Prince of Hildburghausen, desirous of signalizing his own authority by
some grand stroke, proposed to the Prince de Soubise the project of
dislodging the Prussians from the petty principality of Gotha, where
Seidlitz commanded. They began their march accordingly with their
grenadiers and Austrian heavy cavalry, while Loudon led the Pandours
and French light dragoons. They dispatched one column of cavalry over
the heights which led to Thuringia; another on the left, preceded by
hussars, approached Gotha from the side of Langensaltza; while Loudon
with the Pandours, dragoons, and a body of grenadiers, formed the
column of the centre.
Seidlitz was ready to receive them. He was in order of battle, and
had all the defiles secured by horse and cannon. A desultory conflict
ensued among the woods and mountains; and though the Prince de Soubise
cut a passage to the castle wall of Gotha, he was obliged to retreat
and leave three officers and one hundred and sixty soldiers in the
hands of Seidlitz. The Prussian column under the Prince of Bavern
attempted to cover Breslau, which surrendered on the 22nd November to
the Austrian generals, by whom he was made prisoner; while the remnant
of his army joined Frederick, and on the 5th December the battle of
Lissa, where he gained a signal victory, was fought in Silesia. Such
was the severity of the season that many hundreds of soldiers were
found dead on their posts; and the German generals were reproached with
heartlessly exposing their men to the extremity of cold; for a campaign
in winter is alike opposed to the dictates of humanity and the common
rules of war, as the operations of our own troops in the Crimea have
given terrible proof.
In these arduous duties, though always at the head of his Croats and
Pandours, Loudon never received another wound, though exposed almost
daily to balls, bayonets, and sabres; and it is worthy of remark that
the musket-shot received at Zabern was the only scar of his long
military career.
In the campaign of 1758 he received the Imperial military Order of
Maria Theresa, which was instituted by the Empress Queen in the June
of the preceding year. In this Order it is an inviolable principle
that no officer whatsoever, "on account of his high birth, long
service, wounds, or former merits, much less from mere favour, or the
recommendation of others, be received; but that those only who have
signalized themselves by some particular act of valour, or have aided
the Imperial service by able and beneficial councils, and contributed
to their execution by distinguished bravery, shall be admitted."
In the operations of the new year the King of Prussia recovered
Schwiednitz from the Imperialists on the 16th April; entered Moravia
on the 27th May; invested Olmutz, which was stoutly defended by the
governor, General Marshall, a Scotsman; while Marshal Daun, under
whom Loudon held a command, took post on the adjacent mountains, to
intercept and cut off the Prussian convoys. The siege had now been
open for four weeks, and the trenches were rushed with great vigour
by the Scottish exile--the gallant Marshal Keith--notwithstanding
the great difficulties attending it; for Loudon, bravely, and at
incalculable hazard, in the defiles of Damstadt, in the principality of
Lichenstien, intercepted a convoy of four hundred waggons, and obliged
General Zeithen, who escorted them with twenty squadrons and three
battalions, after a five hours' encounter, to retire on Trappau. This
loss was irreparable, for General Putkammer, eight hundred men, and the
_military chest_ were taken.
The King of Prussia was compelled to raise the siege, and effected one
of the most able retreats ever seen in Germany; he then marched to
oppose the Russians, who had broken into Brandenburg under Generals
Brown and Farmer, two Scotsmen, whom he met in battle at Zorndorf,
defeated on the 25th August, and drove them into Poland.
Had Loudon (who was ably seconded by Daun) _not_ intercepted General
Zeithen, "the town of Olmutz must have been taken in a fortnight,"
says Frederick, who styles it the Battle of the Convoy; "for the third
parallel was finished, and the besiegers had begun to open the saps."
For this service Loudon received the rank of lieutenant-field-marshal.
He had now won the reputation of being the first cavalry officer in
the service of the Empress-Queen; and he was of great use to Daun in
galling and incommoding the King of Prussia during the retreat from
Olmutz.
