first stage of the engagement was thus, as usual, a pure “encounter-battle.” The corps of Marshal Lannes as “general advanced guard” was first engaged, in the Sortlack Wood and in front of Posthenen (2.30–3 a.m. on the 14th). Both sides now used their cavalry freely to cover the formation of lines of battle, and a race between the rival squadrons for the possession of Heinrichsdorf resulted in favour of the French under Grouchy. Lannes in the meantime was fighting hard to hold Bennigsen, for Napoleon feared that the Russians meant to evade him again. Actually, by 6 a.m. Bennigsen had nearly 50,000 men across the river and forming up west of Friedland. His infantry, in two lines, with artillery, extended between the Heinrichsdorf-Friedland road and the upper bends of the river. Beyond the right of the infantry, cavalry and Cossacks extended the line to the wood N.E. of Heinrichsdorf, and small bodies of Cossacks penetrated even to Schwonau. The left wing also had some cavalry and, beyond the Alle, batteries were brought into action to cover it. A heavy and indecisive fire-fight raged in the Sortlack Wood between the Russian skirmishers and some of Lannes’s troops.
The head of Mortier’s (French and Polish) corps appeared at Heinrichsdorf and the Cossacks were driven out of Schwonau. Lannes held his own, and by noon, when Napoleon arrived, 40,000 French troops were on the scene of action. His orders were brief: Ney’s corps was to take the line between Posthenen and the Sortlack Wood, Lannes closing on his left, to form the centre, Mortier at Heinrichsdorf the left wing. Victor and the Guard were placed in reserve behind Posthenen. Cavalry masses were collected at Heinrichsdorf. The main attack was to be delivered against the Russian left, which Napoleon saw at once to be cramped in the narrow tongue of land between the river and the Posthenen mill-stream. Three cavalry divisions were added to the general reserve. The course of the previous operations had been such that both armies had still large detachments out towards Königsberg. The afternoon was spent by the emperor in forming up the newly arrived masses, the deployment being covered by an artillery bombardment. At 5 o’clock all was ready, and Ney, preceded by a heavy artillery fire, rapidly carried the Sortlack Wood. The attack was pushed on toward the Alle. One of Ney’s divisions (Marchand) drove part of the Russian left into the river at Sortlack. A furious charge of cavalry against Marchand’s left was repulsed by the dragoon division of Latour-Maubourg. Soon the Russians were huddled together in the bends of the Alle, an easy target for the guns of Ney and of the reserve. Ney’s attack indeed came eventually to a standstill; Bennigsen’s reserve cavalry charged with great effect and drove him back in disorder. As at Eylau, the approach of night seemed to preclude a decisive success, but in June and on firm ground the old mobility of the French reasserted its value. The infantry division of Dupont advanced rapidly from Posthenen, the cavalry divisions drove back the Russian squadrons into the now congested masses of foot on the river bank, and finally the artillery general Sénarmont advanced a mass of guns to case-shot range. It was the first example of the terrible artillery preparations of modern warfare, and the Russian defence collapsed in a few minutes. Ney’s exhausted infantry were able to pursue the broken regiments of Bennigsen’s left into the streets of Friedland. Lannes and Mortier had all this time held the Russian centre and right on its ground, and their artillery had inflicted severe losses. When Friedland itself was seen to be on fire, the two marshals launched their infantry attack. Fresh French troops approached the battlefield. Dupont distinguished himself for the second time by fording the mill-stream and assailing the left flank of the Russian centre. This offered a stubborn resistance, but the French steadily forced the line backwards, and the battle was soon over. The losses incurred by the Russians in retreating over the river at Friedland were very heavy, many soldiers being drowned. Farther north the still unbroken troops of the right wing drew off by the Allenburg road; the French cavalry of the left wing, though ordered to pursue, remaining, for some reason, inactive. The losses of the victors were reckoned at 12,100 out of 86,000, or 14%, those of the Russians at 10,000 out of 46,000, or 21% (Berndt, Zahl im Kriege).
FRIEDMANN, MEIR (1831–1908), Hungarian Jewish scholar.
His editions of the Midrash are the standard texts. His chief
editions were the Sifre (1864), the Mekhilta (1870), Pesiqla
Rabbathi (1880). At the time of his death he was editing the
Sifra. Friedmann, while inspired with regard for tradition, dealt
with the Rabbinic texts on modern scientific methods, and rendered conspicuous service to the critical investigation of the
Midrash and to the history of early homilies. (I. A.)
FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836– ), German theologian, was
born at Poxdorf in Upper Franconia on the 5th of May 1836,
and was educated at Bamberg and at Munich, where in 1865 he
was appointed professor extraordinary of theology. In 1869 he
went to the Vatican Council as secretary to Cardinal Hohenlohe,
and took an active part in opposing the dogma of papal infallibility,
notably by supplying the opposition bishops with historical
and theological material. He left Rome before the council
closed. “No German ecclesiastic of his age appears to have won
for himself so unusual a repute as a theologian and to have held
so important a position, as the trusted counsellor of the leading
German cardinal at the Vatican Council. The path was fairly
open before him to the highest advancement in the Church of
Rome, yet he deliberately sacrificed all such hopes and placed
himself in the van of a hard and doubtful struggle” (The Guardian,
1872, p. 1004). Sentence of excommunication was passed on
Friedrich in April 1871, but he refused to acknowledge it and
was upheld by the Bavarian government. He continued to
perform ecclesiastical functions and maintained his academic
position, becoming ordinary professor in 1872. In 1882 he was
transferred to the philosophical faculty as professor of history.
By this time he had to some extent withdrawn from the advanced
position which he at first occupied in organizing the Old
Catholic Church, for he was not in agreement with its abolition
of enforced celibacy.
Friedrich was a prolific writer; among his chief works are: Johann Wessel (1862); Die Lehre des Johann Hus (1862); Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (1867–1869); Tagebuch während des Vatikan. Concils geführt (1871); Zur Verteidigung meines Tagebuchs (1872); Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte des 18ten Jahrh. (1876); Geschichte des Vatikan. Konzils (1877–1886); Beiträge zur Gesch. des Jesuitenordens (1881); Das Papsttum (1892); I. v. Döllinger (1899–1901).
FRIEDRICHRODA, a summer resort in the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
Germany, at the north foot of the Thuringian
Forest, 13 m. by rail S.W. from Gotha. Pop. 4500. It is surrounded
by fir-clad hills and possesses numerous handsome
