No More Learning

20th-25th Aug. 1758.
Russians themselves are little the better for it, a coun-
try so lately burned bare; they are merely flung so
many scores of miles forward, farther from home and
their real resources, before they can begin work. They
have no port on the Baltic: poor blockheads, they are
aware how desirable, for instance, Dantzig would be;
to help feeding them out of ships; but the Dantzigers
won't. Colberg, a poor little place, with only 700
militia people in it, would be of immense service to
them as a sea-haven: but even this they have not yet
tried to get; and after trying, they will find it a job.
"Why not unite with the Swedes and take Stettin (the
"finest harbour in the Baltic), which would bring Russia,
"by ships, to your very hand? " This is what Mon-
talembert is urgent upon, year after year, to the point
of wearying everybody; but he can get no official soul
to pay heed to him, -- the difficulties are so consider-
able. "Swedes, what are they? " say the Russians:
"Russians what? " say the Swedes. "Sweden would
"be so handy for the Artilleries," urges Montalembert;
"Russians for the Soldiery, or covering and fighting
"part. " -- "Can't be done! " Officiality shakes its
head: and Montalembert is obliged to be silent.
The Russians have got into the Neumark of Bran-
denburg, on those bad terms; and are clearly aware
that, without some Fortress as a Place of Arms, they
are an overgrown Incompetency and Monstrosity in the
field of War; doing much destruction, most of which
proves se//'-destructive before long. But how help it?
If the carrying of meal so far be difficult, what will
the carrying of siege-furniture be? A flat impossibility.
Fermor, aware of these facts, remembers what hap-
pened at Oczakow, -- long ago, in our presence, and
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? CHAP. xm. ] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 7
Mth-25th Aug. 1758.
Keith's and Mtinnich's, if the reader have not quite
forgot. Miinnich, on that occasion, took Oczakow
without any siege-furniture whatever, by boldly march-
ing up to it; nothing but audacity and good luck on
his side. Fermor determines to try Custrin in the
like way, -- if peradventure Prussian soldiery be like
Turk? --
Fermor rose from Posen, August 2d, almost three
weeks ago; making daily for the Neumark and those
unfortunate Oder Countries; nobody but Dohna to op-
pose him, -- Dohna in the ratio of perhaps one against
four. Dohna naturally laid hold of Frankfurt and the
Oder Bridge, so that Fermor could not cross there;
whereupon Fermor, as the next best thing, struck
northward for the Warta (black Polish stream, last big
branch of Oder); crossed this, at his ease, by Lands-
berg Bridge, August 10th;* and after a day or two of
readjustment in Landsberg, made for Custrin Country
(his next headquarter is at Gross Kamin); hoping, in
some accidental or miraculous way to cross Oder there-
abouts, or even get hold of Custrin as a Place of Arms.
If peradventure he can take Custrin without proper
siege-artillery, in the Oczakow or Anti-Turk way?
Fermor has been busy upon Custrin since August 15th;
-- in what fashion we partly heard, and will now,
from authentic sources, see a little for ourselves.
The Castle of Custrin, built by good Job sum of Custrin,
and "roofed with copper," in the Reformation times, -- we
know it from of old, and Friedrich has since had some know-
ledge of it. Custrin itself is a rugged little Town, with some
moorland traffic, and is still a place of great military
strength, the garrison of those parts. Its rough pavements,
its heavy stone battlements and barriers, give it a gnarled
* Tempelhof, n. 216.
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? 8 SEVEN-TEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIH.
20th-25th Aug. 1758.
obstinate aspect, -- stern enough place of exile for a Crown-
Prince fallen into such disfavour with Papa! A rugged, com-
pact, by no means handsome little Town, at the meeting of
the Warta and the Oder; stands naturally among sedges,
willows and drained mire, except that human industry is
pleasantly busy upon it, and has long been. So that the
neighbourhood is populous beyond expectation; studded with
rough cottages in whitewash; hamlets in a paved condition;
and comfortable signs of labour victoriously wrestling with
the wilderness. Ciistrin, an arsenal and garrison, begirt with
two rivers, and with awful bulwarks, and bastions cased in
stone, -- "perhaps too high," say the learned, -- is likely to
be impregnable to Russian engineering on those terms. Here,
with brevity, is the catastrophe of Ciistrin.
