In the night the survivors gradually rallied, and morning found the Russians in a fresh position a couple of miles to the north ward, but Frederick's troops were too weary to renew the attack. Gradually the Russians withdrew towards Landsberg and Konigs berg, and the king, leaving Dohna to follow them up, marched with the remainder of his forces on Sept. 2 for Saxony, covering 22 m. a day. They arrived only in the nick of time, for Daun had united with portions of the Empire Army and was threaten ing to crush Prince Henry under the weight of more than two fold numbers. The prince had been driven into an entrenched position above Gahmig near Dresden and Daun was about to attack, but the mere name of Frederick was enough, and learning of his arrival Daun fell back to Stolpen on Sept. 12.
The Prussian army now lay around Grossenhain, Prince Henry's force covering Dresden and the Elbe bridges. The Empire Army was at Pirna, Daun at Stolpen, and in these positions they re mained until Sept. 26, the Prussians getting the rest they so urgently needed. On that date, however, the state of truce was broken and the king moved towards Bischofswerda, where Daun's subordinate Loudon was posted. The latter retired, opening the road to Bautzen. The king arrived at Bautzen on Oct. 7 and had to wait until the loth for provisions from Dresden. He then moved forward to Hochkirch, where he found Daun strongly entrenched across his path at Kittlitz with 90,00o men, the Prussians having only 37,00o. The king determined to attack the Austrian right. So confident had the Prussians become in the belief that Daun would never take the offensive himself that the most elementary precautions of safety were forgotten.
Battle of Hochkirch.—During the night of the i3th the Austrians, leaving their watchfires burning and moving silently through the woods, which covered much of the ground, formed up almost all round the Prussian camp. At 5 A.M. the attack was delivered from all quarters simultaneously and a most desperate struggle ensued. Nothing but the superb discipline of the Prus sians saved the situation. Zieten with his squadrons managed to keep a way of escape open, and after a most obstinate conflict the wreck of the army succeeded in withdrawing, leaving ioi guns and 9,45o men on the ground or in their enemies' hands (25.5%). The Austrians, in spite of the advantage of a well conceived surprise, lost 7,590 men and were too shaken for pur suit. They fell back to their old camp, where they remained for a week, thus giving Frederick time to bring up reinforcements from Dresden (6,000 men) and, starting on the 23rd, he marched right round the Austrian right and raised the siege of Neisse, the prime object with which he had set out. Daun, learning that the king had gone past him into Silesia, now laid siege to Dresden. On Nov. 15 he heard that Frederick was marching to
its relief through Lusatia and incontinently gave way, retiring on Pirna. The king was in Dresden again on the loth.
Campaign of 1759.—The drain on Frederick's resources had been prodigious. On the battlefields of the previous three years he had lost at least 75,00o men, not counting the waste of life in his marches and skirmishes; but he still managed to keep 150,000 men in the field, though for want of the old two years' training in loading, firing and manoeuvring the average efficiency had much diminished. In cavalry, too, he was relatively weaker, as there was no time to train the remounts. His enemies felt their losses far less and were beginning to understand his tactics; fortunately they remained incapable of combined action.
After minor operations on the frontiers the Russians took the field. Fermor had been superseded by Soltikov, and Dohna with his 18,000 men proved quite inadequate to arrest the Russians' progress. He was superseded by Wedell, who, on July 23, with 26,00o men boldly attacked the 70,000 Russians whilst on the march near Ziillichau. He was defeated with a loss of 6,000 and fell back to Crossen bridge, 5 m. below Crossen, which Soltikov occupied next day, thence he moved down the river towards Frankfurt, keeping on the eastern bank. Daun had detached Loudon and Hadik with 35,00o men to join him, and it became vital to Frederick to prevent the combination. Leaving Prince Henry at Schmi5ttseifen to watch Daun, he marched with all available forces and joined Wedell on Aug. 6 at Miillrose near Frankfurt, after vainly searching for the Hadik-Loudon force. Here he was joined on the loth by Finck with ro,000 men, bringing his whole force up to 5o,000 against the Russian and Austrian 90,000, who lay entrenched in the sandhills about Kunersdorf.
Battle of Kunersdorf..—On the i 1 th he crossed his whole force over the Oder at Reitwein and on the 12th marched for ward, intending to envelop the Russians on both flanks; but his columns lost their way in the woods and their attacks were de livered successively. In spite of their usual disciplined gallantry, the Prussians were completely beaten, even Seydlitz and his squadrons failed to achieve the impossible, and the night closed down on the greatest calamity Frederick had ever experienced. Of 43,00o men 20,720 (48.2%) were left on the ground and 178 guns fell into the hands of the enemy; and the allied Austro Russian force only lost 15,70o. The battle had only lasted six hours. In the depression following this terrible day he wrote to Schmettau, commanding at Dresden, telling him to expect no help, and on Sept. 4 Dresden fell.