By this time prince Ferdinand had retired into Westphalia, and fixed his head-quarters at Munster, while M. de Contades encamped near Ham upon the Lippe; so that, although he had obliged the French army to evacuate Hanover and Hesse in the beginning of the year, when they were weakened by death and distemper, and even driven them beyond the Rhine, where they sustained a defeat; yet they were soon put in a condition to baffle all his future endeavours, and penetrate again into Westphalia, where they established their winter-quarters, extending themselves in such a manner as to command the whole course of the Rhine on both sides, while the allies were disposed in the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, and in the bishoprics of Munster, Paderborn, and Hildesheim. The British troops had joined them so late in the season that they had no opportunity to signalize themselves in the field; yet the fatigues of the campaign, which they had severely felt, proved fatal to their commander, the duke of Marlborough, who died of a dysentery at Munster, universally lamented.
Having thus particularized the operations of the allied army since the commencement of the campaign, we shall now endeavour to trace the steps of the king of Prussia, from the period to which his army was assembled for action. Having collected his force as soon as the season would permit, he undertook the siege of Schweidnitz in form on the twenty-first day of March; and carried on his operations with such vigour, that in thirteen days the garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after having lost one half of their number in the defence of the place. While one part of Lis troops were engaged in this service, he himself, at the head of another, advanced to the eastern frontier of Bohemia, and sent a detachment as far as Trautenaw, garrisoned by a body of Austrians, who, after an obstinate resistance, abandoned the place, and retreated towards their grand army. By this success he opened to himself a way into Bohemia, by which he poured in detachments of light troops, to raise contributions and harass the out-posts of the enemy. At the same time the baron de la Mothe Fouquet marched with another body against the Austrian general Jahnus, posted in the county of Glatz, whom he obliged to abandon all the posts he occupied in that country, and pursued as far as Nashod, within twenty miles of Koningsgratz, where the grand Austrian army was encamped, under the command of mareschal Daun, who had lately arrived from Vienna. Over and above these excursions, the king ordered a body of thirty thousand men to be assembled, to act under the command of his brother prince Henry,* an accomplished warrior, against the army of the empire, which the prince de Deux-ponts, with great difficulty, made a shift to form again near Bamberg, in Franconia.
* At this juncture the Prussian commandant of Dresden being admitted into the Japan palace, to see the curious porcelaine with which it is adorned, perceived a door built up; and ordering the passage to be opened, entered a large apartment, where he found three thousand tents, and other field utensils. These had been concealed here when the Prussians first took possession of the city; they were immediately seized by the commandant, and distributed among the troops of prince Henry’s army.
The king of Prussia, whose designs were perhaps even greater than he cared to own, resolved to shift the theatre of the war, and penetrate into Moravia, a fertile country, which had hitherto been kept sacred from ravage and contribution. Having formed an army of fifty thousand choice troops, near Neiss, in Silesia, he divided them into three columns; the first commanded by mareschal Keith, the second by himself in person, and the third conducted by prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau. In the latter end of April they began their march towards Moravia; and general De la Ville, who commanded a body of troops in that country, retired as they advanced, after having thrown a strong reinforcement into Olmutz, which the king was determined to besiege. Had he passed by this fortress, which was strongly fortified and well provided for a vigorous defence, he might have advanced to the gates of Vienna, and reduced the emperor to the necessity of suing for peace on his own terms; but it seems he was unwilling to deviate so far from the common maxims of war as to leave a fortified place in the rear; and, therefore, he determined to make himself master of it before he should proceed. For this purpose it was immediately invested: orders were issued to hasten up the heavy artillery, and mareschal Keith was appointed to superintend and direct the operations of the siege. Meanwhile the Austrian commander, count Daun, being informed of his Prussian majesty’s motions and designs, quitted his camp at Leutomyssel in Bohemia, and entered Moravia by the way of Billa. Being still too weak to encounter the Prussians in the field, he extended his troops in the neighbourhood of the king’s army, between Gewitz and Littau, in a mountainous situation, where he ran little or no risk of being attacked. Here he remained for some time in quiet, with the fertile country of Bohemia in his rear, from whence he drew plentiful supplies, and received daily reinforcements. His scheme was to relieve the besieged occasionally, to harass the besiegers, and to intercept their convoys from Silesia; and this scheme succeeded to his wish. Olmutz is so extensive in its works, and so peculiarly situated on the river Morava, that it could not be completely invested without weakening the posts of the besieging army, by extending them to a prodigious circuit; so that, in some parts, they were easily forced by detachments in the night, who fell upon them suddenly, and seldom failed to introduce into the place supplies of men, provisions, and ammunition. The forage in the neighbourhood of the city having been previously destroyed, the Prussian horse were obliged to make excursions at a great distance, consequently exposed to fatigue, and liable to surprise; and, in a word, the Prussians were not very expert in the art of town-taking.
