Category Archives: Battle of Katzbach


Songs of the Liberation War: “Was Blasen Die Trompeten”

Excerpt, “War Songs of the Germans with Historical Illustrations of the Liberation War and the Rhine Boundary.” By John Stuart Blackie. Edinburgh: 1870.

Marschall Vorwärts by Emil Hünten (1863).

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt

Marschall Vorwärts by Emil Hünten

 

WAS BLASEN DIE TROMPETEN

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Why blare loud the trumpets? To horse, ye hussars!

’Tis the gallant old field-marshal that rides to the wars!

So cheerily rides he his own good steed,

So brightly his sword flashes time to his speed;

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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O see how his blue eye, so clear and so kind,

Is beaming, and wave his white locks to the wind!

Like a stout old wine, so mellow and so fine,

O he’s the man to marshal the sons of the Rhine!

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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O he is the man, when all was dark and dim,

Who waved his sword in Heaven’s eye—’twas all bright to him!

He swore by his true steel to teach them yet aright—

He swore an angry oath-how the Germans can fight.

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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His good oath he kept: When the war-cry rang,

On his horse, with a bound, bold Blücher sprang;

And his clear blue eye shot fire to wash the shame

Of Auerstadt and Jena from the German name.

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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At Lützen; impatient, he headed the van,

Like a strong young lion, the old veteran:

There the Teut first taught the hot Frenchman to bleed,

By the altar of freedom, the stone of the Swede.

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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The Katzbach was red with the fierce drifting rain,

But eve saw it redder with the blood of the slain!

‘Fare-thee-well, fare-thee-well! And fairly may’st thou sail,

And find a grave, false Frantzmann, with the Baltic whale.’

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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Then forward, my brave boys, begun’s half done:

We’ll teach the nimble Corsican to run, boys, run!

O’er the Elbe, o’er the Elbe, now Preuss and Swede advance,

And the fleet Don Cossack with his long, long lance!

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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On the red field of Leipzig he laid the French pride low;

He blew the blast of freedom loud at Leipzig, Oho!

They fell, there they fell, ne’er to rise from their fall;

And we cheered old Blücher there—

Long live the Field-marshal!

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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Then blow loud, yet trumpets, and tramp, ye hussars!

’Tis our old Field-marshal that rides to the wars:

To the Rhine, to the Rhine, and beyond the Rhine’s the way,

Thou doughty old Field-marshal, God be with thee aye!

Sound fife, trump and drum! For the Germans are come!

Hurrah for right and liberty, the Germans are come!

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Gebhard_Leberecht_von_Blücher_in_Bautzen_1813

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher in Bautzen 1813

 

Adolf Ludwig Follen: “Blücher’s Ball”

In the battle of Katzbach, which was fought on the 26th of August, 1813, the Russians and Prussians, under the command of the veteran Field-marshal Blücher, defeated the French, who were led by Macdonald, Ney, Lauriston and Sabastiani, and were driven pell-mell into the Katzbach.Skirmishes had previously taken place at Goldberg and Jauer.The day of the battle was rainy, and the soldiers fought with clubbed muskets.The poet represents the scene as a ball, under the direction of old Blücher, who had received, from his vigor and promptitude, the name of “Marshal Forward.”

battle_of_katzbach_by_kleina

Battle of Katzbach – Klein, 1825

BLÜCHER’S BALL

By the Katzbach, by the Katzbach, ha!

There was a merry dance;

Wild and weird and whirling waltzes skipped

Ye through, ye knaves of France!

 

For there struck the great bass-viol

An old German man famed,

Marshal Forward, Prince of Wallstadt,

Gebhardt Lebrecht von Blücher named.

 

Up! The Blücher hath the ball-room

Lighted with the cannon’s glare!

Spread yourselves, ye gay, green carpets,

That the dancing moistens there!

 

And his fiddle-bow at first he waved

With Goldberg and with Jauer;

Whew!  He’s drawn it now full length,

His play a stormy northern shower!

 

Ha!  The dance went briskly onward,

Tingling madness seized them all;

As when howling, mighty tempests

On the arms of windmills fall.

 

But the old man wants it cheery,

Wants a pleasant dancing chime;

And with gun-stocks clearly, loudly,

Beats the old Teutonic time.

 

Say, who, standing by the old man,

Strikes so hard the kettle-drum,

And, with crushing strength of arm,

Down lets the thundering hammer come?

 

Gneisenau, the gallant champion:

Alemannia’s envious foes

Smites the mighty pair, her living double-eagle,

Shivering blows.

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