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Updated: June 23, 2025
As the Prussian monarch could not spare detachments to oppose every different corps of his enemies that acted against him in different parts of his dominions, he resolved to make up in activity what he wanted in number, and, if possible, to raise the siege of Neiss in person.
He repaired to Neiss, where he settled with mareschal Schwerin the general plan of the operations of the approaching campaign. There it was agreed, that the mareschal's army in Silesia, which consisted of fifty thousand men, should have in constant view the motions of the royal army, by which its own were to be regulated, that they might both act in concert, as circumstances should require.
In laconic phrase, characteristic of this singular man, he returned the following answer: "All lower Silesia; the river Neiss for the boundary. The town of Neiss as well as Glatz. Beyond the Oder the ancient limits to continue between the duchies of Brieg and Oppelon. Breslau for us. The affairs of religion in statu quo. No dependence on Bohemia; a cession forever.
Thus, by the activity and valour of the Prussian monarch, his generals and officers, six sieges were raised almost at the same period, namely, those of Colberg, Neiss, Cosel, Torgau, Leipsic, and Dresden.
This man destroyed two sentinels to get his liberty; how many hundreds of thousands of his own and the Austrian people did King Frederick kill because he took a fancy to Silesia? It was the accursed tyranny of the system that sharpened the axe which brained the two sentinels of Neiss: and so let officers take warning, and think twice ere they visit poor fellows with the cane.
At twelve o'clock, and opposite the guard-house by the Bohmer-Thor of Neiss, some thirty men were lounging about in their undress, and the Frenchman stood near the sentinel of the guard-house, sharpening a wood hatchet on a stone.
Having formed an army of fifty thousand choice troops, near Neiss, in Silesia, he divided them into three columns; the first commanded by mareschal Keith, the second by himself in person, and the third conducted by prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau.
Count Daun, having nothing more to hope from the active operations of his own army, contented himself with amusing the Prussian monarch in Lusatia, while the Austrian generals, Harsche and De Ville, should prosecute the reduction of Neiss and Cosel in Silesia, which they now actually invested.
Count Neuperg being obliged to abandon Silesia, in order to oppose the Bavarian arms in Bohemia, the king of Prussia sent thither a detachment to join the elector, under the command of count Deslau, who, in his route, reduced Glatz and Neiss, almost without opposition; then his master received the homage of the Silesian states at Breslau, and returned to Berlin.
So saying, I took him on my shoulders, and carried him to the Neiss; here we distinctly heard the alarm sounded in the villages, and the peasants, who likewise were to form the line of desertion, were everywhere in motion, and spreading the alarm. As it may not be known to all my readers in what manner they proceed on these occasions in Prussia, I will here give a short account of it.
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