Count Daun knew how to take advantage of these circumstances without hazarding a battle, to which the king provoked him in vain. While the garrison made repeated sallies to retard the operations of the besiegers, the’ Austrian general harassed their foraging parties, fell upon different quarters of their army in the night, and kept them in continual alarm. Nevertheless, the king finished his first parallel; and proceeded with such vigour as seemed to promise a speedy reduction of the place, when his design was entirely frustrated by an untoward incident. Mareschal Daun, having received intelligence that a large convoy had set out from Silesia for the Prussian camp, resolved to seize this opportunity of compelling the king to desist from his enterprise. He sent general Jahnus, with a strong body of troops, towards Bahrn, and another detachment to Stadtoliebe, with instructions to attack the convoy on different sides; while he himself advanced towards the besiegers, as if he intended to give them battle. The king of Prussia, far from being deceived by this feint, began, from the motions of the Austrian general, to suspect his real scheme, and immediately despatched general Ziethen, with a strong reinforcement, to protect the convoy, which was escorted by eight battalions, and about four thousand men, who had been sick, and were just recovered. Before this officer joined them, the convoy had been attacked on the twenty-eighth day of June; but the assailants were repulsed with considerable loss. Mareschal Daun, however, took care that they should be immediately reinforced; and next day the attack was renewed with much greater effect. Four hundred waggons, guarded by four battalions, and about one thousand troopers, had just passed the defiles of Domstadt, when the Austrians charged them furiously on every side; the communication between the head and the rest of the convoy was cut off; and general Ziethen, after having exerted all his efforts for its preservation, being obliged to abandon the waggons, retired to Troppau. Thus the whole convoy fell into the hands of the enemy, who took above six hundred prisoners, together with general Putkammer; and the king of Prussia was obliged to relinquish his enterprise. This was a mortifying necessity to a prince of his high spirit, at a time when he saw himself on the eve of reducing the place, notwithstanding the gallant defence which had been made by general Marshal the governor. Nothing now remained but to raise the siege, and retire without loss in the face of a vigilant enemy, prepared to seize every opportunity of advantage: a task which, how hard soever it may appear, he performed with equal dexterity and success. Instead of retiring into Silesia, he resolved to avert the war from his own dominions, and take the route to Bohemia, the frontiers of which were left uncovered by mareschal Daun’s last motion, when he advanced his quarters to Posnitz, in order to succour Olmutz the more effectually. After the king had taken his measures, he carefully concealed his design from the enemy, and, notwithstanding the loss of his convoy, prosecuted the operations of the siege with redoubled vigour till the first day of July, when he decamped in the night, and began his march to Bohemia. He himself, with one division, took the road to Konitz; and mareschal Keith having brought away all the artillery, except four mortars and one disabled cannon, pursued his march by the way of Littau to Muglitz and Tribau. Although his Prussian majesty had gained an entire march upon the Austrians, their light troops, commanded by the generals Buccow and Laudohn, did not fail to attend and harass his army in their retreat; but their endeavours were in a great measure frustrated by the conduct and circumspection of the Prussian commanders. After the rear of the army had passed the defiles of Krenau, general Lasci, who was posted at Gibau with a large body of Austrian troops, occupied the village of Krenau with a detachment of grenadiers, who were soon dislodged; and the Prussians pursued their march by Zwittau to Leutomyssel, where they seized a magazine of meal and forage. In the meantime general de Ratzow, who conducted the provisions and artillery, found the hills of Hollitz possessed by the enemy, who cannonaded him as he advanced; but mareschal Keith coming up, ordered them to be attacked in the rear, and they fled into a wood with precipitation, with the loss of six officers and three hundred men, who were taken prisoners. While’ the mareschal was thus employed, the king proceeded from Leutomyssel to Koningsgratz, where general Buccow, who had got the start of him, was posted with seven thousand men behind the Elbe, and in the intrenchments which they had thrown up all around the city. The Prussian troops as they arrived passed over the little river Adler, and as the enemy had broken down the bridges over the Elbe, the king ordered them to be repaired with all expedition, being determined to attack the Austrian intrenchments; but general Buccow did not wait for his approach: he abandoned his intrenchments, and retired with his troops to Clumetz; so that the king took possession of the most important post of Koningsgratz without further opposition. An Austrian corps having taken post between him and Hollitz, in order to obstruct the march of the artillery, he advanced against them in person, and having driven them from the place, all his cannon, military stores, provisions, with fifteen hundred sick and wounded men, arrived in safety at Koningsgratz, where the whole army encamped. His intention was to transfer the seat of war from Moravia to Bohemia, where he should be able to maintain a more easy communication with his own dominions; but a more powerful motive soon obliged him to change his resolution.
