Count Leopold Joseph von Daun

The Prussian army had marched in four columns over the mountain passes separating Saxony and Silesia from Bohemia in early spring, entering the kingdom on April 18. 

The four corps are to unite at the Bohemian capital of Prague. 

Though risky, because it exposes the Prussian army to a defeat in detail, the plan will succeed.

It is not in the nature of Frederick the Great, nor in his military strategy, simply to sit back and defend.

After having forced the surrender of Saxony in the 1756 campaign, he had spent the winter devising new plans for a defense of his small kingdom, and had begun drawing up plans for another bold stroke against Austria.

Marshal von Bevern, who had entered Bohemia with a corps of sixteen thousand Prussians, encounters Königsegg's Austrian corps at Reichenberg.

The full Austrian corps consists of eighteen thousand infantry and forty-nine hundred cavalry, but only about ten thousand of them have been concentrated at Reichenberg.

The experienced Bevern defeats his opponent.

As a result, Bevern captures large quantities of Austrian supplies and can continue his march on Prague.

Austrian commander Leopold Joseph von Daun, who had not been actively employed in the first campaigns of the war, collects a force of thirty thousand men to come to the relief of Prague.

Daun is highly valued by Maria Theresa, who had made him commandant of Vienna and a Knight of the Golden Fleece, and in 1754 had elevated him to the rank of Feldmarschall (Field-Marshal).

Following the battle at Prague, Frederick takes five thousand troops from the siege at Prague and sends them to reinforce the nineteen thousand-man army under the Duke of Brunswick-Bevern at Kolin in Bohemia.

Daun arrives too late to participate in the battle of Prague, but picks up sixteen thousand men who had escaped from the battle and, with this army, slowly moves to relieve Prague.

The Prussian army is too weak to simultaneously besiege Prague and keep Daun away, and Frederick is forced to attack prepared positions.

The resulting Battle of Kolin, a desperately fought engagement on June 18, 1757, is a sharp defeat for Frederick, his first.

His losses further force him to lift the siege and withdraw from Bohemia altogether.

In commemoration of this brilliant exploit, the queen immediately institutes a military order bearing her name, and Daun is awarded the first Grand Cross of this order.

The union of the relieving army with the forces of Prince Charles at Prague reduces Daun to the position of second in command, and in this capacity he takes part in the pursuit of the Prussians and the subsequent victory of Breslau.

The Duke of Brunswick-Bevern has been charged with covering Silesia with a force of thirty-two thousand troops, as Fredrick II is still active in Saxony.

This soon turns out to be a difficult task, as he has to face the superior Austrian forces, whose main army of fifty-four thousand troops is led by Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine and Count Leopold Joseph von Daun.

The corps of twenty-eight thousand troops under Franz Leopold von Nádasdy is also able to advance to the front.

Despite their overwhelming superiority, the Austrians want to initially avoid a battle.

The main army's role is supposed to be to tie up the Prussians, thereby allowing Nádasdy’s forces to take the fortress of Schweidnitz, which is a key position ensuring the flow of supplies Bohemia to Silesia.

After Nádasdy’s corps had been reinforced, bringing its strength up to forty-thee thousand troops, the Austrians had surrounded Schweidnitz on October 14.

The handover had then occurred place on November 13.

Until that time, Bevern had managed to keep the main Austrian army engaged in battle, but  it had been considerably strengthened after joining Nádasdy’s corps.

As a direct result of the additional reinforcements, the Austrian army command gives up their position and decides to launch an immediate attack on the Prussians; their intention is to take Breslau before the arrival of the main Prussian forces so that they will be unable to winter in Silesia.

The Prussians have over forty battalions and one hundred and two squadrons at their disposal (totaling twenty-eight thousand four hundred troops).

The Austrian army, however, consists of ninety-six battalions, ninety-three grenadier companies, one hundred and forty-one squadrons and two hundred and twenty-eight artillery pieces (totaling eighty-three thousand six hundred and six troops).

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine attacks the Prussian forces on November 22 outside the gates of Breslau, between the villages of Kosel und Gräbschen, launching the battle with a cannonade.

The Prussians, who had taken up fortified positions in the surrounding villages, are now attacked at three separate points.

After the Austrians are able to conquer the first few villages, they man them with howitzers and intensify their cannonade, after which the duke of Brunswick-Bevern gathers ten regiments together and begins a counter-attack.

A tough, bloody struggle for the villages begins, in which the Prussians are able to score several decisive successes against the superior Austrian forces.

It has never been established whether Bevern wanted to lead another counter-attack the next day or whether the retreat.

Nevertheless, the Prussians do retreat, which seems to have begun suddenly as if on cue, whether it had been ordered or not.

The battlefield is consequently abandoned to Prince Charles and the Prussians return to Glogau via Breslau.

The battle, which has lasted almost the entire day, has cost the Austrians five thousand seven hundred and twenty-three men and the Prussians six thousand three hundred and fifty men.

