battle of hohenfriedberg.—religious antagonism.—anecdote of the king.—retreat of the austrians.—horrors of war.—“a slight pleasantry.”—sufferings of the prussian army.—the victory of fontenoy.—frederick’s pecuniary embarrassments.—executive abilities of maria theresa.—inflexibility of the austrian queen.—the retreat to silesia.—the surprise at sohr.—military genius of frederick.—great victory of sohr.
the decisive battle of hohenfriedberg, by which victory frederick probably escaped utter destruction, was fought on the 4th of june, 1745. from early dawn to the evening twilight of the long summer’s day the dreadful work of slaughter had continued without a moment’s intermission. as the austrians, having lost nearly one fourth of their number, retreated, the prussians, in utter exhaustion, threw themselves upon the ground for sleep. the field around them was covered with fourteen thousand of the wounded, the dying, and the dead.
early the next morning frederick commenced the vigorous pursuit of the retiring foe. a storm arose. for twelve hours the rain fell in torrents. but the prussian army was impelled onward, through the mud, and through the swollen streams, inspired by the almost supernatural energy which glowed in the bosom of its king. it seemed as if no hardships, sufferings, or perils could induce those iron men, who by discipline had been converted into mere machines, to wander from the ranks or to falter on the way. as we have mentioned, there were throughout all this region two religious parties, the catholics and the protestants. they were strongly antagonistic to each other. under the austrian sway, the catholics, having the support of the government, had enjoyed unquestioned supremacy. they had often very cruelly persecuted the protestants, robbing them of their churches, and, in their zeal to defend what they deemed the orthodox faith, depriving them of their children, and placing them under the care of the catholic priests to be educated.
“while the battle of hohenfriedberg was raging,” writes an eye-witness, “as far as the cannon was heard all around, the353 protestants fell on their knees praying for victory for the prussians.” indescribable was the exultation when the bugle peals of the prussian trumpeters announced to them a protestant victory. when frederick approached, in his pursuit, the important town of landshut, the following incident occurred, as described by the pen of his prussian majesty:
“upon reaching the neighborhood of landshut, the king was surrounded by a troop of two thousand protestant peasants. they begged permission of him to massacre the catholics of those parts, and clear the country of them altogether. this animosity arose from the persecutions which the protestants had suffered during the austrian domination.
“the king was very far from granting so barbarous a permission. he told them they ought rather to conform to the precepts of scripture, and to ‘bless those that curse them, and pray for those that despitefully use them.’ such, the king assured them, was the way to gain the kingdom of heaven. the peasants, after a little reflection, declared that his majesty was right, and desisted from their cruel intention.”82
for several weeks the austrians slowly and sullenly retired. their retreat was conducted in two immense columns, by parallel roads at some distance from each other. their wings of foragers and skirmishers were widely extended, so that the hungry army swept with desolation a breadth of country reaching out many leagues. though the austrian army was traversing the friendly territory of bohemia, still prince charles was anxious to leave behind him no resources for frederick to glean. frederick, with his army, pressed along, following the wide-spread trail of his foes. the austrians, with great skill, selected every commanding position on which to erect their batteries, and hurl back a storm of shot and shell into the bosoms of their pursuers. but frederick allowed them no rest by day or by night. his solid columns so unremittingly and so impetuously pressed with shot, bullets, bayonet, and sabre-blows upon the rear ranks of the foe that there was almost an incessant battle, continuing for several weeks, crimsoning a path thirty miles wide and more than a hundred miles in length with the blood of the wounded and the slain.
354
the retreat of the austrians.
the region through which this retreat and pursuit were conducted was much of the way along the southern slope of the giant mountains. it was a wild country of precipitous rocks, quagmires, and gloomy forests. at length prince charles, with his defeated and dispirited army, took refuge at k?nigsgraft, a compact town between the elbe and the adler, protected by one stream on the west, and by the other on the south. here, in an impregnable position, he intrenched his troops. frederick, finding them unassailable, encamped his forces in a position almost equally impregnable, a few miles west of the elbe, in the vicinity of a little village called chlum. thus the two hostile armies, almost within sound of each other’s bugles, defiantly stood in battle array, each watching an opportunity to strike a blow.