Tuesday, 15th August 1758, At two in the morning, several
thousand Russians, grenadiers, under Quarter-Master General
Stoffeln, whom the readers of Mannstein know from old
Oczakow times, are astir; pushing along from Gross Kamin,
through the scraggy firwoods, and flat peat countries; in-
tending a stroke on Ciistrin, if perhaps they can get it: * --
not the slightest chance to get Ciistrin; Prussian soldiership
and Turkish being two quite different things! The pickeering
and manoeuvering of Stoffeln shall not detain us. Stoffeln
came along by the Landsberg road (course of the now
Konigsberg-Ciistrin Railway); and drove in the Prussian out-
parties, who at first took him for Cossacks. Stoffeln set him-
self down on the north side of the place; planted cannon in
certain claypits thereabouts, and about nine o'clock began
firing shells and incendiary grenadoes at a great rate.
Tielcke saw everything; -- and had the honour to take
luncheon, that evening, with certain chief Officers, sitting on
the ground, after all was over, and only a few shots from the
Garrison still dropping. **
At the third grenado, which, it seems, fell into a straw
magazine, Ciistrin took fire; could not be quenched again, so
much dry wood in it, so much disorder too, the very soldiers
some of them disorderly (a bad deserter set); so that it soon
flamed aloft, -- from side to side one sea of flame: and man,
woman and child, every soul (except the Garrison, which sat
* Tempelhof, n. 217; bat Tielcke, n. 69 et seq. , the real source.
** Tielcke, n. 75 n.
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? CHAP. xm. ] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 9
20th-25th Aug. 1758.
enclosed in strong stone), had to fly across theKiver, under
penalty of death by fire. Of Custrin, by five in the evening,
there was nothing left but the black ashes; the Garrison
standing unharmed, and the Church, School-house, and some
stone edifices in a charred skeleton condition. "No life was
lost, except that of one child in arms. " All Neumark had
lodged its valuables in this place of strength; all are fled now
in horror and terror across the Oder, by the Bridge, before it
also unquenchably takes fire, at the western or Non-Russian
end of the place. Such a day as was seldom seen in human
experience; -- Fermor responsible for it, happily not we.
Fermor, in the evening, said to his Artillery People:
"Why have you ceased to fire grenadoes? " "Excellency,
theTownis out; nothing now but ashes and stone. " "Never
mind; give them the rest, one every quarter of an hour. We
shall not need the grenadoes again. The cannon-balls we
shall; them, therefore, do not waste. " On the morrow morn-
ing, after this performance on the Town, Fermor sends a
Trumpeter: "Surrender, orelse --! " rather in the tremendous
style. "Or else? " answers the Commandant, pointing to the
ashes, to the black inconsumable stones; and is deaf to this
ex-postfacto Trumpeter. The Russians say they sent one
yesterday morning, not ex-postfacto, but he was killed in the
pickeerings, and never heard of again. A mile or so to rear
of Custrin, on the westward or Berlin side of the River, lies
Dohna, for the last four days; expecting that the Laws of
Nature will hold good, and Custrin prove tenable against such
sieging. So stands it on Friedrich's arrival.
We left Friedrich in the Lebus Suburb of Frank-
furt, Sunday, August 20th, listening to the distant
cannonade. Next morning, he is here himself; at
Dohna's Camp of Gorgast, taking survey of affairs;
came early, under rapid small escort, leaving his Army
to follow; scorn and contemptuous indignation the
humour of him, they say; resolution to be swiftly home
upon that surprising Russian armament, and teach it
new manners. The black skeleton of Custrin stares
hideously across the River; "Custrin Siege" so called
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? 10 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
20th-25th Aug. 1758.
