Gustavus Adolphus On The Field Of Leipsic
With the accession to the throne of Sweden in 1611 of Gustavus Adolphus,
grandson of Gustavus Vasa, that country gained its ablest king, and the
most famous with the exception of the firebrand of war, Charles XII., of
later date. For courage, judgment, administrative ability, generous
devotion to the good of his country, and military genius this great
monarch was unequalled in his time and won a renown which has placed his
/>
name in the roll of the great rulers of mankind.
The son of Charles IX., the third and ablest son of Gustavus Vasa to fill
the throne, he was carefully educated in all the lore of his time and
when a boy of sixteen won a brilliant victory over a Danish invading
army. During the same year he ascended the throne, his father dying on
November 30, 1611.
During the preceding reigns Sweden had taken a prominent part in the
affairs of northern Europe, having frequent wars with Russia, Poland, and
Denmark, and the young king fell heir to these wars, all of which he
prosecuted with striking ability. But a conflict soon broke out that
threatened all Europe and brought Sweden into the field as the arbiter of
continental destinies. This was the famous "Thirty Years' War," the
greatest and most ferocious religious war known in history. Into it
Sweden was drawn and the hand of Gustavus was potent in saving the
Protestant cause from destruction. The final event in his career, in
which he fell covered with glory on the fatal field of Lutzen, is dealt
with in the German "Historical Tales." We shall here describe another
equally famous battle of the war, that of Leipsic.
It was in 1629, when Denmark was in peril from the great armies of
Ferdinand II. of Austria, and Sweden also was threatened, that Gustavus
consented to become the champion of the Protestants of northern Europe,
and in June, 1630, he landed in Pomerania at the head of eight thousand
men. Here six Scottish regiments joined him, under the Duke of Hamilton,
and he marched onward, taking towns and fortresses in rapid succession
and gaining large reinforcements from the German states.
Three great leaders headed the Austrian armies, the famous Wallenstein,
the able but ferocious Tilly, and the celebrated cavalry leader
Pappenheim. All these skilled soldiers Gustavus had to face alone, but he
did so with the support of the best-drilled army then in Europe, a body
of soldiery which his able hands had formed into an almost irresistible
engine of war.
What spurred Gustavus to the great battle to be described was the capture
by Tilly on May 20, 1631, of the city of Magdeburg, and the massacre of
its thirty thousand citizens, men, women, and children. From this scene
of frightful outrage and destruction Tilly failed to call off his men
until the city lay in ruins and its people in death. A tall, haggard,
grim warrior, hollow-cheeked, and wild-looking, with large bright eyes
under his shaggy brows, Tilly looked capable of the deeds of ferocity
with which the world credited him.
While all Christendom shuddered with horror at the savage slaughter at
Magdeburg, the triumphant Tilly marched upon and captured the city of
Leipsic. Here he fixed his headquarters in the house of a grave-digger,
where he grew pale at seeing the death's-head and cross-bones with which
the owner had decorated his walls. These significant emblems may have had
something to do with the unusual mildness with which he treated the
citizens of that town.
The cause of Protestantism in Germany was now in serious jeopardy and
Gustavus felt that the time had come to strike a hard blow in its behalf.
The elector of Saxony, who had hitherto stood aloof, now came to his aid
with an army of eighteen thousand men, and it was resolved to attack
Tilly at once, before the reinforcements on the way to join him could
arrive. These statements are needful, to show the momentous import of the
great battle of September 7, 1631.
In the early morning of that day the two armies came face to face, Tilly
having taken a strong and advantageous position not far from Leipsic,
where he hoped to avoid a battle. But he was obliged, when the enemy
began to move upon him, to alter his plans and move towards the hills on
his left. At the foot of these his army was drawn up in a long line,
with the artillery on the heights beyond, where it would sweep the
extensive plain of Breitenfeld in his front. Over this plain the Swedes
and Saxons advanced in two columns, towards a small stream named the
Lober, which ran in Tilly's front.
To prevent this crossing Pappenheim had early moved at the head of two
thousand cuirassiers, a movement which Tilly reluctantly permitted,
though strictly ordering him not to fight. Disregarding this order
Pappenheim charged the vanguard of the Swedes, only to find that he had
met an impregnable line and to be driven back in disorder. To check
pursuit he set fire to a village at the crossing-point, but this had no
effect upon the movement of the advancing troops nor his own disorderly
retreat.
The army of Gustavus was organized for the coming battle in the following
manner. On the right the Swedes were drawn up in a double line; the
infantry being in the centre, divided into small battalions that could be
rapidly manoeuvred without breaking their order; the cavalry on the
wings, similarly drawn up in small squadrons, with bodies of musketeers
between; this being done to make a greater show of force and annoy the
enemy's horse. On the left, at a considerable distance, were the Saxons.
It was the defeat of Pappenheim which obliged Tilly to abandon his first
strong position and draw up his army under the western heights, where it
formed a single extended line, long enough to outflank the Swedish army;
the infantry in large battalions, the cavalry in equally large and
unwieldy squadrons; the artillery, as stated, on the slopes above. The
position was one for defence rather than attack, for Tilly's army could
not advance far without being exposed to the fire of its own artillery.
Each army numbered about thirty-five thousand men.