355 “war is cruelty,” said general sherman; “and you can not refine it.” “no man of refined christian sensibilities,” said the duke of wellington, “should undertake the profession of a soldier.” the exigencies of war often require things to be done from which humanity revolts. “war,” said napoleon i., “is the science of barbarians.” one of the principal objects of frederick in this pursuit of the austrians through bohemia was to lay waste the country so utterly, destroying its roads and consuming its provisions, that no austrian army could again pass through it for the invasion of silesia. who can imagine the amount of woe thus inflicted upon the innocent peasants of bohemia? both armies were reduced to the necessity of living mainly upon the resources of the country in which they were encamped. their foraging parties were scattered in all directions. there were frequent attacks of outposts and bloody skirmishes, in which many were slain and many were crippled for life. each death, each wound, sent tears, and often life-long woe, to some humble cottage.
there are sometimes great and glorious objects to be attained—objects which elevate and ennoble a nation or a race—which warrant the expenditure of almost any amount of temporary suffering. it is not the duty of the millions to suffer the proud and haughty hundreds to consign them to ignorance and trample them in the dust. in this wicked world, where kings and nobles have ever been so ready to doom the masses of the people to ignorance, servitude, and want, human rights have almost never made any advances but through the energies of the sword. many illustrious generals, who, with saddened hearts, have led their armies over fields of blood, have been among the most devoted friends and ornaments of humanity. their names have been enshrined in the affections of grateful millions.
but this war, into which the prussian king had so recklessly plunged all europe, was purely a war of personal ambition. even frederick did not pretend that it involved any question of human rights. unblushingly he avowed that he drew his sword and led his hundred thousand peasant-boys upon their dreadful career of carnage and misery simply that he might enlarge his territories, gain renown as a conqueror, and make the world talk about him. it must be a fearful thing to go to the356 judgment seat of christ with such a crime weighing upon the soul.
war has its jokes and merriment, but the comedies of war are often more dreadful than the tragedies of peace. frederick, in his works, records the following incident, which he narrates as “slight pleasantry, to relieve the reader’s mind:”83
the prussians had a detached post at smirzitz. the little garrison there was much harassed by lurking bands of austrians, who shot their sentries, cut off their supplies, and rendered it almost certain death to any one who ventured to emerge from the ramparts. some inventive genius among the prussians constructed a straw man, very like life, representing a sentinel with his shouldered musket. by a series of ropes this effigy was made to move from right to left, as if walking his beat. a well-armed band of prussians then hid in a thicket near by.
ere long a company of austrian scouts approached. from a distance they eyed the sentinel, moving to and fro as he guarded his post. a sharp-shooter crept near, and, taking deliberate aim at his supposed victim, fired. a twitch upon the rope caused the image to fall flat. the whole band of austrians, with a shout, rushed to the spot. the prussians, from their ambuscade, opened upon them a deadly fire of bullets. then, as the ground was covered with the mutilated and the dead, the prussians, causing the welkin to ring with their peals of laughter, rushed with fixed bayonets upon their entrapped foes. not a single austrian had escaped being struck by a bullet. those who were not killed outright were wounded, and were taken captive. this is one of the “slight pleasantries” of war.
frederick’s army was now in a state of great destitution. the region around was so stripped of its resources that it could afford his foragers no more supplies. it was difficult for him to fill his baggage-trains even in silesia, so much had that country been devastated by war; and wherever any of his supply wagons appeared, swarms of austrian dragoons hovered around, attacking and destroying them. to add to the embarrassments of the prussian king, his purse was empty. his subjects could endure no heavier taxation. all the plate which frederick william had accumulated had been converted into coin and expended.357 even the massive silver balustrades, which were reserved until a time of need, were melted and gone. he knew not where to look for a loan. all the nations were involved in ruinous war. all wished to borrow. none but england had money to lend; and england was fighting frederick, and furnishing supplies for his foes.
a slight pleasantry.
the expenses of the war were enormous. frederick made a careful estimate, and found that he required at least three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars a month. he could not carry on another campaign with less than four million five hundred thousand dollars. he had been expecting that louis xv., who in person was in command of the french army on the rhine, would send him a re-enforcement of sixty thousand troops to enable him to crush the forces of prince charles. but week after358 week passed, and no re-enforcements came. the french, intent upon their conquest, were as selfishly pursuing their own interests on the rhine as frederick was pursuing his in silesia.
the great victory of fontenoy, gained by the french on the rhine, caused boundless exultation throughout france. “the french,” writes carlyle, “made immense explosions of rejoicing over this victory; voltaire celebrating it in prose and verse to an amazing degree; the whole nation blazing out over it into illuminations, arcs of triumph, and universal three times three; in short, i think nearly the heartiest national huzza, loud, deep, long-drawn, that the nation ever gave in like case.”
but this victory on the rhine was of no avail to frederick in bohemia. it did not diminish the hosts which prince charles was gathering against him. it did not add a soldier to his diminished columns, or supply his exhausted magazines, or replenish his empty treasury. louis xv. was so delighted with the victory that he supposed frederick would be in sympathy with him. he immediately dispatched a courier to the prussian king with the glad tidings. but frederick, disappointed, embarrassed, chagrined, instead of being gratified, was irritated by the news. he sent back the scornful reply “that a victory upon the scamander,84 or in the heart of china, would have been just as important to him.”
