GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY.
A continued southwest wind kept the fleet from making progress, and the
ships were obliged to return to port. Their provisions ran out and had
to be renewed from seaport towns. On account of contrary winds, it took
five weeks to make that short distance. The landing took place on June
24th, 1630, the one hundredth anniversary of the day on which the
Augsburg Confession had been presented to Charles V., Emperor of
Germany, in the presence of the leading ecclesiastics and ruling princes
and dukes of all Germany. Gustavus looked upon this as a good omen, for
his coming was at a time when all those principles set forth in that
Confession were endangered.
He landed his troops on the islands of Wollin and Usedom. Stepping on
shore he fell on his knees, and in the presence of his staff thanked God
in these words: "O Thou who rulest over the heavens and the earth, over
the wind and the sea, Lord, how can I worthily thank Thee for Thy
miraculous protection which Thou hast graciously vouchsafed to me during
this dangerous passage? My heart is full of gratitude for all Thy
benefits. Oh, deign to bless this enterprise undertaken for the defence
of Thy distressed Church, and the consolation of Thy faithful servants.
Let it redound, not to my glory, but to Thine. O God, who triest the
hearts and the reins, Thou knowest the purity of my intentions. Grant me
favorable weather and a good wind, which will cheer my brave army, and
allow me to continue Thy sacred work. Amen."
A man may talk with reservations to his fellowmen, but who would presume
to be false in prayer before his God? That prayer reveals beyond all
possibility of doubt the real reason of his undertaking this great war.
Joshua himself did not more implicitly rely upon his God than did this
brave king. He so trusted on God's assistance that he marched with scant
supply of food and money, and with what now seems like a mere handful of
soldiers, against the trained troops of a great empire which for twelve
years had met and conquered every foe on its triumphant march from the
south of Germany to the Baltic Sea.
He asked his officers and soldiers to pray much. He said: "The more you
pray the more victories will be ours. Incessant prayer is half a
victory."
When Gustavus had finished his prayer, he took a spade and began to work
at the intrenchments. Colonel Munro, commander of the Scots, says:
"Gustavus was ever impatient till his soldiers were guarded from their
enemies, and when he had the fewest soldiers he took more pains with
intrenchments." He well understood the duties of a civil engineer, and
when no other was at hand, directed in person the intrenchment of his
army. When the intrenchments were done he addressed his troops:
"Do not believe I undertake this war for myself or for my kingdom. We
march to the relief of our oppressed brethren. You will by brilliant
victories accomplish this generous project and acquire immortal glory.
Be not afraid of the enemies whom we are going to meet, they are the
same whom you have already defeated in Prussia. Your gallantry has just
forced Poland to conclude a truce of six years. If you show the same
courage, the same perseverance, you will procure for the Evangelical
Church and for our German brethren the peace which they need."
He then had the military laws and regulations proclaimed in which any
outrage on person or property was to be punished with death. But
Gustavus felt that his soldiers must be governed from within and not
from without. To that end he urged the chaplains to preach the gospel
faithfully in camp, and he ordered that prayer meetings should be held
twice each day.
Men fresh from their homes, often homesick and heartsick for the home
folks, were open to the message which their mothers and fathers had so
often laid on their young hearts, so it is not surprising that the
behavior of the Swedish army on a foreign soil is memorable to this day
in Europe, in strong contrast to the Imperial army which embittered even
friendly provinces in its devastating journeys.
Gustavus immediately subdued the country on which he had made his
descent, and having taken possession of Rugen, he expelled the Imperial
troops from all neighboring islands, and made secure his communications
with Sweden.
He then advanced on Stettin, the capital of Pomerania, and forced the
old Duke Bogislaus XIV. to make a quick decision between an alliance
with Sweden or with the Empire. The people of the city hastened
privately to pay their respects to the Swedish king as the true Defender
of the Faith, to which they also subscribed. He talked over with them
the condition of Germany, the affairs of the Church, and of their faith
and love, and completely won their hearts.
His personality at this time was most pleasing, his fair hair, his
handsome beard, his tall, strong, lithe, athletic body predisposed
everyone in his favor.