still going on; -- had better make despatch now, and
take itself away! He greatly despises Russian soldier-
ship: "Pooh, pooh," he would answer, if Keith from
experience said, "Your Majesty does not do it justice;"
-- and Keith has been known to hint, "If the trial
ever come, your Majesty will alter that opinion. " A
day or two hence, amid these hideous Russian fire-
traceries, the Hussars bring him a dozen of Cossacks
they have made prisoners: Friedrich looks at the dirty
green vagabonds; says to one of his Staff: "And this
is the kind of Doggery I have to bother with! " --
The sight of the poor country people, and their tears
of joy and of sorrow, on his re-appearance among them,
much affected him. Taking inspection of Dohna, he
finds Dohna wonderfully clean, pipe-clayed, complete:
"You are very fine indeed, you; -- I bring you a set
of fellows, rough as grasteufcln" ('grass-devils,' I never
know whether insects or birds); "but they can bite," --
hope you can!
Tuesday, August 22d, at five in the morning our
Army has all arrived, the Frankfurt people just come
in; 30,000 of us now in Camp at Gbrgast. Friedrich
orders straightway that a certain Russian Redoubt on
the other side of the River, at Schaumburg, a mile
or two down stream, be well cannonaded into ruin, --
as if he took it for some incipiency of a Russian Bridge,
or were himself minded to cross here, under cover of
Ciistrin. Friedrich's intention very certainly is to cross,
-- here or not just here; -- and that same night, after
some hours of rest to the Frankfurt people, -- night of
Tuesday-Wednesday, Friedrich, having persuaded the
Russians that his crossing-place will be their Redoubt
at Schaumburg, marches ten or twelve miles down the
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? CHAP. XIII. ] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 11
20th-25th Ang/1758.
River, silently his 30,000 and he, till opposite the Vil-
lage of Giistebiese; rapidly makes his Bridges there,
unmolested: Fermor, with his eye on the cannonaded
Redoubt only, has expected no such matter; and is
much astonished when he hears of it, twenty hours
after. Friedrich, across with the vanguard, at an early
hour of Wednesday, gets upon the knoll at Giistebiese
for a view: and all Giistebiese, hearing of him, hurries
out, with low-voiced tremulous blessings, irrepressible
tears: "God reward your Majesty, that have come to
us! " --and there is a hustling and a struggling, among
the women especially, to kiss the skirts of his coat.
Poor souls: one could have stood tremendous cheers;
but this is a thing I forgive Friedrich for being visibly
affected with.
Friedrich leaves his baggage on the other side of
the Oder, and the Bridge guarded; our friend Hordt,
with his Free-Corps, doing it. Friedrich marches for-
ward some ten miles that night; eastward, straight for
Gross Kamin, as if to take the Russians in rear; en-
camps at a place called Klossow, spreading himself
obliquely towards the Miitzel (black sluggish tributary
of the Oder in those parts), meaning to reach Neu
Damm on the Miitzel tomorrow, there almost within
wind of the Russians, and be ready for crossing on
them. It was at Klossow (23d August, evening), that
the Hussars brought him in their dozen or two of Cos-
sacks, and he had his first sight of Russian soldiery;
by no means a favourable one, "Ugh, only look! " --
As we are now approaching Zorndorf, and the monstrous
tug of Battle which fell out there, readers will be glad
of the following:
"From Damm on the Miitzel, where Friedrich intends
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? 12 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIH.
20th-25th Aug. 1758.