With four thousand men he took post in the wood of Opotshno, a Bohemian
town, fifteen miles north-east of Koningengratz, where he intended to
attack the Baron de la Mothe Fouque, who with thirty-two battalions
and squadrons was conveying the heavy siege train. But there Loudon
was unexpectedly assailed by Frederick, who had heard of his projected
ambush, and marched to attack him in it, and he was forced to retire
through the forest with the loss of a hundred Croatian troopers. He
retreated towards Holitz, and thus the siege train passed unmolested to
Glatz.
Loudon and General St. Ignan followed Frederick closely; at
Koningengratz their Pandours slew General Saldern, Colonel Blankenzee,
and seventy men, but were checked by the sabres of Putkammer's hussars;
and to prevent this harassing of the rear-guard, Frederick prepared an
ambuscade on a narrow path which lies through a wood at Metau. In this
defile he concealed ten battalions and twenty squadrons, under whose
fire the Austrians were drawn by a few flying skirmishers. "Loudon, who
was very easily heated," to quote Frederick, "resolved on an assault;"
but the Prussian cavalry poured upon him like a torrent, a fire opened
upon his men from every point of the rocks and pass, three hundred were
shot dead, and he was forced to retire. Soon after this he was lured
again, by the Volunteers of Le Noble, into a ravine near Skalitz, where
he was suddenly assailed by six battalions in the night, and had to
give way, with the loss of six officers and seventy men.
He took possession of Peitz, a town in the Duchy of Brandenburg, on the
right bank of the Matx, and left no means untried to fulfil with signal
success his duty of covering Daun's left flank during the whole of the
Austrian advance and Prussian retreat. Daun posted himself at Stolpen,
to the eastward of the Elbe, on one hand to preserve a communication
with a column which he had detached to Koningstien, and on the other
to favour the active operations of Marshal Loudon, who had advanced
through Lower Lusatia to the frontier of Brandenburg.
At the battle of Hochkirchen, which was fought on the 13th October, the
defeat of the Prussians was solely attributed to Loudon's skill and
bravery. On the 12th he had attacked a great convoy, but was repulsed
by Marshal the Honourable James Keith, with the loss of eighty men,
among whom was the Prince de Lichenstien, lieutenant-colonel of the
regiment of Löwenstien. After this Loudon assembled his dispersed
troops and took ground in a woody mountain, which was a long quarter
of a league, German measure, beyond the Prussian right, facing the
village of Hochkirchen. A marsh separated the flank of Frederick from
this height. Daun secretly prepared a road for four columns to form a
junction with Loudon, who on the night of the 13th glided down with
his swift Pandours to the rear of the Prussian position, and set on
fire the village of Hochkirchen, driving out by the edge of the sabre
the battalions quartered there, and seizing on a battery which defended
an angle of the place; while the gallant Major Lang, with the regiment
of the Margrave Charles, threw himself into the churchyard, and in the
dark opened a blaze of musketry on the Pandours, whose light uniforms
were soon too fatally visible by the flames of the burning village.
Around this conflagration the whole tide of battle rolled at midnight.
The aged Marshal Keith and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick were killed,
and the Prussians were defeated with the loss of seven thousand men and
most of their camp equipage.
Marshal Daun filled his despatch (which detailed this victory) with the
highest encomiums on Loudon, whom he sent immediately towards Silesia
in pursuit of Frederick, whose forces he was to exclude from Lusatia;
and so he followed and galled them with untiring zeal and vigour,
though he was then suffering from a severe and chronic disease in the
stomach; but on his march towards the Saxon capital, the Prussian
monarch made one vigorous stand and repulsed him; after which he
retired to Zittau.
Reinforced by 12,000 men, the marshal concealed himself in the forest
of Schonberg, where he again attacked the Prussians, whose whole line
of march became "one battle;" but Prince Henry, Frederick's brother,
commanded the rear-guard; and so excellent were his dispositions, that
only Lieutenant-General Bulow and 215 soldiers fell.
