Qualla: Battle of Hochkirch

Battle of Hochkirch: Introduction

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frank Lehmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. The church bell struck five, and the Austrians came out of the woods. Most of the Prussian army was asleep in its tents. Croat light troops went through the camp cutting tent ropes so the canvas collapsed onto the men inside, then bayoneted them as they fought the cloth. One lane in the village of Hochkirch is still called the Blutgasse - Blood Alley - for what happened in it that morning. Frederick the Great had been warned repeatedly, and had refused to believe that Leopold Josef Graf Daun, the most careful commander in Europe, would ever risk a battle. It was, by general agreement, the worst mistake of his career.

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Image: Frank Lehmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Hochkirch: The King Who Would Not Believe It

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stephan M. Höhne, CC BY-SA 3.0. The campaign of 1758 had ground to a stalemate. Frederick had left half his army in Pomerania after Zorndorf and marched the rest 180 kilometres in seven days to face Daun in Saxony; Daun had brought 80,000 men 120 kilometres from Görlitz in ten. Between Bautzen and Löbau the two...

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Image: Stephan M. Höhne | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Hochkirch: Eggs and Misinformation

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lorenz Ernst, CC BY-SA 4.0. Daun, meanwhile, had been feeding the deception. His own secretary had been passing information about Austrian plans to Frederick, and when Daun discovered it he did not execute the man: he promised him his life on condition that he keep writing, and keep getting it wrong. What D...

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Image: Lorenz Ernst | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Hochkirch: Blood Alley

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the firing started Frederick assumed it was an outpost skirmish, or the Croats loosing off their weapons as they did most mornings. His staff struggled to wake him. He understood only when captured Prussian guns - taken so fast that nobody had spiked them - began shelling hi...

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Image: Wolfgang Sauber | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Hochkirch: What It Cost

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eduard Sommer, Public domain. Frederick lost 9,400 men killed, wounded and captured - over thirty percent of his force - along with 101 guns, 70 munitions wagons, 28 flags, two standards and nearly every tent his army owned. Five generals were dead, and Maurice von Anhalt-Dessau was wounded and taken prisoner...

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Image: Eduard Sommer | Public domain

Battle of Hochkirch: A Sword From the Pope

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Grundkarte TUBS, Relief Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. News reached Vienna while the court was celebrating the Empress's name day at Schönbrunn. Maria Theresa eventually settled an endowment of 250,000 florins on Daun and his heirs, and Pope Clement XIII sent him a blessed sword and hat - an honour normally reserved for commanders wh...

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Image: Grundkarte TUBS, Relief Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0