amounted to eighty thousand men. He was also joined by a column of
Russians under General Czernicheff. He received a letter from Maria
Theresa, wherein she somewhat needlessly "gave him full power to give
or decline battle as he chose; and this power was to extend to all
his military operations in general." In the first days of August he
transmitted to her a letter which he had received from Frederick of
Prussia, and written by his own hand, in which he offered him great
sums "if he would agree to act _faintly_ in this campaign." Loudon
at the same time sent the Empress a copy of his answer, importing,
"that being accountable to God and to his sovereign for his conduct,
all the treasures of the earth should not tempt him from his duty to
either; and that he begged his Prussian Majesty would make him no more
proposals so repugnant to his duty, and so injurious to his honour."
On the 15th August he detached forty-three squadrons of horse to join
a Russian column which had passed the Oder; but Frederick met them
on their march near Parchwitz, and defeated them, taking all their
colours and cannon. These troops were horse grenadiers--the flower of
the Austrian cavalry. The march of Loudon to form a junction "with the
Russians," say the London papers for 10th September, 1761, "is alone
sufficient to raise his reputation as a general as high as even a
victory could have done. He had marched seven hours before the enemy
had the least suspicion of his design, and had a conference with
Marshal Butterlin near this place (Lignitz); on his return from which
he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by the fleetness of his horse,
his escort being attacked smartly by a strong detachment of Prussians."
The allies afterwards separated; and the Hamburg journals asserted that
it "was owing to a pique and jealously between Laudohn and Butterlin
about the command, and the open antipathy of their respective troops to
each other."
After a long series of marches, manoeuvres, and feigned attacks, in
which he had completely the better of the great Frederick, Loudon
suddenly appeared before Schwiednitz, the ancient and fortified capital
of a principality situated among the hills of Lower Silesia. Its walls
were manned by a brave Prussian garrison; but, to cut off all succour,
Loudon posted twenty battalions on the heights of Kunzendorf, which are
so steep that they cannot be taken from any troops who possess them.
Frederick's army, consisting of sixty-six battalions, one hundred and
forty-three squadrons, and four hundred and six pieces of cannon,
encamped at Bunzelwitz, in a place surrounded by chevaux-de-frize,
abattis, mines, and palisades. Loudon made a partial attack upon this
formidable post; but, pushing on, he resolved to take Schwiednitz by
surprise. Previous to the advance, says an officer of his army, in one
of his letters, "his Excellency our general having assembled upon
the Limelberg, the troops destined to scale the walls of Schwiednitz
harangued them there, and promised them a reward of one hundred
thousand florins if the place was taken without pillage.
"'No, no!' exclaimed the Walloon grenadiers; 'lead us on, and we will
follow to glory; but we will take no money from you, our father Loudon!'
"Then the Count de Wallace, colonel of the regiment of Loudon
Fusiliers, after being twice repulsed by two battalions of the brave
regiment of Treskow, said to his soldiers,--
"'I must carry this fort or die! I have promised it to Loudon;
_remember that our regiment bears his name--it must conquer or perish!_'
"This short speech produced a surprising effect. An entire battalion
sprung furiously into the ditch. The officers themselves fixed the
scaling-ladders, and were the first that mounted. M. de Wallace had
the glory of forcing the most difficult point of attack, and taking
prisoners two battalions, who made the most courageous defence."[18]
Twenty battalions had been distributed to the four points of attack.
One column advanced to the Breslau gate, a second on the Strigau gate,
a third to the fort of Bockendorf, and a fourth on the redoubt of Eau.
On the 1st October, at three in the morning, favoured by a dense fog,
Loudon and Wallace led their soldiers to the assault; and the escalade
was made with such rapidity, that the garrison had only time to fire
_twelve_ cannon shot. Lieutenant-General Zastrow, the governor, who had
been at a ball, hurried his troops to arms; but the contest was short;
a few volleys were exchanged, when a magazine blew up and killed eight
hundred Prussians in the fort of Bockendorf. Taking advantage of the
confusion, Wallace rushed on, burst open the gates of the town, and
with the loss of only six hundred men, Loudon was master of the place
before daybreak. Zastrow and three thousand men were taken, with a
great store of all the munition of war. This was a severe blow to the
pride of Frederick, who was weak enough to attribute the success of
Loudon to the treachery of Major Rocca, an Italian prisoner; but an
officer named De Beville made a noble defence in the redoubt of Eau.
