1998 Frederick the Great
Battlefield Tour

May 22: Burkersdorf and Reichenbach

by Fritz Mueller


Unfortunately the previous evening's libations kept me incapacitated in the morning and I missed these battlefield tours. It rained off and on most of the day and the temperature was very cool. Again, our editor may wish to fill in the blanks here as most of my day was spent reading, writing and sleeping, broken up by a brief shopping trip when the cleaning lady threw me out of the room.

Editor's Notes for May 22nd

Today's tour focused on the 1762 campaign around Schweidnitz, which Frederick hoped to recapture from the Austrians. The two battlefields of Burkersdorf and Reichenbach are a short distance away from Schweidnitz.

This important fortress had been captured by the enterprising Austrian general Loudon on October 1, 1761 and was now occuppied by a garrison of 9,000 Austrians. As an aside, the Prussians had earlier held the fortress with only 5 battalions, an amount considered sufficient by Alt Fritz given the imposing strength of the fortifications. Loudon launched a forlorn hope of 800 Russian grenadiers who were fired up with liquor. The Russians hurled themselves into the ditch of the Bogenfort, thereby creating a green-clad causeway over which the rest of the Austrians advanced.

It is no wonder that Frederick held the Russians in such poor esteem. But I digress.

The year 1762 opened with the fortuitous death of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia on January 5th and her replacement by Peter 111, a fervant admirer of Frederick. The new czar withdrew his support from the Austro-Russo alliance and actually ordered the Silesian corps of Russians to assist Frederick in his military operations! Fortified by the addition of 35,000 Russians, Frederick's forces actually outnumbered the Austrians for one of the few times in the Seven Years War. By June 1, 1762, both the Russians and Swedes were out of the anti-Prussian alliance and it was evident to both sides that the 1762 campaign could well be the decisive campaign of the war.

The fortress of Schweidnitz was the focus of the campaign for it represented Austria's only significant claim to Silesian territory, one that would be a key bargaining chip at the inevitable peace negotions. Marshall Daun was content to keep the fortress well garrisoned and to remain on the defensive in the surrounding foothills.

The Battle of Burkersdorf - July 21, 1762

During the early part of July, Frederick managed to maneuver Daun away from Schweidnitz by executing a series of flank marches and attacks. This backed Daun's Austrians into their last defensive camp in the Siliesian foothills at Burkersdorf. On July l8th, the Russian general Chernyshev informed Frederick that Czar Peter III had been deposed in a palace coup led by his wife, the future Catherine the Great. He further informed Frederick that he had orders to leave Silesia and that there were indications that Catherine might renew hostilities with Prussia. Frederick persuaded Chernyshev to delay his departure for three days, during which time they would demonstrate against the Austrian left flank and keep Daun "happy and amused" in the words of Professor Duffy.

The Austrians were deployed in a sort of V-shaped line. Daun held the left with 30,000 men positioned on the high hills facing Chernyshev's Russians and the Prussian brigades of Mantcuffel (9 btns.) and Ramin (5 btns., 6 regiments of cavalry including the Bosniaks and Frei Hussaren Schony).

The center, or apex of the Vee, covered the mouth of the Wiestritz Valley, which was very broad and deep. The valley would present a considerable obstacle to any lateral movement of Daun's army, mea ning that it would be nearly impossible for Daun to reinforce his center and right if they were attacked. As we shall see, this is precisely what Frederick intended to do.

The Wiestritz Valley opened up into a broad plain in front of the little hamlet of Burkersdorf. This would be the focal point of Frederick's attack. The Austrian general O'Kelly commanded the center with 5,000 men. The entrance to the valley was well-fortified with a series of fleches and redoubts and seemed like an unlikely place for the Prussians to attack.

Further east, and to O'Kelly's right, General Brentanno was positioned on heights with 9 battalions and 20 squadrons. His posi- tion was also well-fortified with earthworks and overlooked the tiny village of Leutmannsdorf.

Now that I have layed out the position of the Austrians, let's see what Frederick had in mind for attacking this stronghold.

Our first stop was in the village of Burkersdorf, outside of a massive walled farm house at the mouth of the Wiestritz Valley. Here was the site where Frederick deployed a grand battery of 55 heavy cannon ( 45 10-pound howitzers and 10 heavy 12-pound cannon). It was his plan to blast the Austrians out of their earthworks by bounding roundshot up the valley and by lobbing exploding shell into the Austrian redoubts.

The range on some of these cannon was up to 2,000 meters, so even though the Austrian positions seemed far in the distance, virtually every bit of ground visible to the naked eye was within range of the Prussian guns. Duffy noted that each gun required a team of six horses, so the ground on which we stood was covered with 330 horses, 55 guns and supporting limbers and ammunition wagons. It must have been a spectacular sight.

Frederick positioned the brigades of Mollendorf and Knobloch, or 11 battalions in total, behind the grand battery. Knobloch would advance up the right hand side of the valley while Mollendorf would swing in from the left. While all this was developing, General Wied would take his 20 battalions and swarm over Brentano's position on the Austrian right. This would prevent Brentano from reinforcing O'Kelly in the Austrian center.

As the Prussian bombardment commenced, there were two regiments of Austrian cavalry at the mouth of the valley where they were feeding their horses. The barrage effectively scattered them for the day. Mollendorf learned that there was a path through the woods that lead around the main redoubt on the righthand side of the valley (from the Austrian perspective). He sent his 6 battalions swinging around the redoubt via the path, taking the fort from the rear. The Austrians retreated thereby uncovering O'Kelly's right flank.

