169 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63the king himself came riding up and said: 'Lads, don't shout
victoiy yet - I'll tell you when the right time comes.' The
Russian cavalry was completely cut down, and the blood was
running in streams. The king had brought two infantry
regiments with him to our aid, but there was nothing left for
them to do. (Musketeer Hoppe, 1983, 9)Further regiments of Prussian cavalry were fed into the battle,
and between 6 and 7 p.m. Dohna's wing began a final push which
ended in obstinate and confused fighting along the Galgen-Grund:
The troops were striking or stabbing with musket butts,
bayonets and swords. The ferocity on both sides was
unspeakable. There were badly wounded Prussians who were
oblivious of their own preservation, and were bent only on
murdering their enemies. The Russians were just the same. A
mortally wounded Russian was found lying on an expiring
Prussian, and he was tearing away at him with his teeth.
(Archenholtz, 1840, I, 169)Discipline was collapsing on both sides. The Black Hussars (H 5) got
behind the Russian lines to the dank hollow of Quartschen, and gave
themselves up to plundering the money chests. Some troops of the
Observation Corps on the Russian left broke open the kegs of spirits
they found in their officers' baggage, and drew fresh heat from the
fiery liquid. Amid this madness an officer of Dohna's wing caught
sight of Frederick, 'who was riding with perfect composure between
the two lines, and peering calmly through his telescope heedless of
the shot and shell which flew about him' (Prittwitz, 1935, 227).
The firing ceased at about 8.30 p.m., and the Prussians and
Russians drew apart, leaving the battlefield to the dead, the wounded
and the abandoned guns. The sheer concentration of Russian num-
bers on their western flank, together with the final advance of
Dohna, had the curious effect of imparting an anti-clockwise wheel
to the two armies, so that they ended the day occupying much of the
same positions which their enemies had held in the morning. The
Prussians were now established in the region of Quartschen and the
Langer-Grund, while the Russians were heaped up to the south in the
direction of Zorndorf. Frederick's small tent was pitched among the
troops, and before he retired for the night the king wolfed a plate of
bread and butter and talked with Catt about the terrible things they
had just witnessed.
On the following days, when passions had cooled, the most
shocking sights of the Seven Years War gave some indication of the
nature of the violence of the 25th. A young officer saw