Ten battalions under General Johann Georg von Lestwitz remain behind in the fortress of Breslau following the withdrawal of the Prussian army.

The Austrians immediately lay siege under the direction of General Nádasdy.

The Austrian-minded population of Breslau makes the Prussians’ defense very difficult, as not only do Breslau’s citizens pressure Lestwitz to vacate the fortress but they also aid any Prussian deserters.

Prussian morale is extremely low due to their defeat on the battlefield and the high proportion of conscripts serving in the army.

Discipline almost collapses.

Lestwitz therefore surrenders on the night of November 25 on condition of being allowed to withdraw unhindered.

Out of the four thousand two hundred and twenty-seven Prussian soldiers, only five hundred and ninety-nine of them beginthe march to Glogau; the rest desert.

Due to these events, Fredrick II is forced to completely change his campaign plans.

However, he remain determined to attack the Austrian army to tear Silesia away from them.

In order to continue the war, Prussia must now rely on Silesia for both finance and future recruits.

Frederick hopes the two smashing victories will bring Maria Theresa to the peace table, but she is determined not to negotiate until she has re-taken Silesia.

Maria Theresa also improves the Austrians' command after Leuthen by replacing her incompetent brother-in-law, Charles of Lorraine, with Daun, who is now a field Marshall.

This problem had been compounded when the main Hanoverian army under Cumberland was defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck and forced to surrender entirely at the Convention of Klosterzeven following a French invasion of Hanover.

The convention had removed Hanover from the war, leaving the western approach to Prussian territory extremely vulnerable.

Frederick sends urgent requests to Britain for more substantial assistance, as he is now without any outside military support for his forces in Germany.

Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun and his eighty thousand-man army have camped near the town of Stolpen in September and early October 1758.

Frederick, King of Prussia, had tried several times to draw the Austrians out of Stolpen into a battle: Daun has refused the bait.

Frederick and his army had marched within eight kilometers (five miles) of the Austrians by October 5, but Daun had pulled his army away, again, refusing to be drawn into battle.

Upon the Austrian withdrawal, Frederick had sent troops in pursuit; these were driven off by Daun's rearguard.

In frustration, Frederick had shadowed Daun by maneuvering his army toward Bautzen; while there, ...

...Frederick had learned that Daun had established a camp about five kilometers (three miles) east of him in the hills directly east of Hochkirch.

He had dispatched an entire Prussian corps to those hills in late September; by early October, General Wolf Frederick von Retzow's corps is within two kilometers (one mile) of the Austrians.

Frederick orders Retzow to take the hill that commands the area, called Strohmberg.

When Retzow arrives here, he discovers that the Austrians already have laid possession with a strong force.

Retzow refuses the order to storm the position.

Disgraced, Retzow surrenders his sword; Frederick also has him arrested.

Retzow is already suffering from dysentery and is transferred to Schweidnitz, where he will die on November 5.

Hochkirch stands on slight rise in terrain, surrounded by mildly undulating plains; the village can be seen from the distance, except from the south, where several heights abut the village and block visibility.

The church stands near the highest point, granting visibility east, west and north.

Frederick marches on Hochkirch on October 10 and establishes his own camp, extending from the town north, five kilometers (three miles) to the edge of the forest at the base of the Kuppritzerberg.

Frederick does not plan to stay in the small village for an extended period, only until their provisions—mostly bread—arrive from Bautzen, then they will move eastward.

Frederick ignores the warnings of his officers, especially his trusted Field Marshal James Keith, who thinks staying in the village is suicide. (Keith had taken a prominent part in the Moravian campaign, after which he withdrew from the army to restore his broken health, returning in time for the autumn campaign in the Lausiztz region.

Instead of worrying about a possible Austrian threat, Frederick scatters his men facing eastward, the last known location of Daun's army.

The troops create an S-shaped line, north to south, adjacent to Hochkirch.

The weak (west) side is guarded by an outpost of nine battalions with artillery support; the principle purpose of the infantry is to maintain contact with a deployed scout unit.

Eleven battalions and twenty-eight squadrons guard the east side.

Frederick has his best soldiers garrison the village of Hochkirch.

He does not believe any attack will occur, as Daun's army has been dormant in recent months, refusing to be drawn into battles.

To the east of the village, less than two kilometers (one mile) distant, the Austrians' presence on the hilltop increasingly makes the Prussians—except Frederick—anxious of an attack.

The Strohmberg, one of the heights abutting Hochkirch, anchors Daun's left flank, and he deploys the remainder of his force southward across the road between Bautzen and Lobau.

This also gives him control of an important junction between Görlitz in the east and Zittau in the south.

He anchors the far right end of his line in another wooded hill south of the road, called the Kuppritzerberg.

After days of personally scouting the Prussian camp and being urged to attack by his officers, he notes that the Prussians neither increase their security nor deploy  their troops in response to the Austrian presence.

He also takes into account that his men are eager to fight a battle and that they outnumber the Prussians by more than two-to-one.

