SITUATION OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.
After all these heroic endeavours of the Prussian monarch and his officers, his affairs remained in such a desperate situation as seemed to presage approaching ruin; for, though in person he commanded a numerous and well-appointed army, he found it absolutely impossible to guard against the different detachments from the three separate armies of his adversaries. Bodies of Austrian troops scoured the country of Lusatia; the Russians traversed part of Silesia, and made irruptions even into Brandenburgh; the imperial army domineered in Saxony; the Swedish army, meeting with no opposition, advanced into the heart of Pomerania; so that the king was not only threatened on every side, but all correspondence between him and his hereditary dominions was at this juncture intercepted.
THE RUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS POSSESS THEMSELVES OF BERLIN.
His adversaries, having been hitherto baffled by his activity and resolution in their designs upon Silesia, now meditated a scheme, the execution of which he could not but feel in the most sensible manner. The Russian army being on its retreat from Silesia, count Czernichew was sent with a strong detachment into the marche of Brandenburgh; while a numerous body of Austrians, under Lascy and Brentano, penetrated into the same country from Saxony, with instructions to join the Russians at the gates of Berlin. The Prussian general Hulsen, finding himself too weak to cope with the army of the empire in Misnia, had fallen back to this capital, where he was joined by the troops under general Werner, lately returned from Pomerania; but as their forces, after this junction, did not exceed sixteen thousand men, and the allies advancing against them amounted to forty thousand, they would not pretend to oppose the enemy in the open field, nor to defend a city of such extent, and so imperfectly fortified. Such an attempt would have only exposed their troops to ruin, without being able to save the capital, which, on the contrary, would have been the more severely handled, in consequence of their opposition. They therefore resolved to retire, after having repulsed the advanced guard of the Russians under Tottleben, which attacked the gates, and even bombarded the town, before the great armies appeared. At their approach the Prussian generals retreated, leaving three weak battalions in the place, in hopes they might be the means of obtaining some sort of terms for the city. They made no resistance, however; but on the first summons proposed articles of capitulation, which being refused, they surrendered themselves prisoners of war. In favour of the city, the foreign ministers there residing interposed their mediation with such zeal and success, that tolerable conditions were obtained. The inhabitants were indulged with the free exercise of their religion, and an immunity from violence to their persons and effects. The enemy promised that the Russian irregulars should not enter the town; and that the king’s palace should not be violated. These articles being ratified, the Austrian and Russian troops entered the place, where they totally destroyed the magazines, arsenals, and foundries, with an immense quantity of military stores, and a great number of cannon and small arms: then they demanded the immediate payment of eight hundred thousand guilders; and afterwards exacted a contribution of one million nine hundred thousand German crowns. Many outrages were committed by the licentious soldiery, in spite of all the precautions which the officers could take to preserve the most exact discipline. The houses of the private inhabitants were tolerably protected, but the king’s palaces were subjected to the most rigorous treatment. In the royal palace of Charlottenburg they pillaged and spoiled the rich furniture: they defaced and mutilated the valuable pictures and antique statues collected by cardinal de Polignac, and purchased by the house of Brandenburgh. The castle of Schonhausen, belonging to the queen, and that of Fredericksfeldt, the property of the margrave Charles, were pillaged of effects to a very considerable value. The palace of Potsdam was effectually protected by prince Esterhasi, who would not suffer one article of furniture to be touched; but desired leave to take one picture of the king, and two of his German flutes, that he might preserve them as memorials of an illustrious prince, whose heroic character he admired. The Austrian and Russian troops entered Berlin on the ninth day of October, and quitted it on the thirteenth, on hearing that the king was in full march to the relief of his capital. In their retreat, by different routes, from Brandenburgh, they drove away all the cattle and horses they could find, ravaged the country, and committed brutal outrages on the inhabitants, which the pretence of retaliation could never excuse. The body of Russians which entered Berlin marched from thence into Poland, by the way of Furstenwalde; while the Austrians took the route of Saxony, from whence they had advanced into Brandenburgh. Meanwhile the town of Wirtem-berg, in that electorate, was reduced by the duke de Deux-Ponts, commander of the imperial army, which, in conjunction with the Austrians, made themselves masters also of Torgau and Leipsic.
KING OF PRUSSIA DEFEATS THE AUSTRIANS AT TORGAU.
