Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War

by Herbert J. Redman

  Inside Prague, the inevitable rationing of food was called for.22 Under the direction of General Kheul, a very prompt inventory of available foodstuffs was made. There was to be a two oz. ration of meat distributed to each soldier in the garrison. Also a very skimpy ration of oats for the few remaining horses, although enough grain was available to provide bread for hungry human mouths for months.

  For better or worse, Prague’s defenses were still being upgraded. The Duke of Arenberg plunged into fashioning over the works of Wischerad, utilizing to the full available troops/workers and tools. The connecting lines with the main city were built up. While Arenberg’s men were so engaged, Hallot conjured up another plan to deal with the besiegers. This latest effort involved trying to break up the bridgeheads that Keith were holding close by the city. And there were other priorities. The middle of May was occupied by the garrison in trying to make Prague as defensible as possible against the bluecoats. Nevertheless, Charles and his entourage could not quite agree on what to do about a general attack by the garrison against the besiegers. As for the planned attack upon the Žižkaberg, it was abandoned not only because the Prussians had easy access to the garrison there but could also send in quick reinforcements if required. Frederick had plenty of troops available in that immediate vicinity. Austrian intelligence was aware of that much.

  The whitecoats planned to move out from Prague by Wischerad to retire on Tabor. This would actually involve a breakout by the whole garrison. Set for about one hour before sunrise one day, this would hopefully result in the defeat and dispersal of the Prussian forces opposite to the breakthrough. The force to be employed in the initial stroke was some 28,000 men. Also that the breakout could be accomplished before the Prussians could gather sufficient men to effectively counter the measure. The Austrian forces were to consist of both infantry and cavalry, with a generous support from the Austrian guns. Employment of heavy artillery was not practical in this endeavor.

  There was another problem. The army’s pay chest had been moved to Meneschau. There it had been placed under heavy guard. The troops working as laborers should have been paid out of this fund. Further construction of the walls suffered without paying the laborers. In the meantime, the planning for the coming sortie went forward apace. There would be distracting blows to keep the enemy off-guard, if possible, as to what was actually happening. This would go back to a stroke to be directed again at the posts on the Žižkaberg as well as the bridges across the lower Moldau. Another punch was to be made towards Tursko. All of this was designed to put the Prussians off their guard at a critical stage of the planning.

  Everything was to be timed as meticulously as possible, with possible contingencies to be provided for. The actual time still needed calculation. Part of the program required at least a working knowledge of the enemy’s true dispositions. To secure this information, two spies were sent out independently to see what the bluecoats were up to in their current planning. Both reported on the noticeable reduction of the enemy force before Prague.

  On May 19, Prince Charles approved the order for the sortie to occur as early as the following morning. The men were prepped to go, with the exception of a designated garrison of some 8,000 men to hold the fortress. The order to assemble was given to the concerned parties at 1600 hours, but, about 1900 hours, Generals Butler and Materni (who commanded at the point of attack) sent word to headquarters the Prussians opposite them had suddenly been strengthened. This indicated the bluecoats were wise to what was afoot and the order to stand down was promptly issued; another postponement of a major operation by Prince Charles.

  The Prussians were not inactive. For his part to prepare for threatening enemy maneuvers, Marshal Keith ordered several houses close by Wischerad and the Carlshoff to be burned down. These were probably serving as shelters for Austrian spotters, which had surely been aggravating local Prussian posts, clearing away the possible shelter for attacking Austrian troops to hide behind during any sortie. The bluecoats sent in an “expert” burglar named Käsebier to Prague to discover what he could about the goings-on there. Käsebier had been languishing in lockup at Stettin; he was anxious to get out of his predicament. The man returned from Prague twice, but after a third “adventure” failed to turn up again.23 What exactly happened to him is unknown.