On the 1st November, Frederick began his march for Silesia. Loudon,
still pressing on, fell with such fury on the rear-guard, that he was
nearly taken prisoner by the Prussian hussars. He then brought up his
cannon; but these were dismounted by the heavier pieces of Frederick,
which at the same time threw the Austrian foot into disorder. Thrice
Loudon rallied them; and thrice, sword in hand, he led them to the
charge: but the approach of the noble Putkammer hussars compelled
him to fall back; and thus, amid skirmishes, night marches, toil,
starvation, plunder, and devastation, the campaign of the year was
closed by the Austrians raising the sieges of Neiss and Dresden, and
the King of Prussia retiring to winter quarters at Breslau.
The generals of the Imperial army usually spent the winter in the
Austrian capital; and now the Empress expressed a strong desire to
see Marshal Loudon, of whom Count Daun had written so favourably in
all his despatches and letters. Thus he prepared to return to Vienna,
but was compelled to remain for some time at Doeplitz in Bohemia, in
consequence of a return of his illness: and there Madame Loudon, who
had remained at Vienna during the whole war, arrived to attend him. As
soon as he was sufficiently restored, they travelled together to the
capital, where they arrived on the 24th of February, 1759. The streets
were crowded by dense masses of persons, all anxious to behold and to
welcome the hero of whom they had heard so much, and his reception
was most enthusiastic. Only two years had elapsed since he left
that city as a field-officer of Croats, and now he returned to it a
Lieutenant-Field-Marshal and Knight of Maria Theresa.
From the fair Empress he received the most flattering distinction; and
she commanded her own physician, the Baron Von Swieten, to attend him
until his health was completely re-established. She bestowed upon him
the Grand Cross of her Order, and created him a Baron of the Holy Roman
Empire.
The moment his physician permitted him, he resumed his command; and
no general of the Seven Years' War bore a more distinguished part in
the campaign of 1759 than Baron Loudon, though Frederick II., who had
imbibed an animosity to him, always mentions his name slightingly in
his works.
The Prussian monarch, in the beginning of the year, had great success;
but his chief embarrassment was the approach of the Russians, who
defeated him in Silesia on the 23rd July, and spread their outposts
along the banks of the Oder. On the frontiers of Bohemia nothing of
importance occurred, though Loudon, who occupied Trautenau, was
continually in motion, alarming the Prussian posts and cutting off
their supplies.
He made an attack on General Seidlitz near Frederick's strong camp at
Schmuckseiffen, and lost 150 men. Immediately after this, the Court of
Vienna gave him command of 20,000 men, 1200 of whom were dragoons, to
give vigour to their Russian allies, who were destitute of cavalry. By
the way of Greiffenberg he marched through Silesia, foiling, deceiving,
and skirmishing with the horse of Prince Henry, till he took up a
position on the heights of Laubau, where he had fought the Prussians in
the preceding year. He chose this ground with the intention of being in
advance of them now, when he should receive orders to join the Russians
under Count Soltikow.
With this general he achieved a junction, and together they took up
a position at Cunnersdorff, opposite Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and gave
battle to Frederick at eleven o'clock, A.M., on the 12th of August.
The Russians had their intrenchments stormed amid great slaughter; a
starfort erected by them on two sand hills, to cover their right flank,
was carried at the point of the bayonet, and a dreadful massacre of
them ensued in the churchyard of Cunnersdorff. Under the glare of a
burning sun, and sore with many a wound, the brave King of Prussia led
on his troops; and for two hours the infantry fought hand to hand.
The Jews' Cemetery, seven redoubts, and 180 pieces of cannon, were
already taken, when Loudon, perceiving that the Russians were unable to
maintain their ground, brought up his well-chosen reserves, and fired
his field-pieces loaded with case-shot, to sweep the Prussian line. He
then charged on both flanks with his fine Austrian cavalry, who bore
down all before them. The Prussians fell into confusion, and their rout
became total. Frederick had two horses shot under him, and his blue
uniform literally torn to rags by bullets and sword-cuts. The struggle
was awful, and night came down on a field where 30,000 men lay dead
or dying, and of these more than the half were Prussians. The brave
Putkammer was slain, and ten other generals lay killed or wounded near
him.
