Mind-Munitions

The American Revolution 143
that ‘a message from him could stir an entire corps to enthusiasm.
His appearance in camp would produce general jubilation.’
The 1760s and 1770s had also pointed the way to new developments
in warfare. Frederick II (the Great, r.1740-86) of Prussia had
initiated far-reaching military reforms that enabled a relatively
small power to assume wider significance. Frederick’s armies were
light and fast; mobility and discipline were the key to their success.
Rigorous training and drilling in marching and re-loading ensured
that his armies arrived at the battlefield in good order and
maintained their line and discipline throughout. With paradeground
precision, Frederick’s armies felt safe in the knowledge that
their king had devoted himself to every detail, including morale. In
his Military Instructions Written by the King of Prussia for the
Generals of his Army (1763), Frederick wrote:
It is our interest to carry on our wars with great spirit and alacrity, to
prevent their continuing too long; because a tedious war must relax
our excellent discipline, depopulate our country, and exhaust our
finances: therefore it is the duty of every Prussian general to endeavour
to the utmost of his abilities to bring matters to a speedy issue.
Leading by example, Frederick’s boldness to commit his troops
brought spectacular successes, such as his defeat of the Austrians at
Rossbach in 1757 when the Prussian forces were outnumbered 2-1.
Addressing his troops before the battle, the king said:
You all know that you have suffered no fatigue, no hunger, no cold, no
watching, no danger that I have not shared with you, and you now see
me ready to sacrifice my life with you and for you. All I desire of you is
the return of that affection and fidelity, which you may be assured of
on my side. I will now only add, not as an encouragement to you, but
as proof of my gratitude for your past services, that from this hour, to
the day you get into your winter quarters, your pay shall be doubled.
Now! fight like brave men, and trust for success in God.
Before long, Frederick’s innovations and reforms were being
adopted in other countries, though Prussian discipline was not so
easily recreated elsewhere. Clockwork efficiency was not always
the most human way of ensuring discipline and, in the Age of the
Enlightenment, in which Man’s relationship with the Nation was
being re-examined in favour of the former, the views of even
enlightened despots such as Frederick the Great were considered