SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2022 - GOTTFRIED QUAAS STORY - CONTINUED

 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2022 - GOTTFRIED QUAAS STORY - CONTINUED

On Saturday, I write fiction.  This is historical fiction about Gottfried Quaas.  (My great-great-grandfather on my Mother’s side was Gottfried Quaas - but this is not really his story)

*****

The unified army of Thuringia was training together in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. General Lange was an old-school military man, but for the past few years, he had studied the American Revolution and the French Revolution.  

General Lange realized that new tactics might be more important than just a larger group of soldiers.  

American Colonists and Indians practiced tricker moves - ambushes, guerilla tactics, and even psychological weapons of distrust, and hate.  They might lay in waiting behind trees, rocks, bushes, and houses for a surprise attack.  The army of Saxony was much bigger.  Thuringia was one of the larger states in divided Germany in terms of area, but one of the smaller states in population and army size.  

So, the army worked on tactics.  General Lange divided his troops into a red squad and a green squad and put them in the Bad Berka forest for two days (yes, in the snow).  It was to be a silent scrimmage with few (if any words).  If a green squad member was ‘captured’, he went to a prisoner of war camp (that is, he was out of the contest until it finished).  The war games were to last for one week or until all of one squad was captured.

General Lange, Captain Oster, and the other squadron commanders were to watch from a rocky tor in the forest.  Since all the commanders were not directly involved in the fighting, they were watching their men to see who took leadership and showed intelligence.

*****

The men spread out from two starting locations in the forest.  The green squad started on the east side of the Bad Berka forest and the red squad on the west.

Gottfried Quaas had two goals for the exercise: not to be caught, and to help his green team win.  

Some of the soldiers banded together.  Gottfried paired up with Hans Krause from the Gera barracks.  Gottfried had a plan.  

Gottfried suggested this plan to Hans.

“We’ll go to one of the farms in the forest and say we are looking for work in their barn.  We’re both good workers and do a great job mucking out the stables.  That will give us a cover so we can be out and about dressed as common farm workers.  As members of the red squad show up, we’ll look just like the locals, and then we’ll capture them.”

Hans Krause already respected and looked up at Gottfried and agreed.  They went out looking for a good farm and not too far into the Bad Berka forest found a farm that looked like it could use some extra help.  

Gottfried approached the old farmer and suggested they could muck out the barn for a few days and he could give them a warm place to sleep and meals.  The farmer thought that was pretty good.  He wouldn’t have to pay to get his horse stalls cleaned up.  The farmer found some old coveralls and Hans and Gottfried put them on and looked like true farmhands.  Johann Floss was getting older, his two sons had moved away and he had no daughters.  He was glad to get the free help.

About an hour after they started, two red army squad members showed up.  Hans and Gottfried were in coveralls and already smelled like manure.  The two red squad members were prowling around looking for green army squad members.  

Hans and Gottfried offered to give the men some water and a place to rest.  The men agreed, put their guns down to take the glasses of water, and Hans and Gottfried ‘captured’ them. As per the rules, the two were captured and couldn’t return to their squad.  Hans and Gottfried told Johann Floss to put them up in the hayloft for a few days.  Then Gottfried had a great idea.

“Farmer Floss, your barn and fences need some help.  Can I put these men to work fixing up the barn and fences?”

Farmer Floss agreed.

Later that afternoon, three more red squad members showed up.  Gottfried told them he thought he had seen a green squad member just over the hill.  Two of the soldiers went to look and Hans and Gottfried captured the third member.  When the two returned, Hans and Gottfried, lied and said they were in the outhouse.  And, eventually, they captured all of that group.

In the next three days, Hans and Gottfried, looking and smelling like lowly farm hands, had captured twenty red squad soldiers.  Old farmer Floss got quite a crew fixing some of the rotted boards on the barn and fence.  

Gottfried made a sign “Green squad - meet at the hill tonight at dusk.”.  And posted it along the main road to Buchfart.  They noticed some green squad members reading the sign and thinking it was real, and some red squad members thinking they could sneak up and capture them.  Hans told three of the green squad members to build a campfire on a hill on the farm to lure the red squad members in and then told five green squad members to hide away from the hill to ambush the red squad members.  

By the end of the evening, the green squad had captured another sixteen red squad members.  Within three days, mostly through Gottfried and Hans, the green squad of the Thuringia army captured all but five of the red squad.  The commanders of the red squad admitted defeat.

Farmer Floss was very happy with the help - and so they stayed on with him for two more days fixing up the farm.  Bruno Schneider and Karl Keinung from the Gera squad helped cut down trees, and split and stack the wood.  Soon, farmer Floss had a stack of wood for a couple of years.

