The Times Great Military Lives: Leadership and Courage – from Waterloo to the Falklands in Obituaries. Ian Brunskill

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СКАЧАТЬ Commander of the First Brigade of Guards. A few days later Generial Reyher, the chief of the Staff of the Army, died, and shortly afterwards Moltke, one of the youngest general officers in the service, was temporarily intrusted with the duties, and in May, 1859, was made permanent Chief of the Staff, with the rank of Lieutenant-General. Moltke thus rose to the post in the Prussian Army which under the great Frederick had been held by Schmettau and Levin; after Jena, by Scharnhorst; and in the war of liberation by Gneisenau, and on his death by Müffling. Great were these names, but Germany regards now Moltke as greatest of them all.

      The duty of the Chief of a Staff is, above all things, to prepare in peace for war. He must consider and regulate the measures for the mobilization of the army down to the most minute detail, the plan of operations, and the means of concentration. He must have a thorough knowledge of his own and of foreign armies, and be intimately acquainted with railways, roads, and bridges. Under the administration of Moltke the Prussian Army became rapidly more ready for war in every particular. Its mobilization, which on his accession to office was calculated to require 21 days, can now be effected in ten days.

      Moltke had not long to wait before his services were called into active play. On account of the advance of the French Army through Lombardy in 1859 towards German soil the Prussian Army was mobilized, and he drew up the regulations for the advance of the Prussian Army and its railway transport to the Rhine. The manner in which he accomplished this then original task showed the Government and the Army that a wise step had been taken in placing him in the most responsible military position in the country.

      Almost at the same time as Moltke took up the duties of Chief of the Staff of the Army, great political changes occurred in Prussia. In 1857 in consequence of the severe illness of King Frederic William IV, the Prince of Prussia, afterwards the Emperor William I. was entrusted with the Regency of the kingdom. In 1861 the King died and William succeeded to the Throne. He determined to gain for Prussia a leading position among European Powers. The first step necessary to carry out this great project was the reorganization of the army. The King was determined that the land forces should be put in thorough working order. By 1863 the reorganization was complete. Events soon came to show how necessary the work was and how well it had been done. In 1863 the Prussian Staff was active, for the turmoils in Russian Poland made it doubtful whether Prussian troops might not be required to take the field.

      In the following year the war with Denmark on account of the Elbe Duchies broke out. In it Prussia on account of her geographical position took the leading part, and it fell to Moltke to draw out the plan of operations for the combined Prussian and Austrian armies. Thus his first active service was against the same army in which he had borne a commission as a youth. He directed the advance of the armies which under Field-Marshal von Wrangel invaded the duchies, and after the storming of Düppal in 1864 accompanied the King to the theatre of war and as Chief of the Staff directed the further operations. For a moment England thought of saving Denmark single-handed from Prussia, but most fortunately wiser counsels prevailed, and British troops were not sent to prove the terrible efficacy of the Prussian needle gun. A conference was, indeed, held to consider the matter at London; but it separated without result. England folded her hands and allowed the war to proceed. Prince Frederick Charles, with Moltke as his Chief of the Staff, took the command of the allied forces. On the 30th of October peace was signed, and Holstein, Lauenburg and Schleswig were annexed to Germany. To these results the talents of Moltke largely contributed. They were much aided by the breech-loading rifle of the Prussian infantry and by a portion of the artillery also consisting of breech-loading guns. But in Europe at large little attention was paid to these mechanical improvements, and even in Germany they were not thoroughly appreciated.

      A larger field in which to prove his strategical genius was opened to Moltke in the war of 1866. Austria and Prussia found cause of quarrel in the newly acquired Elbe Duchies. By the middle of June, 1866, the armies on both sides were concentrating on the common frontier. The Prussian forces consisted of three armies, which by Moltke’s combination advanced concentrically into Bohemia, and by carefully calculated marches and skilful manoeuvres exposed the Austrian forces to a simultaneous attack in front and rear. It had hitherto been considered exceedingly hazardous to advance into an enemy’s country in different independent columns, especially through mountain passes, as two columns might be checked by small forces, while an overwhelming weight was thrown on the third, and then the columns might be destroyed in detail. But this danger Moltke perceived would be averted if each column could communicate almost instantly with the others. He called science to his aid. The military field telegraph was instituted and each column could communicate in a few seconds with the others, though a hundred miles distant, and tell exactly the hostile forces in its front.

      Aided thus, Moltke perfected plans by which the army of Prince Frederick Charles, joined with that of Herwarth, burst into Bohemia through Saxony, swept away the detachments left to bar their progress, and threatened the flank and rear of the main force with which Benedek hoped to check the Crown Prince. The latter, fighting hard, pushed his way through the Silesian hills. His breech-loaders swept away the badly-armed Austrian columns opposed to him, and Benedek, thus assailed and threatened, fell back perforce to a rearward position on the Bistritz. Once through the mountains, the junction of the Crown Prince with Prince Frederick Charles was assured, and on the night of the 1st of July their horsemen communicated with each other near Gitschin. The next day the King, with Moltke, arrived at Gitschin. Prince Frederick Charles felt the Austrian army on the Bistritz, and, fearing that it might retreat beyond the Elbe, determined to attack and hold it fast till the Crown Prince could come up within striking distance and smite it heavily in flank and rear. The consent of the King, by Moltke’s advice, was given to this bold but wise view of Prince Frederick Charles. The battle of Königgrätz was the result, where the Austrian army was so utterly defeated that Benedek telegraphed immediately to his Sovereign, ‘Sire, you must make peace.’

      An armistice was then agreed upon, and the Peace of Prague definitely concluded on the 23d of August. At the close of the war Moltke wrote, ‘It is beautiful when God gives to man such a result to his life as He has vouchsafed to the King and many of his Generals. I am now 66 years old and for my work I received much reward. We have made a campaign which for Prussia, for Germany, and the world is of inestimable importance.’ But there was a great sorrow in store for the General. In December, 1866, Madame von Moltke fell ill, and Christmas Eve, which brings gladness to so many hearts, was sad to Moltke. Before the dawn of Christmas Day his wife lay dead. They had had no children, and his life would have been very lonely had not the kindly King appointed his nephew, Lieutenant von Burt, to be his permanent aide-de-camp; his only surviving sister, Madame von Burt, took charge of his house, and thus he was not left quite alone. But he ever cherished a most lasting and tender affection for his wife. She was buried on his property in Silesia, and whenever the General went home from Berlin his first action was to visit her grave.

      But there was hard work to distract his mind from private sorrow. The main results of the war of 1866 were the formation of the new North German Confederation, under the Sovereign of Prussia, and the disappearance of Austria as a Germanic Power. The Treaty of Prague was, however, but the stepping-stone, not the keystone, of German unity. North Germany was, indeed, linked with Prussia, which now held the command of the German forces and the power of peace and war north of the Main. The treaties with Baden and Wurtemberg were of the same tenor. On account of the representations of the Emperor of the French, Saxony was not so completely absorbed into the union. The Saxon King retained the power of nominating his civil and military officers, and the Saxon army was not merged in that of the Confederation. France, by an attitude of desire to interfere in the internal arrangements of Germany, facilitated the conclusion of those treaties; and the fact that on the 6th of August, 1866, she demanded the fortress of Mainz from Prussia under threat of war, though known to but few, had doubtless an important effect.

      Moltke’s answer to the demand was the rapid march of 60,000 men to the Rhine; and when it was seen that Prussia was resolute, the threat was not carried out, but an excuse made that the demand was wrung from the Emperor while suffering from severe illness. But those who looked below the surface saw that France was brooding, and pushing forward СКАЧАТЬ