After the Russian troops under Apraxin had retreated from Pomerania in the course of the preceding year, and the czarina seemed ready to change her system, the courts of Vienna and Versailles had, by dint of subsidies, promises, presents, and intrigues, attached her, in all appearance, more firmly than ever to the confederacy, and even induced her to augment the number of troops destined to act against the Prussian monarch. She not only signed her accession in form to the quadruple alliance with the empress-queen and the kings of France and Sweden; but, in order to manifest her zeal to the common cause, she disgraced her chancellor, count Bestuchef, who was supposed averse to the war: she divided her forces into separate bodies, under the command of the generals Fermer and Browne, and ordered them to put their troops in motion in the middle of winter. Fermer accordingly began his march in the beginning of January, and on the twenty-second his light troops took possession of Koningsberg, the capital of Prussia, without opposition: for the king’s forces had quitted that country in order to prosecute the war in the western parts of Pomerania. They did not, however, maintain themselves in this part of the country; but, after having ravaged some districts, returned to the main body, which halted on the Vistula, to the no small disturbance of the city of Dantzic. The resident of the czarina actually demanded that the magistrates should receive a Russian garrison; a demand which they not only peremptorily refused, but ordered all the citizens to arms, and took every other method to provide for their defence. At length, after some negotiation with general Fermer, the affair was compromised: he desisted from the demand, and part of his troops passed the Vistula, seemingly to invade Pomerania, in the eastern part of which count Dohna had assembled an army of Prussians to oppose their progress. But after they had pillaged the open country, they rejoined their main body; and general Fermer, turning to the left, advanced to Silesia in order to co-operate with the other Russian army commanded by Browne, who had taken his route through Poland, and already passed the Posna. By the first of July both bodies had reached the frontiers of Silesia, and some of their cossacks, penetrating into that province, had committed dreadful ravages, and overwhelmed the inhabitants with consternation. Count Bohna, with the Prussian army under his command, had attended their motions, and even passed the Oder at Frankfort, as if he had intended to give them battle; but he was too much inferior in number to hazard such a step, which became an object of his sovereign’s own personal attention. Mareschal Daun had followed the king into Bohemia, and, on the twenty-second day of July, encamped on the hills of Libischau, a situation almost inaccessible, where he resolved to remain and watch the motions of the Prussian monarch, until some opportunity should offer of acting to advantage. Nature seems to have expressly formed this commander with talents to penetrate the designs, embarrass the genius, and check the impetuosity, of the Prussian monarch. He was justly compared to Fabius Maximus, distinguished by the epithet of Cunctator. He possessed all the vigilance, caution, and sagacity of that celebrated Roman. Like him, he hovered on the skirts of the enemy, harassing their parties, accustoming the soldiers to strict discipline, hard service, and the face of a formidable foe, and watching for opportunities, which he knew how to seize with equal courage and celerity.
The king of Prussia, being induced by a concurrence of motives to stop the progress of the Russians in Silesia, made his dispositions for retreating from Bohemia, and on the twenty-fifth day of July quitted the camp at Koningsgratz. He was attended in his march by three thousand Austrian light troops, who did not fail to incommode his rear; but, notwithstanding these impediments, he passed the Mittau, proceeded on his route, and on the ninth day of August arrived at Landshut. From thence he hastened with a detachment towards Frankfort on the Oder, and joined the army commanded by lieutenant-general Dohna at Gorgas. Then the whole army passed the Oder by a bridge thrown over at Gatavise, and having rested one day, advanced to Dert-mitzel, where he encamped. The Russians, under general Fermer, were posted on the other side of the little river Mitzel, their right extending to the village of Zicker, and their left to Quertchem. The king being determined to hazard a battle, passed the Mitzel on the twenty-fifth in the morning, and turning the flank of the enemy, drew up his army in order of battle in the plain between the little river and the town of Zorndorf. The Russians, by whom he was outnumbered, did not decline the dispute; but as the ground did not permit them to extend themselves, they appeared in four lines, forming a front on every side, defended by cannon and a chevaux-de-frise, their right flank covered by the village of Zwicker. After a warm cannonade, the Prussian infantry were ordered to attack the village, and a body of grenadiers advanced to the assault; but this brigade unexpectedly giving way, occasioned a considerable opening in the line, and left the whole left flank of the infantry uncovered. Before the enemy could take advantage of this incident, the interval was filled up by the cavalry under the command of general Seydlitz; and the king, with his usual presence of mind, substituted another choice body of troops to carry on the attack. This began about noon, and continued for some time, during which both sides fought with equal courage and perseverance: at length general Seydlitz, having routed the Russian cavalry, fell upon the flank of the infantry with great fury, which being also dreadfully annoyed by the Prussian artillery, they abandoned the village, together with their military chest, and great part of their baggage. Notwithstanding this loss, which had greatly disordered their right