A Little Night Music
Some readers may have heard the title Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, by Mozart, which in English would be A Little Night Music. The film Amadeus is recommended not only for its brilliance but also in part for its relatively easy availability, compared with other music from the 18th Century, for setting a mood for the enthusiast. There is more to the musical scene than just that, so we'll take an excursion to the Opera along with the king. He wanted to hear Faustina Bordoni.
* * *
Not only is the year 2010 grinding to its frozen end here, but the Second Silesian War ground to its end around this time of year in 1745, after the tremendous two-hour battle at Kesselsdorf. The peace of Dresden was actually already largely sorted out by the diplomats before the battle occurred. Once it did happen, the Saxon army was in bad shape and they and the Austrians of Prince Charles of Lorraine had to get out of town, and went east and south as the Prussians came in.
In the next few days the Prussian king showed up from Meissen, congratulated and thanked the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau on the victory, and there was some recognition for the troops. After that the king entered Dresden, and the military histories are content to leave it at that. Sometimes a little attention is paid by the biographers of Frederick to his reactions in the aftermath, as he had been impatient with the Old Dessauer beforehand, became grateful when he saw the scene, but some time later in his writings said something to the effect that if he was there, he would have attacked further to the right.
Some 'What If?' Possibilities for Gaming
That statement makes for some interesting possibilities for 'What If?' scenarios for the wargamer. The Kesselsdorf situation is that the Old Dessauer had been under pressure to hurry up for some time, and so here he marched up and attacked the enemy outside of Dresden, without waiting for the king to catch up with the reinforcements, who have just crossed the Elbe downstream, to the north and west at Meissen.
What if he had waited? What if the king had come up and taken command, with the larger force?
On the other hand, Graf Rutowski also fought the battle on his own, with the Saxons, and there were two forces of Austrians nearby who did not do as much as they could have done, for various reasons. Remember that his half-brother, Marshal Maurice de Saxe, had only several months earlier smashed up the British/Dutch/Imperial army at the famous battle of Fontenoy by means of an ingenious defensive position. Rutowski was trying to do the same thing here at Kesselsdorf when he set up his position.
He did think, too, that Prince Charles should bring up the 18,500 or so Austrians to extend the line, but in the event that did not happen. Well, what if it had? What if they also went to the right, or had set up to extend the position further left past Kesselsdorf?
General Gruenne's force had come from the west, often given as either 6,000 or 7,000 men, but the column had originally been of 10,000. They were on the field, but far to the right, and not especially engaged, when the fight took place on the left and the center. There was one Austrian Grenadier Battalion, Le Fee, who are said to have started the unfortunate counterattack movement, and to have lost about 150 men. They were detached and serving with the six Saxon Grenadier battalions on the far left at Kesselsdorf itself.
General Gruenne was sick in Dresden during the battle, and General Elverfeld was in command of the Austrians on the field in his place. Besides the Grenadier battalion on the far left, there are two Austrian heavy cavalry regiments deployed as a second line behind the right of the Saxon first infantry line.
Whether or not the deployment of the cavalry behind the infantry was such a good idea is something also debatable and as is well known the final argument of kings is best decided by letting the cannon speak. or in a wargame to let the dice decide. In reality the conditions of the ground and the weather, and also the condition of the horses and men in this freezing cold weather, merit special consideration in forming opinions on this question. It does also snow on the enemy.
The main body of Gruenne's column was deployed to cover the right wing, behind the Zschoener-Grund, as far as the Elbe several kilometers to the east of where the battle actually developed, and at the time no one knew what Frederick's later statements tell us about his own coup d'euil and impressions when he took a look at the field.
In Dresden itself also several kilometers to the east is the army of Prince Charles of Lorraine, estimated as 18,000 or 19,000 Austrians. Our campaign sources may have mentioned that since earlier there were some 2,500 Saxons with Prince Charles, remaining from a larger force, when he had marched to Dresden.
The Dirk Brendler article posted December 15 for the anniversary of the battle has some insight towards the bottom about Prince Charles' reasons or excuses concerning why he did not intervene in force to help the Saxons, citing a letter he wrote. He says it would have been against all the rules of war, among other reasons.
