Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20




Contrary to everybody's expectation, not a shot was heard, that
night. Nor the next night, nor the next: but the practice of
vigilance was continued. Punctual as mathematics: at a given hour
of the afternoon, tents are all struck; tents and furnitures, field
swept clear; and the 50,000 in their places wait under arms.
Next morning, nothing having fallen out, the tents come back;
the Army (half of it at once, or almost the whole of it, according
to aspects) rests, goes to sleep if it can. By night there is
vigilance, is work, and no sleep. It is felt to be a hard life, but
a necessary.

Nor in these labors of detail is the King wanting; far from it;
the King is there, as ear and eye of the whole. For the King alone
there is, near the chief Battery, "on the Pfarrberg, namely, in the
clump of trees there," a small Tent, and a bundle of straw where he
can lie down, if satisfied to do so. If all is safe, he will do so;
but perhaps even still he soon awakens again; and strolls about
among his guard-parties, or warms himself by their fires.
One evening, among the orders, is heard this item: "And remember, a
lock of straw, will you,--that I may not have to sleep on the
ground, as last night!" [Seyfarth, ii. 16 n.] Many anecdotes are
current to this day, about his pleasant homely ways and
affabilities with the sentry people, and the rugged hospitalities
they would show him at their watch-fires. "Good evening, children."
"The same to thee, Fritz." "What is that you are cooking?"--and
would try a spoonful of it, in such company; while the rough
fellows would forbid smoking, "Don't you know he dislikes it?"
"No, smoke away!" the King would insist.

Mythical mainly, these stories; but the dialect of them true;
and very strange to us. Like that of an Arab Sheik among his
tribesmen; like that of a man whose authority needs no keeping up,
but is a Law of Nature to himself and everybody. He permits a
little bantering even; a rough joke against himself, if it spring
sincerely from the complexion of the fact. The poor men are
terribly tired of this work: such bivouacking, packing, unpacking;
and continual waiting for the tug of battle, which never comes.
Biscuits, meal are abundant enough; but flesh-meat wearing low;
above all, no right sleep to be had. Friedrich's own table, I
should think, is very sparingly beset ("A cup of chocolate is my
dinner on marching-days," wrote he once, this Season);
certainly his Lodging,--damp ground, and the straw sometimes
forgotten,--is none of the best. And thus it has to last, night
after night and day after day. On September 8th, General Bulow went
out for a little butcher's-meat; did bring home "200 head of neat
cattle [I fear, not very fat] and 300 sheep." [Tempelhof, v. 172.]

Loudon, all this while, is laboring, as man seldom did, to bring
Butturlin to the striking place; who continues flaccid, Loudon
screwing and rescrewing, altogether in vain. Loudon does not deny
the difficulty; but insists on the possibility, the necessity:
Councils of War are bid, remonstrances, encouragements. "We will
lend you a Corps," answers Butturlin; "but as to our Army
cooperating,--except in that far-off way, it is too dangerous!"
Meanwhile provisions are running low; the time presses. A formal
Plan, presented by the ardent Loudon ,--Loudon himself to take the
deadlier part,--"Mark it, noble Russian gentlemen; and you to have
the easier!"--surely that is loyal, and not in the old cat's-paw
way? But in that, too, there is an offence. Butturlin and the
Russians grumble to themselves: "And you to take all the credit, as
you did at Kunersdorf? A mere adjunct, or auxiliary, we: and we are
a Feldmarschall; and you, what is your rank and seniority?" In
short, they will not do it; and in the end coldly answer: "A Corps,
if you like; but the whole Army, positively no." Upon which Loudon
goes home half mad; and has a colic for eight-and-forty hours.
This was September 2d; the final sour refusal;--nearly heart-
breaking to Loudon. Provisions are run so low withal: the Campaign
season all but done; result, nothing: not even an attempt at
a result.

