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.



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