At the same time, Manteuffel advanced his brigade towards O'Kelly's left, posing an additional threat. O'Kelly had no option other than to retreat, and once he pulled his forces back, the rest of Daun's line on the left and right flanks was threatened. Consequently, Daun retreated back to the Silesian border and Frederick was content to see the Austrians depart without any additional prodding from the Prussian army. The hilly terrain undoubtedly made pursuit a difficult option for Frederick. As Professor Duffy pointed out, Frederick's attack was very Austrian in nature, with individual brigades assigned specific targets and converging on those targets from multiple directions. The old fox had apparently learned a few lessons from the Austrians.

We made a second stop near Ober-Leutmannsdorf to observe Brentano's position on the Austrian right flank. We trekked several hundred yards up the hillside, but high winds and a sprinkling of rain forced us to retreat back to the coach for shelter. As with most of the other little villages in Silesia, things appear relatively unchanged since the 18th Century, save for the paved roads and automobiles. The houses are generally constructed of red brick, covered with stucco and have red tile roofs. Once in awhile you see some half timbered or a few thatched roof cottages.

The Battle of Reichenbach

This battle was fought on August 16, 1762 or a few weeks after the battle of Burkersdorf. Daun had retreated from his Burkersdorf position back into Bohemia. This cut his army off from the Austrian garrison that was still holding Schweidnitz and Daun was determined to come to its rescue. He marched his army in a big right flanking move through Silberberg, which is situated on the Silesian side of the mountain pass leading through Glatz.

As Daun turned and marched north towards Schweidnitz, he ran into the left wing of the Prussian army near Reichenbach. This force consisted of 14 battalions commanded by the Duke of Bevern and 30 squadrons of cavalry commanded by Werner. The rest of the Prussian army, under Frederick's immediate command at nearby Peterswaldau, was engaged in the siege of Schweidnitz.

Bevern posted his infantry on a piece of high ground south of Reichenbach called the Fischerberg. He deployed six of his battalions on this ground in a sort of semicircle. The remaining eight battalions extended north along a ridge known as the Spittelberg. Bevern's deployment resembled a fish hook -- the hook being the Fischerberg and the shank being the Spittelberg. The ground behind these heights was heavily wooded and appeared to be sufficient to block an attack from the rear.

Daun committed 25,000 troops from his 45,000 man army to the attack. He designed an enveloping attack on Bevern's position. The main force commanded by generals Lacy, Brentano and O'Donnel would fan out of the Pielau valley opposite the Fischerberg and attract Bevern's attention. Meanwhile, Beck's light corps would strike the decisive blow against Bevern's left (on the Fischerberg). The Austrians were deployed with Beck on their left facing the Fischerberg; next in line were the brigades of Lacy and Brentano, positioned to attack the Spittelberg. Guarding the Austrian right flank was O'Donnel with most of the cavalry, advancing up the Pielau valley towards Reichenbach.

The Austrian attack commenced at 5 A.M.with Beck exerting considerable pressure on the Fischerberg. Bevern sent couriers to Frederick asking for help. Things appeared to be going well for the Austrians until Daun, located at army headquarters in Habendorf, far to the rear, ordered Lacy to halt his attack on the Spittelberg. Lacy was to reinforce Beck's attack on the Prussian left. This, in turn, caused O'Donnel to halt his cavalry in front of Reichenbach.

I'm a little uncertain about the next development in the battle, since my notes are not exactly clear to me several months after the tour. I don't recall whether or not Werner was already on the scene as part of Bevern's forces, or whether he represented the advance elements of forces sent by Frederick to rescue Bevern. The Prussian cavalry commander, Werner, deployed 16 six pound horse artillery guns in front of Reichenbach and fired on the Austrian left.

This gave him time to bring up his cavalry and attack O'Donnel. The Austrian cavalry fell back in some disorder. Frederick showed up on the field in time to join the Brown Hussars in their charge into the Austrians. There is a famous painting of this event, I think by Rochling, depicting Alt Fritz gallantly leading the hussars at full gallop. In fact, he was merely caught up in the excitement of what was essentially a mopping up action by the cavalry.

With the Austrian left crumbling, Daun ordered his forces to fall back into Bohemia. So the battle of Reichenbach was essentially a cavalry battle with some light infantry attacks on the opposite end of the field. Professor Duffy noted that the Austrian hussars were not very effective versus their Prussian counterparts in this battle. He also stated that by 1762, the Croat detachments were not reliable and that the Prussians had the edge in light infantry quality based on the performance of some of their frei-korps units. The result was that the Austrian army was effectively blind during the last year of the war due to the superiority of the Prussian light infantry and cavalry units. This is quite a difference from the beginning of the war when the Austrians had a clear advantage in light troops.

Reichenbach effectively ended the Austrian campaign to rescue Schweidnitz. On October 9, 1762 the Schweidnitz garrison surrendered to the Prussians. The Austrians gave up 11,000 men and 5 standards. This action effectively ends the SYW in Silesia. By December of 1762, Austrian and Prussian diplomats were meeting at Hubertsburg, in Saxony to negotiate the end of the war.

More 1998 Frederick the Great Tour

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© Copyright 1998 by James E. Purky

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