* * *
I have some materials here also about Faustina Bordoni, indicating that on the night Frederick entered Dresden from Kesselsdorf he arranged to go to the Opera to hear a performance by Faustina of her husband's opera Arminio. In the link from Project Gutenberg the very beginning section about Faustina tells of the famous quarrel she had when Francesca Cuzzoni was jealous in London, back in 1726-27. Both had been introduced in London by Handel. Faustina may have been 26, or in the Wikipedia she is 3 years older, when all that drama happened. Further down at the end of section II is a paragraph telling about the performance at Kesselsdorf. This is in the first several pages of the book on the great singers by George T. Ferris.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17464/17464-8.txt
Next the Wikipedia article about Faustina Bordoni to help clarify the story. It looks to me like that famous catfight was actually staged, but turned real.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faustina_Bordoni
And finally, a link to help explain the English phrase used in the title. The baseball player said it ain't over 'til it's over, according to this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_ain%27t_over_%27til_the_fat_lady_sings
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Grosser Generalstabswerk: 3rd Band, 2nd Part-- Battles of Soor and Kesselsdorf
The General Staff Work (Prussian)
The General Staff Work is a massive series completed around the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries by the Historical Section of the Great General Staff of the German Army, telling the stories of the wars of Frederick the Great. They also produced some other works. I don't think they ever quite finished the last part, but what they did get done is superb, as a concise retelling of the course of the campaigns from the Prussian point of view.It got up to somewhere around 1760 or so, not quite to the very end of the story.
Even though it is a massive work in several volumes, the style of the writing still merits the word concise, in my way of looking at it. As a foreigner, I find it relatively easy to read this particular German, compared with even a normal daily newspaper. Of course much of the vocabulary consists of military terms, but for it to seem easier to me means that the sentence structure must be unusually straightforward for German, otherwise I wouldn't get that impression. I can read it noticeably quicker.
For the enthusiast of Frideriziana or 18th Century military history, this work provides something like a 'gold standard' with which other works can be held up for comparison, or as the beginning of a huge argument. For example, Hans Delbruck did not always agree with them, and famously carried on an argument as to whether Frederick's strategy was one of decisive battle, for annihilation, or of attrition, or some third explanation. This went on for years in various publications.
The old historians became very angry with one another during these debates, and cited other articles, dissertations and research as if launching cannonballs at each other, or cavalry charges. However much they would turn red and pound their fists on the table in carrying on the discussion, it makes for very interesting reading. Outside of very obscure articles, there is some of this in Delbruck's books, especially deep in the footnotes and appendices.
Regardless whose points are right or wrong, without the argument many of the points would never have been made at all, so it adds to the value of the discussion as I see it. They are probably both right and wrong, but they would also argue with that characterization.
Something roughly comparable to this would be the 'Historikerstreit' of the past few decades, about interpreting the Second World War, with various points of view. That can be looked up in the Wikipedia under that search phrase for more on that. (The article mentions our own 18C favorite Professor Christopher Duffy, author of many books about the 18th Century Austrians, Prussians, Russians, Scots and Irish, as well as fortifications and siegecraft.)
* * *
What Does This Book Cover?
The 3rd Band, of the 2nd Part, is about the last part of the Second Silesian War. The earlier Bands were about the disastrous campaign in Bohemia in 1744, and then about when the tables turned in the spring, culminating in the glorious charge of the Bayreuth Dragoons at Hohenfriedberg, June 4, and the defeat of the Austrian and Saxon army.This particular volume came out in 1895, 115 years ago.
This volume picks up the story right after Hohenfriedberg. It covers campaigning in Upper Silesia and Bohemia, with a battle at Soor, fights at Trautenau, Cosel, and Hennersdorf, and then the battle we have been looking at more closely, Kesselsdorf. After that a chapter on the aftermath and the peace which was signed in time for Christmas of 1745.
Unfortunately there are some drawbacks to this. First for about 100 years the books have been nearly impossible to obtain. They are very rarely found anywhere, and then they are prohibitively expensive, such as 500 to 1000 or more dollars for even partial sets. Then they are written in German, and then complicating that the German is set in Fraktur type.