The movements of Frederick after this most signal defeat were of a
masterly description. He soon compelled Loudon and Soltikow to act
on the defensive, and recovered every place in the Saxon Electorate
except Dresden. Forcing the Russians to retire into Poland, he joined
his brother Prince Henry in Saxony, compelled Marshal Daun to retreat
as far as Plawen, and forced him to take shelter in the camp at Pirna;
after which he retired into winter quarters in November.
For his victory at Cunnersdorff Loudon was raised to the rank of
_General-velt-zeug-Meister_; but he drew off from Soltikow with all his
cavalry immediately after the battle.
In the campaign of 1760 he received command of the army destined for
service in Silesia. It consisted of 40,000 men, and in all operations
he was to be seconded by the Russians, who, according to an agreement
made by the two Empresses, were to fight their way along the banks of
the Oder, while Daun carried on the war in Saxony. This army was light,
and as unencumbered by baggage as a Pandour leader could desire. At
its head Loudon left the camp in which he had passed the winter, and
after attacking and repulsing General Goltze at the head of his horse,
he left Draskowitz with 6000 men at Neustadt, and took the road to
Bohemia, after menacing in succession Silesia, into which he penetrated
with two corps, the new Marche of Brandenburg, Breslau, even Berlin
and Schwiednitz. At last he fixed upon the latter, and General the
Baron de la Mothe Fouque (who had weakened his forces by detaching the
brigades of the Scottish General Grant and General Zeithen), deceived
by an artful feint, marched towards it with all his troops leaving the
garrison in Glatz quite unprotected.
The able Loudon at once perceived the success of his feint, or
stratagem, and immediately had recourse to another. He took possession
of Landshut, and left there a small body of troops, who were
immediately assailed and driven out by the Baron de la Mothe. While
the latter was thus occupied in recovering this trivial post, Loudon
made himself master of several important positions, and passed in
triumph through Johannesberg and Wisstengersdorff, and at Schwarzwalde
routed the hussars of Malachowski, and thus surrounded the baron's
little army of Prussians. The latter did everything requisite to secure
their position against the superior force of Loudon, who early in June
attacked them with irresistible fury.
On the night of the 23rd he seized two heights on the right, and formed
there two batteries, which swept the Prussian front and rear. He then
stormed their intrenchments at the head of 28,000 men, and drove out
the enemy, who formed solid squares to repel his cavalry, which pushed
them in disordered masses on the Balkenhayn-road. Their squares were
broken, and 4000 men were slain. Among them fell the gallant baron,
pierced by two mortal wounds. Seven thousand men surrendered, and
Glatz, the most important place between Silesia and Bohemia, as it
stands in a narrow vale between two lofty hills, was the immediate
consequence of the victory. The Gersdorff hussars and dragoons of
Platen cut a passage to Breslau with 1500 of the infantry.
Pushing on, the victorious Loudon prepared to besiege that place, where
he expected to be joined by the Russians, and thus enabled to complete
the conquest of Silesia, the great object of the war. Encouraged by
his success at Glatz, he assailed the Silesian capital, and bombarded
it with great success on the 30th July. He set forth in his summons to
surrender, "that his forces consisted of fifty battalions and eighty
squadrons, most of which were within three days' march; that it was
in vain for the governor to expect succour from the King of Prussia,
now on the other side of the Elbe, and still more vain to look for
relief from Prince Henry, who must sink beneath the Russian sword if
he attempted to obstruct its progress; and that the inhabitants must
resign all hope of terms or quarter if they ventured to defend the
town."
The reply of the governor was firm and noble. Loudon showered bombs
and red-hot balls on one side, while attempting an assault on the other.
Prince Henry, one of the most accomplished of the Prussian generals,
advanced to its relief by a forced march of one hundred and twenty
English miles in five days, resolving to give the Baron battle before
the Russians joined him; and on his approach Loudon prudently raised
the siege and retired, though he still kept Neiss and Schwiednitz
under blockade. The King of Prussia by this time was on his memorable
march to prevent the junction of the Russian and Imperial armies in
Silesia; and with this intention had encamped at Lignitz, where,
while encompassed by three hostile columns, he gave battle to Loudon.
Attacking him at three o'clock, A.M., on the 15th August, near Lignitz,
he repulsed him with loss before Daun could come to his assistance; and
further secured his own rear effectually by a strong _corps de reserve_
and park of artillery posted on the heights of Paffendorf.