"crossing it tomorrow night, south to Gross Kamin, not far
"from the Warta, where Fermor's headquarter lately was,
"maybe about five miles. FromCtistrin, Kamin lies north-
"east about eight or ten miles: Zorndorf, the most con-
"siderable Village in this tract, lies, -- little dreaming of the
"sad glory coming to it, -- pretty much in the centre between
"big Warta and smaller Miitzel. The Country is by nature
"a peat-wilderness, far and wide; but it has been tamed
"extensively; grows crops, green pastures; is elsewhere
"covered with wood (Scotch fir, scraggy in size, but evidently
"under forest management); perhaps half the country is in
"Fir tracts, what they call Heiden (Heaths); the cultivated
"spaces lying like light-green islands with black-green
"channels and expanses of circumambient Fir. The Drewitz
"Heath, the Massin or Zicher Heath, and others about Zorn-
"dorf, will become notable to us. The Country is now much
"drier than in Friedrich's time; the human spade doing its
"duty everywhere: so that much of the Battle-ground has
"become irrecognisable, when compared with the old marshy
"descriptions given of it. Zorndorf, a rough substantial
"Hamlet, has nothing of boggy now visible near by; lies
"east to west, a firm broad highway leading through: a sea
"of forest before it, to south; to north, good dry barley-
"grounds or rye-grounds, sensibly rising for half a mile, then
"waving about in various slow slight changes of level to-
"wardsQuartschen, Zicher, &c. : forming an irregular cleared
"' island,' altogether of perhaps four miles by three, with un-
limited circumambiencies of wood. It was here, on this
"island as we call it, that the Battle, which has made Zorn-
"dorf famous, was fought.
"Zorndorf (or even the open ground half a mile to north of
"it, which will be more important to us) is probably not 50
"feet above the level of the Miitzel, nor 100 above Warta and
"Oder, six miles off; but it is the crown of the Country; --
"the ground dropping therefrom, every way, in lazy dull
"waves or swells; towards Tamsel and Gross Kamin on
"south-east; towards Birken-Busch, Quartschen, Dar-
"miitzel* on north-west; as well as towards Damm and its
"Bridge north-east, where Friedrich will soon be, and to-
? Dar of the Mfltzel, whatever "Bar" may be.
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? CHAP. Xin. ] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 13
20th-25th Aug. 1758.
"wards Ciistrin south-west, where he lately was, each a fiveor six miles from Zorndorf.
"Such is the poor moorland tract of Country; Zorndorf
"the centre of it, -- where the Battle is likely to be: -- Zorn-
"dorf and environs a bare quasi-island among these woods;extensive bald crown of the landscape , girt with a frizzle offirwoods all round. Boggy pools there are, especially on
"the western side (all drained in our time). Miitzel, or north
"side, is of course the lowest in level: and accordingly," what
is much to be marked by readers here, "from the south, or
"Zorndorf side, at wide intervals, there saunter along, in a
"slow obscure manner, Three miserable continuous Leakages,
"or oozy Threads of Water, all making for Quartschen, to
"north or north-west, there to disembogue into the Miitzel.
'Each of these has its little Hollow; of which the western-
"most, called Zabern Hollow (Zaberngrund), is the most con-
"siderable, and the most important to us here: Galgengrund
'(Gallows Hollow) is also worth naming in this Battle; the
"third Leakage, though without importance, invites us to
"name it, Hosebruch, quasi ^ocfan^r-quagmire, -- because
"you can use no stockings there, except with manifest disad-
'vantage. " -- Take this other concluding trait:
* * "Inexpressible fringe of marsh, two or three miles
"broad, mostly bottomless, woven with sluggish creeks and
'stagnant poofs, borders the Warta for many miles, towards
'Landsberg; Custrin-Landsberg Causeway the alone sure
"footing in it; after which, the country rises insensibly, but
"most beneficially, and is mainly dryer till you get to the
'Miitzel again, and find the same fringe of mud lace-work
"again. Zorndorf we called the crown of it. Tamsel,
"Wilkersdorf, Klein Kamin, Gross Kamin, and other places
"known to us, lie on the dry turf-fuel country, but looking
"over close upon the hem of that marsh-fringe, and no doubt
"gettingpeats, wild-ducks, pike-fishes, eels, and snatches of
"summer pasture and cow-hay out of it. "
Thursday, August 24th, Friedrich is again speeding
on; occupying Darmiitzel, and other crossing places of
the Miitzel;* -- by no means himself crossing there;
* Mitchell to-Holderness, "Dermttzel, 24th August 1758" (Memoirs and
Papers, i. 425; lb. n. 40-47, Mitchell's Private Journal).
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? 14 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book Xvm.
