1759. CAMPAIGN IN SAXONY. 173 battle were devoted, not to reaping its fruits, but to feasting and carousing. Their loss in the action, moreover, had been most severe; not short, it is probable, of 20,000 men. "If I gain another such victory," said Soltikow, "I shall have to carry the news of it myself, "alone, and staff in hand, to Petersburg." * But a still more essential cause of inactivity was the jealousy which now prevailed between Soltikow and Daun. The Russian General complained, that whilst he had been winning two battles the Austrian had done nothing towards the common cause. "It is now for my colleague to bestir himself," cried he; "for my part, I have performed enough." Thus the Russians made no forward movement; and Frederick, gathering fresh hope from the delay, rallied his defeated troops, and called in some new regiments from his garrisons, some new artillery from his arsenals, so that in a few days he was again at the head of 30,000 well-appointed men. In the result, as winter approached, the Russians slowly withdrew towards their own territory, and Laudohn, separating from them, marched back into Moravia. 66 Freed from these enemies, the King hastened to Saxony. His absence from that quarter had already lost him the great city of Dresden; nor did affairs proceed much more prosperously after his return. One of his Generals was surprised and defeated in crossing the Elbe, near Meissen; another General, Finck,-the same to whom Frederick had bequeathed the chief command after the battle of Kunersdorf, and who was now at the head of 12,000 men in a separate division,-chose his position at Maxen with so little skill that he was surrounded and compelled to lay down his arms. No event in Frederick's whole career seems to have more deeply wounded his pride. During the whole remainder of his reign he continued to show marked disfavour to every officer who had been-however innocently-present with the capitulating army. Thus, for instance, when one of them, long afterwards grown a veteran, and destitute in his unfriended old age, sent in an humble petition for a * Preuss, Lebens-Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 216. pension, the King, with a bitter sneer, wrote upon the margin: "Assign him a pension by all means! Assign "it on the profits of Maxen!"* Yet, notwithstanding the manifold reverses sustained by Frederick during this campaign, his position, at its close, did not seem greatly worse than at its commencement. With the exception of Dresden, there was no loss either of town or territory. But the ranks of his veterans had been frightfully thinned by privation or the sword, and could only be recruited from peasants or deserters. So low were his resources that he merely maintained his troops by debasing the Prussian coin, and mingling a large alloy with the gold of the English subsidy. Still, however, undaunted in spirit, the King fixed his winterquarters at Freyberg, in Saxony, rapidly and ably exchanging the fatigues of warfare for his scarcely inferior toils and anxieties of state. In this campaign Prince Ferdinand was equally able and more fortunate. Besides the Hanoverians and Hessians in British pay he had under his direction 10,000 or 12,000 British soldiers, amongst whom, since the death of the Duke of Marlborough, Lord George Sack'ville was the senior officer. The French, on their part, were making great exertions, under the new administration of the Duke de Choiseul; large reinforcements were sent into Germany, and early in the year they surprised by stratagem the free city of Frankfort, and made it the place of arms for their southern army. No object could be of greater moment to Ferdinand than to dislodge them from this important post. Leaving behind him, in their quarters, his British and Hanoverians, to the number of 25,000, to observe the Mareschal de Contades upon the Lippe, he marched away secretly and rapidly with his remaining force of 30,000 men. He found the second French army, 35,000 strong, commanded by the Duke de Broglie, and encamped at Bergen, on the Nidda, in front of Frankfort. In this position they were attacked by Ferdinand on the 13th of April. Three times in three hours was the village of Bergen taken and retaken. Great courage and great skill were displayed on both * See a note (*) to Preuss Lebens-Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 226. 1759. BATTLE OF MINDEN. 175 sides, till, at length, a well-concerted manoeuvre of De Broglie turned the flank of the Hanoverians, and decided the battle. Prince Ferdinand was compelled to retreat, with a loss of 2,000 men and five pieces of artillery. This reverse would, it was supposed, reduce Prince Ferdinand to the defensive during the remainder of the campaign. Both De Broglie and Contades eagerly pushed forward, their opponents giving way before them. Combining their forces, they reduced Cassel, Munster, and Minden, and they felt assured that the whole Electorate must soon again be theirs. Already had the archives and the most valuable property been sent off from Hanover to Stade. Already did a new Hastenbeck—a new Closter-Seven-rise in view. But it was under such difficulties that the genius of Ferdinand shone forth. With a far inferior army (for thus much is acknowledged, although I do not find the French numbers clearly or precisely stated), he still maintained his ground on the left of the Weser, and supplied every defect by his superiority of tactics. He left a detachment of 5,000 men exposed, and