No Prussian, from Friedrich downwards, had doubted but the attack
would be: the grand upshot and fiery consummation of these dark
continual hardships and nocturnal watchings. Thrice over, on
different nights, the Prussians imagined Loudon to have drawn out,
intending actual business; and thrice over to have drawn in again,
--instead of once only, as was the fact, and then taken colic.
[Tempelhof, v. 170.] Friedrich's own notion, that "over dinner,
glass in hand," the two Generals had, in the enthusiasm of such a
moment, agreed to do it, but on sober inspection found it too
dubious, [ OEuvres de Frederic, v. 125.]
appears to be ungrounded. Whether they could in reality have
stormed him, had they all been willing, is still a question;
and must continue one. Wednesday evening, 9th September, there was
much movement noticeable in the Russian camp; also among the
Austrian, there are regiments, foot and horse, coming down
hitherward . "Meaning to try it then?" thought Friedrich, and got
at once under arms. Suppositions were various; but about 10 at
night, the whole Russian Camp went up in flame; and, next morning,
the Russians were not there.

Russian main Army clean gone; already got to Jauer, as we hear; and
Beck with a Division to see them safe across the Oder;--only
Czernichef and 20,000 being left, as a Corps of Loudon's. Who, with
all Austrians, are quiet in their Heights of Kunzendorf again.
And thus, on the twentieth morning, September 10th, this strange
Business terminated. Shot of those batteries is drawn again;
powder of those mines lifted out again: no firing of your heavy
Artillery at all, nor even of your light, after such elaborate
charging and shoving of it hither and thither for the last three
weeks. The Prussians cease their bivouacking, nightly striking of
tents; and encamp henceforth in a merely human manner; their
"Spanish Riders" (FRISIAN Horse, CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE, others of us
call them), their Storm-pales and elaborate wooden Engineerings,
they gradually burn as fuel in the cold nights; finding Loudon
absolutely quiescent, and that the thing is over, for the present.
One huge peril handsomely staved away, though so many
others impend.

By way of accelerating Butturlin, Friedrich, next day, September
11th, despatched General Platen with some 8,000 (so I will guess
them from Tempelhof's enumeration by battalions), to get round the
flank of Butturlin, and burn his Magazines. Platen, a valiant
skilful person, did this business, as he was apt to do, in a
shining style; shot dexterously forward by the skirts of Butturlin;
heard of a big WAGENBURG or Travelling Magazine of his, at Gostyn
over the Polish Frontier; in fact, his travelling bread-basket,
arranged as "Wagon-fortress" in and round some Convent there, with
trenches, brick walls, cannon and defence considered strong enough
for so important a necessary of the road. September 15th, Platen,
before cock-crow, burst out suddenly on this Wagon-fortress, with
its cannons, trenches, brick walls and defensive Russians;
stormed into it with extraordinary fury: "Fixed bayonets," ordered
he at the main point of their defence, "not a shot till they are
tumbled out!"--tumbled them out accordingly, into flight and ruin;
took of prisoners 1,845, seven cannon, and burnt the 5,000
provender wagons, which was the soul of the adventure; and directly
got upon the road again. [Tempelhof, v. 281-293;
Helden-Geschichte, vi. 643-649.] Detachments of him
then fell on Posen, on Posen and other small Russian repositories
in those parts,--hay-magazines, biscuit-stores soldiers' uniforms;
distributed or burnt the same;--completely destroying the
travelling haversack or general road-bag of Butturlin; a Butturlin
that will have to hasten forward or starve.

Which done, Platen (not waiting the King's new orders, but
anticipating them, to the King's great contentment) marched
instantly, with his best speed and skilfulest contrivance of routes
and methods, not back to the King, but onward towards Colberg,--
(which he knows, as readers shall anon, to be much in need of him
at present);--and without injury, though begirt all the way by a
hurricane of Cossacks and light people doing their utmost upon him,
arrived there September 25th; victoriously cutting in across the
Besieging Party: and will again be visible enough when we arrive
there. Indignant Butturlin chased violently, eager to punish
Platen; but could get no hold: found Platen was clear off, to
Pommern,--on what errand Butturlin knew well, if not so well what
to do in consequence. "Reinforce our poor Besiegers there, and
again reinforce [to enormous amounts, 40,000 of them in the end];--
get bread from them withal:--and, before long, flow bodily
thitherward, for bread to ourselves and for their poor sake!"
That, on the whole, was what Butturlin did.