These forces were small in view of the momentous nature of the struggle
before them and the fact that two great generals, both hitherto
invincible, were now to be matched in a contest on which the fate of the
whole war largely depended and to which the two parties battling for the
mastery looked forward with fear and trembling. But of the two, while
Gustavus was cool and collected, Tilly seemed to have lost his usual
intrepidity. He was anxious to avoid battle, and had formed no regular
plan to fight the enemy when forced into it by Pappenheim's impetuous
charge. "Doubts which he had never before felt struggled in his bosom;
gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the shade of Magdeburg
seemed to hover over him."
The lines being ready for action, King Gustavus rode to the centre of his
front, reined in his horse, took off his hat, and with the sword in his
right hand lowered to the ground, offered in a loud voice the following
prayer:
"Almighty God, Thou who holdest victory and defeat in the hollow of Thine
hand, turn Thine eye unto us Thy servants, who have come from our
distant homes to fight for freedom and truth and for Thy gospel. Give us
victory for the honor of Thy holy name. Amen!"
Then, raising his sword and waving it over his head, he commanded:
"Forward in the name of the Lord!"
"God with us!" was the battle-cry as the Swedes, inspired by his words,
prepared for the fatal fray.
The battle, which had lulled after the defeat of Pappenheim, was now
resumed with the thunder of the cannon, which continued for two hours,
the west wind meanwhile blowing clouds of smoke and dust from ploughed
and parched fields into the faces of the Swedes. To avoid this they were
wheeled to face northwards, the movement being executed so rapidly and
skilfully that the enemy had no time to prevent it.
The cannonading ending, Tilly left the shelter of the heights and
advanced upon the Swedes. But so hot was their fire that he filed off
towards the right and fell impetuously upon the Saxons, whose ranks
quickly broke and fled before the fierce charge. Of the whole force of
the elector only a few regiments held their ground, but these did so in a
noble manner that saved the honor of Saxony. So confident now was Tilly
of victory that he sent off messengers in all haste to Munich and Vienna
with word that the day was his.
He was too hasty. The unbroken army of Sweden, the most thoroughly
drilled body of soldiers then in Europe, was still to be dealt with.
Pappenheim, who commanded the imperial left, charged with his whole
force of cavalry upon the Swedish right, but it stood against him firm as
a rock. Here the king commanded in person, and repulsed seven successive
charges of the impetuous Pappenheim, driving him at last from the field
with broken and decimated ranks.
In the meantime Tilly, having routed the small remnant of the Saxons,
turned upon the left wing of the Swedes with the prestige of victory to
animate his troops. This wing Gustavus, on seeing the repulse of his
allies, had reinforced with three regiments, covering the flank left
exposed by the flight of the Saxons.
Gustav Horn commanded here, and met the attack with a spirited
resistance, materially aided by the musketeers who were interspersed
among the squadrons of horse. While the contest went on and the vigor of
the attack was showing signs of weakening, King Gustavus, having put
Pappenheim to rout, wheeled to the left and by a sharp attack captured
the heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. A short struggle
gave him possession of the guns and soon Tilly's army was being rent with
the fire of its own cannon.
This flank attack by artillery, coming in aid of the furious onset of the
Swedes, quickly threw the imperial ranks into confusion. Hitherto deemed
invincible, Tilly's whole army broke into wild disorder, a quick retreat
being its only hope. The only portion of it yet standing firm was a
battalion of four veteran regiments, which had never yet fled the field
and were determined never to do so.
Closing their ranks, they forced their way by a fierce charge through the
opposing army and gained a small thicket, where they held their own
against the Swedes until night, when only six hundred of them remained.
With the retreat of this brave remnant the battle was at an end, the
remainder of Tilly's army being then in full flight, actively pursued by
the Swedish cavalry, which kept close upon their tracks until the
darkness of night spread over the field.
On all sides the bells of the villages pealed out the tidings of the
victory, and the people poured forth in pursuit of the fleeing foe,
giving short shrift to the unhappy fugitives who fell into their hands.
Eleven thousand of Tilly's men had fallen and more than five thousand,
including the wounded, were held as prisoners. On the other side the
Saxons had lost about two thousand, but of the Swedes only about seven
hundred had fallen. The camp and artillery of the enemy had fallen into
the hands of Gustavus, and more than a hundred standards had been taken.
The rout was so complete that Tilly had left with him only about six
hundred men and Pappenheim less than fifteen hundred. Thus was destroyed
that formidable army which had long been the terror of Germany.
As for Tilly himself, chance alone left him his life. Exhausted by his
wounds and summoned to surrender by a Swedish captain of horse, he
refused. In an instant more he would have been cut down, when a pistol
shot laid low the Swede. But though saved in body, he was lost in spirit,
utterly depressed and shaken by the defeat which had wiped out, as he
thought, the memory of all his past exploits.
Though he recovered from his wounds, he never regained his former
cheerfulness and good fortune seemed to desert him, and in a second
battle with Gustavus on the Lech he was mortally wounded, dying a few
days later.
As for Gustavus, he had won imperishable renown as a military leader. All
Germany seemed to lie open before him and it appeared as if nothing could
prevent a triumphant march upon Vienna. He had proved himself the ablest
captain and tactician of the age, his device of small, rapidly moving
brigades and flexible squadrons being the death-blow of the solid and
unwieldy columns of previous wars. And his victory formed an epoch in
history as saving the cause of Protestantism in Germany.
The emperor, in despair, called again into his service the disgraced and
disgruntled Wallenstein, granting him extraordinary powers. But this
great captain also was beaten by Gustavus on the field of Lutzen, where
the career of the Swedish hero came to an untimely end. His renown as a
great soldier will live long in history.