Battle of Rossbach - The Allies' Vain Attempts

The Allies' Vain Attempts

The allied infantry, as their cavalry had done, managed to deploy some regiments on the head of the column. The French in particular formed one or two columns of attack, then peculiar to the French army, and rushed forward with the bayonet. But Moller's guns, which had advanced with the infantry, tore gaps in the close masses. When the French columns arrived within effective musketry range, the attack died out before the rapid and methodical volleys of the Prussian line.

Meanwhile the Allies tried in vain to form a line of battle. The two main columns had got too close together in the advance from Pettstädt. Part of the reserve which had become entangled between the main columns was extricating itself by degrees and endeavouring to catch up with the rest of the reserve column away to the right and the reserve artillery proved useless in the middle of the infantry. The Prussian infantry was still in echelon from the left, and the leftmost battalions that had repulsed the French columns quickly came within musket-shot of this helpless mass. A few volleys directed against the head and left flank of the column sufficed to create disorder, and then from the Tagewerben hollow von Seydlitz's rallied squadrons charged, wholly unexpectedly, upon its right flank.

The Allied infantry thereupon broke and fled. Soubise and the duke, who had received a wound, succeeded in keeping one or two regiments together, but the rest scattered over the countryside. The battle had lasted less than an hour and a half and the last episode of the infantry fight no more than fifteen minutes. Seven Prussian battalions only had engaged with the enemy and these expended five to fifteen rounds per man.