wing, they continued to stand their ground, and terrible havoc was made among them, not only with the sword and bayonet, but also by the cannon, which were loaded with grape shot, and, being excellently served, did great execution. Towards evening the confusion among them increased to such a degree, that in all probability they would have been entirely routed, had they not been favoured by the approaching darkness, as well as by a particular operation which was very gallantly performed. One of the Russian generals perceiving the fortune of the day turned against him, rallied a select body of troops, and made a vigorous impression on the right wing of the Prussians. This effort diverted their attention so strongly to that quarter, that the right of the Russians enjoyed a respite, during which they retired in tolerable order, and occupied a new post on the right, where the rest of their forces were the more easily assembled. In this battle they are said to have lost above fifteen thousand men, thirty-seven colours, five standards, twelve mortars, the greater part of their baggage, and above one hundred pieces of cannon. Among the prisoners that fell into the hands of the victor, were several general officers, and a good number lost their lives on the field of battle. The victory cost the king above two thousand men, including some officers of distinction, particularly two aide-de-camps, who attended his own person, which he exposed without scruple to all the perils of the day. It would have redounded still more to his glory, had he put a stop to the carnage; for, after all resistance was at an end, the wretched Russians were hewn down without mercy. It must be owned, indeed, that the Prussian soldiers were, in a peculiar manner, exasperated against this enemy, because they had laid waste the country, burned the villages, ruined the peasants, and committed many horrid acts of barbarity, which the practice of war could not authorize. 467 [See note 3 P, at the end of this Vol.] The Prussian army passed the night under arms, and next morning the cannonade was renewed against the enemy, who, nevertheless, maintained their position without flinching. On the twenty-seventh, they seemed determined to hazard another action, and even attack the conquerors; instead of advancing, however, they took the route of Lands-berg; but afterwards turned off towards Vietzel, and posted themselves between the rivers Warta and that village. Immediately after the battle, general Fermer,* who had received a slight wound in the action, sent a trumpet with a letter to lieutenant-general Dohna, desiring a suspension of arms for two or three days to bury the dead, and take care of the wounded; and presenting to his Prussian majesty the humble request of general Browne, who was much weakened with the loss of blood, that he might have a passport, by virtue of which he could be removed to a place where he should find such accommodation as his situation required.
* General Fermer was of Scottish extract, and general Browne actually a native of North Britain.
In answer to this message, count Dohna gave the Russian general to understand, that as his Prussian majesty remained master of the field, he would give the necessary orders for interring the dead, and taking care of the wounded on both sides: he refused a suspension of arms, but granted the request of general Browne; and concluded his letter by complaining of the outrages which the Russian troops still continued to commit, in pillaging and burning the king’s villages.
The king of Prussia had no sooner repulsed the enemy in one quarter, than his presence was required in another. When he quitted Bohemia, mareschal Daun, at the head of the Austrian army, and the prince de Deuxponts, who commanded the forces of the empire, advanced to the Elbe, in order to surround the king’s brother, prince Henry, who, without immediate succour, would not have been able to preserve his footing in Saxony. The Prussian monarch, therefore, determined to support him with all possible expedition. In a few days after the battle he began his march from Custrin, with a reinforcement of twenty-four battalions and great part of his cavalry, and pursued his route with such unwearied diligence, that by the fifth day of September lie reached Torgau, and on the eleventh joined his brother. Mareschal Daun had posted himself at Stolpen, to the eastward of the Elbe, in order to preserve an easy communication with the army of the empire encamped in the neighbourhood of Koningstein, to favour the operations of general Laudohn, who had advanced through the Lower Lusatia to the frontiers of Brandenburgh; to make a diversion from the southern parts of Silesia, where a body of Austrian troops acted under the command of the generals Harsche and de Ville; and to interrupt the communication between prince Henry and the capital of Saxony. On the fifth day of September, the garrison in the strong fortress of Koningstein surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after a very feeble resistance, to the prince de Detixponts, who forthwith took possession of the strong camp at Pima. When the king of Prussia therefore arrived at Dresden, he found the army of the empire in this position, and mareschal Daun in a still stronger situation at Stolpen, with bridges of communication thrown over the Elbe, so that he could not attack them with any prospect of advantage. He had no other resolution to take but that of endeavouring to cut them off from supplies of provisions, and with this view he marched to Bautzen, which he occupied. This motion obliged the Austrian general to quit his camp at Stolpen, but he chose another of equal strength at Libau; yet he afterwards advanced to Rittlitz, that he might be at hand to seize the first favourable occasion of executing the resolution he had formed to attack the Prussians. The king having detached general Ratzow on his left, to take possession of Weissenberg, marched forwards with the body of his army, and posted