A History of the British Army, Vol. 1: First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' WarFortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir
History
A History of the British Army, Vol. 1: First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' War
Fortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir
Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
We must pass over the operations in Brandenburg, where the Scots
Brigade distinguished itself repeatedly, and come forthwith to
Saxony, whither Gustavus had been called from the Oder by Tilly's
advance upon Magdeburg. Arriving too late to save the unhappy
city he entrenched himself at Werben, at the junction of the Elbe
and the Havel, and gave the world a first notable example of his
skill as an engineer. Tilly, having lost six thousand men in the
vain attempt to storm the entrenchments, invaded Saxony, whither
Gustavus at once followed him and offered him battle on the plain
of Leipsic.
On the 7th of September Tilly took up his position facing north,
on a low line of heights running from the village of Breitenfeld
on the west to that of Seehausen on the east. His army was drawn
up in a single line. On each wing as usual was posted the cavalry,
seven regiments under Pappenheim on the left, seven more under
Furstenburg on the right, all drawn up in the dense columns beloved
of Charles the Fifth. In the centre was Tilly himself, with
eighteen regiments of infantry, his famous Walloons among them,
massed together in the old heavy Spanish formation. On the heights
above him were his guns. The whole force numbered forty thousand
men, and their General was a man who, though seventy years of age,
had never lost a battle.
[Sidenote: Sept. 7.]
On the other side the armies of Gustavus and of his allies the
Saxons were drawn up in two lines. On the left were the Saxons,
fourteen thousand strong, and on the right, with which alone we
need concern ourselves, the Swedes. In touch with the Saxon right,
the Swedish left under Field-Marshal Horn was made up, both in
the first and second lines, of six regiments of horse, with four
platoons of musketeers between each regiment. The right wing under
Gustavus himself was similarly composed. In the centre the first
line was made up of four half brigades of foot, supported by a
regiment of cavalry and eight platoons of Scots; and the second
line of three brigades, of which Hepburn's was one. In rear of both
lines was a reserve of cavalry, and in the extreme rear a further
reserve, the first ever seen, of artillery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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