The gates of Stettin were thrown open to him, but he quartered his
soldiers in their tents and not in the city. The king entered into a
close alliance with Sweden, thus making Pomerania a protecting State for
Sweden, and also for the rearguard of the Swedish army and for its line
of communication with the home country. The army covered the greater
part of Pomerania, in spite of the efforts of General Torquato-Conti,
who had charge of all the Imperial troops stationed in this duchy. As he
retreated he wreaked an awful vengeance upon the innocent people,
capturing women, and even killing children, and leaving desolation in
his wake. The people came out to meet the Swedes, and hailed them as
saviours of the country.
As Gustavus continued his journey through Pomerania his army was greatly
increased. Troops who had fought under Mansfield, under Duke Christian
of Brunswick, and under the king of Denmark, and all those disaffected
because of Wallenstein now enrolled under his victorious banner, so that
by the end of 1630, only a few months after leaving Sweden he ruled in
Pomerania as sovereign. The Estates of the Duchy voted and paid him one
hundred thousand florins.
He was anxious to push on to Mecklenburg, but a severe northern winter
was at hand and it was deemed best to wait and go into winter quarters.
Whatever trepidation of heart the Emperor may have felt at these
advances, he put on a bold front at Vienna and scoffed at the name of
Gustavus Adolphus, declaring that the "Snow King of the North" would
soon melt away with his army as he moved southward, but it is a curious
fact that people of northern climates can accustom themselves to any
latitude, while people born under a hot sun cannot always endure cold,
and the Swedes proved that they could fight in any land.
The Emperor's confidence was by no means shared by the Catholic League.
They now placed General Tilly, who, it was claimed, had never lost a
battle, at the head of the Imperial forces.
Since Wallenstein had been retired great companies of mercenary soldiers
could be had by any commander who could pay them. If Gustavus had
possessed money many of these would much have preferred to fight for
him. But God was to show, as in the case of Gideon, what could be done
with the few. In spite of his faith, however, Gustavus sometimes feared
the future. The winter used up most of the food and the money. In a
letter to Oxenstiern dated December, 1630, he says: "May God, into whose
hands I commit all, help us to live through the winter. Then, thanks to
your care and foresight, the summer will be more prosperous. I would
like to describe our condition to you, but a sabre cut having rendered
my hand stiff, I am prevented from doing so." Let it suffice you to know
that the enemy enjoys every advantage for establishing his winter
quarters, since all Germany has become his prey. If I had more soldiers
with me on the bank of the Oder I would march forward. Although our
cause is good and just the issue is uncertain—uncertain are also man's
days.
"Therefore, I pray you for Christ's sake, be not discouraged if all does
not succeed to our wishes. I most earnestly recommend my family to your
care if misfortune befall me. It is in many respects worthy of interest.
The mother needs advice, she is none too wise. The daughter, a tender
child, will be exposed to many difficulties if she should reign, and to
many dangers if others should reign over her. I commit both of them,
their future, my life and all that I possess in this world, to God's
holy and powerful keeping. I am persuaded that whatever may befall me on
this earth will always be for my good, and after this life I hope to
enjoy eternal peace and joy."
Gustavus Adolphus did not remain inactive, but after conquering
Pomerania he advanced into the Duchy of Brandenburg, for the purpose of
reaching Mecklenburg. He pushed the Imperial troops from Pomerania, so
that Tilly fell back to the Elbe, without venturing to defend
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, which the Swedes successfully assaulted in a
three-days siege about the middle of the winter.
William of Hesse-Cassel in October, 1630, gladdened the heart of the
king by entering into an alliance with him. Aside from this one prince,
not one evangelical prince would come to his assistance.
The Edict of Restitution set hard on the Lutheran churches of Saxony and
Brandenburg, yet these rulers looked upon Gustavus more as a rival than
as a friend, so that they may be said to have forced Gustavus into an
alliance with France. The treaty with France was signed at Baerwalde, in
the Duchy of Brandenburg, January 13th, 1631. The contracting parties
entered into an alliance offensive and defensive to protect their common
friends, to restore the deposed Prince to the Empire, and as nearly as
possible to restore Church and State possessions to the conditions
existing before the disturbance began in Bohemia, and before the Edict
of Restitution.