* * *
This ftill leads to miftakes in tranfcription, fo to fpeak. (fic)
* * *
All that aside, it is still a good book and well worth the effort.
Thoughts on Translating This Chapter or Book
I've translated the only volume I own, the 11th Band of the Seven Years War series, on 1759, about 50 to 75 percent, for my own personal use and enjoyment, but I am not too sure about doing that in a public forum. I don't know what the copyright implications would be for something like that.
The chapter here on Kesselsdorf runs 18 pages, and I could probably make a passable translation in several hours' time, for myself, but would be chary about posting such a thing. Any publishing attorneys are welcome to chime in.
In any case I tend to favor a bombastic translation retaining the original word meanings so that the
colorful terms used are emphasized. Professional translators would edit that away to render it all the way to completely smooth- sounding English, with other words, and in so doing lose all the flavor from doing it my way. The rough translation from the machine on the computer actually does capture some of that flavor, by mistake. I like it like that, if I can figure out what was intended.
As an alternative for someone really determined, 'simply' retype the 18 pages in Roman type to feed it into the Google Translate machine located front and center of the blog. Those who have Google Chrome might find it easier. I'm not sure whether it can handle Fraktur. I didn't even try, instead I sat there reading it myself the hard way, and taking notes on fresh information not given elsewhere.
There are many facts, figures, details and anecdotes here in 18 pages that exceed anything I've ever seen in English on this battle. I've never seen an English account more than two or three pages, if that, even when they are based on this narrative. They cut out a lot.
Details emerge about Saxon counterattacks, what went wrong, how the guns were divided into Brigades or batteries, and that sort of thing you just can't find in English. Which Saxon cavalry regiment lost its standard, who captured the kettledrums, which regiments were able to play the Grenadiers March as a reward, and which regiment got a further honor in the form of a special badge?
Unfortunately, now that the book is available online, right here and now and does not cost 1000 dollars, there are still a couple problems, in that the Anhang 26 in the Appendix section at the end, the sheet showing the detailed order of battle, better than all others we have seen, was apparently scanned without unfolding the sheet. Also the maps are not there, and diagrams. There is still an Anhang 28 after that with a regiment by regiment casualty count for the Prussian side. These are at the very bottom, at the end of the book.
The fourth chapter, covering Kesselsdorf runs from page 226 to 244, very close to the end of the volume. That is an 18-page chapter.
General Staff Work, Part 2, Band 3 (Google Books)
EDIT: I've got half of the answer I was looking for: Once the book is up, there is a place to click for Plain Text, and clicking that will convert four pages at a time from Fraktur to Roman (English-type) letters. But the copy-paster function doesn't work for me to feed it into the translator. Any ideas out there?
* * *
The General Staff Work is a massive series completed around the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries by the Historical Section of the Great General Staff of the German Army, telling the stories of the wars of Frederick the Great. They also produced some other works. I don't think they ever quite finished the last part, but what they did get done is superb, as a concise retelling of the course of the campaigns from the Prussian point of view.It got up to somewhere around 1760 or so, not quite to the very end of the story.
Even though it is a massive work in several volumes, the style of the writing still merits the word concise, in my way of looking at it. As a foreigner, I find it relatively easy to read this particular German, compared with even a normal daily newspaper. Of course much of the vocabulary consists of military terms, but for it to seem easier to me means that the sentence structure must be unusually straightforward for German, otherwise I wouldn't get that impression. I can read it noticeably quicker.
For the enthusiast of Frideriziana or 18th Century military history, this work provides something like a 'gold standard' with which other works can be held up for comparison, or as the beginning of a huge argument. For example, Hans Delbruck did not always agree with them, and famously carried on an argument as to whether Frederick's strategy was one of decisive battle, for annihilation, or of attrition, or some third explanation. This went on for years in various publications.
The old historians became very angry with one another during these debates, and cited other articles, dissertations and research as if launching cannonballs at each other, or cavalry charges. However much they would turn red and pound their fists on the table in carrying on the discussion, it makes for very interesting reading. Outside of very obscure articles, there is some of this in Delbruck's books, especially deep in the footnotes and appendices.
Regardless whose points are right or wrong, without the argument many of the points would never have been made at all, so it adds to the value of the discussion as I see it. They are probably both right and wrong, but they would also argue with that characterization.
