170 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63places where the cavaliy had been slaughtering each other, and
men and horses were piled up in heaps. What struck me most
was the ferocity that was still written on the countenances of
the dead men ... I could scarcely pick my way with my horse
through the bodies and weapons which strewed this awful field
in such profusion. Muskets, pistols, swords, cartridge pouches
and especially those little Russian copper powder ladles were
littered about so densely that it would have been a considerable
undertaking to cart them all away. (Prittwitz, 1935, 235-6)Those nine hours of combat had cost the Russians 18,000 men, and the
Prussians 12,800, or one-third of Frederick's force.
Numbers of this magnitude ceased to convey anything to the
imagination. What brought the carnage of the day home to Frederick
was the loss of his favourite Fliigeladjutant, Captain von Oppen of
the Garde du Corps, whom he was accustomed to keep in readiness a
few paces to his left and rear. At Zorndorf he had been sent with a
message to Seydlitz, but he had failed to return. A search was made
for him after the battle, and he was found dead of forty-seven wounds.
Oppen was carried to the royal tent in a blanket, and Frederick had to
turn about to hide his grief. He wrote to Wilhelmine, who was lying
gravely ill at Bayreuth, that he was unable to stop weeping:
It is to you that I confide all my distress, all my hidden agonies.
Just think what would become of me, if I had the irreparable
misfortune to lose you! My dear, divine sister! Summon up all
your strength, and more, to bring yourself back to health! My
life, my happiness, my very existence lie in your hands! (PC
10257)Not the least of the horrors of Zorndorf was the immediate
prospect of a further battle. On the morning of the 26th Frederick rode
out on reconnaissance in the direction of Zorndorf village. The
Russian hussars and Cossacks gave way, but closer to Zorndorf he
came under artilleiy fire and a discharge of canister flogged the
ground around him. The Russians kept up their bombardment for the
rest of the day, and cost Frederick about one hundred more casualties.
Frederick withdrew his cavaliy to the north side of the Langer-
Grund, to spare them the useless ordeal of skirmishing with the
Cossacks, and he thereby unwittingly left open to Fermor the means
of re-establishing contact with the Russian supply train in the Klein-
Cammin Wagenburg. The Prussians detected that the enemy were on
the move only at 5 a.m. on 27 August, by which time the Russians had
slipped past their flank and were well on their way to Klein-Cammin,
where they dug themselves in.