France now agreed to furnish Gustavus for the payment of his troops four
hundred thousand dollars annually, and paid one hundred thousand dollars
cash for the year past, the object of France being to check the House of
Austria and to retain what is called in Europe "the balance of power."
Gustavus agreed to keep an armed force of not less than thirty-six
thousand in Germany till peace should be agreed upon, and to leave
Catholics alone where he found that religion prevailing. Gustavus had
not the slightest reverence nor patience with the worn out idea of the
Holy Roman Empire. With him religion was an intense incentive to action,
and sloth, indifference, laziness were qualities which made him angry to
intolerance.
But there was a curious allegiance of the smaller German States to that
name—the Holy Roman Empire. It was only after two centuries of having
their territory sacrificed again and again to uphold a crumbling dynasty
that they began to center their eyes on North Germany for a union. Had
Ferdinand turned Lutheran a truly united Germany would have been made in
the seventeenth instead of the nineteenth century, for he came to an
empire in which the majority of his subjects were Protestants. He had
said that he preferred to rule in an uninhabited wilderness rather than
to have a prosperous nation of heretics. When he left it the wilderness
was over what had been a prosperous State.
John George, the Elector of Saxony, was the leader and most powerful
Protestant ruler in North Germany. He was a Protestant, but he announced
that he preferred an alliance with the Emperor. Then George William,
Elector of Brandenburg, was slothful, and although a brother-in-law of
Gustavus, was jealous of the hard-won laurels of the Swedish king.
The jealousy of those Protestant princes show that whatever religion
they may have professed they had very little of the grace of God in
their hearts. The King of Denmark may be ranked with these. He was
anxious to have Gustavus wrecked even as he had been, in order to
curtail the power of the Swedish kingdom.
John George, Elector of Saxony, convened the rulers of the Protestant
States of the Empire at Leipzig, February, 1631, to enter a remonstrance
against the oppressions of the Empire. Gustavus made known to them his
alliance with France and entreated them to join him in protecting the
Protestant faith.[3]
Footnote 3:
What occurred at this Diet would be a good dramatic chapter.
Richelieu sent his own gifted diplomat, Charnace, to lay before them the
dangers which threatened their religion. Gustavus was even willing to
accept a secret support, if the princes were afraid of the wrath of the
Emperor. But the Elector of Saxony was so filled with the spirit of envy
and jealousy that he not only refused alliance himself but persuaded the
others to at least defer entering into any agreement with the Swedish
king. The Duke of Weimar and his brother urged that Protestantism needed
just such a leader to unite them, and failing to convince the assembly,
they withdrew in anger from the convention.
There were sixty-two princes of the two reformed creeds. There were no
end of committees. All possible grievances were presented to the Emperor
in the form of petition. There was an implied threat that unless their
cry was heard at some future time they would arm for the defence of the
Augsburg Confession, John George agreeing to give eleven thousand men,
and George William five thousand for the cause. The name of Gustavus
Adolphus was carefully kept out of every public document. The Emperor
answered their appeal by ordering them to adjourn at once, or Leipzig
should be blown about their ears.
In the meantime Gustavus learned that Tilly had gone to besiege
Magdeburg, and the king of Sweden made immediate preparation to go to
the relief of that devoted city.
Tilly had taken a town guarded by two thousand Swedes. A surrender was
forced, and the Swedes agreed to lay down their arms on condition of an
oath not to serve again during the war. The poor fellows had failed to
receive a dispatch from their king to retreat and leave the town to its
fate. They were butchered to the last man. The only cruel thing recorded
in the history of Gustavus was his revenge for this crime. When he
captured Frankfort-on-the-Oder two thousand prisoners of war were slain.
Such is war. We shall see how Tilly retaliated on Gustavus for this.
Cruelty, even in war, is always bad policy, aside from being a sin
against God.
