171 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63Frederick now took up quarters in Tamsel, the little place where
he had come a quarter of a century before to pay court to the lady
Wreech. These agreeable memories were no compensation for the
inconvenience of being stranded beyond the Oder so far from the
other theatres of war. Frederick knew that his presence was urgently
needed in Saxony, where Prince Henry faced the combined forces of
Daun and the Reichsarmee, and it was galling not to be free of the
Russians, even after the bloodletting of 25 August. The 31st brought a
further frustration when Captain Wendessen and a raiding party
failed to deliver a blow which Frederick had aimed at the large
Russian depot at Landsberg.
At last on 1 September Frederick learnt that Fermor had begun to
retreat. It was true that the Russians now fell back only as far as
Landsberg, that they were in good order, and that they had the
capacity to renew their advance, but Frederick could no longer delay
his departure for Silesia and Saxony. He left Dohna in charge of the
forces beyond the Oder, and on 2 September he set off to join Prince
Henry.
The importance of the battle of Zorndorf lay not in the outcome
of the day, which gave the advantage to neither side, nor in the very
limited strategic results. Far more significant was what it revealed
about changes in the character of the war. The Russian troops had
begun to intervene in the main conflict, and the first encounter with
these folk had engendered a combat of a ferocity which appalled
every man who had survived the battle. Nobody in Frederick's experi-
ence had ever fought so obstinately, and Catt suspected that the king
was now embarrassed by the scornful comments he had uttered about
the Muscovites. A Prussian wrote that 'the terror which the enemy
have inspired in our troops is indescribable. Most of our people speak
without reserve about this condition of fear' (Herr von Goltz, in
Immich, 1893a, 143).
The Prussian artillery had done well in the battle, and the
achievements of the horse made Zorndorf'the last great and glorious
deed of the Prussian cavalry' (Dette, 1914, 71). Frederick told Catt of
what he owed to some of his comrades:
That was a terrible day, and there was one moment when
everything seemed to be going to the devil. All would have been
lost, my friend, but for brave General Seydlitz and the courage
of my right wing, and especially the regiments of my dear
brother [Prinz von Preussen, 18] and Forcade [23], I tell you,
they saved the state and they saved me, and my gratitude will
last as long as the glory which they have acquired on this day.
(Catt, 1884, 161)