  In addition, the weather was not very cooperative. During the night of May 20, a severe storm broke down the bridge on the landing above Wischerad. Simultaneously, a Prussian task force was sent to Herlositz to begin the construction of a new, potentially powerful, battery and base. This was only in the preliminary stages when the Austrians made an effort and drove the bluecoats there out. The Austrians promptly destroyed what works the task force had been building (May 21).

  The Croats launched a limited offensive that evicted the weakened Prussian force from before them for the rest of the day. Then came a strong response from the enemy, ten full battalions of new Prussian infantry arrived. The situation was immediately restored by the new arrivals. Before this new enemy force could make its presence felt, the Croats went ahead and “liberated” some more livestock to feed the hungry in the city. As the Austrian light forces advanced, some of the Prussians forward of the Galgenburg, obviously intent on depriving the whitecoats of their use, fired those buildings before they left. Austrian guns opened in response to the effort, which caused the Prussian gunners, not to be left behind, to reply with their pieces.

  With the nighttime sortie scrubbed, banter ran through the command that the effort would be launched instead in the broad daylight. The citizenry of the immediate vicinity were buzzing with excitement over the “news.” During the daylight hours of May 22, Charles once more issued orders to start preparing for another breakout. However, a scout from Daun’s field army appeared about then. This brought the proceedings to a crashing halt. The bottom line was, the latter carried a request to Prince Charles to stand fast at Prague until Daun could bring his army up to join him. The latter boasted he had 80,000 men with him. This letter did confirm that the relief army was very near. Charles acted the part of caution and patiently awaited relief.

  Meanwhile, the Prussians were busy constructing yet more fortifications, especially in the Mansfeldt Garden area. The removal of the enemy parties from that area was deemed essential. Austrian gunners tried to scatter the Prussian engineers and the laborers from that vicinity. This was not successful, and it was resolved to launch a sortie to turn the Prussians out of the works thereabouts. On May 23, by about 2100 hours, preparations were underway. The troops assembled at Hradschin, and two columns prepared to step off. One was under the command of General Butler, the other under Materni. The sum of these troops was substantial, and this would be the first major assault of the siege.24 Butler had a total of approximately 1,930 men, including a body of 600 fusiliers under Colonel Freiheer Nazzelli. As for Materni, he had a smaller body of men. Some 1,548 men in all, but this force also boasted four pieces of portable guns. Much would depend on this expedition, as much of a possible morale booster to the garrison and civilians of Prague as to any other reason.

  The attack was directed to rupture the 12 miles or so of enemy works around Prague. About 0200 hours, May 24, the columns moved out, one on each side to outflank the Prussians in the Mansfeldt Garden area. About 0215, the gates flew open, and the belated attack commenced. Austrian artillery laid down a covering fire, and the Croats were unleashed. This assault, supported by the grenadiers, carried the first line of Frederick’s defenses, anchored by a high wall which had to be scaled by the men, but could not the second, interior line. This immediately exposed the assailants to defeat in detail, and they fell back. Butler’s men were peppered by hand grenades thrown over the seven-foot wall by Materni’s support force. Worse, as the Croats retired behind the gate, this “friendly” body of men inadvertently mistook them for the enemy25 and fired upon them. Many were killed outright, and all for naught. Total losses were about 1,000. The Austrians did carry the Andelka House, but at the
garden itself the resistance put up by the Prussian defenders was fierce indeed. Being fired upon by their friends was bad enough, but this was still worse.

  The defenders at the garden benefitted from well-placed Prussian batteries on the nearby rises and behind the walls of the garden. The walls of the latter were within range of the Austrian guns, but, inexplicably, none of the latter had been called forward. This proved fatal to the Austrian designs. There was a fierce resistance for a time. About 0500 hours, the order to withdraw was finally given. Austrian losses were about 603, of which 119 were missing, presumed captured. The effort had not been entirely unsuccessful, for the whitecoats did indeed retain Andelka. A timely Prussian reinforcement was called forward to help their comrades at the Mansfeldt Garden area. There was no effort on May 24 or 25 by the Austrians to resume their offensive in this area. They instead concentrated their efforts on fortifying their post at Andelka, this against a possible Prussian counterattack. Spies managed to slip through the thin Prussian lines and returned with fairly accurate, detailed outlines of the enemy plans. But things got more desperate for the besieged; the meat ration, meager to start with, was cut yet again.