himself in the neighbourhood of Hochkirchen, after having dislodged the Austrians from that village. Matters were now brought to such a delicate crisis, that a battle seemed inevitable, and equally desired by both parties, as an event that would determine whether the Austrians should be obliged to retreat for winter-quarters into Bohemia, or be enabled to maintain their ground in Saxony. In this situation mareschal Daun resolved to act offensively; and formed a scheme for attacking the right flank of the Prussians by surprise. This measure was suggested to him by an oversight of the Prussians, who had neglected to occupy the heights that commanded the village of Hochkirchen, which was only guarded by a few free companies. He determined to take the advantage of a very dark night, and to employ the flower of his whole army on this important service, well knowing, that should they penetrate through the flank of the enemy, the whole Prussian army would be disconcerted, and in all probability entirely ruined. Having taken his measures with wonderful secrecy and circumspection, the troops began to move in the night between the thirteenth and fourteenth of October, favoured by a thick fog, which greatly increased the darkness of the night. Their first care was to take possession of the hill that commanded Hochkirchen, from whence they poured down upon the village, of which they took possession, after having cut in pieces the free companies posted there. The action began in this quarter about four in the morning, and continued several hours with great fury, for, notwithstanding the impetuous efforts of the Austrian troops, and the confusion occasioned among the Prussians by the surprise, a vigorous stand was made by some general officers, who, with admirable expedition and presence of mind, assembled and arranged the troops as they could take to their arms, and led them up to the attack without distinction of regiment, place, or precedence. While the action was obstinately and desperately maintained in this place, amidst all the horrors of darkness, carnage, and confusion, the king being alarmed, exerted all his personal activity, address, and recollection, in drawing regularity from disorder, arranging the different corps, altering positions, reinforcing weak posts, encouraging the soldiery, and opposing the efforts of the enemy; for although they made their chief impression upon the right, by the village of Hochkirchen, mareschal Daun, in order to divide the attention of the king, made another attack upon the left, which was with difficulty sustained, and effectually prevented him from sending reinforcements to the right, where mareschal Keith, under the greatest disadvantages, bore the brunt of the enemy’s chief endeavours. Thus the battle raged till nine in the morning, when this gallant officer was shot through the heart. Prince Francis of Brunswick had met with the same fate; prince Maurice of Anhault was wounded and taken prisoner, and many others were either slain or disabled. As the right wing had been surprised, the tents continued standing, and greatly embarrassed them in their defence. The soldiers had never been properly drawn up in order; the enemy still persevered in their attack with successive reinforcements and redoubled resolution; and a considerable slaughter was made by their artillery, which they had brought up to the heights of Hochkirchen. All these circumstances concurring, could not fail to increase the confusion and disaster of the Prussians; so that about ten the king was obliged to retire to Dobreschutz, with the loss of seven thousand men, of all his tents, and part of his baggage. Nor had the Austrian general much cause to boast of his victory. His loss of men was pretty nearly equal to that of the Prussian monarch; and, whatever reputation he might have acquired in foiling that enterprising prince, certainly his design did not take effect in its full extent, for the Prussians were next day in a condition to hazared another engagement. The king of Prussia had sustained no damage which he could not easily repair, except the death of mareschal Keith, which was doubtless an irreparable misfortune. 468 [See note 3 Q, at the end of this Vol.]
His Prussian majesty remained with his army ten days at Dobreschutz, during which he endeavoured to bring the Austrians to a second engagement; but count Daun declined the invitation, and kept his forces advantageously posted on eminences planted with artillery. His aim having been frustrated at Hochkirchen, where he fought with many advantages on his side, he would not hazard another battle upon equal terms, with such an enterprising enemy, rendered more vigilant by the check he had received, already reinforced from the army of prince Henry, and eager for an opportunity to retrieve the laurel which had been snatched from him by the wiles of stratagem, rather than by the hand of valour. Count Daun, having nothing more to hope from the active operations of his own army, contented himself with amusing the Prussian monarch in Lusatia, while the Austrian generals, Harsche and De Ville, should prosecute the reduction of Neiss and Cosel in Silesia, which they now actually invested. As the Prussian monarch could not spare detachments to oppose every different corps of his enemies that acted against him in different parts of his dominions, he resolved to make up in activity what he wanted in number, and, if possible, to raise the siege of Neiss in person. With this view he decamped from Dobreschutz, and, in sight of the enemy, marched to Goerlitz without the least interruption. From thence he proceeded towards Silesia with his usual expedition, notwithstanding all the endeavours and activity of general Laudohn, who harassed the rear of the Prussians, and gained some petty advantages over them.. Count Daun not only sent this detached corps to retard them in their march; but at the same time, by another route, detached a strong reinforcement to the army of the besiegers. In the