182 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63
nothing of the quality of the Russian army, and precious little more of
his own, 'but he was convinced of one thing, and that was that he
would unfailingly be called to personal account if he failed to obey
the repeated orders from the king, and suffered General Saltykov to
advance any further without bringing him to battle' (Gaudi, in
Bethcke, 1907, 198). The Prussians duly attacked on 23 July, and they
were repulsed with losses of up to 8,000 men, which made this battle
of Paltzig (Kay) almost as costly as Hohenfriedeberg and Soor
together.
Frederick had hoped at eveiy moment to receive good news from
beyond the Oder, but on the afternoon of the 24th Wedel's adjutant
Bonin galloped up and told the stoiy of how the army had been
crushed by the terrible fire of the Russian artilleiy' (Catt, 1884, 245).
Frederick gave vent to some harsh expressions concerning Wedel's
stupidity, but he held no lasting grudge against him, for he knew that
his general had acted in accordance with the spirit of his instructions.
Tall pillars of dust soared into the sky above the Silesian plain as
column after column of troops now set themselves in motion. In
essence Frederick was marching north to confront the Russians on the
Oder. There were, however, some rather complicated processes at
work, and it is perhaps worth setting them out in schematic form (see
also Map 21, p. 369):
(a) Prince Henry had broken free of the Austrians in Saxony, and he
had brought 19,100 troops to Sagan in central Silesia.
(b) Frederick in person assumed command of the Sagan corps on 29
July, and he made ready to move to the support of the approx-
imately 19,700 survivors of Wedel's force on the Oder. Henry was
left in charge of the 44,000 or so troops of the main Prussian
army, which stayed in the Schomottseiffen camp.
(c) Daun simultaneously dispatched two corps of his own to link up
with the Russians, namely Loudon with 24,000 men, and Haddik
(who had followed Henry from Saxony) with 17,300.
(d) Saltykov and his 41,000 Russians were about to occupy Frank-
furt-an-der-Oder.
(e) Fouque with 19,000 Prussians was facing the 38,500 Austrians of
Harsch in southern Silesia.
Frederick left Sagan on 31 July, and strove to overtake Loudon
and Haddik before they could reach the Russians. By forced marches
Frederick reached Sommerfeld on 1 August, and the next day he
veered westwards and captured Haddik's baggage train at Markers-
dorf. The king did not appreciate that Haddik had already given up
the race and was intent only on luring the Prussians away from the
direct route to Frankfurt. Loudon therefore enjoyed a clear run to the