The squads reported back to General Lange, who was very impressed with Gottfried and Hans' work and how they helped an old man get his barn and fences fixed, and wood stacked to get through the cold winter.

*****

The troops continued to work together.  General Lange had Gottfried talk about disguises and guerilla warfare.  Gottfried learned enough English to read about the American troops in the American Revolution.  He was promoted to lieutenant under Captain Oster.

King Mallory wanted to enlarge his kingdom.  Although Thuringia was smaller than Saxony, King Mallory thought a united Thuringia-Saxony on the southeast of the Germanic regions would be strong.

*****

Meanwhile, Gottfried was really becoming a great horse master.  Some describe his skills as being a ‘horse-whisper’.  With the meanest horses, it seemed as though Gottfried could calm them quickly.  It also seemed that he had a way with horses.  If Gottfried and another man walked into an unknown stable, the horses could almost smell that Gottfried was one of them and ignore the other man.  

One of Gottfried’s horse training exercises was to take three horses into a large pasture.  One would be his horse, Donner, and one mildly experienced horse and a horse who had never been around gunshots and weapons.  He would walk the horses around the pasture, whispering in their ears and getting their trust.  He would go a little ways away from the horses and smack a hammer against a rock.  In the first few attempts, the new horses would startle and shy away from the noise. Some would bolt to the other side of the pasture.  Donner didn’t even look up from his grazing, he was so used to the noise.

After a few more times of Gottfried pounding his hammer on the rock,, the three horses remained calm.  Gottfried would walk with the horses, building rapport.  Within a couple of days, he shot a pistol and slowly worked it so the horses wouldn’t spook.  Then he would shoot a rifle and finally about two weeks later, a cannon.  He would return in a week to enforce the training.  The horses accepted him, and as long as he was around, they would remain calm.  Military horses had to be able to carry their riders into battle and not rear or throw their riders.

Gottfried took horses out alone in all kinds of weather -snow, rain, thunderstorms, dry, cloudy, foggy, and bright, hot sun.  The horses needed to be ready to go no matter the conditions.  And, before and after each outing, Gottfried spoke soothing words to the horse.  He was pretty sure the horses recognized a few words, but the tone, the gentle stroking of the horse’s mane, and the calm delivery of the words seemed to settle the horse down.  

He never whipped the horses or used a prod as he trained them.  Likewise, as an officer, he used encouragement, and positive comments to help the soldiers under him develop.  He knew that some officers used verbal abuse and physical abuse to train their men, but that wasn’t Gottfried's way.

General Lange. had his eyes on Gottfried.  His cunning during the mock war exercise was notable, his gentleness, and even his work ethic of mucking out the horse stalls were positive.

One day in February, General Lange called Gottfried into the Erfurt barracks to talk.

General Lange started the conversation.  “Gottfried, I’ve got an assignment for you.”

Gottfried stood at attention but nodded his head.

The General continued, “We think that Thuringia and Saxony should be united.  Obviously, King Mallory thinks Saxony should be added to Thuringia, and of course, the king of Saxony wants Thuringia to be added on to Saxony. We want you to go to Saxony and get a flavor of the possible union.  If we need to fight we will, but let's see what happens.”

Gottfried again nodded.

“Could you go to Dresden, find a job as a horse attendant, and listen to what is going on there?”

Gottfried again nodded.

The General asked, “What might you need to scout out the area?”  This time, the General waited for Gottfried to speak.

Gottfried said, “Sir, do you want me to infiltrate the army?  Or just find a position close to the central army and make friends with the soldiers?”

The General answered, “I’ll leave that to you as you see fit.  It might be good to get a position close to the army headquarters and then get to know the men at a local bar.  You can drink, but get the soldiers drunk and learn about their plans.”

Gottfried agreed.  

The General said, “Take a couple of days for a leave on the way to Dresden, stop and see your family, and then head on to Dresden. We’ll give you money to cover your expenses.”

*****

The following morning, Gottfried was up early, making sure Donner was fed and watered, and loaded his gear on his horse.  The two were quite a pair. It seemed like Donner was more like Gottfried every day, and Gottfried was more like Donner every day.  Gottfried was dressed in his army great warm coat and a scarf around his neck.  He wore thick wool gloves.  In his pack, he had food for the journey, three changes of clothes for when he got to Dresden, and a reliance on God to lead and guide him.

The road did take him through Heckendorf. He stayed two nights there, arriving just in time for dinner on the first night.

Christoph Quaas, Gottfried’s dad, had some ailment, and Johann, Gottfried’s eldest brother was taking over more and more of the farming duties.  As they visited and drank bier, Johann mentioned that some of the cows had been taken by wolves.  Johann asked if Gottfried could help them clear out at least some of the wolves tomorrow, and Gottfried agreed.