20th-25th Aug. 1758.
on the contrary, carefully breaking all the Bridges be-
fore he go ("No retreat for those Russian vagabonds,
only death or surrender for them! ") -- himself not in-
tending to cross till he be up at Damm, Neu Damm,
well eastward of his Russians, and have got them all
pinfolded between Miitzel and Oder in that way. In
the evening, he reaches Damm and the Mill of Damm,
some three or four miles higher up the Mtitzel; -- and
there pushes partly across at once. That is to say, his
vanguard at once, and takes a defensive position; his
Artillery and other Divisions, by degrees, in the silent
night hours; and, before day-break tomorrow, every
soul will be across, and the Bridge broken again; --
and Fermor had better have his accounts settled.
Fermor's roving Cossack clouds seldom bring him
in intelligence; but only return stained with charcoal
grime, and red murder: up to late last night, he had
not known where Friedrich was at all; had idly thought
him busy with the Schaumburg Redoubt, on the other
side of Oder, fencing and precautioning: but now
(night of the 23d), these Cossacks do come in with
news, "Indisputable to our poor minds, the Prussians
are at Klossow yonder, -- captured a dozen green
vagabonds of us, and have sent us galloping! " --
which news, with the night closing in on him, was
astonishing, thrice and four times important to Fermor.
Instantly he raises the siege of Ctistrin, any siege
there was; gets his immense baggage-train shoved off
that night to Klein Kamin, Landsberg way; summons
the force from Landsberg to join him without loss of
a moment; -- and in the mean while, pitches himself
in long bivouac in the Drewitz Wood or Fir-Heath,
with the quaggy Zaberngrund in front. Quaggy Zabern-
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? CHAP. xm. ] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 15
25th Aug. 1758.
grand, -- do readers remember it; one of those "Three
continuous Leakages," very important to Fermor and
us at present? This is the safest place Fermor can
find for himself; scraggy firs around, good quagmires
and Zabern Hollow in front; looking to the east, wait-
ing what a new day will bring. That was Fermor's
posture, while Friedrich quitted Klossow in the dawn
of the 24th. Be busy, ye Cossack doggeries; return
with news, not with mere grime and marks of blood on
your mouths!
Evening of the 24th, Cossacks report that Fried-
rich has got to Damm Mill; has hold of the Bridge
there; and may be looked for, sure as the daylight to-
morrow. Fermor is 50,000 odd, his Landsberg forces
all coming in; one Detachment out Stettin way, which
cannot come in; Fermor finds that his baggage-train is
fairly on the road to Klein Kamin; -- and that he
will have to quit this bosky bivouac, and fight for him-
self in the open ground, or do worse.
Theseus and the Minotaur over again, -- that is to say,
Friedrich at Handgrips with Fermor and his Russians
(25th August 1758).
Artless Fermor draws out to the open ground, north
of Zorndorf, south of Quartschen; arranges himself in
huge quadrilateral mass, with his "staff-baggage" (lighter
baggage) in the centre, and his front, so to speak, every
where. * Mass, say two miles long by one mile broad;
but it is by no means regular, and has many zigzags
* Excellent Plan of him, or rather Plans, in his successive shapes, in
Tielcke, u. (Plates i, 5, 6, 7, 8).
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? 16 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIIt.
25th Aug. 1758.
according to the ground, and narrows and droops south-
ward on the eastern end: one of the most artless ar-
rangements; but known to Fermor, and the readiest on
this pinch of time. Miinnich devised this quadrilateral
mode; and found it good against the Turks, and their
deluges of raging horse and foot: Fermor could perhaps
do better; but there is such a press of hurry. Fermor's
western flank, or biggest breadth of quadrilateral, leans
on that Zabern Hollow, with its fine quagmires; his
eastern, narrowest part, droops down on certain mud-
pools and conveniences towards Zicher. Gallows Hol-
low, a slighter than the Zabern, runs through the centre
of him; and, with his best people, he fronts towards
the Mutzel Bridges, especially towards Damm Mill
Bridge, whence Friedrich will emerge, sure as the sun-
rise, one knows not with what issue. Artless Fermor
is nothing daunted; nor are his people; but stand pa-
tiently under arms, regardless of future and present, to
a degree not common in soldiering.
