190 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63What had gone wrong? One of the officers talked with Catt about
their master: 'He was doomed by his overconfidence, and by his scorn
for an enemy who is, in fact, by no means to be underestimated. He is
a remarkable and resourceful man, but I must say that I cannot
imagine how he is going to extricate himself from all of this' (Catt,
1884, 280). It now seemed that Frederick's overhasty reconnaissance
had impelled the army into attacking along a narrow frontage which
denied the cavaliy the means of acting in concert, and which had the
effect of heaping up the infantiy as a static target in front of the
strongest sector of the allied positions. Frederick was also aware that
he was being criticised for having prolonged the battle needlessly
after he had captured the Miihl-Berge salient. He told Catt that he
was justified in wishing to exploit his first success and the high
morale of his troops, but he claimed that the leading battalions had
'plunged into the ravine [the Kuh-Grund] with excessive zeal and too
little order. The other battalions came up too quickly and too close
behind, and they ran into difficulties' (ibid., 255).
These were matters of detail. The outcome was determined
above all by the advances which the Russians and Austrians had
made in the art of war, and by the decline in the quality of Frederick's
army. He wrote to Finckenstein: 'I would fear nothing, if I still had
ten battalions of the quality of 1757. But this cruel war has killed off
our finest soldiers, and the ones we have left do not even measure up
to the worst of our troops at the outset' (PC 11345).On 16 August Frederick's spirits recovered enough to enable him to
resume the active command. He summoned up a train of fifty 12-
pounders which had been left behind in Berlin, and by gathering in
the fugitives and the lightly wounded he managed to assemble about
33,000 men by the end of the month. He told Catt: 'This would be
quite enough, if I had my best officers with me, and those buggers
wanted to do their duty. To be perfectly candid, I must say that I fear
my own troops more than the enemy' (Catt, 1884, 494). The restoring
of discipline was therefore a matter of the highest priority. Frederick
ordered the Duke of Bevern, as governor of Stettin, to arrest all the
unwounded officers who had found their way to his fortress, 'and you
are to mete out forty blows with the stick to such men as are
unwounded and who have thrown away muskets' (PC 11349).
Meanwhile the enemy were closing in to participate in what
Frederick firmly believed would be 'the last scene in the play' (PC
11374). Loudon's Austrian corps crossed to the west bank of the Oder
on 15 August and Saltykov's army followed the next day. Haddik
reached the Miillrose position with 19,000 Austrians, and Lieutenant-
General Beck was nearby with a further 9,000. Most significantly of