307 FREDERICK AND WARappreciable check to the army's progress, for rivers and canals ceased
to present significant obstacles after the French had devised the
copper pontoon in the 1670s.
In a normal, unhurried march the Prussian army could cover
between twelve and fifteen miles per day, and Frederick accumulated
a detailed knowledge of the relations between time and distance on
the various theatres of war - three days, for example, were allowed
for the eight Meilen (forty miles) from the effective head of Elbe
nagivation at Leitmeritz to Prague, and four days for the twelve
Meilen (sixty miles) from Ratibor in Upper Silesia to Olmiitz in
Moravia. Frederick maintained his superior mobility over the Rus-
sians to the end, though by 1758 he could no longer guarantee that he
would not be outmarched by Daun.
Every time the army halted during the campaigning season, it
was arranged in a 'camp', a word which at that period was synony-
mous with 'defensible position'. In degree of permanence and
strength such camps ranged from simple overnight stops to locations
like Schmottseiffen and Bunzelwitz, where the defensive role was
paramount.
The camp was selected by the king or commanding general in
person. He looked for ground that was high-lying, or at least not
overlooked by hills. Woods, marshes, streams or ravines might offer
useful flanking support, though most of the villages of Central Europe
were lightly built and open, and therefore useless for this purpose.
There was a limit to the number of sites which fulfilled all of these
considerations as well as being of strategic consequence. 'We find
that certain established posts, advantageous locations and temporary
rest camps are occupied over and over again - this is the result of
making war in the same theatre for some length of time' (Ligne, 1795-
1811, XVI, 102). Thus the Austrian armies, like homeless hermit
crabs, scuttled into the positions of Schmottseiffen and Torgau after
they had been abandoned by Prussian corps.
The mechanics of taking up a position were explained to the
regimental quartermasters by Frederick on 6 September 1756, when
he established his first camp on enemy soil in the Seven Years War, at
Roth-Schonberg in Saxony. He declared that in future he would
merely indicate the limits of the two wings of the first line of the
army, leaving all the rest to the staff officers and the quartermasters.
All the camps, he said, were to be traced according to the lie of the
ground, 'without attempting to dress several battalions or regiments
on the same alignment' (Ludwig Miiller's account, Oeuvres, XXX,
261).
The interiors of the Prussian camps were originally ordered in
tidy company streets,