CHAPTER II
BEHIND THE SCENES
The King of Prussia is reputed to have been a modest man and to have known the limits of his faculties. He was not a great strategist. He once said to his brother (the father of Prince Frederick Charles), "If I had not been born a Hohenzollern I should have been a sergeant-major." How then did he make the swift decision resulting in a success that would have done credit to the genius of Frederick the Great or Napoleon? The answer is supplied by the Prussian historian of the Italian campaign of 1859. "There are generals," says this writer, "who need no counsel, who deliberate and resolve in their own minds, those about them having only to carry out their intentions. But such generals are stars of the first magnitude who scarcely appear once in a century. In the great majority of cases the leader of an army will not be willing to dispense with advice. The suggestions made may very well be the result of the deliberations of a smaller or greater number of men specially qualified by training and experience to form a correct judgment. But even among them only one opinion ought to assert itself. The organization of the military hierarchy should promote subordination even in thought. This one opinion only should be submitted for the consideration of the commander-in-chief by the one person to whom this particular service is assigned. Him let the general choose, not according to rank or seniority, but in accordance with his own personal confidence. Though the advice given may not always be unconditionally the best, yet, if the action taken be consistent and the leading idea once adopted be steadfastly followed, the affair may always be brought to a satisfactory issue. The commander-in-chief retains as against his adviser the infinitely weightier merit of taking upon himself the responsibility for all that is done.
"But surround a commander with a number of independent men—-the more numerous, the more distinguished, the abler they are and the worse it will be—let him hear the advice now of one now of another; let him carry out up to a certain point a measure judicious in itself, then adopt a still more judicious but different plan, and then be convinced by the thoroughly sound objections of a third adviser and the remedial suggestions of a fourth,—it is a hundred to one that though for each of his measures excellent reasons can be given, he will lose the campaign."
The one authorised adviser here described was by the Prussian system provided for the king in the person of the chief of the general staff of the army. This office had risen to importance during the wars of liberation, though at that epoch the general staff was in the peace organization a subordinate branch of the Ministry of War. The Prussians fighting Napoleon, had had no Napoleon to pit against him. The best they could do was to put Blücher in command with Scharnhorst, and after Scharnhorst's death with Gneisenau to keep him straight.[[1]] In the period that followed the peace of 1815 the position of the general staff received strict definition. In 1821 Müffling was appointed its chief, and it was settled that he should not be subordinate to the Minister of War but directly responsible to the king. This constitution of the office on a new basis outside of and independent of the Ministry of War was an advance in the division of labour implying the want of a fresh organ to perform functions not before satisfactorily exercised. The business of the Ministry of War was to raise, maintain and administer the army. The business of the staff was to direct the army in war, and during peace to make such special preparations as might be necessary to this end. In order to be able to devote all its energies to the conduct of armies fighting in the field, unhampered by the details of daily administration, the general staff was placed on an independent footing. In 1829 Müffling was succeeded by Lieut-Gen. von Krauseneck, whose successor (in 1848) was Lieut-Gen. von Reyher. Reyher died in 1857, when the duties of the office were intrusted to Major-General von Moltke.
The division of labour between the royal commander-in-chief and the chief of the staff may be illustrated by the proceedings of the evening before the battle of Königgrätz. When General von Voigts-Rhetz (the chief of Prince Frederick Charles' staff) reached Gitschin and reported to the king, who was just going to bed, the king sent him to Moltke saying, "If General Moltke thinks this information involves a fresh decision he is to come for orders whatever be the time of night." Voigts-Rhetz went to Moltke's quarters and made his report. Moltke made up his mind what ought to be done, and then went to the king, whom he found in bed, and explained his view that whether the whole Austrian army or only a part of it was at Sadowa the sound course was to move forward both Prussian armies, so as to take the Austrians in front and flank. An attack like this from two sides at once must in any case give the Prussians the best chance of victory they could hope for, and the result would be the more decisive the larger the portion of the Austrian army to be engaged. The king at once gave his assent. Moltke then wrote the two notes, which were sent off immediately.
It was 11 p.m. when Voigts-Rhetz reached Gitschin. The letters were despatched at midnight. In that hour fall the reports of Voigts-Rhetz to the king and to Moltke; Moltke's deliberation and determination; his visit to the king's quarters and the writing and despatching of the notes. It appears from these data that there was no discussion, and that even at this period, the opening of their first great campaign, the king's confidence in Moltke was as thoroughly established as we know it to have been four years later.[[2]]
[[1]] It might perhaps have been better to have given Scharnhorst and Gneisenau the actual command. In any case the arrangement adopted in 1813 laid the foundation of the German system of the general staff.
[[2]] In the Crown Prince's diary of the Franco-German War we read under the date January 15th, "Werder asks whether he would not do better now to abandon Belfort as he thinks he can still defend Alsace? Moltke read this out and added, with unshakeable icy calmness, 'Your Majesty will no doubt approve of General Werder being informed in reply that he has simply to stay where he is and beat the enemy where he finds him.' Moltke appeared to me admirable beyond all praise. In one second he had settled the whole affair." Deutsche Rundschau, October, 1888, p. 25.