Westphalia, Hesse and Lower Saxony Electoral Saxony Brandenburg Silesia East Prussia Pomerania Iberian Peninsula Naval Operations In the Battle of Torgau on 3 November 1760, King Frederick the Great's Prussian army fought an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun.

Outnumbered three-to-one, Frederick escaped the Austrian trap by smashing the corps of Feldzeugmeister Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon at the Battle of Liegnitz.

Feldzeugmeister Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy's 18,000 Austrians joined with General Tottleben's Russian force near Berlin, making a total of 35,000 allies.

When his government ordered him to stand and fight the Prussians, Daun selected a position on the Süptitzer Höhen (Heights) just west of Torgau.

[8] Frederick determined to send General Hans Joachim von Zieten to hold Daun's attention from the south, while his main effort circled around the western end of the Austrian line to attack from the north.

Hearing the cannon fire and fearing that Zieten was being mauled, the Prussian king decided to launch his attack prematurely, with ten battalions of grenadiers.

[10] The Austrian commander sent General Charles Flynn to deliver a preliminary victory dispatch to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in Vienna.

[8][12] One authority writes, Even after all this bloodletting the battle of Torgau decided little in strategic terms, for Daun still held Dresden and southern Saxony, while the troublesome Laudon was free to take up winter quarters in Silesia.