Friedrich stayed at Bunzelwitz above a fortnight after Butturlin.
"Why did not Friedrich stay altogether, and wait here?" said some,
triumphantly soon after. That was not well possible.
His Schweidnitz Magazine is worn low; not above a month's provision
now left for so many of us. The rate of sickness, too, gets heavier
and heavier in this Bunzelwitz Circuit. In fine, it is greatly
desirable that Loudon, who has nothing but Bohemia for outlook,
should be got to start thither as soon as possible, and be
quickened homeward. September 25th-26th, Friedrich will be under
way again.

And, in the mean while, may not we employ this fortnight of
quiescence in noting certain other things of interest to him and us
which have occurred, or are occurring, in other parts of the Field
of War? Of Henri in Saxony we undertook to say nothing; and indeed
hitherto,--big Daun with his Lacys and Reichsfolk, lying so
quiescent, tethered by considerations (Daun continually detaching,
watching, for support of his Loudon and Russians and their thrice-
important operation, which has just had such a finish),--there
could almost nothing be said. Nothing hitherto, or even henceforth,
as it proves, except mutual vigilances, multifarious bickerings,
manoeuvrings, affairs of posts: sharp bits of cutting (Seidlitz,
Green Kleist and other sharp people there); which must not detain
us in such speed. But there are two points, the Britannic-French
Campaign, and the Third Siege of Colberg; which in no rate of speed
could be quite omitted.


OF FERDINAND'S BATTLE OF VELLINGHAUSEN (15th-16th July);
AND THE CAMPAIGN 1761.

Vellinghausen is a poor little moory Hamlet in Paderborn Country,
near the south or left bank of the Lippe River; lies to the north
of Soest,--some 15 miles to your left-hand there, as you go by rail
from Aachen to Paderborn;--but nobody now has ever heard of it at
Soest or elsewhere, famous as it once became a hundred years ago.
Ferdinand had taken a singular position there, in the early days of
July, 1761. Here is brief Notice of that Affair, and of some
results, or adjuncts, still more important, which it had:--

"This Year, Ferdinand's Campaign is more difficult than ever;
Choiseul having made a quite spasmodic effort towards Hanover,
while negotiating for Peace. Two Armies, counting together 160,000
men, in great completeness of equipment, Choiseul has got on foot,
against Ferdinand's of 95,000. Had a fine dashing plan, too;--
devised by himself (something of a Soldier he too, and full of what
the mess-rooms call 'dash');--not so bad a Plan of the dashing
kind, say judges. But it was marred sadly in one point:
That Broglio, on issuing from his Hessian Winter-quarters, is not
to be sole General; that Soubise, from the Lower-Rhine Country, is
to be Co-General;--such the inexorable will of Pompadour.
This clause of the business Ferdinand, at an early stage, appears
to have guessed or discerned might, for him, be the saving clause.

"Now, as formerly, Ferdinand's first grand business is to guard
Lippstadt,--guard it now from these two Generals:--and, singular to
see, instead of opposing the junction of them, he has submitted
cheerfully to let them join. And in the course of a week or two
after taking the field, is found to be on the western or outmost
flank of Soubise, crushing him up towards Broglio, not otherwise!
And has, partly by accident, taken a position at Vellinghausen
which infinitely puzzles Broglio and Soubise, when they rush into
junction at Soest (July 6th)) and study the thing, with their own
eyes, for eight whole days, in concert.' What continual
reconnoitring, galloping about of high-plumed gentlemen together or
apart; what MEMOIR-ing, mutual consulting, beating of brains, to
little purpose, during those eight days!--