seemingly unguarded, as a bait to lure De Contades from his strong position at Minden. The French Mareschal was deceived by the feint, and directed the Duke de Broglie to march forward and profit by the blunder, as he deemed it to be. On the 1st of August, accordingly, De Broglie advanced into the plain, his force divided in eight columns; but on reaching a small eminence which lay along his front, near Minden, he was struck with surprise on beholding, not the single detach ment he expected, but the whole army of the allies, which had marched in the night, and was now ranged in excellent order. He was compelled to call De Contades to his aid; retreat seemed no longer safe or easy, and thus the two French Generals were drawn in to accept a battle on unfavourable ground, hemmed in between a river and a morass, and reduced to place their infantry on the wings, - their cavalry in the centre. It was nearly the same distribution which, half a century before, had lost them the battle of Blenheim.* In other respects, perhaps, a resemblance might be traced to Waterloo * Coxe's Life of Marlborough, vol. i. p. 394. ed. 1820. for the French cavalry made repeated and furious onsets against the English and Hanoverian infantry which lay before them at Prince Ferdinand's centre, but this foot, forming itself into compact bodies, stood all the charges with the utmost steadiness and resolution, until at length, the enemy's horse being thoroughly discomfited and discouraged, their entire line gave way, and their Generals issued the signal for retreat. At this decisive moment the Prince sent his orders to Lord George Sackville, who commanded the whole English and some German cavalry on the right wing of the Allies, and who had hitherto been kept back as a reserve. The orders were to charge and overwhelm the French in their retreat, before they could reach any clear ground to rally. Had these orders been duly fulfilled, it is acknowledged by French writers that their army must have been utterly destroyed *; but Lord George either could not or would not understand what was enjoined him. In vain did the Prince send him in succession one German and two English aides-decamp, with reiterated directions; Lord George exclaimed that surely His Highness could not intend to break the line, and that he must ride off and speak to the Prince himself. Meanwhile, Ferdinand, losing patience, sent orders to the Marquis of Granby, who commanded the second line, and Lord Granby advanced with great alacrity; but above half an hour had been wasted, and the opportunity was lost. Under such circumstances the victory of Minden would not have been signal or complete but for a previous and most high-spirited precaution of Prince Ferdinand. He had sent round to the rear of the French a body of 10,000 men, under his nephew, — and also the King of Prussia's -the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, who had already distinguished himself on several occasions during the late campaigns. On this day the young Prince succeeded in routing the Duke de Brissac, an officer commissioned to secure the enemy's communication with Hervorden. Thus Ferdinand became master of the passes, and the French 66 * "L'armée de Contades devait être anéantie; hommes, chevaux, canons, drapeaux, tout serait tombé aux mains de l'ennemi." (Sismondi, Histoire des Français, vol. xxix. p. 197.) 1759. 66 66 LORD GEORGE SACKVILLE. 177 were constrained to continue their retreat in disorder Upon the whole, their loss was 8,000 men killed, wounded, or taken, thirty pieces of artillery, and seventeen standards. "And the most surprising thing," adds a French account, "of this day's action was Prince Ferdinand's "judgment and boldness in sending out a detachment of $10,000 men the moment he was going to engage a superior army." Contades and De Broglie endeavoured to excuse themselves at the Court of Versailles by recriminating upon each other; but far different was the reception given to their complaints; the first officer was recalled, the latter made a Field Marshal! Meanwhile the French troops were rapidly driven from their recent conquests; Cassel, Munster, and Marburg yielded in succession to the allied arms. Ferdinand could not, indeed, carry his successes so far as he desired, being under the necessity, after the disaster at Maxen, of despatching the Hereditary Prince to the King of Prussia's aid; yet still he compelled the French to end the campaign nearly where they had begun it, and to take up their winterquarters around the city of Frankfort. Great was the rejoicing in England at the victory of Minden. Prince Ferdinand received from King George the Garter, a gift of 20,000l. (which His Majesty afterwards charged to the House of Commons), and a pension of 2,000l. yearly. To the Hereditary Prince the King of Prussia showed his gratitude by a cheaper expedient; he wrote him an Ode!† But loud and fierce was the outcry, both in Germany and at home, against the leader of the English cavalry. Lord George Sackville, born in 1716, was son of the first and father of the last Duke of Dorset. Of an active *This account is cited by Entick. (Hist., vol. iv. p. 15.)-See also Archenholtz, vol. ii. p. 26. t 66 Regardez-le, ma soeur, l'amour vous y convie, "Dans vos flancs vertueux ce heros prit la vie "Et ses rares talens; "Votre belle ame en lui retraça son image; "De son auguste père il a tout le courage Of such stanzas there are thirty-two more. (Œuvres Posthumes, vol. xiv. p. 233-241. ed. 1789.) |