ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
457 
yielded to his mad self-will and temper, and failed simply because he 
insolently ignored in his passion what are now recognized as the most 
elementary principles of the game of war. 
On the 10th of October, 1758, he found the Austrians under Daun 
in greatly superior numbers in a strong position, the key of which, the 
Stromberg, which he had intended to have been seized by his advanced 
guard, sent forward under Petzow for that purpose, he perceived to 
his disgust was already held by them in strength. In furious anger he 
placed Eetzow in arrest, and in his contempt for Daun he insisted on 
encamping within a mile of his troops and in a position inferior to 
theirs. Next morning he made an effort to gain the Stromberg, but 
the hill having been strongly intrenched was found impregnable. 
Frederick, not believing that the Austrians would attempt to move, 
intended to wait till the 14th and then turn their right, but when 
Daun found himself in a strong position with 90,000 men, while his 
foe lay in front of him with but 40,000, and with his troops widely 
separated on a very extended line, he was fired with new and un¬ 
expected energy. 
A battery of 20 guns strengthened the Prussian right, while 30 were 
placed on the left where the King himself commanded, half-a-mile only 
separated the advanced posts of the two armies, and behind the Austrian 
position lay thick woods. 
During the night of the 13tb, while Frederick’s men were asleep and 
he was planning his attack, 30,000 of his foes slipped through the 
woods round his right, while 20,000 men of the Austrian right were 
similarly enveloping his left, and preparing to assail the great battery 
of 30 guns on which it rested. Retzow, away at Weissenberg, was to 
be assailed too, and held off from coming to his master’s succour. 
BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH; 14th October , 1758. 
ee Two main Prussian Batteries. 
g Prussian advanced guard under Eetzow. 
h Advance of Austrian Army. 