He asked at the hand of Brandenburg that he be permitted to hold the
fortresses of Kustrin and Spandau till the siege of Magdeburg could be
raised. But his brother-in-law, afraid of the wrath of the Emperor,
utterly refused. The anger of his Emperor concerned him much more than
the anger of his Lord. King Gustavus wrote him: "My road is to
Magdeburg, not for my own advantage, but for that of the Protestant
religion. If no one will stand by me I shall immediately retreat,
conclude a peace with the Emperor and return to Stockholm. I am
convinced that Ferdinand will readily grant me whatever conditions I may
require. But if Magdeburg is once lost, and the Emperor relieved of all
fear of me, then it is for you to look for yourselves and the
consequences. He who makes a sheep of himself will be eaten by the wolf.
For I tell you plainly, I will not hear a word of neutrality. Your
serenity must be either friend or foe. As soon as I get to your frontier
you will have to declare yourself. Here strive God and the devil. If you
will hold with God, come over to me. If you prefer the devil, you will
have to fight me first. There shall be no neutral party in this war."
It was just what Duke George William wanted, to be the third party. He
hoped he could hold off and eventually be the balance of power between
the Empire and Gustavus, King of Sweden. The Elector of Brandenburg
actually gave orders to the commanders of these fortresses, Kustrin and
Spandau, to let the Imperial troops "pass and repass," but if the Swedes
come "pray them to turn back," but if prayers failed, they were to be
allowed to pass, for their conduct would show their power. Such an order
must have been given while the duke was on one of his after-dinner too
free libations.
As the Swedish army approached Spandau was granted to Gustavus, for the
Elector saw that even without his consent, Gustavus would take it. Then
John George, Elector of Saxony, controlled by his own envy and jealousy,
utterly refused to let Gustavus have free passage through his State,
even forbidding him to cross the Elbe.
Gustavus did not desire to go to war with the prince who was the very
head and front of the Protestant Union, which in the February meeting
had demanded the revocation of the Edict of Restitution.
He had to force his way into Mecklenburg, whose ruling princes were his
kinsmen. He had given them shelter and kindness when they had been
pressed by the Imperial forces. Indeed, his entering the Thirty Years'
War was partly on their behalf, but the Emperor had his Jesuits
everywhere, and when Gustavus landed in Pomerania he found the Dukes of
Mecklenburg more friendly to the Imperialists than to him. He needed
that State to secure his rear and to keep open communications with
Sweden.
In the meantime, while Gustavus was conquering small towns and restoring
order to Pomerania (to which the frightened inhabitants were returning),
and was being harassed, worried and annoyed beyond human words to
express by these two Protestant electors, let us recall what was
happening to Magdeburg.
Gustavus had despatched General Falkenberg, an experienced officer, to
Magdeburg. He had entered the city disguised as a boatman. He found the
people discouraged and disheartened, but this intrepid soldier so
revived them that, with three thousand militia, two thousand of the
regular infantry and one hundred and fifty horsemen, they determined to
resist the Imperialists, consisting of thirty-three thousand infantry
and nine thousand cavalry.
There are pages of pathos in every history, but nothing exceeds the
pathetic picture of that heroic, devoted soldier refusing quarter
because the condition of surrender was that they should become Papists.
There were traitors within the walls. Three hundred of them rushed with
great joy to the invaders as they entered the city, but were mostly cut
down.
Magdeburg was taken May 10th by storm. Their first vengeance was on the
Protestant clergy. They killed them in their homes, and burned them and
their books together. They bound the wives and daughters of the clergy
to the tails of their horses. They dragged them into camp, where they
were outraged and murdered. St. John's Lutheran Church was filled with
women, the Imperialists nailed the doors, shut and burned the church.
They tied the most beautiful women of the city to the stirrups of their
horses and raced each other, with their victims, out of town. They
carried screaming children aloft on their bloody pikes; of the entire
city only the cathedral, the cloister and four or five houses were left.
General Falkenberg perished with his men. When called to surrender, he
replied, "I hold out while I live."
The Imperialists were in momentary fear that Gustavus would arrive, so
that they filled every hour of three days and nights in robbery, rape
and murder, unequaled in all the annals of history. Babes were speared
at their mothers' breasts. One miscreant boasted that he had burned
twenty infants. Fifty-three women were beheaded at one time, while at
prayers. Probably forty thousand perished in this holocaust. In this
manner the ban of the Holy Roman Empire was executed on a German city
for defending the gospel.
