204 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63Frederick instructed Lieutenant-General Zieten to keep the
greater part of the right wing in position looking south-west. The king
fn person then took charge of the rest of the army (about 14,000
troops), and began to arrange the infantiy brigade by brigade ih a new
front facing east against the advancing Austrians.
Frederick went first to Schenkendorff and, looking towards the
first light of dawn, he told him to plant his battery of 12-pounders on
the Reh-Berg and place the battalions of his brigade on either side.
Schenkendorffs line was prolonged to the right by the Alt-
Braunschweig regiment (5) and the second battalion of Wedel (26)
(making up the brigade of Saldern), and to the north by the regiments
of Prinz Ferdinand (34) and Bernburg (3) (brigade of Anhalt-
Bernburg) which came up from the rear.
This further redeployment of the Prussian infantry was still far
from complete when the left flank of Frederick's new position
threatened to collapse under the impact of the cavalry of Loudon's
right-hand column, which emerged from the Katzbach meadows
between Pohlschildern and Bienowitz. The Zieten Hussars (H 2) and
the Krockow Dragoons (D 2) streamed back in some disorder, but the
Prussian cuirassiers stood their ground and pushed the Austrians
back. The highly excited troops of the Bernburg regiment joined in
this counter-attack with their bayonets, one of the few occasions in
military history in which infantry have ever taken the offensive
against cavalry.
Loudon was astonished to find that the Prussians were already in
possession of ground which, he had been assured, was free of the
enemy. His right wing was being repulsed, as we have seen, and the
left-hand column was unable to advance far beyond Panten in the
face of the Prussian artillery. However, there could be no question of
breaking off the combat now that he was committed to the attack,
and the weight of the battle came to rest upon the infantry of the
Austrian centre, who pushed valiantly up the bushy slopes until they
were checked by musketry and blasts of canister.
At 4 a.m. the Prussian left wing spilled from the low plateau in a
counter-attack. At Frederick's command Lieutenant-General Wied
advanced with the battalions to the right of the Reh-Berg (Alt-
Braunschweig, and the Rathenow (1/23) and Nymschofsky (33/42)
Grenadiers) and drove the Austrians from Panten. On the left the men
of the Bernburg regiment rushed forward to the deafening chant 'Sieg
oder Tod!' and, together with the musketeers of Prinz Ferdinand and
the Prinz Heinrich Cuirassiers (C 2), they broke through the first and
second lines of Loudon's infantry. With just 14,000 troops under his
command, Frederick was probably able to exercise a large degree of
personal control during these events: