274 THE WAR OF THE BAVARIAN SUCCESSION, 1778-9then establish a battery of forty-five howitzers near Hohenelbe to
open a way for a push across the Elbe. Once the Prussians had
established themselves on the hills on the far side, between Branna
and Starkenbach, the whole of the Austrian position would become
untenable.
The main army rested at Leopold for three full days, and only on
the 26th did Frederick bring up the troops to support Brunswick's
corps. Frederick made a further reconnaissance the same day, and on
returning to his headquarters at Lauterwasser he pronounced: 'I am
sorry to say it, but I don't think there is anything more we can do here'
(Schmettau, 1789, 155). His infantry and cavalry were in position,
but the artillery, and especially the howitzers, was still lagging miles
behind.The rest of the war is quickly related. Frederick talked about evicting
the five Austrian battalions from their post on the near side of the
Elbe on the Hartaer-Berg near Pelsdorf, as if to persuade his own army
that he was still intent on active operations. His true objective,
however, was now simply to draw back gradually to his borders,
eating out the grain and fodder of the countryside as he went, so as to
interpose 'a kind of desert' (PC 26640) between the Austrian forces
and Silesia during the winter.
In the event, the chief destruction was worked on the Prussian
army. Cold wet weather set in on 31 August, and from 1 September
the crests of the Riesen-Gebirge were covered with snow. The Prus-
sian troops were ravaged by dysentery and unparalleled desertions.
Frederick's own intestines were badly disordered, and he was increas-
ingly depressed by his surroundings - the steaming pinewoods, the
muddy hollows, the bestial peasants, the barbaric place names, the
wayside religious statues - all of which accentuated his isolation
from the civilised world.
Frederick abandoned the Lauterwasser camp on 8 September and
fell back initially to Wildschiitz. He moved to Trautenau on the 15th,
and up the border hills to Schatzlar on the 21st. The marches were
frequently plagued by Austrian detachments, and every hillside track
became a Via Dolorosa for the artillery.
In the middle of October the last Prussian troops withdrew into
Silesia. Even now Frederick was unwilling to allow them much rest.
The Austrian lieutenant-general Ellrichshausen had a corps which
seemed to threaten Upper Silesia, and Frederick still believed in the
possibility of a winter campaign on the part of the young and
ambitious Joseph. Frederick detached successive reinforcements from
the main army to Upper Silesia, and on 23 October he arrived in
person at Jagerndorf. By the middle of November he was satisfied that