louis xv. felt insulted by this message, and responded in a similar strain of irritation. thus the two monarchs were alienated from each other. indeed, frederick had almost as much cause to be dissatisfied with the french as they had to be dissatisfied with him. each of the monarchs was ready to sacrifice the other if any thing was to be gained thereby.
frederick was now in such deep pecuniary embarrassment that he was compelled to humble himself so far as to apply to the king of france for money. “if your majesty,” he wrote, “can not furnish me with any re-enforcements, you must, at least, send me funds to raise additional troops. the smallest possible sum which will enable me to maintain my position here is three million dollars.”
louis xv. wrote a very unsatisfactory letter in reply. he stated, with many apologies, that his funds were terribly low,359 that he was exceedingly embarrassed, that it was impossible to send the sum required, but that he would try to furnish him with a hundred thousand dollars a month.
frederick was indignant. scornfully he rejected the proposal, saying, “such a paltry sum might with propriety, perhaps, be offered to a petty duke of hesse-darmstadt, but it is not suitable to make such a proposition to the king of prussia.”
poor valori, the french embassador, was placed in a very embarrassing situation. the anger of the prussian king vented itself upon him. he was in complete disgrace. it was his duty daily to wait upon frederick. but the king would seldom speak to him, or even look upon him; and if he did favor him with a glance, it was with an expression of scorn.
frederick was rapidly awaking to the consciousness that maria theresa, whom he had despised as a woman, and a young wife and mother, and whose territory he thought he could dismember with impunity, was fully his equal, not only in ability to raise and direct armies, but also in diplomatic intrigue. about the middle of august he perceived from his camp in chlum that prince charles was receiving large re-enforcements from the south. at the same time, he saw that corps after corps, principally of saxon troops, were defiling away by circuitous roads to the north. it was soon evident that the heroic maria theresa was preparing to send an army into the very heart of prussia to attack its capital. this was, indeed, changing the aspect of the war.
berlin was almost defenseless. all saxony was rising in arms behind frederick. the invader of silesia was in danger of having his own realms invaded and his own capital sacked. frederick was thoroughly roused. but he never allowed himself to appear agitated or anxious. he ordered leopold, the old dessauer, to march immediately, with all the troops he could rally, to the frontiers of saxony. he even found it necessary to detach to the aid of leopold some corps from his own enfeebled forces, now menaced by an austrian army twice as large as he could oppose to them.
while affairs were in this posture, the english, eager to crush their hereditary rivals, the french, were very anxious to detach the prussians from the french alliance. the only way to do360 this was to induce maria theresa to offer terms of peace such as frederick would accept. they sent sir thomas robinson to sch?nbrunn to endeavor to accomplish this purpose. he had an interview with her hungarian majesty on the 2d of august, 1745. the queen was very dignified and reticent. silently she listened to the proposals of sir thomas. she then said, with firmness which left no room for further argument,
“it would be easier for me to make peace with france than with prussia. what good could possibly result now from peace with prussia? i must have silesia again. without silesia the imperial sceptre would be but a bauble. would you have us sway that sceptre under the guardianship of prussia? prince charles is now in a condition to fight the prussians again. until after another battle, do not speak to me of peace. you say that if we make peace with prussia, frederick will give his vote for the grand-duke as emperor. the grand-duke is not so ambitious of an empty honor as to engage in it under the tutelage of prussia. consider, moreover, is the imperial dignity consistent with the loss of silesia? one more battle i demand. were i compelled to agree with frederick to-morrow, i would try him in a battle to-night.”85
on the 13th of september the german diet met at frankfort for the election of emperor. frederick had determined that the grand-duke francis, husband of the hungarian queen, should not be elected. maria theresa had outgeneraled him. francis was elected. he had seven out of nine of the electoral votes. frederick, thus baffled, could only protest. maria theresa was conscious of her triumph. though the imperial crown was placed upon the brow of francis, all europe knew that the sceptre was in the hands of his far more able and efficient wife. maria theresa was at frankfort at the time of the election. she could not conceal her exultation. she seemed very willing to have it understood that her amiable husband was but the instrument of her will. she took the title of empress queen, and assumed a very lofty carriage toward the princes of the empire. alluding to frederick, she said, in a very imperial tone, for she deemed him now virtually vanquished,
“his prussian majesty has unquestionably talent, but what361 a character! he is frivolous in the extreme, and sadly a heretic in his religious views. he is a dishonorable man, and what a neighbor he has been! as to silesia, i would as soon part with my last garment as part with it.”
her majesty now wrote to prince charles, urging him to engage immediately in a fight with frederick. she sent two of the highest dignitaries of the court to k?niggr?tz to press forward immediate action. there was an eminence near by, which the austrian officers daily ascended, and from which they could look directly into the prussian camp and observe all that was transpiring there.
