Oder in those parts : — improved farming has, in our time, mostly dried the strip of bog, and made it into coarse meadow, which is rather a relief amid the dry sandy element. Neip perg's right is covered by that. His left rests on the Hamlet of Griiningen, a mile-and-half north-east of Mollwitz ; — meant to have rested on Hermsdorf nearly east, but the Prussians have already taken that up.

The sun coming more and more round to west of south (for it is now past noon) shines right in Neipperg's face, and is against him : * how the wind is, nobody mentions, — probably there was no wind. His regular Cavalry, 8,600, outnumbers twice or more that of the Prussians, not to mention their quality; and he has fewer Infantry, somewhat in proportion ; — the entire force on each side is scarcely above 20,000, the Prussians slightly in * This must be wrong, as Neipperg's line ran south-west to north-east, and faced south-east, so the further the sun got west the less it would be in his face. majority by count. In field-pieces Neipperg is greatly outnumbered ; the Prussians having about threescore, he only eighteen. And now here are the Prussians, close upon our left wing, not yet in contact with the right, — which in fact is not yet got into existence ; — thank Heaven they have not come before our left got into existence, as our right (if you knew it) has not yet quite finished doing ! — ■ The Prussians, though so ready for deploying, have had their own difficulties and delays.

Between the boggy Brook of Laugwitz on their left, and the Village of Hermsdorf, two miles distant, on which their right wing is to lean, there proves not to be room enough ; and then, owing to mistake of Schulenburg (our old pipe-clay friend, who commands the right wing of Horse here, and is not up in time), there is too much room. Not room enough for all the Infantry, we say : the last Three Battalions of the front line therefore, the three on the outmost right, wheel round, and stand athwart ; en potence (as soldiers say), or at right angles to the first line ; hanging to it like a kind of lid in that part, — be tween Schulenburg and them, — had Schulenburg come up. Thus are the three battalions got rid of at least ; " they cap the First Prussian line rectangularly, like a lid," says my Authority, — lid which does not reach to the Second Line by a good way.

This accidental arrangement had material effects on the right wing. Unfortunate Schulenburg did at last come up : — had he miscalculated the distances, then ? Once on the ground, he will find he does not reach to Hermsdorf after all, and that there is now too much room ! What his degree of fault was I know not ; Frederick has long been dis satisfied with these dragoons of Schulenburg; "good for nothing, I always told you " (at that Skirmish of MOLLWITZ 17 Baumgarten): and now here is the General himself fallen blundering ! — In respect of Horse, the Austrians are more than two to one ; to make out our deficiency, the King, imitating something he had read about Gustavus Adolphus, intercalates the Horse Squadrons, on each wing, with two Battalions of Grenadiers, and so lengthens them ; — "a manœuvre not likely to be again imitated," he admits.

All these movements and arrangements are effected above a mile from Mollwitz, no enemy yet visible. Once effected, we advance again with music sounding, sixty pieces of artillery well in front, — steady, steady! — across the floor of snow which is soon beaten smooth enough, the stage, this day, of a great adventure. And now there is the Enemy's left wing, Romer and his Horse ; their right wing wider away, and not yet, by a good space, within cannon-range of us. It is towards two of the afternoon ; Schulenburg now on his ground, laments that he will not reach to Hermsdorf: — but it maybe dangerous now to attempt repairing that error ? At Two of the clock, being now fairly within distance, we salute Romer and the Austrian left, with all our sixty cannon ; and the sound of drums and clarionets is drowned in universal artillery thunder.