<192> Halberstädtische und der Orten zu thun. Ich bin Ew. Liebden freundwilliger Vetter
Friderich.
Nach der Ausfertigung im Königl. Staatsarchiv zu Marburg.
9136. UNTERREDUNG DES KÖNIGS MIT DEM GROSSBRITANNISCHEN MINISTER MITCHELL.
[Leitmeritz, 27. Juni 1757.]1
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Leitmeritz, 29. Juni: „ . . . . The King of Prussia bears his misfortune greatly, though it is the first of the kind he ever met with. Since his arrival here he was pleased to describe to me the whole action of the 18th. He says the posts the Austrians occupied were indeed too strong, but he does not think them stronger than those he drove them from in the battle of Prague of the 6th May. He had too few infantry, and it was not the enemy's soldiers, but their artillery, upwards of 250 canons well posted, that made his men retire. He imputes the loss of this battle to the ardor of his soldiers, who attacked the enemy in front contrary to his orders; for, by the disposition he has made, his left wing only was to have attacked the right of the Austrians in flank, this they did with great success, took several batteries, advanced 200 paces beyond them and, having gained the flank of the enemy, put them in great confusion. From his right wing he intended to have drawn troops to support the attack on the left, if there should be occasion, and, by remaining in the position he had placed it in, the left of the enemy would have been kept in respect and could not have acted; but the good effects of this disposition were entirely defeated by the too great ardor of his soldiers towards the centre, who unhappily seeing the progress the left wing was making, and eager to have a share in a victory which they began to think certain, attacked first a village2 which lay a little to the left of the centre of the Austrian army, which they took; then the whole Prussian right wing engaged and was by that means exposed to the dreadful fire of the Austrian batteries and lines whose artillery were all charged with cartridge-shot, which did infinite execution. Prince Moritz of Dessau“
1 Nach den Tagebüchern Mitchell's (Bd. I, 355—356) hat die folgende Unterredung am 27. oder 29. Juni stattgefunden, je nachdem sie mit der in den Tagebüchern unter dem 27. Juni ausführlich erzählten Unterredung identisch ist oder nicht; es ist die erstere Möglichkeit vorzuziehen, da der Ausdruck „in my letter to Lord Holdernesse“ (S. 356) sich nur auf das „most secret-Schreiben“ in Nr. 9137, nicht zugleich auch auf den obigen posttäglichen dispatch zu beziehen scheint; auch hätte Mitchell den unbestimmten Ausdruck „since his arrival here“ schwerlich gebraucht, wenn die ganze Unterredung erst am 29., am Tage des Schreibens, sich zugetragen hätte. (Memoirs and papers of Sir Andrew Mitchell; by Bisset. London 1850.)
2 Chotzemitz.