Prelude
Frederick did not plan on staying in the small village for an extended period of time. He and his army would only stay until their provisions arrived from Bautzen then keep moving eastward. Frederick had omitted any thought of strategy when setting camp. He also ignored the warnings of his officers who thought staying in the village was suicide. Regardless, Frederick scattered his men north to south, in an “S” shape, next to Hochkirch. He faced his troops east towards the last known location of Daun’s army. The weak side (west-side) was guarded by an outpost of nine battalions with battery support. Their purpose was mostly to keep contact with a deployed scout unit. The east side was guarded by eleven battalions and twenty-eight squadrons. Frederick had his best soldiers garrison the village of Hochkirch. To the east of the village was high ground occupied by the Austrians, whose looming presence had increasingly made the Prussians more anxious of an attack. However, Frederick did not believe an attack would occur seeing that Daun’s army had been dormant in recent months.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Hochkirch
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