"Ferdinand stands in moory difficult ground, length of him about
eight miles, looking eastward; with his left at Vellinghausen and
the Lippe; centre of him is astride of the Ahse (centre partly, and
right wing wholly, are on the south side of Ahse), which is a
branch of Lippe; and in front, he has various little Hamlets,
Kirch-Denkern [KIRCH-Denkern, for there are three or four other
Denkerns thereabouts], Scheidingen, Wambeln and others; and his
right wing is covered farther by a quaggy brook, which runs into
the above-said Ahse, and is a SUB-branch of Lippe. At most of these
Villages Ferdinand has thrown up something of earthworks: there are
bogs, rough places, woods; all are turned to advantage.
Ferdinand is in a strongish, but yet a dangerous position; and will
give difficulties, and does give endless dubieties, to these high-
plumed gentlemen galloping about with their spy-glasses for eight
days. One possibility they pretty soon discern in him: His left
flank rests on Lippe, yes; but his right flank is in the air, has
nothing to rest on;--here surely is some possibility for us?
A strong Position, that of his; but if driven out of it by any
method, he has no retreat; is tumbled back into the ANGLE where
Ahse and Lippe meet, and into the little Town of Hamm there, where
his Magazine is. What a fate for him, if we succeed!--

"Ferdinand, by the incessant reconnoitring and other symptoms,
judges what is coming; concludes he will be attacked in this
posture of his; and on the whole, what critics now reckon very wise
and very courageous of him, determines to stand his chance in it.
The consultations of Broglio and Soubise are a thing unique to look
upon; spread over volumes of Official Record, and about a volume
and a half even of BOURCET, where it is still almost amusing to
read; [ Memoires Historiques (that is to say,
for most part, Selection of Official Papers) sur la Guerre
que les Francais ont soutenue en Allemagne depuis 1757 jusqu'au
1762: par M. de Bourcet, Lieutenant-General des Armees
du Roi (3 tomes, Paris, 1792);--worthily done; but occupied,
two-thirds of it, with this Vellinghausen and the paltry "Campaign
of 1761"!] and ending in helpless downbreak on both parts.
Of strategic faculty nobody supposes they had much, and nearly all
of it is in Broglio; Soubise being strong in Court-favor only.
Exquisitely polite they both strive to be; and under the exquisite
politeness, what infirmities of temper, splenetic suspicions, and
in fact mutual hatred lay hidden, could never be accurately known.
'Attack him, Sunday next; on the 13th!' so, at the long last, both
of them had said. And then, on more reflection, Broglio afterwards:
'Or not till the 15th, M. le Prince; till I reconnoitre yet again,
and drive in his outposts?' 'M. le Marechal's will is always mine:
Tuesday, 15th, reconnoitre him, drive him in; be it so, then!'
answers Soubise, with extreme politeness,--but thinking in his own
mind (or thought to be thinking), 'Wants to do it himself, or to
get the credit of doing it, as in former cases; and bring me into
disgrace!' Not quite an insane notion either, on Soubise's part,
say some who have looked into the Broglio-Soubise Controversy;--
which far be it from any of us, at this or at any time, to do.
Here are the facts that ensued.

"TUESDAY, JULY 15th, 1761, Broglio reconnoitred with intensity all
day, drove in all Ferdinand's outposts; and about six in the
evening, seeing hope of surprise, or spurred by some notion of
doing the feat by himself, suddenly burst into onslaught on
Ferdinand's Position: 'Vellinghausen yonder, and the woody
strengths about,--could not we get hold of that; it would be so
convenient to-morrow morning!' Granby and the English are in camp
about Vellinghausen; and are taken quite on the sudden: but they
drew out rapidly, in a state of bottled indignation, and fought,
all of them,--Pembroke's Brigade of Horse, Cavendish's of Foot,
BERG-SCHOTTEN, Maxwell's Brigade and the others, in a highly
satisfactory way,--'MIT UNBESCHREIBLICHER TAPFERKEIT,' says
Mauvillon on this occasion again. Broglio truly has burst out into
enormous cannonade, musketade and cavalry-work, in this part;
and struggles at it, almost four hours,--a furious, and especially
a very noisy business, charging, recharging through the woods
there;--but, met in this manner, finds he can make nothing of it;
and about 10 at night, leaves off till a new morning.