Friday, August 25th, by half past three in the morn-
ing, Friedrich is across the Mutzel; self and Infantry
by Damm-Mutzel Bridge, cavalry by another Bridge
(Kersten-briigge, means "Christian Bridge," in the dia-
lect of Charlemagne's time, a very old arrangement of
Successive Logs up there! ) some furlongs higher up.
The Bridge at Damm is perhaps some three miles from
the nearest Russians about Zicher; but Friedrich has
no thought of attacking Fermor there; he has a quite
other program laid, and will attack Fermor precisely
on the side opposite to there. Friedrich's intention is
to sweep quite round this monstrous Russian Quadri-
lateral; to break in upon it on the western flank, and
hurl it back upon Mtitzel and its quagmires. He has
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? CHAP. xm. ] BATTLE OP ZORNDORI". 17
25th Aug. 1758.
broken his two bridges after passing, all bridges are
gone there, and the country is bottomless: surrender at
discretion if once you are driven thither! And Fried-
rich's own retreat, if he fail, is short and open to
Custrin. "Admirable," say the critics, "and altogether
in Friedrich's style! " -- Friedrich, adds one Critic,
was not aware that the Russian Heavy-Baggage Train,
which is their powderflask and breadbasket and staff of
life, lies at Klein Kamin, within few miles on his left
just now, Russians themselves on his right; that the
Russians could have been abolished from those coun-
tries without fighting at all! * This is very true. Fried-
rich's haste is great, his humour hot; and he has not
heard of this Klein-Kamin fact, which in common times
he would have done, and of which in a calmer mood
he would, with a fine scientific gusto, have taken his
advantage.
Friedrich pours incessant southward; cavalry parallel
to infantry and a certain distance beyond it, eastward
of it; and they have burnt the Bridges; which is a
curious fact! Continually southward, as if for Tamsel:
-- poor old Tamsel, do readers recollect it at all, does
Friedrich at all? No pleasant dinner, or lily-and-rose
complexions, there for one to-day! -- Some distance
short of Tamsel, Friedrich, emerging, turns westward;
-- intending what on earth? thinks Fermor. Friedrich
has been mostly hidden by the woods all this while,
and enigmatic to Fermor. Fermor does now at last
see the colour of the facts; -- and that one's chief front
must change itself to southward, one's best leg and arm be
foremost, or towards Zorndorf, not towards the Miitzel as
hitherto. Fermor stirs up his Quadrilateral, makes the
* Retzow, I. 305-829.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. XI. 2
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? 18 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
25th Aug. 1758.
required change, "You, best or northern line,step across,
and front southward; across to southward, I say; second-
best go northward in their stead:" and so, with some other
slight polishings, suggested by the ground and pheno-
mena, we anew await this Prussian Enigma with our
best leg foremost. The march or circular sweep of
these Prussian lines, from Damm Bridge through the
woods and champaign to their appointed place of action,
is seven or eight miles; lines when halted in battle-
order will be two miles long or more.
Friedrich pours steadily along, horse and foot, by
the rear of Wilkersdorf, of Zorndorf, -- Russian Mino-
taur scrutinising him in that manner with dull blood-
shot eyes, uncertain what he will do. It is eight in
the morning, hot August; wind a mere lull, but southernly
if any. Small Hussar pickets ride to right of the main
Army March; to keep the Cossacks in check: who are
roving about, all on wing; and pert enough, in spite of
the Hussar pickets. Desperado individuals of them
gallop up to the Infantry ranks, and fire off their pistols
there, -- without reply; reply or firing, till the word
come, is strictly forbidden. Infantry pours along, like
a ploughman drawing his furrow, heedless of the cir-
cling crows. Crows or Cossacks, finding they are not
regarded, set fire to Zorndorf, and gallop off. Zorndorf
goes up readily, mainly wood and straw; rolls in big
clouds of smoke far northward in upon the Russian
Minotaur, making him still blinder in the important
moments now coming.
