9
participated in several engagements and minor battles under Prince Henry and
Generalleutnant Graf zu Dohna and then rejoined the main army under the King
for the disastrous Battle of Kunersdorf on 12 August 1759.
The Prussians, worn down from forced marching and thirst, attacked on a
particularly hot August day. Kunersdorf is a small village near Frankfurt on the
Oder. The combined Austrian–Russian Army of 59,500 men sat entrenched on
several hills outside the village. Frederick, though outnumbered by almost
10,000 soldiers, chose to attack. After initial success, Frederick sought a
complete victory by pushing his exhausted soldiers to continue the attack against
the enemy’s positions. The attack quickly bogged down. Key Prussian leaders
were wounded. Casualties mounted among the troops. At a critical moment, the
Austrian cavalry charged the wavering Prussian Infantry. The Prussians,
exhausted from heat, forced marching, and close quarters combat, broke and
fled the field. The demands of the day had been too much for them. The King
attempted to rally his soldiers but to no avail. After the battle, the Prussians
could only count 3,000 soldiers of the original 50,900.
16
Regiment von Lestwitz
was one of the few combat effective units at the end of the day and covered the
withdrawal.
17
In the aftermath of defeat, the indecisiveness of the victorious Austrians
and Russians gave the Prussian Army a chance to re-assemble. Unlike the
French at Rossbach who continued their flight at the first threat, Prussian
commanders reformed their Regiments and the crisis passed. Records indicate
that von Steuben was one of the many wounded at Kunersdorf along with his
brigade commander, General von Hülson. The King did not survive the battle
unscathed; two horses were shot from under him, and his uniform was pierced by
several musket balls. The Prussians lost 18,500, men including 530 officers, 178
guns, and 28 colors and standards compared to 15,500 casualties suffered by
the combined Austrian and Russian armies. In the evening following the battle,
the scattered Prussian Army no longer existed. The Austrians and Russians
mounted no effective pursuit to consummate the victory as the Prussians had
done after Rossbach. The survival of the army, and hence the state, depended
on the training and discipline of the army to re-organize and be prepared to
continue the fight. The ingrained habits of hard training in peacetime and
soldiering under dynamic leadership kept the army alive and thus preserved the
kingdom. Within four days, approximately 30,000 soldiers had reassembled and
were prepared to defend the approaches to Berlin. The opportunity for the
Austrians and Russians to seize the Prussian Capital passed.
18
While the
lessons of victories were important in the development of von Steuben, the hard
lessons of defeat were certainly of equal importance.
In 1761, after serving in the headquarters of the King as a Quartiermeister
Leutnant (operations officer) for a brief period, the now Kapitän von Steuben was
assigned as a general staff officer with the army in East Prussia. In this position,
he was captured when the detachment in which he served surrendered to the