"Next morning, about 4, Broglio, having diligently warned Soubise
overnight, recommenced; again very fiercely, and with loud
cannonading; but with result worse than before.
Ferdinand overnight, while Broglio was warning Soubise, had
considerably strengthened his left wing here,--by detachments from
the right or Anti-Soubise wing; judging, with good foresight, how
Soubise would act. And accordingly, while poor Broglio kept
storming forward with his best ability, and got always hurled back
again, Soubise took matters easy; 'had understood the hour of
attack to be' so-and-so, 'had understood' this and that; and on the
whole, except summoning or threatening, in the most languid way,
one outlying redoubt ('redoubt of Scheidingen') on Ferdinand's
right wing, did nothing, or next to nothing, for behoof of his
Broglio. Who, hour after hour, finds himself ever worse bested;--
those Granby people proving 'indescribable' once more [their
Wutgenau also with his Hanoverians NOT being absent, as they rather
were last night];--and about 10 in the morning gives up the bad
job; and sets about retiring. If retiring be now permissible;
which it is not altogether. Ferdinand, watching intently through
his glass the now silent Broglio, discerns 'Some confusion in the
Marechal yonder!'--and orders a general charge of the left wing
upon Broglio; which considerably quickened his retreat; and broke
it into flight, and distressful wreck and capture, in some parts,--
Regiment ROUGE, for one item, falling wholly, men, cannon, flags
and furniture, to that Maxwell and his Brigade.

"Ferdinand lost, by the indistinct accounts, 'from 1,500 to 2,000:'
Broglio's loss was 'above 5,000; 2,000 of them prisoners.'
Soubise, for his share, 'had of killed 24,'--O you laggard of a
Soubise! [Mauvillon, ii. 171-189; Tempelhof, v. 207-221;
Bourcet, ii. 75 et seq. In Helden-Geschichte
(vi. 770-782-792) the French Account, and the English (or Allied),
with LISTS, and the like. Slight LETTER from Sir Robert Murray
Keith to his Excellency Papa, now at Petersburg, "Excellency
first," as we used to define him, stands in the miserably edited
Memoirs and Correspondence (London, 1849),
i. 104-105; and may tempt you to a reading; but alters nothing,
adds little or nothing. Sir R. fights here as a Colonel of
Highlanders, but afterwards became "Excellency second" of his
name.] And it is a Battle lost to Choiseul's grand Pair of Armies;
a Campaign checked in mid volley; and nothing but recriminations,
courts-martial, shrieky jargonings,--and plain incompatibility
between the two Marechaux de France; so that they had to part
company, and go each his own road henceforth. Choiseul remonstrates
with them, urges, eucourages; writes the 'admirablest Despatches;'
to no purpose. 'How ridiculous and humiliating would it be for us,
if, with Two Armies of such strength, we accomplished nothing, and
the whole Campaign were lost!' writes he once to them.