Friedrich rides up to view the Zabern Hollow:
"Beyond expectation deep; very boggy, too, with its
foul leakage or brook: no attacking of their western
flank through this Zabern-grund; -- attack the corner
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? CHAP. XIII. ] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 19
25th Aug. 1758.
of them, then; here on the south-west! " That is Fried-
rich's rapid resource. The lines halt, accordingly;
make ready. Behind flaming Zorndorf stands his ex-
treme left, which is to make the attack; infantry in
front; horse to rear and farther leftwards, -- and under
the command of Seidlitz in this quarter, which is an
important circumstance. Right wing, reaching to be-
hind Wilkersdorf, is to refuse itself; whole force of
centre is to push upon that Russian corner, to support
the left in doing it; -- according to the Leuthen or
Leuctra principle, once more. May no mistakes occur
in executing it this day! --
The first division of the Prussian Infantry, or ex-
treme Left, marches forward by the west end of flam-
ing Zorndorf; next division, which should stand close
to right of it, or even behind it, in action, and follow
it close into the Russian fire, has to march by the east
end of Zorndorf; this is a farther road, owing to the
flames; and not a lucky one. Second division could
never get into fair contact with that first division again:
that was the mistake: and it might have been fatal,
but was not, as we shall see. First division has got
clear of Zorndorf, in advancing towards its Russian
business; -- is striding forward, its left flank safe
against the Zabern-grand; steadily by fixed stages,
against the fated Russian Corner, which is its point of
attack. First division, second division, are clear of
Zorndorf, though with a wide gap between them; are
steadily striding forward towards the Russian Corner.
Two strong batteries, wide apart, have planted them-
selves ahead; and are playing upon the Russian Qua-
drilateral, their fires crossing at the due Corner yonder,
with terrible effect; Russian artillery, which are mul- 2*
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? 20 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVilt.
25th Aug. 1758.
titudinous and all gathered down to this south-western
corner, are responding, though with their fire spread,
and far less effectual. The Prussian line steps on, ex-
treme left perhaps in too animated a manner; their
cannon batteries enfilade the thick mass of Russians at
a frightful rate ("forty-two men of a certain regiment
blown away by a single ball," in one instance*), drive
the interior baggage-horses to despair: a very agitated
Quadrilateral, under its grim canopy of cannon smoke,
and of straw smoke, heaped on it from the Zorndorf
side here. Manteuffel, leader of that first or leftmost
division, sees the internal simmering; steps forward still
more briskly, to firing distance; begins his platoon
thunder, with the due steady fury, -- had the second
division but got up to support Manteuffel! The second
division is in fire too; but not close to Manteuffel,
where it should be.
Fermor notices the gap, the wavering of Manteuffel
unsupported; plunges out in immense torrent, horse and
foot, into the gap, into Manteuffel's flank and front;
hurls Manteuffel back, who has no support at hand:
"Arah, Arahl Victory, Victory (Hurrah, Hurrah)! "
shout the Russians, plunging wildly forward, sweeping
all before them, capturing twenty-six pieces of cannon,
for one item. What a moment for Friedrich; looking
on it from some knoll somewhere near Zorndorf, I sup-
pose; hastily bidding Seidlitz strike in: "Seidlitz
now! " The hurrahing Russians cannot keep rank at
that rate of going, like a buffalo stampede; but fall
into heaps and gaps: Seidlitz, with a swiftness, with a
dexterity beyond praise, has picked his way across that
quaggy Zabern Hollow; falls, with say 5,000 horse, on
* Tielcke.
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? CHAP. xm. ] BATTLE OP ZORNDORP. 21
25th Aug. 1758.
the flank of this big buffalo stampede; tumbles it into
instant ruin; -- which proves irretrievable, as the Prus-
sian Infantry come on again, and back Seidlitz.
In fifteen minutes more (I guess it now to be ten
o'clock), the Russian Minotaur, this end of it, on to
the Gallows Ground, is one wild mass. Seldom was
there seen such a charge; issuing in such deluges of
wreck, of chaotic flight, or chaotic refusal to fly. The
Seidlitz cavalry went sabring till, for very fatigue,
they gave it up, and could no more. The Russian
horse fled to Kutzdorf, -- Fermor with them, who saw
no more of this Fight, and did not get back till dark;
-- had not the Bridges been burnt, and no crossing of
the Mtitzel possible, Fermor never would have come
back, and here had been the end of Zorndorf. Luckier
if it had! But there is no crossing of the Mutzel,
there is only drowning in the quagmires there: -- death
any way; what can be done but die?