the position of frederick became daily more embarrassing. his forces were continually decreasing. re-enforcements were swelling the ranks of the austrians. elated in becoming the imperial army, they grew more bold and annoying, assailing the prussian outposts and cutting off their supplies.
on the 18th of september, when the rejoicing austrians at k?niggr?tz were firing salutes, drinking wine, and feasting in honor of the election of the grand-duke to the imperial dignity, frederick, availing himself of the carousal in the camp of his foes, crossed the elbe with his whole army, a few miles above k?niggr?tz, and commenced his retreat to silesia. his path led through a wild, sparsely inhabited country, of precipitous rocks, hills, mountain torrents, and quagmires. one vast forest spread along the banks of the elbe, covering with its gloom an extent of sixty square miles. a few miserable hamlets were scattered over this desolate region. the poor inhabitants lived mainly upon the rye which they raised and the swine which ranged the forest.
along the eastern edge of this vast wilderness the army of frederick marched for two days. but hungarian pandours in swarms, savage men on their fleet and shaggy horses, were continually emerging from the paths of the forest, with gleaming sabres and shrill war-cries, assailing the flank of the prussian line wherever there was the slightest exposure. in the vicinity of the little village of sohr the king encamped for two days. the halt seemed necessary to refresh his horses, and to send out foraging parties to replenish his stores. but the light horsemen of the foe were so thick around him, so vigilant, and so bold,362 that no baggage train could enter his camp unless protected by eight thousand foot and three thousand horse.
just at the break of day of thursday morning, september 30, as the king was in his tent, busy with his generals, examining maps in preparation for the immediate resumption of the march, an orderly came, in breathless haste, to inform the king that the austrians were advancing rapidly upon him, and in great force. while he was yet speaking another messenger arrived, confirming the tidings, and stating that, apparently, the whole austrian army, in battle array, was coming down upon him.
it was a cold, dreary autumnal morning. the austrian army, according to frederick’s statement, amounted to sixty thousand men.86 but it was widely dispersed. many of the cavalry were scouring the country in all directions, in foraging parties and as skirmishers. large bodies had been sent by circuitous roads to occupy every avenue of retreat. the consolidated army, under prince charles, now advancing to the attack, amounted to thirty-six thousand men. frederick had but twenty-six thousand.87
in this hour of peril the genius of the prussian monarch was remarkably developed. he manifested not the slightest agitation or alarm. his plan was immediately formed. indeed, there was no time for a moment’s delay. the austrians had moved rapidly and silently, concealing their approach by a thick veil of hussars. they were already in solid columns, confident of victory, advancing upon the prussian camp. frederick was compelled to form his line of battle under fire of the austrian batteries. the discipline of the prussians was such that this was done with a recklessness of danger, rapidity, and mechanical precision which seemed almost miraculous, and which elicited the admiration of every one who beheld it.
the reader would not be interested in the details of the battle which ensued. it lasted for five hours. it was, as is every battle, an indescribable scene of tumult, uproar, and confusion. the result was long doubtful. defeat to frederick would have been utter ruin. it is wonderful how one determined man can infuse his spirit into a whole host. every prussian seemed to363 have the same desperate valor, and determination to conquer or to die, which animated his king.
the sun had just risen above the horizon when the conflict commenced. it reached its meridian. still the storm of battle swept the plains and reverberated over the hills. heights had been taken and retaken; charges had been made and repelled; the surges of victory had rolled to and fro; over many leagues the thunderbolts of battle were thickly flying; bugle peals, cries of onset, shrieks of the wounded crushed beneath artillery wheels, blended with the rattle of musketry and the roar of artillery; riderless horses were flying in all directions; the extended plain was covered with the wreck and ruin of battle, and every moment was multiplying the victims of war’s horrid butchery.
at length the austrians were routed—utterly routed—broken, dispersed, and driven in wild confusion into the glooms of the forest. the victory of frederick was complete. as a warrior, he was winning the title he so greatly coveted, of frederick the great.
it was a glorious victory. what was the price? five thousand six hundred prussian young men lay in their blood upon the field, dead or wounded. six thousand seven hundred young men from austrian homes lay by their side, silent in death, or groaning in anguish, lacerated by the missiles of war.
frederick was elated with his victory. he had taken three thousand three hundred prisoners, twenty-one cannon, and twenty-two standards. he had added to the renown of his name, and strengthened his hold upon silesia.
prince charles, as he was leading the main body of his army to the assault, sent a squadron of his fleet-footed cavalry to burn the prussian camp, and to assail the foe in their rear. but the troops found the camp so rich in treasure that they could not resist the temptation of stopping to plunder. thus they did not make the attack which had been ordered, and which would probably have resulted in the destruction of the prussian army. it is said that when frederick, in the heat of the battle, was informed that the pandours were sacking his camp, he coolly replied, “so much the better; they will not then interrupt us.”
