r, and
won the highest praise from Eugene, who commanded in that part of the
field where they were stationed; and he spoke particularly of their
"undaunted resolution" in withstanding the enemy's attacks, and of their
activity at a later period of the battle. It is curious to observe that
he notes the steadiness and strength of their fire,--a peculiarity that
has distinguished the Prussian infantry from the beginning of its
existence, and which, from the introduction of the iron ramrod into the
service, had much to do with the successes of Frederick the Great, and,
from the use of the needle-gun, quite as much with the successes of
Prince Frederick Charles and the Crown Prince. In the time of Frederick
I., the Prussian troops were employed in Germany and Italy, in France
and Flanders. They also served against the Turks. It may be said, that,
if the Great Elector created the Prussian army, it received the baptism
of fire in full from his son, Frederick I., the first Prussian king.

Frederick I. died in 1713. If it be true--as we think it is--that the
great enterprise of William of Orange for the deliverance of England
could not have been undertaken but for the aid he gave that prince,
Englishmen and Americans ought to hold his name in especial remembrance.
He was succeeded by his son Frederick William I., who is counted a brute
by most persons, but whom Mr. Carlyle would have us believe to have been
a man of remarkable worth. He had talents, and he increased the
territory of his kingdom. When he died, in 1740, he left to his son a
kingdom containing 2,500,000 souls, a treasury containing $6,000,000,
and an army more than thirty thousand strong, and which was the first
force in Europe because of its high state of discipline and of the
superiority of its infantry weapon. The introduction of the iron ramrod
was a greater improvement, relatively, in 1740, than was the
introduction of the needle-gun in the present generation. Nothing but
the use of that ramrod saved the Prussians from destruction in the first
of Frederick II.'s wars. That gave them superiority, which they well
knew how to keep. "The main thing," as Ranke observes, "was a regular
step and rapid firing; or, as the king once expressed it, 'Load quickly,
advance in close column, present well, take aim well,--all in profound
silence.'" The whole business of infantry in the field is summed up in
the royal sentence, though some may think that line would be a better