Loudon garrisoned the town by ten battalions, under General Butler, an
Irishman; and after remaining long encamped at Freyburg, in December
he sent O'Donnel into Saxony after a body of Prussians, and cantoned
his own troops among the mountains, while the Russians wintered in
Pomerania.
During the winter of 1761 an epidemic malady made great ravages in the
army of Loudon. It was a kind of leprosy, the progress of which was so
rapid, that it soon thinned his ranks, and filled the hospitals and
cemeteries.
The year 1762 saw a fortunate change in the affairs of Prussia; Peter
III., a peaceful prince, succeeded to the Russian throne, and formed
an alliance _with_ Frederick, who did not fail to profit by it, and
retook Schwiednitz, though garrisoned by 9000 men, in spite of the
utmost efforts made by Daun and Loudon to prevent him. After this he
concluded with Maria Theresa a cessation of hostilities in Saxony and
Silesia; and soon after peace was secured to Germany by the treaty of
Hubertsbourg, on the 16th of February, 1763.
In the seven campaigns of the _Seven Years' War_ seventeen pitched
battles had been fought; three sieges had been undertaken and five
sustained by Prussia, with innumerable skirmishes. Austria took 40,000
Prussian prisoners, and Prussia took the same number of Austrians. The
hospitals were full of maimed and suffering soldiers. In each regiment,
on an average, only eight officers, and less than 100 men, were alive
who had witnessed the commencement of the war. Loudon was the only
officer, not born a prince or of an illustrious family, who had risen
to such high rank during that sanguinary struggle. He was, moreover,
a stranger, _a foreigner_, and a soldier of fortune. At the peace
the Empress presented him with the lordship of Klien Betchwar, not
far from Kolin. On this he built a strong and beautiful castle, with
the revenues which he derived from a barony in Bohemia; and there he
retired to enjoy a few years of repose and peace, and to overlook the
cultivation and improvement of his estate.
In 1766 the grateful Empress made him Aulic Councillor of War; in 1767
the highest nobles of the Empire received him as one of their members;
and in 1769 he was appointed Commandant-General in Moravia.
In 1770 he was present at the interview between the Emperor Joseph and
his old antagonist Frederick the Great of Prussia. Dissembling that
ungenerous animosity which he had imbibed against the fortunate Loudon,
Frederick always addressed him as "M. Velt-Maréschal," though he had
not attained that rank in full; and when Loudon, with his natural
reserve, was about to seat himself at the foot of the royal table,--
"Sit next to me, M. de Loudon," said his Prussian Majesty; "for, be
assured, I love better to see you by my side than _opposite_ to me."
At his departure he presented the baron with two horses, the finest of
his stud.
In 1778 Loudon was gazetted to the rank of Field-Marshal, and was
placed at the head of an army 50,000 strong, to defend the interests
of Austria in the new war which broke out between the great powers of
Germany, on the death of Maximilian Joseph, the Elector of Bavaria.
He posted the army of the Emperor behind the Elbe, in strongly
fortified positions; and distributed his own corps among the secure
posts of the Riechenberg (on the same ground where the Austrians were
defeated by the Duke of Brunswick in 1757); of Gabelona, a fortified
town which occupies an important pass; of Schlukenau, thirty miles
from Dresden, and towards Lusatia; but the main body of his troops
he skilfully distributed between Leutmeritz, a well-fortified town;
Lowositz, in the same circle, but four miles distant from it; Dux and
Töplitz. The King of Prussia took the field with all his force, to
prevent the Emperor from co-operating with Loudon, to whom he opposed
the column of Prince Henry: and now ensued a campaign full of interest
only to those who study brilliant manoeuvres and subtle tactics.
Loudon's posts at Schlukenau, Rumberg, and Gabelona were taken by
the prince, who forced him to abandon Aussig and Dux, with the
fortifications and magazine at Leutmeritz, and, indeed, all the left
bank of the Elbe; but falling back on the Iser, he skilfully secured
its passages by strong detachments. In short, so equal was the
distribution of strength, numbers, skill, and discipline, that the war
was a mere succession of able movements, but barren of striking events;
and after a year of marches and skirmishes, the Emperor relinquished
Lower Bavaria, on which he had seized unjustly, and a peace was
concluded on the 13th May, 1779, the birthday of the Empress-Queen.
After this Loudon returned to his sequestered castle; and once more,
for eight years, resumed the peace and pleasure of a country life.
