ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
461 
troops who were to make the turning movement lay under dripping 
trees. The woods were occupied by Austrian light troops, and soon 
Daun was informed by them of what was taking place. Meanwhile the 
difficulties of the road increased at every step, and delays occurred 
where minutes were of importance. Frederick was in fact again stak¬ 
ing the safety of his force on the chance of his opponent making a 
mistake. If his arrangements miscarried, his army might be destroyed 
in detail, and the success of his plan of attack naturally depended 
altogether on accuracy of execution, for it was essential that the blows 
from front and rear should fall on Daun simultaneously. We can here 
give no more than a very brief outline of the general events of the day, 
our attention being turned chiefly to the part played in it by artillery, 
and it is therefore enough to say that the King’s arrangements mis¬ 
carried through various causes, and that Ziethen was tempted from his 
true point, deployed his troops, and became involved unnecessarily soon 
with the Austrians away to his right towards Torgau. 
The columns with the King were muck delayed by the rain and the 
softness of the roads. The guns sank deep into the muddy ground, 
and Frederick, anxious to keep his appointment with Ziethen, pushed 
on with the infantry alone. More difficulties and more delays further 
held him back, and finally goaded on by the roar of Ziethen’s guns, 
and the fear that his lieutenant might be beaten alone, Frederick 
determined to strike in. He had with him seven battalions of Grena¬ 
diers, a regiment of Hussars, and Ramin’s brigade of five infantry 
battalions. Also 20 guns. 
But to his astonishment the Austrian front opposed to him bristled 
with an unusually powerful line of guns, and seeing the hopelessness of 
engaging in an artillery duel under the circumstances, the King sent 
the Grenadiers forward to the attack at once. For, when Daun had 
realised the intentions of his opponent, he attempted to change front, 
and made such dispositions as would move his best regiments to face 
the King, but the space being restricted, and the time limited, he 
felt unable to manoeuvre his reserve artillery simultaneously with the 
remainder of his troops. Therefore, it happened that left as it was at 
first, in rear, it eventually found itself in front of the new position 
he had taken up, along the whole of which it was now stretched. 1 
When the Prussians advanced to attack the left of the position from 
the wood through which they were moving, these guns received them 
with a tremendous fire of grape, and dealt the most frightful destruction 
through their ranks. One brigade was almost completely mowed down, 
and all its officers and men killed and wounded by this “ hellish fire,” 
as the King spoke of it. The Grenadiers ceased to exist as a body. 
The Austrian cavalry rushed down upon them to complete the rout, 
and of the seven battalions that had begun the advance, there were not 
left enough survivors to form one. 
In the moment of need the Prussian guns had left their cover to try 
and support their comrades, but the odds against them were so 
tremendous that they were instantly destroyed too. 
The late General Brackenbury in his “ Life of Frederick,” quotes 
1 Decker says that the great battery thus accidentally formed numbered from 80 to 100 guns. 
