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1632.]
Order of battle, and
preparations.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. The king’s address to
his troops.
281
ai^’^r he had sent away about 10,003 with Pap-
peiihoini ^.
The Swedes, as we have said, crossed the canal
above-mentioned ;
a portion of their right wing did
not pass it before the first attack. Tiie order of battle
was the same as at Leipsic ;
the whole army stood
in two lines ;
the infantry six, the cavalry three to
four men deep, the former in the middle, the latter
on the wings; yet the cavah-y was every whei-e
separated by platoons of musketeers from fifty to a
hundred men. The king led on the right wing,
consisting of six regiments of cavalry, Finns,
Westgothlanders, Sudermanians, Uplunders, East-
gothlanders, Smalanders in the first line, and of Ger-
man horse in the second. Eight brigades of infantry
formed the centre, whereof three in the first line
next the king were Swedes; among them the guard
or the so-called yellow regiment, and the blues,
under colonel Winkel. The first line of infantry
was led by count Nicholas Bralie, the second by
Knijjhausen. The left wing, under duke Bernard
of Weimar, counted likewise six regiments of
cavalry in each line, Germans, Courlanders, and
Livonians. Behind the infantry stood two regi-
ments in reserve, one of foot, under the Scotsman
Henderson, one of horse, under colonel Oehm, from
the Palatinate ^. Before every brigade of the first
line were placed five large cannon ; forty lighter pieces
were distributed before the platoons of musketry be-
tween the cavalry; the whole artillery consisted of
sixty cannon; the greatest part of the baggage was
left at Naumburg, the rest was stationed at the
village of Meuchen, beyond tiie canal.
On Tuesday, the Clh of November, 1632, lay a
thick fog over the plain at Lutzen, which did not
begin to disperse till towards noon. The Swedish
army said prayers, and sang Luther’s psalm,
" To
us our God is a strong tower;" after which the king
himself intoned another spiritual hymn of i>raise ^.
Since his wound at Dirschau, he had ever found it
painful to wear armour, and he set generally no
value on the heavy accoutrement hitherto used,
which he in great part abolished in his army.
" God is my harness," he said, when his equip-
ments were brought to him on that niorning. He
mounted his horse, without having taken any re-
freshments. Clad in his doublet and great coat,
as usual, he rode through the ranks, and spoke to
his troops in words which have come down to us *.
To his Swedes and Finns he said; "Dear friends
and countrymen, this day the moment is come to
show what ye have learned in so many combats.
There ye have the foe, not upon a high mountain,
or behind strong intrenchments, but on a clear
’
Vincke, Battle of Lutzen. Berlin, 1832.
6 Swed. Intel, iii. 129.
’
Cliemnitz, i. 464. "
Thereupon his majesty himself
began to sing gladly
’
Jesus Christ our Saviour, death he did
overpower." Narrative of the court- trumpeter, Jens Mans-
S(in, written in German, entitled, "Actions and Campaigns
of me Jens Mansson, which I have made with his Royal
Majesty Gustavus Adolphus, &c., my most gracious King
and Lord, from the year 1621 unto liis last day." Translated
into Swedish in the Historical Archives, Stockholm, 1774, i.
4.5, by Lbnbom. The psalm above quoted is in the Stock-
holm German Psalm-Book, among the Easter Psalms. Some
say that the king at his own morning prayer sang the psalm
"
Despond not yet, ye little flock," (see the Swedish Psalm-
Book, No. 378,) which he is himself said to have composed.
WoUmhaus (in his "Lutheran Church") relates that Fabri-
field. How this enemy hath heretofore shunned
the open plain, ye well know ; and that he lets it
now come to a battle, proceeds not from his free-
will, nor from hope of victory, but because he can
no longer escape your arms. Therefore make
yourselves ready, and hold you well as becomes
brave soldiers; stand fast by one another, and fight
like true knights, for your God, for your father-
land, and your king. I will then so reward you all
that ye may have cause to thank me for it ;
but if
ye fight not, no bone of you shall ever come to
Sweden. God preserve you alP!" To the Germans
he thus spake; "You, my sincere brothers and
comi-ades, I pray and exhort by your Christian
conscience and your own honour, now do your
duty, as ye have done the same with me often be-
fore, and especially a year ago, not far from this
place. Then ye beat old Tilly and his army, and I
hope that this enemy shall not slip for a better bar-
gain. Go freshly to it ! Ye shall not merely fight
under me, but with me and beside me. I myself
will go before you, and here venture life and blood.
If ye will follow me, I trust in God that ye will win
a victory which shall come to good for you and
your descendants. If not, there is an end of your
religion, your freedom, your temporal and eternal
welfare." Wallenstein did not addi’ess his army ’.
On both sides the watchword was as at Leipsic;
" God with us," in the Swedish,
"
Jesus, Maria,"
in the imperial force. Bernard of Weimar, and
the other generals, received the king’s last orders.
After his speech, which both nations answered with
clash of arms and joyful shouts, the king called out,
with his face uptui-ned to heaven, "Now will we in
God’s name onward !
Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, may we fight
to-day for the honour of thy holy name !
"
There-
with he waved his sword over his head, and gave
the command,
" Forward ^I" The town of Lutzen
was observed burning ;
it had been set on fire by
the Imperialists. The king was at this moment
surrounded by duke Francis Albert of Saxe-Lauen-
burg, his court-max-shal Kreilsheim, the chamber-
lain Truchsess, the page Leubelfing, several officers
of regiments broken up at Erfurt, who now did
staff-duty, and two life-guardsmen.
About ten o’clock the fog parted
^
for some time,
and the sun shone forth. The cannonade began, in
which the Imperialists had the advantage of the
Swedes, who marched straight upon the enemy’s
batteries. Some balls fell close to the king, who,
during this advance, changed his horse *. The
Swedes drew near the high-road, where they were
cius, the king’s court-preacher, heard it from his own lips.
Others ascribe it to John Altenburg, a minister in Thuringia.
8 We follow Chemnitz, with abridgment of his diffuse
style, and some variation according to other sources.
9 The conclusion is as it is given by Jens Mansson.
’ " Wallenstein by his presence solely and the severity of his
silence, seemed to signify to his soldiers, that as he had been
accustomed to do, he would recompense or chastise them."
(Wallenstein par sa seule presence et la severite de son
silence, &c.) Memoires de Richelieu, vii. 258.
2 This said, he drew out his sword, which waving over
his head he advanced forward, the foremost of all his army.
Swed. Intel, iii. 127.
3
Richelieu, Mem. vii. 258. His narrative is a literal
translation of the report of the battle, which duke Bernard
set.t to Louis XIII., quoted (after Siri, Mem. vii. 541) in the
Appendix to Wallenstein’s Letters by Forster, ii. 336.
1
Richelieu, 1. c.
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