The Russian infantry stand to be sabred, in the
above manner, as if they had been dead oxen. More
remote from Seidlitz, they break open the sutlers'
brandy-casks, and in few minutes get roaring drunk.
Their officers, desperate, split the brandy-casks; soldiers
flap down to drink it from the puddles; furiously re-
monstrate with their officers, and "kill a good many
of them" (viele, says Tielcke), especially the foreign
sort. "A frightful blood-bath," by all the Accounts:
blood-bath, brandy-bath, and chief Nucleus of Chaos
then extant above ground. Fermor is swept away:
this chaos, the very Prussians drawing back from it,
wearied with massacring, lasts till about one o'clock.
Up to the Gallows-ground, the Minotaur is mere wreck
and delirium: but beyond the Gallows-ground, the other
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? 22 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
25th Aug. 1758.
half forms a new front to itself; becomes a new Mino-
taur, though in reduced shape. This is Part First of
the Battle of Zorndorf; Friedrich, -- on the edge of
great disaster at one moment, but miraculously saved,
-- has still the other half to do (unlucky that he left
no Bridges on the Mtitzel), and must again change his
program.
Half of the Minotaur is gone to shreds in this
manner; but the attack upon it, too, is spent: what is
to be done with the other half of the monster, which is
again alive; which still stands, and polypus-like has
arranged a new life for itself, a new front against the
Galgen-grund yonder? Friedrich brings his right wing
into action. Rapidly arranges right wing, centre, all of
the left that is disposable, with batteries, with cavalry;
for an attack on the opposite or south-eastern end of
his monster. If your monster, polypus-like, come alive
again in the tail part, you must fell that other head of
him. Batteries, well in advance, begin work upon the
new head of the monster, which was once his tail;
fresh troops, long lines of them, pushing forward to
begin platoon volleying: -- time now, I should guess,
about half-past two. Our infantry has not yet got
within musket range, -- when torrents of Russian
Horse, Foot too following, plunge out; wide-flowing,
stormfully swift; and dash against the coming attack.
Dash against it; stagger it; actually tumble it back, in
the centre part; take one of the batteries, and a whole
battalion prisoners. Here again is a moment! Fried-
rich, they say, rushed personally into this vortex;
rallied these broken battalions, again rallied and led
them up; but it was to no purpose: they could not be made to stand, these centre battalions; -- "some sudden
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? CHAP. XIII. ] . BATTLE OF ZORNDORF. 23
25th Aug. 1758.
panic in them, a thing unaccountable," says Tempelhof;
"they are Dohna's people, who fought perfectly at
"Jagersdorf, and often elsewhere" (they were all in
such a finely burnished state, the other day; but have
not biting talent, like the grass-devils): enough, they
fairly scour away, certain disgraceful battalions, and
are not got ranked again till below Wilkersdorf, above
a mile off; though the grass-devils, on both hands of
them, stand grimly steady, left in this ominous
manner.
What would have become of the affair, one knows
not, if it had not been that Seidlitz once more made
his appearance. On Friedrich's order, or on his own,
I do not know; but sure it is, Seidlitz, with sitxty-one
squadrons, arriving from some distance, breaks in like
a Deus ex Machind, swift as the storm-wind, upon this
Russian Horse-torrent; drives it again before him, like
a mere torrent of chaff, back, ever back, to the shore
of Acheron and the Stygian quagmires (of the Mtitzel,
namely); so that it did not return again; and the
Prussian Infantry had free field for their platoon
exercise. Their rage against the Russians was extreme;
and that of the Russians corresponded. Three of these
grass-devil battalions, who stood nearest to Dohna's
runaways, were natives of this same burnt-out Zorndorf
Country; we may fancy the Platt-Teutsch hearts of
them, and the sacred lightning, with a moisture to it,
that was in their eyes.