meantime, having received intelligence that the army of prince Henry in Saxony was considerably weakened, he himself marched thither, in hopes of expelling the prince from that country, and reducing the capital in the king’s absence. Indeed, his designs were still more extensive, for he proposed to reduce Dresden, Leipsic, and Torgau, at the same time; the first with the main body under his own direction, the second by the army of the empire under the prince de Deuxponts, and the third by a corps under general Haddick, while the forces directed by Laudohn should exclude the king from Lusatia. In execution of this plan he marched directly to the Elbe, which he passed at Pima, and advanced to Dresden, which he hoped would surrender without putting him to the trouble of a formal siege. The army of prince Henry had already retired to the westward of this capital before the prince de Deuxponts, who had found means to cut off his communication with Leipsic, and even invested that city. During these transactions general Haddick advanced against Torgau.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
The field-mareschal count Daun appearing on the sixth day of November within sight of Dresden, at the head of sixty thousand men, encamped next day at Lockowitz, and on the eighth his advanced troops attacked the Prussian hussars and independent battalions, which were posted at Striessen and Gruenewiese. Count Schmettau, who commanded the garrison, amounting to ten thousand men, apprehensive that, in the course of skirmishing, the Austrian troops might enter the suburbs pell-mell, posted colonel Itzenplitz, with seven hundred men, in the redoubts that surrounded the suburbs, that in case of emergency they might support the irregulars; at the same time, as the houses that constituted the suburbs were generally so high as to overlook the ramparts and command the city, he prepared combustibles, and gave notice to the magistrates that they would be set on fire as soon as an Austrian should appear within the place. This must have been a dreadful declaration to the inhabitants of these suburbs, which compose one of the most elegant towns in Europe. In these houses, which were generally lofty and magnificent, the fashionable and wealthy class of people resided, and here a number of artists carried on a variety of curious manufactures. In vain the magistrates implored the mercy and forbearance of the Prussian governor, and represented, in the most submissive strain, that as they were unconcerned in the war, they hoped they should be exempted from the horrors of devastation. In vain the royal family, who remained at Dresden, conjured him to spare that last refuge of distressed royalty, and allow them at least a secure residence, since they were deprived of every other comfort. He continued inflexible, or rather determined to execute the orders of his master, which indeed he could not disobey with any regard to his own safety. On the ninth day of November, about noon, the Austrian vanguard attacked the advanced post of the garrison, repelled the hussars, drove the independent battalions into the suburbs, and forced three of the redoubts, while their cannon played upon the town. The governor, expecting a vigorous attack next day, recalled his troops within the city after they had set fire to the suburbs. At three in the morning the signal was made for this terrible conflagration, which in a little time reduced to ashes the beautiful suburbs of Pirna, which had so lately flourished as the seat of gaity, pleasure, and the ingenious arts. Every bosom warmed with benevolence must be affected at the recital of such calamities. It excites not only our compassion for the unhappy sufferers, but also our resentment against the perpetrators of such enormity. Next day mareschal Daun sent an officer to count Schmettau, with a message, expressing his surprise at the destruction of the suburbs in a royal residence, an act of inhumanity unheard of among christians. He desired to know if it was by the governor’s order this measure was taken; and assured him, that he should be responsible in his person for whatever outrages had been or might be committed against a place in which a royal family resided. Schmettau gave him to understand, that he had orders to defend the town to the last extremity, and that the preservation of what remained depended entirely on the conduct of his excellency; for, should he think proper to attack the place, he (the governor) would defend himself from house to house, and from street to street, and even make his last effort in the royal palace, rather than abandon the city. He excused the destruction of the suburbs as a necessary measure, authorized by the practice of war; but he would have found it a difficult task to reconcile this step to the laws of eternal justice, and far less to the dictates of common humanity. Indeed, if the scene had happened in an enemy’s country, or if no other step could have saved the lives and liberties of himself and his garrison, such a desperate remedy might have stood excused by the law of nature and of nations; but on this occasion he occupied a neutral city, over which he could exercise no other power and authority but that which he derived from illegal force and violence; nor was he at all reduced to the necessity of sacrificing the place to his own safety, inasmuch as he might have retired unmolested, by virtue of an honourable capitulation, which, however, he did not demand. Whether the peremptory order of a superior will, in foro conscientio, justify an officer who hath committed an illegal or inhuman action, is a question that an English reader will scarce leave to the determination of a German casuist with one hundred and fifty thousand armed men in his retinue. Be this as it will, Mr. Ponickau, the Saxon minister, immediately after this tragedy was acted, without waiting for his master’s orders, presented a memorial to the diet of the empire, complaining of it as an action reserved for the