The king of Prussia, in his march through Lusatia, was still attended by count Daun, at the head of his grand army, and both passed the Elbe about the latter end of October. The Prussian crossed the river at Coswick, where he was joined by the troops under prince Eugene of Wirtemberg and general Ilulsen, so that his army now amounted to eighty thousand fighting men, with whom he resolved to strike some stroke of importance. Indeed, at this time his situation was truly critical. General Laudohn, with a considerable body of Austrians, remained in Silesia; the Russian army still threatened Breslau, the capital of that country. The Imperialists and Austrians had taken possession of all the great towns in Saxony, and were masters on both sides of the Elbe. In the eastern part of Pomerania, the Russians had invested Colberg by sea and land, seemingly determined to reduce the place, that they might have a seaport by which they could be supplied with provisions, ammunition, necessaries, and reinforcements, without the trouble and inconvenience of a long and laborious march from the banks of the Vistula. On the western side of Pomerania, the war, which had hitherto languished, was renewed by the Swedes with uncommon vivacity. They passed the river Pene without opposition; and obliging general Stutterheim to retreat, advanced as far as Stransberg. That officer, however, being reinforced, attacked a Swedish post at Passelvalik, slew about five hundred of the enemy, and took an equal number, with six pieces of cannon; but he was not numerous enough to keep the field against their whole army. Thus the Prussian monarch saw himself obliged to abandon Silesia, deprived of all the places he held in Saxony, which had been his best resource; and in danger of being driven into his hereditary country of Brandenburgh, which was unable either to maintain, or even to recruit, his army. On this emergency he resolved to make one desperate effort against the grand Austrian army under count Daun, who had passed the Elbe at Torgau, and advanced to Eulenbourg, from whence, however, he retreated to his former camp at Torgau; and the king chose his situation between this last place and Schilda, at Lang-Reichenbach, where the hussars attacked a body of horse under general Brentano, and made four hundred prisoners. The right wing of the Austrians being at Groswich, and their left at Torgau, the Prussian king determined to attack them next day, which was the third of November. His design was to march through the wood of Torgau by three different routes, with thirty battalions and fifty squadrons of his left wing: the first line was ordered to advance by the way of Mackrene to Neiden; the second by Peckhutte to Elsnick; and the third, consisting of cavalry, to penetrate by the wood of Wildenhayn to Vogelsand. On the other hand, general Ziethen was directed to take the great Leipsic road, with thirty battalions and seventy squadrons of the right; and quitting it at the ponds of Torgau, to attack the village of Suptitz and Groswich. The king’s line, in its march, fell in with a corps of Austrians under general Reid, who retired into the wood of Torgau; and another more considerable body, posted in the wood of Wildenhayn, likewise retreated to Groswich, after having fired some pieces of artillery; but the dragoons of Saint Ignon, being enclosed between two columns of Prussian infantry, were either killed or taken. By two in the afternoon the king had penetrated through the wood to the plain of Neiden, from whence another body of the enemy retired to Torgau, where a continued noise of cannon and small arms declared that general Ziethen was already engaged. The Prussians immediately advanced at a quicker pace, and passing the morasses near Neiden, inclined to the right in three lines, and soon came to action. Daun had chosen a very advantageous position: his right extended to Groswich, and his left to Zinne: while his infantry occupied some eminences along the road of Leipsic, and his front was strength-ened with no less than two hundred pieces of cannon. His second line was disposed on an extent of ground, which terminated in hillocks towards the Elbe; and against this the king directed his attack. He had already given his troops to understand that his affairs were in such a situation, that they must either conquer or perish: and they began the battle with the most desperate impetuosity; but they met with such a warm reception from the artillery, small arms, and in particular from the Austrian carabineers, that their grenadiers were shattered and repulsed. The second charge, though enforced with incredible vigour, was equally unsuccessful: then the king ordered his cavalry to advance, and they fell upon some regiments of infantry with such fury as obliged them to give way. These, however, were compelled to retire, in their turn, before about seventy battalions of the enemy, who advanced towards Torgau, stretching with their right to the Elbe, and their left to Zinne. While the prince of Holstein rallied his cavalry, and returned to the charge, the third line of Prussian infantry attacked the vineyard of Suptitz, and general Ziethen with the right wing took the enemy in rear. This disposition threw the Austrians into disorder; which was greatly augmented by the disaster of count Daun, who was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and carried off the field of battle. But the Prussians could not pursue their victory, because the action had lasted until nine; and the night being unusually dark, facilitated the retreat of the enemy, who crossed the Elbe on three bridges of boats thrown over the river at Torgau. The victor possessed the field of battle, with seven thousand prisoners, including two hundred officers, twenty-nine pair of colours, one standard, and about forty pieces of cannon. The carnage was very great on both sides; about three thousand Prussians were killed, and five thousand wounded; and, in the first attacks, two general officers, with fifteen hundred soldiers, were made prisoners by the enemy. The king, as usual, exposed his person in every part of the battle, and a musket-ball grazed upon his breast. In the morning, the king of Prussia entered Torgau; then he secured Meissen, and took possession of Fribourg: so that, in consequence of this well-timed victory, his position was nearly the same as at the opening of the campaign.
The Austrians, however, notwithstanding this check, maintained their ground in the neighbourhood of Dresden; while the Prussians were distributed in quarters of cantonment in and about Leipsic and Meissen. As the Austrian general had, after the battle, recalled his detachments, general Laudohn abandoned Landshut, wrhich again fell into the hands of the Prussians, and the Imperial army was obliged to retire into Franconia. The Swedes having penetrated a great way into Pom-crania, returned again to their winter-quarters at Stralsund; and the Russian generals measured back their way to the Vistula: so that the confederates gained little else in the course of this campaign but the contributions which they raised in Berlin, and the open country of Brandenburgh. Had the allies been heartily bent upon crushing the Prussian monarch, one would imagine the Russians and Swedes might have joined their forces in Pomerania, and made good their winter-quarters in Brandenburgh, where they could have been supplied with magazines from the Baltic, and been at hand to commence their operations in the spring; but, in all probability, such an establishment in the empire would have given umbrage to the Germanic body.