In 1787, when in his seventy-first year, he was again summoned to the
field by the Emperor, to lead the Austrian armies against the Turks;
and a series of brilliant captures and encounters realized all that had
been hoped from his old valour and experience.
He poured his hosts along the Croatian and the Bosnian frontiers; and
in August, 1788, after two fruitless assaults, in one of which 430
of his men were killed and wounded, he received by capitulation the
fortress of Dubitzar, on the right bank of the Unna. On the 20th the
Turks had attacked his camp, but were repulsed; after which he again
ordered an immediate assault; but, as it failed, he ordered the town to
be fired, and it burned till the morning of the 24th. He then opened
several mines, and by the 25th his sappers were within ten feet of the
walls. The Turks then "capitulated to Marshal Loudon, whose principal
terms were:--
"That the officers might march out with swords, but their troops were
to lay down all arms and surrender as prisoners of war.
"That the women and children might go to Roczaracz, attended by five
Turkish soldiers, for whose return the commandant should be answerable."
Novi-bazar, a Bosnian Sanjak, the capital of a province, with its
castle, next fell into his possession; then Gradiska, a strong Turkish
fortress which had been erected fifteen years before by French
engineers, at the junction of the Virbas with the Saave; then Belgrade,
the most important town and fortress on the Austrian frontier of the
Turkish empire. Its citadel occupies a commanding position on the
summit of a precipitous rock which rises in the centre of the streets
and is surrounded by a lofty wall, a triple fosse with flanking
towers, and an esplanade 400 paces broad. These works were principally
constructed by Benjamin Swinburne, a native of Staffordshire, who had
embraced Islamism, adopted the name of Mustapha, and risen to high rank
in the Turkish artillery. Led on by Loudon, the Austrians overcame
every obstacle, and captured this famous Belgrade.
In that town he found a fine funeral monument of white marble, covered
with Turkish inscriptions, arabesqued ornaments, and sculptured
garlands of flowers. He had this great sarcophagus carefully taken to
pieces and sent to his estate of Hadersdorf, to form a tomb for himself.
In this war of carnage, as it was justly named, for no quarter was
given on either side, the Imperialists numbered at first 218,000
bayonets and sabres; but they were soon reduced to half that number by
the resistance of the Turks.
Neu-Orchova, a small town and fortress of Wallachia situated on an
island on the Danube, was his last capture after he had defeated the
Bashaw of Travernick and was repulsed in turn from two practicable
breaches; but he reduced it by a regular siege; and with this ended the
Turkish war, which he had conducted with glory to Austria and ended
with honour to himself.
In 1790 he returned to the army in Moravia.
He was now seventy-four years of age, and his health was failing fast.
During the latter part of his life he had been much afflicted with
rheumatism, gout, and colic, the fruit of military toil and hardship.
All these attacked him regularly every spring and autumn.
On the 26th of June he dined with Prince Lichnowski, at Böhmisch
Gratzen, and was seized on that night by a fever, from which he
predicted he would never recover, and about the 6th of July he was in a
dying state. Observing around his bed many of his old brother officers
in tears, he endeavoured to console and reassure them by the calmness
of his own demeanour.
"I implore you," said he, "to unite true religion to that high courage
which I know you to possess, and to defend your minds from the
approaches of atheism. All the success I have had in this world I owe
to my confidence in God, as well as the glorious consolation which
I now experience, in this awful time, when I am so soon to appear
before Him." On the 10th, he requested the sacrament, and begged the
Marshals Colloredo and Botta to be present at the reading of his will,
and to bear his dying blessing and remembrances to the old officers
and soldiers who had served under him. Then perceiving his favourite
nephew, Alexander Loudon, weeping at his bedside, he said,--
"Arise--be a man and a Christian--love God and your fellow-creatures."
He lingered on until the 14th of July, when he expired in great agony.
Thus died, in the year 1790, Field-Marshal Baron Loudon, one of the
greatest generals of the eighteenth century. "It was but seldom that
a smile was seen to unwrinkle his lofty forehead," says a writer of
his own time. "He was as little acquainted with the real laugh as
Cato. As to his character, he knew how to diversify it wonderfully.
Loudon on horseback and at the head of an army appeared to be quite
another man, and was indeed a complete contrast to Loudon in the
country or the town. His conduct agreed perfectly with what his cold
and reserved physiognomy announced, for he spoke but little, and
slowly. From his early youth he constantly avoided the society of
women; he was uncommonly timid in their company, and was a very good
husband. Accustomed to find himself punctually obeyed by thousands
in the field, at the least sign indicated by him, he required the
same docility of his vassals and servants, and he acted with severity
to them--perhaps more than ought to have been used to men who were
unaccustomed to military discipline."
