Frederick the Great. A Military Life

121 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63

quicksand. His horse sank up to the pistol holsters, and Seydlitz had to
be hauled out with a rope.
What influence had Frederick exercised over the events of 6 May?
He said to Catt: 'I felt ill throughout the battle. I voided everything I
had eaten the day before, but we can't allow ourselves to take notice
of such things-we had to act, and we acted well' (Catt, 1884, 236).
He had left the vital reconnaissance to Schwerin and Winterfeldt,
and he appears to have deferred again to Schwerin when the field-
marshal urged the vital necessity of attacking at Sterbohol without
delay. It is true that von Hoen, the author of the most detailed and
authoritative account of the battle, ascribes the decisive exploitation
along the Kaiser-Strasse directly to Frederick's orders (Hoen, 1909,
391). However, some at least of the commanders on the spot remained
ignorant of any such directions (see p. 118), and the few recorded
glimpses of the king indicate that he spent most, if not all, of the
action on the southern part of the field.
Frederick rode over the ground on the day after the battle,
accompanied by Zieten and Prince Henry. A few of the dead had been
interred by their friends, who had inscribed their names on boards or
crude crosses, but all the rest awaited the burial parties.
Frederick mourned the deaths of Major-generals Schoning and
Blanckensee, his friend Lieutenant-General Hautcharmoy, and
above all the heroic Schwerin, 'one of the greatest generals of this
century' (to George II, PC 8908). More disturbing still was the loss of
so many of the veterans whom Frederick called 'the pillars of the
Prussian infantry', and the implications of the flight of Schwerin's
troops at Sterbohol, which was the first time that this arm had failed
him in battle. The total Prussian losses amounted to 14,287 officers
and men (Hoen, 1909, 413), which in absolute terms was slightly
higher4han the enemy losses, and comprised a much higher propor-
tion of dead and wounded.
Henckel von Donnersmarck noted in his diary: 'Hardly any
battle up to the present time has been more murderous. We are
condemned to the lamentable fate of having to earn our laurels with
the blood of multitudes of brave men, with tears and endless afflic-
tion' (1858, I, Part 2, 201).

For a number of days after the victory of Prague Frederick was gripped

by the sensation that it was in his power to bring the war with the

Austrians to an end, and so gain the freedom to march west and settle

accounts with the French. Mitchell observed:

His affairs do not admit of long wars, and it is in his interest to

think of a peace in the midst of victory. His enemies are