Tilly wrote his Emperor: "Not since Troy and Jerusalem has there been
such a victory." On Falkenberg's house a tablet was placed, "Remember
May 10th, 1631," and all Protestants who know history from that day to
this do, with bitterness of heart, remember that dreadful day.
Tilly was born in Brabant in 1559. He had been educated in a college of
Jesuits and well represented their principles. He had distinguished
himself in the Turkish war, and in the war of the Netherlands, under the
Duke of Alva, whom he took for his model. In his private life he was
moral, and like Paul before his conversion, he really thought to kill
heretics was doing God's service. But Magdeburg ruined his reputation,
he became tormented with remorse; the hatred later shown to him and his
retreating forces embittered his later years, and, possibly, may have
caused that remorse.
But where was Gustavus Adolphus during this woeful time? He was held
back by Duke John George of Saxony, and by his own brother-in-law, Duke
George William of Brandenburg. The latter was a weak creature, perfectly
under the influence of his minister, Schwarzenberg, an employé of the
Emperor of Austria.
Neither of these princes dreamed that Magdeburg would be destroyed, they
only expected it to change hands. There was something of hatred among
the princes against the Hanseatic towns, which was a factor in their
detention of Gustavus Adolphus.
The Jesuits circulated the report that the king of Sweden had
voluntarily left Magdeburg to perish. They hoped by that means to
alienate the other Protestants from Gustavus. It was not difficult for
him to clear himself of this charge, and most histories now agree that
the destruction of Magdeburg was due to the prejudices, envies,
jealousies and mistrust of the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg.
Gustavus had written the Elector of Saxony, when Magdeburg was
threatened: "I see myself obliged to lower my pretensions and not to
advance further. To post myself between two wavering powers, or to
abandon the rivers by which all my convoys arrive, would be contrary to
all rules of military science. However, I wish to show Magdeburg how
much solicitude I feel for her, and should I sacrifice my life, I shall
do all I can to deliver her. May God sustain me by His grace, and make
my perseverance triumphant. Before God and before men I declare that I
am innocent of all the blood that will be shed, and of all the
misfortunes that will happen."
The terror and agony caused by the destruction of Magdeburg soon changed
to hot indignation, and the German people raised such a hue and cry
against their princes that they were, for the most part, glad to throw
themselves into the arms of the king of Sweden. But that hopeful
brother-in-law refused even to permit Gustavus to hold the fortress of
Spandau.
Gustavus well knew that if he left Brandenburg, Berlin would follow
Magdeburg, so, as he retreated from Spandau, either as a huge joke or in
earnest, he planted his artillery to command the city of Berlin. The
ladies of the Elector's family came in person to entreat Gustavus not to
move north and leave them to the mercy of the Imperialists, and to beg
him not to shell the city. They assured him that the Elector would treat
with him, make any treaty—only Gustavus must not leave the Duchy to the
fate of Magdeburg. Munro says: "And the king answered, merrily, that if
the Duke did not conclude a treaty with him before night he would send
the Duchess and all the ladies prisoners to Sweden, and that the Duke
should follow." The alliance was concluded June 11th, Gustavus to hold
Spandau during the war, and to have free passage through Kustrin and to
use any other fortresses he might need. A payment of thirty thousand
dollars a month and liberal contributions for the support of the army
were also granted.
About this time Gustavus learned that Greifswald, the only fortress
which the Imperialists yet held in Pomerania, had surrendered to the
Swedish General Ake Tott. The Czar of Moscow sent messengers to
congratulate him, also to renew his alliance and to offer him troops.
Gustavus was much gratified at this attitude of Russia, as it was most
desirable to keep Sweden undisturbed by any foreign foe while its king
was absent from his country.
The latter part of June Gustavus employed in reinstating the Dukes of
Mecklenburg, who were now put into full possession of all their duchy,
except Rostock and Wismar. They proved very ungrateful, and General Ake
Tott had great difficulty in making them furnish their share of
contributions for the war which gave back to them their possessions.
General Tilly now marched direct from Magdeburg to Thuringia, in order
to force the Landgrave of Hesse to disband the troops he had gathered
for the assistance of the king of Sweden, also to force him to receive
Imperial garrisons in his fortresses, and to pay a large war indemnity.