  A courier slipped into the fortress with a letter from Maria Theresa to Prince Charles, with full authority of martial law in the city, with absolute say in “running the show.” With this express carte blanche in his possession, Charles ordered Hallot to turn his full attention to defending Prague against the enemy beyond the walls. Other spies arrived about then with firm news of Marshal Daun’s army. The latter had been reinforced and he was preparing to come to the rescue. Then, May 27, definitive word reached Prague that Frederick himself was out with his forces confronting Marshal Daun in the field. Near Kolin.26 Prince Charles called another council-of-war, at which he disclosed the letter from the Empress. He did not want his senior commanders to think he was keeping them in the dark regarding current developments.

  One of Maria Theresa’s expresses was not to stir from the walls of the city to attack the enemy. Not to be deflected by risky schemes for any grand sorties. But these missions had already been prepared for. Just before midnight, a small body of Croats lit out to liven up the Prussian troops at that all-important redoubt over the Moldau. The nature of this mission was hit-and-miss, but the inevitable result was the enemy repeatedly fired into the thick darkness, but without appreciable results. Around nightfall on May 27, a Prussian attack was launched with the obvious intent of wrestling the works about Andelka from Austrian control. This lost post was desired by Marshal Keith, and a legitimate effort was made. The defending Croat force was helped out by a prompt reinforcement of about a hundred more men, who moved through the gates and up to help defend the exposed position. For a brief time, it looked like the Prussian effort would be successful, but the new men helped turn the tide. That and a stubborn defense. The bluecoats forthwith withdrew to St. Margareth. Keith had been informed of the prevailing conditions within Prague.27Reports which included churches which were stuffed to capacity with the wounded while “the humans and animals alike died as in time of plague.”28 The king knew Prague’s provisions were still more than adequate for the moment, in spite of the spreading illnesses, so the defenders of Prague were not discouraged.29

  As for Prince Charles, he was bothered to no end by the slow build-up of the works on the Belvedere. A Prussian seizure of these works would inevitably be fatal to Austrian plans. The bluecoats might have been able to seize the Belvedere area if not for the presence of a certain monk, named Setzling, who inadvertently stumbled upon a bluecoat force in the process of trying to take a key post while he was out strolling about one day.30 That was probably true, but the Prussians had other “distractions” to keep themselves busy with. In addition, Charles was inclined (probably because of rumors that the citizens were hoarding food in the city that could be put to the greater good) to resort to house-to-house searches. It quickly became apparent there had been much hoarding going on. Not only oats and other grains but, also “sheep, cows.”31 Such findings helped alleviate the sufferings of the garrison, but, even more importantly, helped to distract the private citizens from the incessant workings of the siege. As of May 25, the meat ration had been necessarily changed to horseflesh.

  Meanwhile, the Prussian posts on the Weissenberg were being de-emphasized. Then, just about midnight on May 27, Prussian guns, including some firing an enormous 12-pounder cannon and some firebombs, started belching on the Old Town section of Prague. Some isolated fires were started, inflicting heavy residual fire damage, and two houses were a total loss. Further, during the night of May 29–30, a storm caused the Moldau to go out of its banks. This caused part of the Prussian bridge at Branik, some 44 pontoons, to be swept away and drowned many individuals on both sides. The Austrians managed to nab 24 of the pontoons out of the raging Moldau, the remaining number subsequently were recovered by the Prussians.