Something roughly comparable to this would be the 'Historikerstreit' of the past few decades, about interpreting the Second World War, with various points of view. That can be looked up in the Wikipedia under that search phrase for more on that. (The article mentions our own 18C favorite Professor Christopher Duffy, author of many books about the 18th Century Austrians, Prussians, Russians, Scots and Irish, as well as fortifications and siegecraft.)
* * *
What Does This Book Cover?
The 3rd Band, of the 2nd Part, is about the last part of the Second Silesian War. The earlier Bands were about the disastrous campaign in Bohemia in 1744, and then about when the tables turned in the spring, culminating in the glorious charge of the Bayreuth Dragoons at Hohenfriedberg, June 4, and the defeat of the Austrian and Saxon army.This particular volume came out in 1895, 115 years ago.
This volume picks up the story right after Hohenfriedberg. It covers campaigning in Upper Silesia and Bohemia, with a battle at Soor, fights at Trautenau, Cosel, and Hennersdorf, and then the battle we have been looking at more closely, Kesselsdorf. After that a chapter on the aftermath and the peace which was signed in time for Christmas of 1745.
Unfortunately there are some drawbacks to this. First for about 100 years the books have been nearly impossible to obtain. They are very rarely found anywhere, and then they are prohibitively expensive, such as 500 to 1000 or more dollars for even partial sets. Then they are written in German, and then complicating that the German is set in Fraktur type.
* * *
This ftill leads to miftakes in tranfcription, fo to fpeak. (fic)
* * *
All that aside, it is still a good book and well worth the effort.
Thoughts on Translating This Chapter or Book
I've translated the only volume I own, the 11th Band of the Seven Years War series, on 1759, about 50 to 75 percent, for my own personal use and enjoyment, but I am not too sure about doing that in a public forum. I don't know what the copyright implications would be for something like that.
The chapter here on Kesselsdorf runs 18 pages, and I could probably make a passable translation in several hours' time, for myself, but would be chary about posting such a thing. Any publishing attorneys are welcome to chime in.
In any case I tend to favor a bombastic translation retaining the original word meanings so that the
colorful terms used are emphasized. Professional translators would edit that away to render it all the way to completely smooth- sounding English, with other words, and in so doing lose all the flavor from doing it my way. The rough translation from the machine on the computer actually does capture some of that flavor, by mistake. I like it like that, if I can figure out what was intended.
As an alternative for someone really determined, 'simply' retype the 18 pages in Roman type to feed it into the Google Translate machine located front and center of the blog. Those who have Google Chrome might find it easier. I'm not sure whether it can handle Fraktur. I didn't even try, instead I sat there reading it myself the hard way, and taking notes on fresh information not given elsewhere.
There are many facts, figures, details and anecdotes here in 18 pages that exceed anything I've ever seen in English on this battle. I've never seen an English account more than two or three pages, if that, even when they are based on this narrative. They cut out a lot.
Details emerge about Saxon counterattacks, what went wrong, how the guns were divided into Brigades or batteries, and that sort of thing you just can't find in English. Which Saxon cavalry regiment lost its standard, who captured the kettledrums, which regiments were able to play the Grenadiers March as a reward, and which regiment got a further honor in the form of a special badge?
Unfortunately, now that the book is available online, right here and now and does not cost 1000 dollars, there are still a couple problems, in that the Anhang 26 in the Appendix section at the end, the sheet showing the detailed order of battle, better than all others we have seen, was apparently scanned without unfolding the sheet. Also the maps are not there, and diagrams. There is still an Anhang 28 after that with a regiment by regiment casualty count for the Prussian side. These are at the very bottom, at the end of the book.
The fourth chapter, covering Kesselsdorf runs from page 226 to 244, very close to the end of the volume. That is an 18-page chapter.
General Staff Work, Part 2, Band 3 (Google Books)
EDIT: I've got half of the answer I was looking for: Once the book is up, there is a place to click for Plain Text, and clicking that will convert four pages at a time from Fraktur to Roman (English-type) letters. But the copy-paster function doesn't work for me to feed it into the translator. Any ideas out there?
* * *
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