Of course, he refused to comply with these demands. As Tilly passed over
the country everything was laid waste. His army had been almost as
demoralized by the victory at Magdeburg as if it had been a defeat. The
men of the army seem never to have desisted even for a single day from
robbery, arson and all forms of nameless crimes.
Meanwhile, General Bauer, of Gustavus' army, had stormed Havelberg, so
that now the Swedes held nearly all the country north of the Elbe, and
were ready to take the aggressive. But think of it, he had been obliged
to conquer the duchies of Mecklenburg and Brandenburg, whose princes
were Protestants and should have been more interested in bringing the
army supplies, furnishing troops and driving back the Imperialists, than
Gustavus himself. It was not their religion, but their lack of religion
that was at fault.
The Landgrave of Hesse gave Tilly's troops such a severe rebuff that the
Imperial army was ordered immediately into Thuringia, but Tilly, hearing
where Gustavus and his army were located, made his way to that portion
of the country and encamped on the same side of the Elbe River as
Gustavus.
The Swedes routed three of Tilly's regiments, carried off most of their
baggage and burned the remainder. But Gustavus' army had been weakened
by much sickness during the winter and he carefully avoided a general
engagement, while Tilly considered the entrenchments of the Swedes far
too formidable for assault. Tilly wasted considerable time before the
Swedish camp, then bent his course toward Saxony. Up to this time this
country had been spared, because of the loyalty of its ruling house to
Austria, and because Emperor Ferdinand II. earnestly desired to keep
Duke John George with his party, but it was a rich country, and now
Tilly and his hordes pounced upon it like birds of prey on a carcass. A
line of two hundred burning villages marked Tilly's march to the
neighborhood of Leipzig.
Now the Elector, when the beak of the enemy was at his own vitals,
turned quickly to Gustavus. He sent Field Marshal Arnheim to request the
immediate help of the king of Sweden. The king must have been gratified,
though no word of history shows any exultation on his part. He replied
to the Field Marshal: "I am sorry for the Elector; had he heeded my
repeated remonstrances his country would never have seen the face of an
enemy, and Magdeburg would not have been destroyed. Now, when necessity
leaves no other alternative, he seeks my assistance. But tell him that I
cannot, for his sake, ruin my own cause and that of my confederates.
What pledge have I for the sincerity of a prince whose minister is in
the pay of Austria and who will abandon me as soon as the Emperor
flatters him and withdraws his troops from Saxony?"
In spite of the coldness of the king, Arnheim persisted, for he had been
ordered to secure the assistance of the king of Sweden at any price.
Arnheim pressed him to name any conditions, saying: "I shall see they
are accepted." At last Gustavus said: "I require that the Elector shall
cede to me the fortress of Wittenberg, deliver to me his eldest son as
hostage, furnish my troops with three months' pay, and deliver up to me
the traitors among his ministry."
"Not Wittenberg alone," said the Elector, when he had read the message,
"but Torgau and all Saxony shall be open to him, my whole family shall
be hostages, and if that is not enough, I will place myself in his
hands. Return and inform him I am ready to deliver to him any traitors
he shall name, to furnish his army with any money he requires, and to
venture my life and fortune in the good cause."
The king had only been testing him, and now, believing in the sincerity
of the Elector's intentions, he very much modified his demands. "The
distrust," said the king, "which he had shown me when advancing to the
relief of Magdeburg, had made me distrustful; his present confidence
demands a return. I shall be satisfied if he grants my army one month's
pay, and even for this advance I hope to indemnify him."