  Prince Charles sent Luchessi the next day to go check out the condition of Marshal Keith’s detachment. It had been isolated from the washing out of the pontoon bridge. An excellent opportunity was presenting itself. The marshal’s force was essentially trapped.32 His men had retired to the welcome shelter of the entrenchments, and were preparing to defend themselves to the last extremity. With Luchessi making a prompt report to Prince Charles about this situation, there was definitely the ability to put a dent in the forces of the Prussian king and perhaps make up some for the damage of the Battle of Prague. Charles called another council-of-war. In the midst of much debate, it was decided finally to strike the Prussian posts hard-by St. Margareth on the morrow. The delay would allow the attacking forces to better prepare for the task ahead. This needed to be done without threatening the security of Prague itself (which would, of course, violate the spirit of Maria Theresa’s instructions). The risks seemed justified. Success would surely decimate the detachment of men at Keith’s disposal.

  The Prussians redoubled their shelling of the city to keep the Austrians at bay, as the king was fully aware of the exposed condition his army was put in by the storm. Incendiary bombs set part of Prague afire. This maelstrom was not extinguished for some six hours.

  The Austrians were not to be deterred. About 0200 hours on May 31, the scheduled sortie began, with limited results. For the whitecoats, an immediate effort would have gained a substantial advantage. Unfortunately, the hesitation of convening the council-of-war and then debating what to do with this new opportunity ended up being fatal to the success of the mission. The garrison had also expended much energy fighting the dangerous fires. Not until the evening of May 31, a full day and a half later, did the Austrians make an effort to follow-up on the enemy’s misfortune.

  To further compound Austrian misery, in the lower recesses of the town near the river, there was some flooding going on. People who had taken to posts underground when the shelling started in order to seek a refuge instead were often trapped and drowned in the rising water. Some of the stored food was now below sea level and was ruined by the water as well. This could only help contribute to the further misfortunes of the citizenry as well as the soldiers caught up in the city.

  Meanwhile, the Prussian guns never stopped, in spite of the torrential soaking under which Prague was suffering. The only good thing about all of the water was it helped contain the spread of fires into more of the city than it did. Even Prussian incendiary shells had their limitations under these conditions. The silver lining in the dark cloud. Prince Charles had prepared a more involved sortie than any heretofore attempted before. This effort would involve no less than 24,000 men, deployed out into three columns, of 6,000 men each, which were to attack out by Wischerad and the New Town.

  There was no long-range plan for this three-pronged force, but if the men could seize and destroy or dismantle Prussian batteries and capture some much needed livestock, its mission would be a success. Lt.-Gen. Markgraf Christoph von Baden-Durlach had the right column, Luchessi commanded on the left and General Kheul led the main bo
dy of men in the center. It was hoped the bluecoats would not get wise to the proceedings until it was too late. As it worked out, Durlach’s force got to within a short distance of the Prussian line. But General Kheul, thinking, incorrectly, that the jumping off time was past (or else he got cold feet) ordered his men back into Prague. There followed the cancellation of the entire sortie.

  As for the Prussians, they never realized how close such a large part of the garrison had been to breaking through. Prince Charles was most perturbed over the conduct of his commanders on the scene. He berated them for not attacking in broad daylight, which would have been necessary for the operation to continue. There was a great reluctance to launch an attack in daylight, with the bluecoats posted behind their prepared positions. Charles himself rejected a request from Browne to launch an attack in strength against the most vulnerable of the Prussian posts, that of Marshal Keith. The Austrians delayed their marching long enough—needlessly we might add—until it no longer mattered. As for Keith’s men, they were not back in touch with the rest of the siege forces until June 1. That was the date the damaged bridge had its repairs completed.

  In retrospect, a successful effort against the Keith force could have sprung the trap the king was trying to set. What would Frederick have done in a similar situation? Through it all, the Prussian batteries never ceased their pounding. We should point out these were the field guns of the bluecoats for most of May, while the heavy siege guns were en route. More fires broke out in the place. The prevailing winds allowed the flames to spread apace. Many prominent structures went up, including the celebrated Palace of Prince Piccolomini. Even Prince Charles was forced to change his accommodations, yet again.