Frederick obtained some information as to Loudon's disposition of force
from an Austrian officer, an Irishman, who had deserted. "He was so
intoxicated," says Frederick, in his own _History_, "that he could
only stammer out he had a secret to reveal. After making him swallow
some basins of warm water to relieve his stomach, he affirmed what
had been divined, that Daun meant to attack the king that very day."
Loudon made incredible efforts, on foot and on horseback, to maintain
his ground. After receiving five consecutive charges of five lines of
five battalions each, the confusion of the Austrians became general,
and they fled towards Binowitz. The battle of Paffendorf cost Loudon
ten thousand men; the field, which sloped like a glacis, was occupied
by the Prussians, who took two generals, eighty other officers, six
thousand soldiers, twenty-three pairs of colours, and eighty-two pieces
of cannon!
We next find the indefatigable Loudon in position at Hohenfriedberg,
a small Silesian town, which he had to abandon on the night of the
11th September, finding his flank turned by the Prussian vanguard on
their gaining the pass of Kauder. On the 18th he occupied the defiles
of Giersdorf, and that night, by a cannonade prevented the enemy from
advancing to Wahlenburg. He next laid siege to the strong and important
fortress of Kosel, seventy-three miles distant from Breslau, and
threatened the whole province with subjection.
The Russians and Austrians now effected their junction again, and
together made themselves masters of Berlin on the 4th October; after
which the affairs of the great Frederick seemed desperate; but he
resolved to retrieve them by some decided effort. Crossing the Elbe,
he hurried into Saxony, followed by Daun with eighty thousand men,
whom he routed at Toorgau on the 23rd November. By this he recovered
all that he had previously lost; the Russians retired into Poland, the
Austrians evacuated the desolated province of Silesia, and the Swedes
took refuge on the shores of the Baltic. By the defeat of Daun, Loudon
was compelled abruptly to raise the siege of Kosel and retire out of
the province.
In 1760, Bohemia, Silesia, and other parts of Germany presented a
lamentable aspect. Cities were empty, villages desolate, and castles
in ruins. The fields were ravaged and destroyed, till a famine was at
hand; wives and children had perished; husbands and fathers had been
driven into the ranks of adverse armies, to fight for bare subsistence
rather than their blackened hearths and rifled homes; trade was
neglected; the seats of learning abandoned; the land untilled: and all
this curse had fallen upon the people by the mad ambition of their
kings and princes.
During the winter Loudon's activity prevented Frederick from obtaining
recruits, provisions, or forage from the principalities or circles of
Neiss, Groskau, Frankestien, Strehlen, Neustadt, and Oppelen.
In January he repaired to Vienna, to assist at the councils of war and
arrange the plan of the new campaign.
In this year (1761) he was destined by the Court of Vienna to undertake
a war of sieges in Silesia, where he was to be supported by the
Russians; and on the 10th of March he resumed the command of his
division. In April he wrote to the Empress stating that since the 18th
instant he had revoked the truce made with General Goltze, and intended
to fix his head-quarters at Caretau, a league from Glatz. In May he
patrolled the country about Lignitz and Jauer to levy contributions,
and eighty-seven of his men were cut off by General Tatter at Rostock.
About the 12th May, on Frederick's approach, he retired into Bohemia,
by the way of Gattesberg, before eighty thousand men, and on the 6th of
June established his head-quarters at Hauptmonsdorf.
Frederick was resolved to act solely on the defensive, being tired of
the war.
On the 21st July he was encamped at Pulzen, when Loudon, who occupied
the opposite mountains, descended by the defile of Steinkunzerdorf,
feigning to attack the fortress of Neiss. This drew Frederick out; and
they engaged on the heights of Munsterberg, where a warm cannonade
ensued. On the 23rd Loudon encamped at Ober Pomsdorf; "and either from
native restlessness, or a habit of commanding detachments, in eight
days he changed his position six times; for which no satisfactory
reason could be given." On the 17th July the whole of the Prussian army
received the communion, and sixty rounds of ball per man.