On September 1st, 1631, the princes signed an alliance, and on September
5th the Saxon army joined that of Sweden. Tilly had encamped near
Leipzig and had fired on the city. He said to his army, jubilant with
the hope of plunder, "Hitherto heretics have never gained a victory in a
pitched battle." Gustavus took the opposite course. He assembled all his
field officers about him the evening before the battle, and said: "I
neither despise our enemies, nor represent the affair as more easy than
it is. I do not conceal it; we have before us an experienced, powerful,
victorious enemy, who has hitherto, during his long wars, been always
triumphant. But the more celebrated this enemy is the greater will be
the renown which we shall obtain by conquering him. All honor, praise
and glory which our adversaries have acquired during so many years can,
with the help of God, be our own within twenty-four hours. On our side
is the right. We do not contend for temporal goods, but for the glory
and for the word of God; for the true religion, which alone is able to
save, hitherto grievously oppressed by the Catholics and which they now
intend to entirely destroy. We must not doubt that Almighty God, who, in
spite of all resistance, has led us safely through all kinds of dangers,
will now grant us His efficient assistance." Then he rode through his
camp, cheering with kind words his soldiers, and making each feel that
he was indeed an important factor for his king, for his country and for
his religion.
Munro says the Elector of Saxony and his troops looked as if they were
there to have pictures or portraits taken, while the Swedes, who had
been on a long march and had slept in a dusty field, looked like
servants, and they both looked tame beside the besilvered, begilded and
beplumed Imperialists. The Swedish horses looked like ponies beside the
gigantic German chargers. The king had on a plain buff-colored suit, a
gray hat, with a green plume.
In the meantime, Tilly pushed close to Leipzig and promised to leave it
like Magdeburg if it did not yield. But conditions were not the same. On
September 4th the bombardment began. On the 6th the city sent to offer
Tilly a large sum of money in ransom, then capitulated on condition that
the Protestant religion should not be suppressed and the garrison be
permitted to march out with honors of war. Tilly put three thousand
soldiers in the city and determined to await the Swedes and Saxons, with
his back protected by the city.
On September 9th, 1631, the hostile armies were in sight of each other,
between Breitenfield and Leipzig, and here the great battle of the war
was to be fought. It was not Tilly and Gustavus Adolphus, but the two
systems of religion which that day stood face to face. The Swedish and
Saxon army amounted to about thirty-five thousand men, and the Emperor
and the Catholic League had about the same number. But if all the
millions which each side represented had all been present, the battle
would not have been more representative, more decisive, nor more
important.
Tilly's usual confidence had deserted him, and he said afterward that he
was forced into battle by his own subordinate, General Pappenheim.
The battle began with two hours of cannonading, the wind, being from the
west, blew the smoke, the dust from the plains and from a plowed field,
into the faces of the Swedes. The king quickly moved his forces to the
north, and Tilly left his position and attacked the Swedes, but their
fire was so galling that he moved to the right and attacked the Saxons
with such tremendous impetuosity that their line was broken and the
whole army thrown into confusion. The Elector himself retired to
Eilenberg, but in spite of his defection, a few of his best regiments
held their ground and saved the good name of Saxony.
Pappenheim, the Phil Sheridan of the Imperial army, threw his best
cavalry regiments against the Swedes, where the king of Sweden himself
commanded. Seven times did Pappenheim make his swift charge, seven times
repulsed. He left most of his men on the field, which he abandoned to
his conquerors. In the meantime, Tilly, having routed the remainder of
the Saxons, attacked with his triumphant troops the left wing of the
Swedes, commanded by General Gustavus Horn. The Swedes made a gallant
resistance, until the king, with the troops who had driven Pappenheim
from the field, came to terminate the battle. After driving Tilly and
his troops out of the way, Gustavus reached the eminence on which the
Imperial artillery had been placed, and he turned on the Imperialists
the full destructive play of their own artillery. Tilly forced a retreat
through the midst of his conquerors, and left only four veteran
regiments to meet Gustavus and his victors.
These veterans of Tilly's had never known defeat. By night their numbers
were reduced to only six hundred men. As soon as the darkness came they
fled from the field, leaving the Swedes in undisputed possession. The
king of Sweden threw himself on his knees and gave public thanks to God
in earnest prayer for this wonderful victory. He then rode through the
ranks, shaking hands with his officers and thanking his brave men in
warm words of praise for their heroic actions.
The same day he wrote Chancellor Oxenstiern: "Although we mourn the loss
of many brave men, we must, nevertheless, above all, thank God for this
victory and protection which He has given us, for we have never incurred
greater dangers."
On that battlefield now stands a great monument with this inscription:
"Gustavus Adolphus,
The Christian and Hero,
Saved, near Breitenfield,
Religious Liberty to the World."