The Thirty Years War, book 4 | Page 7

General Altringer, they were under the necessity of
summoning the Swedish General Horn to their assistance, from Alsace.
This experienced general having captured the towns of Benfeld,
Schlettstadt, Colmar, and Hagenau, committed the defence of them to
the Rhinegrave Otto Louis, and hastily crossed the Rhine to form a
junction with Banner's army. But although the combined force
amounted to more than 16,000, they could not prevent the enemy from
obtaining a strong position on the Swabian frontier, taking Kempten,
and being joined by seven regiments from Bohemia. In order to retain
the command of the important banks of the Lech and the Danube, they
were under the necessity of recalling the Rhinegrave Otto Louis from
Alsace, where he had, after the departure of Horn, found it difficult to
defend himself against the exasperated peasantry. With his army, he
was now summoned to strengthen the army on the Danube; and as even
this reinforcement was insufficient, Duke Bernard of Weimar was
earnestly pressed to turn his arms into this quarter.
Duke Bernard, soon after the opening of the campaign of 1633, had
made himself master of the town and territory of Bamberg, and was
now threatening Wurtzburg. But on receiving the summons of General
Horn, without delay he began his march towards the Danube, defeated
on his way a Bavarian army under John de Werth, and joined the

Swedes near Donauwerth. This numerous force, commanded by
excellent generals, now threatened Bavaria with a fearful inroad. The
bishopric of Eichstadt was completely overrun, and Ingoldstadt was on
the point of being delivered up by treachery to the Swedes. Altringer,
fettered in his movements by the express order of the Duke of
Friedland, and left without assistance from Bohemia, was unable to
check the progress of the enemy. The most favourable circumstances
combined to further the progress of the Swedish arms in this quarter,
when the operations of the army were at once stopped by a mutiny
among the officers.
All the previous successes in Germany were owing altogether to arms;
the greatness of Gustavus himself was the work of the army, the fruit of
their discipline, their bravery, and their persevering courage under
numberless dangers and privations. However wisely his plans were laid
in the cabinet, it was to the army ultimately that he was indebted for
their execution; and the expanding designs of the general did but
continually impose new burdens on the soldiers. All the decisive
advantages of the war, had been violently gained by a barbarous
sacrifice of the soldiers' lives in winter campaigns, forced marches,
stormings, and pitched battles; for it was Gustavus's maxim never to
decline a battle, so long as it cost him nothing but men. The soldiers
could not long be kept ignorant of their own importance, and they
justly demanded a share in the spoil which had been won by their own
blood. Yet, frequently, they hardly received their pay; and the rapacity
of individual generals, or the wants of the state, generally swallowed up
the greater part of the sums raised by contributions, or levied upon the
conquered provinces. For all the privations he endured, the soldier had
no other recompense than the doubtful chance either of plunder or
promotion, in both of which he was often disappointed. During the
lifetime of Gustavus Adolphus, the combined influence of fear and
hope had suppressed any open complaint, but after his death, the
murmurs were loud and universal; and the soldiery seized the most
dangerous moment to impress their superiors with a sense of their
importance. Two officers, Pfuhl and Mitschefal, notorious as restless
characters, even during the King's life, set the example in the camp on
the Danube, which in a few days was imitated by almost all the officers
of the army. They solemnly bound themselves to obey no orders, till

these arrears, now outstanding for months, and even years, should be
paid up, and a gratuity, either in money or lands, made to each man,
according to his services. "Immense sums," they said, "were daily
raised by contributions, and all dissipated by a few. They were called
out to serve amidst frost and snow, and no reward requited their
incessant labours. The soldiers' excesses at Heilbronn had been blamed,
but no one ever talked of their services. The world rung with the tidings
of conquests and victories, but it was by their hands that they had been
fought and won."
The number of the malcontents daily increased; and they even
attempted by letters, (which were fortunately intercepted,) to seduce the
armies on the Rhine and in Saxony. Neither the representations of
Bernard of Weimar, nor the stern reproaches of his harsher associate in
command, could suppress this mutiny, while the vehemence of Horn
seemed only to increase the insolence of the insurgents. The