His plan, which he has kept secret, is an early morning sweep through the woods with thirty thousand hand-picked troops, around Frederick's flank, to enclose him.

The Prussian army will be asleep, both literally and figuratively, when the Austrian army strikes.

Daun's battle plan surprises the Prussians.

The east side of Frederick's line is the first to be attacked.

Using the starless night and fog as cover, and grouped into small shock units for easier control and stealth, the Austrians fall on the Prussian battery when the church bell signals 5:00, catching the Prussians completely off guard.

Many men are still sleeping, or just waking up, when the Austrians attack.

The Austrians cut tent ropes, collapsing the tents on sleeping soldiers, then bayonet the men as they struggle to free themselves from canvas and cords.

At first Frederick thinks the sounds of the battle are either an outpost skirmish or the Croats in the Austrian army, who apparently start  their days with regular firing of their weapons.

His staff has trouble rousing him from bed, but he is soon alerted when his own cannons, captured by the Austrians, start to fire on his own camp.

While his adjutants are trying to wake Frederick, his generals, most of whom had not slept and had kept their horses saddled and weapons ready, organize the Prussian resistance.

Keith, anticipating an Austrian attack, organizes a slashing counterattack on the Austrians holding the Prussian battery.

Maurice von Anhalt-Dessau, another of Frederick's able generals, funnels the awakening troops to Keith.

This combined action briefly retakes the Prussian battery south of Hochkirch, but they cannot hold it in the face of Austrian muskets.

At 6:00, three more Prussian regiments rush Hochkirch itself, while Prince Maurice continues directing stragglers and reinforcements into the counterattack.

The Prussians sweep through the village, out the other side, and fall on the battery at bayonet point.

By this point, though, most Prussian order and cohesion has been lost.

The Austrians, supported by their appropriated Prussian guns, which had not been spiked, wreak havoc on the attackers.

Keith is hit mid-body and knocked out of his saddle, dead as he falls into his groom's arms.

When the early morning fog lifts, the soldiers can make out friend from foe.

Prussian cavalry, which had remained saddled and ready throughout the night, launches a series of regimental counterattacks.

A battalion of the 23rd Infantry charges, but withdraws as it is surrounded flank and rear.

The church yard, a walled stronghold, diverts the Austrians; Major Siegmund Moritz William von Langen's musketeers of the 19th regiment hold it with sheer determination and provide safety for retreating Prussians.

Most importantly, Langen buys time.

Frederick, by this time fully awake, dressed and ready to fight, hopes that the battle can be retrieved and returns to the village to take command.

At 7:00, finding his infantry milling about in the village, Frederick orders them to advance, sending reinforcements commanded by Prince Francis of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, his brother-in-law, with them.

As Francis approaches the village, Austrian cannon-fire sheers his head off his shoulders; his troops falter, demoralized by the sight of the prince's headless body atop his spooked horse.

Frederick himself helps to rally Francis' shaken troops.

Led by the King, they advance against five Austrian companies of horse grenadiers commanded by Franz Moritz von Lacy; they march into an alleyway still known today as Blood Alley (Blutgasse).

Apparently, the soldiers are so tightly packed into the alley they cannot fall when shot; they die where they stand and their blood runs from the holes in their bodies through the gutters.

By 7:30, the Austrians have possession of the burning village.

Keith and Prince Francis are dead.

General Karl von Geist laies among the injured.

Maurice von Anhalt-Dessau had been injured and captured.

By 9:00, the Prussian left wing collapses under the weight of the Austrian assault; the last Prussian battery is overrun and turned against them.

Frederick establishes a fighting line north of the village, but it ends up as a rallying point for stragglers and survivors.

By mid-morning, around 10:00, the Prussians retreat to the north-west.

Frederick and his surviving Prussians are out of range of the Austrian army by the time they have reorganized.

Ziethen and Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, who had remained alert all night, organize a rear guard action that prevents the Austrians from falling upon the retreating Prussians.

Frederick has lost ninety-four hundred men, more than thirty percent of his army, including five generals, one hundred and one guns, and nearly all the tents.

Frederick requires his generals to set an example of courage and leadership: they lead from the front.

The same rate of attrition applies throughout the officer corps, which had lost half of its strength in the first three campaigns of the war.

In addition to human losses, they have lost valuable horses and draft animals, seventy munitions wagons, and, a blow to morale, twenty-eight flags, and two standards.

On the positive side, though, Retzow's corps, which had not arrived in time to participate in the fighting, remain intact; Frederick has pulled his troops together for an orderly retreat; and the King retains the confidence of his soldiers.

The Austrians suffer casualties and losses at about three percent.

According to the military historian Gaston Bodart, there were fewer troops participating than most modern sources suggest: he places Austrian participants at sixty thousand, losses in casualties at fifty-four hundred, approximately eight point three percent, but other losses (to injuries, desertions and capture) at about twenty-three hundred, or three point six percent.