As a souvenir of the many perils he had passed through, he carefully
preserved at Hadersdorf a musket-ball which had been cut in two on
the pommel of his saddle, and also his Croatian sabre, which had been
struck from his hand by a bomb, and bent so that no armourer could ever
straighten it.
His remains were enclosed in a double coffin, adorned by gorgeous
mountings and handles, and were solemnly borne from Böhmisch Gratzen
to his estate of Hadersdorf, a small town of Lower Austria, near the
Klein-Kamp, and five miles west of Vienna.
In the park he had once selected a spot shaded by many fine trees,
under which he had expressed a wish to be buried; but, on his return
from the Turkish campaign, he selected another place, and planted it
with shrubs and flowers in imitation of a Moslem sepulchre; and this he
was wont to term his Turkish Garden, for therein he had reconstructed
the marble sarcophagus which had been conveyed from Belgrade.
There he now lies in peace, shaded by some stately old trees and in the
centre of a green meadow. His funeral monument, which is one of great
magnificence, is securely walled round; and among the sculpture with
which the Austrian Government adorned it, there may still be traced
the shield _argent_, charged with three escutcheons _sable_; the old
heraldic cognizance which the Loudons of that ilk carried on their
pennons in the wars of the Scottish kings.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 18: Letter from an officer to a friend at Ratisbon, Oct.
25th, 1761.]
COUNT O'REILLY,
CHAMBERLAIN OF THE EMPIRE.
Were we to choose a hero for a military romance, he would be Andrew
O'Reilly, who bore the high reputation of being the first cavalry
officer in the Austrian service.
This distinguished Irish soldier of fortune, the _last_ of the _éleves_
of the Lacys and others whose achievements in the third Silesian war
and the Turkish campaign have already been recorded, obtained the rank
of General in the Austrian army, Chamberlain, and Commander of the
Imperial and Military Order of Maria Theresa, with the rank of Colonel
Proprietaire of the 3rd Regiment of Light Horse.
He was born in 1740, and was the second son of James O'Reilly, of
Ballincough, in the county of Westmeath, and of Barbara, daughter of
Thomas Nugent, Esquire, of Dysart (grand-daughter of Thomas, fourth
Earl of Westmeath). His brother Hugh was created a Baronet by George
III., and subsequently assumed the name of Nugent. His only sister
married Lord Talbot de Malahide.
Entering the Imperial service early in life, O'Reilly filled in
succession all the military grades save that of Field-Marshal; but
of those events in his stirring life which led to his elevation to
a coronet, we barely afford a summary. One of the most important
incidents in his early career is connected with his marriage; and
while it illustrates the manners of the last century, is worthy of
notice, for the remnant of old romance and chivalry it displays. He
and a brother officer, Count Klebelsberg, uncle of Francis Count de
Klebelsberg, who, in 1831, was President of the Government of Lower
Austria, were rivals for the hand of the Countess Wuyrlena, a rich
and beautiful Bohemian heiress; and aware that _both_ could not
succeed, they determined to solve the difficulty of selection by a
combat _à l'outrance_. The intended duel was, however, reported to the
authorities, and both O'Reilly and Klebelsberg were placed under close
arrest by the Director General of the High Police; but, resolved to
achieve their purpose, they secretly left Vienna, and travelled post
together to Poland, and meeting in the neutral territory of Cracow,
fought their remarkable combat. The duel lasted long, for both were
perfect swordsmen, active, skilful, and wary; but at length O'Reilly
ran Klebelsberg through the body, after receiving many dangerous wounds
in his own person.
The affections of the countess, with her hand and fortune, were the
immediate reward of the soldier of fortune.
Rejoining the army, he served with great brilliance in the war between
France and Austria. The forces of the latter were commanded by the
Archduke Charles.
On the 14th June, 1800, he fought under General Melas, at the battle of
Marengo. "Melas," says M. Thiers, in his _History of the Consulate and
Empire_, "placed General O'Reilly on the left, and Generals Kaim and
Haddick on the right, to gain the road to Piacenza, the object of so
many efforts and the salvation of the Austrian army."