"Which was in fact the result arrived at; the two Generals parting
company for this Campaign (and indeed for all others); and each, in
his own way, proving futile. Soubise, with some 30,000, went
gasconading about, in the Westphalian, or extreme western parts;
taking Embden (from two Companies of Chelsea Pensioners; to whom he
broke his word, poor old souls;--to whom, and much more to the
Populations there [LETTER FROM A FRENCH PROTESTANT GENTLEMAN AT
GRONINGEN; followed by confirmatory LETTER FROM &c. &c. (copied
into Gentleman's Magazine for 1761), give
special details of the altogether ULTRA-Soltikof atrocities
perpetrated by Soubise's people (doubtless against his will) on the
recalcitrant or disaffected Peasants, on the &c. &c.]),--taking
Embden, not taking Bremen; and in fact doing nothing, except keep
the Gazetteers in vain noise: a Soubise not in force, by himself,
to shake Ferdinand; and who, it is remarked, now and formerly,
always prefers to be at a good distance from that Gentleman.
Broglio, on the other hand, keeps violently pulsing out, round
Ferdinand's flanks; taking Wolfenbuttel (Broglio's for two days),
besieging Brunswick (for one day);-and, in short, leaving, he too,
the matter as he had found it. A man of difficult, litigious
temper, I should judge; but clearly has something of generalship:
'does understand tactic, if strategy NOT,' said everybody;
'while Soubise, in both capacities, is plain zero!' [Excellency
Stanley (see INFRA) to Pitt, "Paris, 30th July, 1761:" in
THACKERAY, ii. 561-562.] The end, however, was: next Winter,
Broglio got dismissed, in favor of Soubise;--rest from shrieky
jargon having its value to some of us; and 'hold of Hanover' being
now plainly a matter hopeless to France and us."

In this Battle a fine young Prince of Brunswick got killed;
Erbprinz's second Brother;--leading on a Regiment of BERG-SCHOTTEN,
say the accounts. [ "The Life of Prince Albert Henry italic> [had lived only 19 years, poor youth, not much of a
"Life"!-but the account of his Education is worth reading, from a
respectable Eye-witness] of Brunswick-Luneburg, Brother to
the Hereditary Prince; who so eminently &c. at Fellinghausen italic> &c. &c. (London, Printed for &c. 1763). Written
originally in German by the Rev. Mr. Hierusalem"
(Father of the "Young Jerusalem" who killed himself afterwards, and
became, in a sense, Goethe's WERTHER and SORROWS). Price, probably,
Twopence).] Berg-Schotten, and English generally, Pembroke's Horse,
Cavendish's Brigade,--we have mentioned their behavior; and how
Maxwell's Brigade took one whole regiment prisoners, in that final
charge on Broglio. "What a glorious set of fellows!" said the
English people over their beer at home. Beer let us fancy it;
at the sign of THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY, which is now everywhere
prevalent and splendent;--the beer, we will hope, good. And as this
is a thing still said, both over beer and higher liquors, and
perhaps is liable to be too much insisted on, I will give, from a
caudid By-stander, who knows the matter well, what probably is a
more solid and circumstantially correct opinion. Speaking of
Ferdinand's skill of management, and of how very composite a kind
his Army was, Major Mauvillon has these words:--

"The first in rank," of Ferdinand's Force, "were the English;
about a fourth part of the whole Army. Braver troops, when on the
field of battle and under arms against the enemy, you will nowhere
find in the world: that is a truth;--and with that the sum of their
military merits ends. In the first place, their Infantry consists
of such an unselected hand-over-head miscellany of people, that it
is highly difficult to preserve among them even a shadow of good
discipline,"--of MANNSZUCHT, in regard to plunder, drinking and the
like; does not mean KRIEGSZUCHT, or drill. "Their Cavalry indeed is
not so constituted; but a foolish love for their horses makes them
astonishingly plunderous of forage; and thus they exhaust a
district far faster in that respect than do the Germans.

"Officers' Commissions among them are all had by purchase:
from which it follows that their Officers do not trouble their
heads about the service; and understand of it, very VERY few
excepted, absolutely nothing whatever [what a charming set of
"Officers"!]--and this goes from the Ensign up to the General.
Their home-customs incline them to the indulgences of life;
and, nearly without exception, they all expect to have ample and
comfortable means of sleep. [Hear, hear!] This leads them often
into military negligences, which would sound incredible, were they
narrated to a soldier. To all this is added a quiet natural
arrogance (UEBERMUTH),"--very quiet, mostly unconscious, and as if
inborn and coming by discernment of mere facts,--"which tempts them
to despise the enemy as well as the danger; and as they very seldom
think of making any surprisal themselves, they generally take it
for granted that the enemy will as little.

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