history of the war which the king of Prussia had kindled in Germany, to be transmitted to future ages. He affirmed that, in execution of Schmettau’s orders, the soldiers had dispersed themselves in the streets of the Pirna and Witchen suburbs, broke open the houses and shops, set fire to the combustibles, added fresh fuel, and then shut the doors; that the violence of the flames was kept up by red-hot balls fired into the houses, and along the streets; that the wretched inhabitants, who forsook their burning houses, were slain by the fire of the cannon and small arms; that those who endeavoured to save their persons and effects were pushed down and destroyed by the bayonets of the Prussian soldiers posted in the streets for that purpose: he enumerated particular instances of inhuman barbarity, and declared that a great number of people perished, either amidst the flames, or under the ruins of the houses. The destruction of two hundred and fifty elegant houses, and the total ruin of the inhabitants, were circumstances in themselves so deplorable, as to need no aggravation; but the account of the Saxon minister was shamefully exaggerated, and all the particular instances of cruelty false in every circumstance. Baron Plotho, the minister of Brandenburgh, did not fail to answer every article of the Saxon memorial, and refute the particulars therein alleged, in a fair detail, authenticated by certificates under the hands of the magistrates, judges, and principal inhabitants of Dresden. The most extraordinary part of this defence or vindication was the conclusion, in which the baron solemnly assured the diet, that the king of Prussia, from his great love to mankind, always felt the greatest emotion of soul, and the most exquisite concern, at the effusion of blood, the devastation of cities and countries, and the horrors of war, by which so many thousand fellow-creatures were overwhelmed; and that if his sincere and honest inclination to procure peace to Germany, his dear country, had met with the least regard, the present war, attended with such bloodshed and desolation, would have been prevented and avoided. He, therefore, declared that those who excited the present troubles, who, instead of extinguishing, threw oil upon the flames, must answer to God for the seas of blood that had been and would be shed, for the devastation of so many countries, and the entire ruin of so many innocent individuals. Such declarations cost nothing to those hardened politicians, who, feeling no internal check, are determined to sacrifice every consideration to the motives of rapacity and ambition. It would be happy, however, for mankind, were princes taught to believe that there is really an omnipotent and all-judging power, that will exact a severe account of their conduct, and punish them for their guilt, with out any respect to their persons; that pillaging a whole people is more cruel than robbing a single person; and that the massacre of thousands is, at least, as criminal as a private murder.
While count Daun was employed in making a fruitless attempt upon the capital of Saxony, the king of Prussia proceeded in his march to Neiss, which was completely invested on the third day of October. The operations of the siege were carried on with great vigour by the Austrian general De Harsche, and the place was as vigorously defended by the Prussian governor, Theskau, till the first day of November, when the Prussian monarch approached, and obliged the besiegers to abandon their enterprise. M. de Harsche having raised the siege, the king detached general Pouquet with a body of troops across the river Neiss, and immediately the blockade of Cosel was likewise abandoned. De Harsche retired to Bohemia, and De Ville hovered about Jagernsdorf. The fortress of Neiss was no sooner relieved, than the king of Prussia began his march on his return to Saxony, where his immediate presence was required. At the same time, the two bodies under the generals Dohna and Wedel penetrated by different routes into that country. The former had been left at Custrin, to watch the motions of the Russians, who had by this time retreated to the Vistula, and even crossed that river at Thorn; and the other had, during the campaign, observed the Swedes, who had now entirely evacuated the Prussian territories, so that Wedel was at liberty to co-operate with the king in Saxony. He accordingly marched to Torgau, the siege of which had been undertaken by the Austrian general Haddick, who was repulsed by Wedel, and even pursued to the neighbourhood of Eulenbourg. Wedel, being afterwards joined by Dohna, drove him from thence with considerable loss, and then raised the siege of Leipsic. Meanwhile, the king prosecuted his march towards the capital of Saxony, driving before him the body of Austrian troops under Laudohn, who retreated to Zittau. On the tenth day of November count Daun retired from Dresden, and with the army of the empire fell back towards Bohemia; and on the twentieth the king arrived in that city, where he approved of the governor’s conduct. The Russian general foreseeing that he should not be able to maintain his ground during the winter in Poinerania, unless he could secure some sea-port on the Baltic, by which he might be supplied with provisions, detached general Palmbach, with fifteen thousand men, to besiege the town of Colberg, an inconsiderable place, very meanly fortified. It was accordingly invested on the third day of October; but the besiegers were either so ill provided with proper implements, or so little acquainted with operations of this nature, that the garrison, though feeble, maintained the place against all their attacks for six-and-twenty days; at the expiration of which they abandoned their enterprise, and cruelly ravaged the open country in their retreat. Thus, by the activity and valour of the Prussian monarch, his generals and officers, six sieges were raised almost at the same period, namely, those of Colberg, Neiss, Cosel, Torgau, Leipsic, and Dresden.
