Journal of Horace St. Paul
1757: Disengagement

August 23, 1757

Translated and Edited With Additional Materials By Neil Cogswell


Some complaints have been brought about the forage made yesterday. The Colonels or commandants of three cavalry regiments have been placed under open arrest until they produce the authors of the disorder.

The following is the present disposition of the advanced posts. General Morocz, with 2 regiments of hussars, is at the left of the army; he occupies the ground to the left of the windmill at Grosshennersdorf as far as the arbor on the hillock beyond Rennersdorf. With his Croats, General Beck holds the wood to the right of the windmills. General Petazzi, commanding 2,000 Liccaner Croats, holds the great wood to the left of Dittersbach in front of Bernstadt.

These advanced posts have given us a full appreciation of the position of the Prussian army. The army is divided into two corps separated by the ravine through which flows the Kemnitbach*.

*St Paul actually says Steinbach, but that stream flows into the Pleissnitz North East of Schonau.

That of the right, commanded by the King, rests its flanks at Kemnitz and Bernstadt, where the King has his Headquarters; it is camped on the slope of a crescent-shaped hill. The Duke of Bevern commands the other corps. The right of that corps is half an hour from Bernstadt and its left is towards Schonau; the Pleissnitz runs along its front. Beyond that torrent, on the other side of the ravine, two battalions occupy a height - the Hutberg - in front of the left wing of their camp; that height commands the plain in front of the village of Dittersbach and the wood occupied by General Petazzi.

General Winterfeldt remains in his camp between Rademeritz and Niede behind the Wittiche. Although the Wittiche is not a large river, it is not possible easily to pass it in front of the Prussian camp; it runs through a very deep valley whose sides are precipitous; this defile is too long to cross elsewhere than in front of the Prussian camp. Thus, we are unable to attack across that river with vivacity, nor can we surprise the Prussian camp for fear of being ambushed ourselves.

Colonel Loudon sends word from Ranstadt, about two leagues from Leipzig, where he has gone with a detachment of his corps. He had marched through Nossen and Grimma, where he discovered several small magazines; these, he sold to the inhabitants at a very low price.

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