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THE THEATRE OF WARA march of two days carried the Prussians from Halle to Leipzig
(with a population of 130,000), which was the trading centre of the
electorate. Thereafter the army pushed up the open plains along the
west (left) bank of the Elbe to the weakly fortified Wittenberg: That
makes you master of the course of the Elbe, which will furnish you
with your supplies' ('Principes Gen^raux', 1748, Oeuvres, XXVIII, 9;
also PC 10725). The next town of strategic consequence was Torgau,
which owned a permanent crossing of the Elbe and became of great
importance for the Prussian transverse communications on the nor-
thern plain. Frederick fortified the old town in the Seven Years War
with earthworks and palisades, and there was a good position on the
open ridge to the north-west.
When Frederick or his corps commanders wished to threaten
Dresden without committing themselves too deeply in Saxony, they
arranged their troops for seven or eight miles along the heights which
extended from the Katzenhauser, Krogis and Schletta to the spur
which terminated at the site of the castle overlooking the Elbe at
Meissen. The forward edge of the position was defined by the
Triebisch stream: 'This rivulet is in itself most contemptible, but its
banks on both sides are very high and impracticable in most places.
The country behind for two German [ten English] miles is extremely
uneven, cut with deep hollow ways, ravines, and by small brooks
formed from the neighbouring mountains' (Mitchell, 24 May 1760,
PRO SP 90/76).
Such was the celebrated 'Camp of Meissen', which aroused the
admiration of commentators like the Piedmontese staff officer de
Silva. He observed in 1760 that the shape of a campaign or an entire
war could be determined by the proper choice of a defensive position:
'That is the case with the one at Meissen, which yields him an
abundance of resources. He seized it at the beginning of the struggle,
and I doubt whether anybody will be able to get him out again! This
camp gives him the possession of Saxony, and Saxony in turn furn-
ishes him with everything he needs to continue the war' (Silva, 1778,
254).
The route from Meissen to Dresden ran for fifteen miles alongside
the Elbe, as the river described a series of gentle curves through a
beautiful landscape of woods, vineyards, meadows and sandstone
bluffs. It was in the region of Dresden that the Austrians, once they
had arrived in Saxony in the Seven Years War, found the means to
wage a protracted positional warfare. The city of Dresden itself was of
the greatest political and strategic consequence, for it was at the
same time the capital of the electorate and a powerful regular fortress
sprawling over both sides of the Elbe. There was a beguiling view from
the long stone bridge of nineteen arches: 'The river, which is confined