The variety of fortune which the king of Prussia experienced in the course of this campaign was very remarkable; but the spirit of his conduct, and the rapidity of his motions, were altogether without example. In the former campaign we were dazzled with the lustre of his victories; in this we admire his fortitude and skill in stemming the different torrents of adversity, and rising superior to his evil fortune. One can hardly without astonishment recollect, that in the course of a few months he invaded Moravia, invested Olmutz, and was obliged to relinquish that design, that he marched through an enemy’s country, in the face of a great army, which, though it harassed him in his retreat, could not, in a route of an hundred miles, obtain any advantage over him; that in spite of his disaster at Olmutz, and the difficulties of such a march, he penetrated into Bohemia, drove the enemy from Koningsgratz, executed another dangerous and fatiguing march to the Oder, defeated a great army of Russians, and returned by the way of Saxony, from whence he drove the Austrian and Imperial armies; that after his defeat at Hochkirchen, where he lost two of his best generals, and was obliged to leave his tents standing, he baffled the vigilance and superior number of the victorious army, rushed like a whirlwind to the relief of Silesia, invaded by an Austrian army, which he compelled to retire with precipitation from that province; that, with the same rapidity of motion, he wheeled about to Saxony, and once more rescued it from the hands of his adversaries; that in one campaign he made twice the circuit of his dominions, relieved them all in their turns, and kept all his possessions entire against the united efforts of numerous armies, conducted by generals of consummate skill and undaunted resolution. His character would have been still more complete, if his moderation had been equal to his courage; but in this particular we cannot applaud his conduct. Incensed by the persecuting spirit of his enemies, he wrecked his vengeance on those who had done him no injury; and the cruelties which the Russians had committed in his dominions were retaliated upon the unfortunate inhabitants of Saxony. In the latter end of September, the president of the Prussian military directory sent a letter to the magistrates of Leipsic, requiring them, in the king’s name, to pay a new contribution of six hundred thousand crowns, and to begin immediately with the payment of one-third part, on pain of military execution. In answer to this demand, the magistrates represented that the city having been exhausted by the enormous contributions already raised, was absolutely incapable of furnishing further supplies; that the trade was stagnated and ruined, and the inhabitants so impoverished, that they could no longer pay the ordinary taxes. This remonstrance made no impression. At five in the morning the Prussian soldiers assembled, and were posted in all the streets, squares, market-places, cemeteries, towers, and steeples; then the gates being shut, in order to exclude the populace of the suburbs from the city, the senators were brought into the town-hall, and accosted by general Hauss, who told them, the king his master would have money; and, if they refused to part with it, the city should be plundered. To this peremptory address they replied to this effect:—“We have no more money,—we have nothing left but life; and we recommend ourselves to the king’s mercy.” In consequence of this declaration, dispositions were made for giving up the city to be plundered. Cannon were planted in all the streets, the inhabitants were ordered to remain within doors, and every house resounded with dismal cries and lamentations. The dreaded pillage, however, was converted into a regular exaction. A party of soldiers, commanded by a subaltern, went from house to house, signifying to every burgher, that he should produce all his specie, on pain of immediate pillage and massacre; and every inhabitant delivered up his all without further hesitation. About six in the evening, the soldiers returned to their quarters; but the magistrates were detained in confinement, and all the citizens were overwhelmed with grief and consternation. Happy Britain, who knowest such grievances only by report! When the king of Prussia first entered Saxony, at the beginning of the war, he declared he had no design to make a conquest of that electorate, but only to keep it as a depositum for the security of his own dominions, until he could oblige his enemies to acquiesce in reasonable terms of peace; but upon his last arrival at Dresden he adopted a new resolution. In the beginning of December, the Prussian directory of war issued a decree to the deputies of the states of the electorate, demanding a certain quantity of flour and forage, according to the convention formerly settled; at the same time signifying, that though the king of Prussia had hitherto treated the electorate as a country taken under his special protection, the face of affairs was now changed in such a manner, that for the future he would consider it in no other light than that of a conquered country. The Russians had seized in Prussia all the estates and effects belonging to the king’s officers: a retaliation was now made upon the effects of the Saxon officers, who served in the Russian army. Seals were put on all the cabinets containing papers belonging to the privy-counsellors of his Polish majesty, and they themselves ordered to depart for Warsaw at a very short warning. Though the city had been impoverished by former exactions, and very lately subjected to military execution, the king of Prussia demanded fresh contributions, and even extorted them by dint of severities that shock humanity. He surrounded the exchange with soldiers, and confining the merchants to straw beds and naked apartments, obliged them to draw bills for very large sums on their foreign correspondents: a method of proceeding much more suitable to the despotism of a Persian sophi towards a conquered people who professed a different faith, than reconcileable to the character of a protestant prince towards a peaceable nation of brethren, with whom he was connected by the common ties of neighbourhood and religion. Even if they had acted as declared enemies, and been subdued with arms in their hands, the excesses of war on the side of the conqueror ought to have ceased with the hostilities of the conquered, who, by submitting to his sway, would have become his subjects, and in that capacity had a claim to his protection. To retaliate upon the Saxons, who had espoused no quarrel, the barbarities committed by the Russians, with whom he was actually at war; and to treat as a conquered province a neutral country, which his enemies had entered by violence, and been obliged to evacuate by force of arms, was a species of conduct founded on pretences which overturn all right, and confound all reason.