On the 2nd December, 1805, that great day when "the sun of Austerlitz
arose," and eighty thousand Frenchmen, flushed by rapid conquests,
by the capitulation of Ulm, and the recent capture of Vienna, met
the Austro-Russian army in one of the bloodiest battles on record--a
battle, which, as General Rapp has it, "was a veritable butchery, where
we fought man to man, and so mingled together, that the infantry on
either side dared not fire lest they should kill their own men"--the
star of Napoleon bore all before it; and the French, though losing
thirteen thousand men, totally routed their allied enemies, with
the loss of thrice that number, taking all their colours, baggage,
ammunition, and one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon. On that
terrible day, the political result of which was an almost immediate
cessation of hostilities between France and Austria, it was universally
admitted that a succession of daring and brilliant charges made by the
Light Dragoons of O'Reilly, "alone saved the Austrian army from total
annihilation."
The Emperor Alexander declined the overtures of Bonaparte, and renewed
the war next year. The field of Eylau gave his Russians a partial
revenge; and ere long they reaped the fulness of it amid the flames of
Moscow and the slaughter of Smolensko.
On the 12th of May, 1809, O'Reilly, for his services at Austerlitz and
elsewhere, was appointed Governor of Vienna, with a powerful garrison;
and in a few days after, the Eagles of Napoleon were at its gates.
Shut up in the city with the troops, the Archduke Ferdinand resolved
to defend it, though the French had already stormed and carried all
the suburbs. In vain were flags of truce sent in; the bearers were
not only refused admittance, but, despite the orders of O'Reilly,
were even maltreated, and in some instances massacred by the people.
The bombardment followed, and soon Vienna was wrapped in flames; but
the Emperor Napoleon, being informed by O'Reilly that one of the
archduchesses had remained in Vienna detained by illness, gave orders
to cease firing.
"Strange destiny of Napoleon!" exclaims old General Bourrienne; "this
archduchess was Maria Louisa!"--the future Empress of France.
On O'Reilly devolved the difficult and trying task of obtaining
honourable terms for the capital of the Empire, from an enemy
flushed by victory and the pride of a hundred hard-fought fields. He
accordingly deputed the Prince of Dietrechstien, the Burgomaster,
and the chief citizens to Napoleon, who inveighed bitterly against
the obstinacy of the gallant Archduke Ferdinand, but lauded the
coolness, bravery, and great presence of mind of the governor, whom he
emphatically terms "_le respectable General O'Reilly_," and accepted
all the terms proposed by him; but in the fourteenth clause stipulated
that O'Reilly should be the bearer of the treaty to his master, to
the end that he should honestly and faithfully lay before him the
true position of the now half-conquered Austrian Empire--and this duty
O'Reilly ably performed.
He served in the great battle fought near Aspern on the Marchfeld,
during the 21st and 22nd of May, between the French under Napoleon, and
the Austrians under the Archduke Charles.
In the prince's plan of the attack "to be made upon the hostile army,
on its march between Essling and Aspern," it was ordered "that the
cavalry brigade under the command of Veesy will be attached to the
second column, and the _Regiment O'Reilly_ to the third." This regiment
consisted of eight squadrons of Light Dragoons, and the column to which
it was attached comprised twenty-two battalions.
O'Reilly, with his cavalry, followed the column which marched from
Seiring, by the road of Sussenbrunn and Breitenbe. Here O'Reilly, with
several troops of Light Horse and Chasseurs formed the advanced guard,
which met the enemy's cavalry at three o'clock in the afternoon, near
Hirschstettin, while the other columns of the Austrian army drew the
French back upon their position between Esslingen and Aspern, and while
Lieutenant-General Hohenzollern ordered up his batteries, and the
battle became general on all sides.
In close column of battalions, the line of the third column was
advancing with great bravery, when the French cavalry fell upon them,
sabre in hand, with such fury, that they were repulsed, and nearly lost
their cannon. At this moment the regiments of Zach, Colloredo, Zetwitz,
and the second battalion of the legion of the Archduke Charles, led
by Lieutenant-General Brady, an Irish officer, "demonstrated with
unparalleled fortitude what the fixed determination to conquer or die
is capable of effecting against the most impetuous attacks."
The splendid cavalry of France turned both flanks of Brady's column,
and penetrating between them, repulsed the Light Horse of O'Reilly,
who came up at full speed to succour the soldiers of his countryman.
Surrounded, the Regiment O'Reilly were summoned to lay down their
arms; but a destructive fire of carbines was the answer to this
degrading proposition, and the French cavalry gave way.