174 Wallenstein
of the enemy units, a situation which continued during the battle
as recurrent swirls of mist worsened the already poor light of a short
mid-November day. The same problem also affected subsequent reports
of the battle, which are more than usually tendentious, and they make
an undoubtedly confused situation the more confusing in the telling.
No attempt will be made here to give a spuriously authoritative account
of the action, instead picking out only a few points which are both
central and relatively reliably recorded.^36
It was around eleven before Gustavus could begin the attack, but his
cavalry on the right soon ran into trouble against Wallenstein’s defences,
while those on the left made little progress in trying to reach the artil-
lery battery by the windmills, coming under heavy fire from Imperialist
musketeers stationed among the houses of Lützen. The town either
caught or was set on fire, the smoke adding to that of the guns in fur-
ther reducing visibility on the battlefield. After regrouping, the Swedes
started to make progress, particularly on their right, but around noon
Pappenheim arrived with some 2500 cavalry, and although men and
horses were tired after their long ride he set about preparing a counter-
attack, which he launched at about one in the afternoon. He himself was
almost immediately shot down, dying of his wounds a few hours later,
but with the arrival of his men the numbers on both sides were now
similar. In this era evenly matched forces often resulted in battles which
were prolonged and bitterly fought, with advantage swinging first one
way and then the other, and frequently varying at different places on
the field. This was the case at Lützen on the afternoon of 16 November
- As the day progressed the course of events emerges less and less
clearly from the reports, but it is evident that rather than the generals
being able to exercise effective control or execute any overall strategy
the battle became a series of localised thrusts, defences and counter-
thrusts, dependent on the initiative of the officers on the spot. One who
particularly distinguished himself on the Imperialist side was the young
Italian colonel, later general, Octavio Piccolomini, who rallied the left
wing after Pappenheim had fallen, despite himself being several times
wounded. Wallenstein, some say, commanded for much of the day from
the confines of a litter, as the pains of gout meant that he could sit only
briefly on a horse. Others report him in the thick of the fighting, where
Holk says he was wounded, while another account says that he was shot
in the hip by a musket ball, but it did not penetrate his thick coat.^37
At some stage in this conflict the 37-year-old Gustavus Adolphus
was killed, which is almost as much as can be said with certainty on
the subject, as contemporary accounts vary and owe more to hearsay