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Encyclopedia Britannica

LEUTHEN

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 505 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LEO-LOB

LEUTHEN , a

village

VILLAGE

of Prussian Silesia, to m. W. of Breslau, memorable as the scene of Frederick the

Great

GREAT

's victory over the
Austrians on December 5, 1757 The high road from Breslau to Luben crosses the marshy Schweidnitz Water at Lissa,
and immediately enters the

rolling

ROLLING

country about Neumarkt.
Leuthen itself stands some 4000 paces

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

of the road, and a similar distance

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

again lies Sagschiitz, while Nypern, on the northern edge of the hill country, is 5000 paces from the road. On Frederick's approach the Austrians took up a line of battle resting on the two last-named villages. Their whole position was strongly garrisoned and protected by obstacles, and their artillery was numerous though of light calibre. A strong outpost of Saxon cavalry was in Borne to the westward. Frederick had the previous day surprised the Austrian bakeries at Neumarkt, and his Prussians, 33,000 to the enemy's 82,000, moved towards Borne and Leuthen early on the 5th. The Saxon outpost was rushed at in the morning mist, and, covered by their advanced guard on the heights beyond, the Prussians wheeled to their right. Prince Charles of

Lorraine

LORRAINE

, the Austrian commanderin-

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

, on Leuthen Church tower, could make nothing of Frederick's movements, and the

commander

COMMANDER

of his right wing (Lucchesi) sent him

message

MESSAGE (a word occurring in slightly different forms in several languages, e.g. Fr. message, Span. mensaje, Ital. messagio; adapted from the Low Lat. missaticum, from mittere)

after

message

MESSAGE (a word occurring in slightly different forms in several languages, e.g. Fr. message, Span. mensaje, Ital. messagio; adapted from the Low Lat. missaticum, from mittere)

from Nypem and Gocklerwitz asking for help, which was eventually despatched. But the real blow was to fall on the left under Nadasdy. While the Austrian

commander

COMMANDER

was thus wasting time, the Prussians were marching against Nadasdy in two columns, which preserved their distances with an exactitude which has excited the wonder of modern generations of soldiers; at the due place they wheeled into line of battle obliquely to the Austrian front, and in one

great

GREAT

echelon,the cavalry of the right wing foremost, and that of the left " refused,"Frederick advanced on Sagschiitz. Nadasdy, surprised, put a bold face on the matter and made a good defence, but he was speedily routed, and, as the Prussians advanced, battalion after battalion was rolled up towards Leuthen until the Austrians faced almost due south. The fighting in Leuthen itself was furious; the Austrians stood, in places, Too deep, but the disciplined valour of the Prussians carried the

village

VILLAGE

. For a moment the victory was endangered when Lucchesi came down upon the Prussian left wing from the north, but Driesen's cavalry, till then refused, charged him in flank and scattered his troopers in wild rout. This stroke ended the battle. The

retreat

RETREAT (O. Fr. retrete, mod. retraite, from Lat. retrahere, to draw back)

on Breslau became a rout almost comparable to that of Waterloo, and Prince Charles rallied, in Bohemia, barely 37,000 out of his 82,000. Ten thousand Austrians were left on the field, 21,000 taken prisoners (besides 17,000 in Breslau a little later), with 51 colours and 116 cannon. The Prussian loss in all was under 5500. It was not until 1854 that a memorial of this astonishing victory was erected on the battlefield.
See Carlyle, Frederick, bk. xviii. cap. x.; V. 011ech,

Friedrich

FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )

der Grosse von Kolin bis Leuthen (Berlin, 1858) ; Kutzen, Schlacht bei Leuthen (Breslau, 1851); and bibliography under SEVEN YEARS'
W Alt.

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