After the visit and about bedtime, Gottfried stepped outside to listen.  Yes, he could hear the wolves howling, and not too far away.  There was the first-quarter moon. The cows were in a pen close to the barn, with Donner and the other horses in the stables.  Gottfried fell asleep next to Donner.

Sometime later, Donner nudged Gottfried awake.  Gottfried knew that Donner with a much better sense of smell and hearing was sensing something was coming towards the barn.  Gottfried got his gun and positioned at the northwest corner of the barn watching carefully, not moving.  With the pale moon, he could see something cross the barnyard and headed his way.  The eyes of a wolf were glowing in the pale light.  As the wolf slid under the bottom rail of the fenced area where the cows were, Gottfried shot.  Bullseye. He could see some shapes drop back into the trees.  He crossed the pen and found the dead wolf there.  The cows were very nervous, so Gottfried dragged the best back to the fence by its tail, then walked around and opened the gate to grab the wolf’s tail and drag it away from the area.  

He couldn’t see the wolf very well but sensed it was lean and mean, and probably very hungry.  Generally, wolves would catch the older and slower deer instead of attacking a farm.  He pulled the wolf a good distance downwind from the cows.  He went back and whispered to the cows to get them to quiet down again.  

He settled down next to Donner again, and it seemed like after a while Donner woke him again.  Again, Gottfried positioned himself.  The moon was almost over the horizon so the light was not very strong.  This time two wolves approached the cow pen, waiting almost too long. Gottfried nailed the wolf that was trailing and quickly reloaded his gun and got an amazing shot on the leading wolf running away across the field.  He had gotten three wolves now.  

Like before, he dragged the two wolves out and downwind from the cows and the barn.  It was getting very cold.  He settled the cows quickly and went back to the barn next to Donner.  

It was light when Donner nudged him awake.  There had been no additional attacks.  Gottfried was cold and stiff when he went into the house and let his mother feed him warm oatmeal and coffee.  Before falling asleep he went out to the barn with Gottlieb, his youngest brother, and looked at the tracks and the three dead wolves.  Out in the pasture, they found tracks of maybe six wolves.  Gottfried thought they wouldn’t be back, but couldn’t be sure.  

Going back inside the house, he fell sound asleep within minutes and slept away the morning.  

*****

After bidding his family goodbye, Gottfried made it to Gera on the next day.  He stopped at the barracks for the night. It seemed strange to be sleeping in his old cot after being at Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia.  The skeleton crew of five older army men who basically made the barracks their home welcomed him joyfully. Max, the old quartermaster helped fit Donner with a new rein, and a new saddle blanket.  The group was very happy that Gottfried mucked out the stable (Jakob had been doing that, but his knees weren’t all that good anymore, and his eyesight was weak.

So, Gottfried stayed an extra day helping out the Gera group. While they were largely independent, a little help from one of the younger men was appreciated.  Gottfried was such a helpful and pleasant young man. 

On the next morning, Gottfried left early with extra bread (made by Arnold).  He had two long days of travel to get to Dresden.  Donner was well rested too.

*****

Since Gottfried was to scout out the Saxony army, he did not wear his uniform or any insignia.  Past Gera was the Thuringia-Saxony border.  There was a border crossing, but since the two countries were at peace, there were four border guards from Thuringia and four border guards from Saxony. Each guard worked twelve hours a day and there were always two guards on duty from each country.  As you might expect, the guards were friends with each other and although loyal to their own country, got along well with the other country guards.  Since at any point in time, six guards were not on duty, you might find them drinking beer, cooking for the others, or engaging in games of whist.  

Two of the guards questioned Gottfried as he arrived at the border.  He indicated that as the fourth son of a farmer, he wasn’t going to inherit the farm, so was headed to Chemnitz to find work.  Chemnitz was well known as an industrial town because of the coal and iron ore in the area.  

As it was already drawing late, Gottfried asked about inns on the road.  The guards suggested the Crowing Rooster Inn in Crimmitschau about three miles down the road to Chemnitz.  He thanked the guards and went on.

*****

The Crowing Rooster was right on the road and did have room for Gottfried.  It was a shared room for single men.  The evening meal was already being served, so Gottfried put up Donner and made for the great room at the inn.  

The great room was about two-thirds full.  Some were finishing dinner and enjoying a glass (or two) of bier.  He got a spot at a table with a man from Thuringia and another from Saxony.  The man from Thuringia had heard of Heckendorf and knew some people from the area.  Gottfried knew a man from Ronneberg from the army, but he was reluctant to talk about the army, so only said he knew of a Karl Schick from Ronneberg.  The three drank several biers after dinner.  There was a trio that played the flute, lute, and guitar which entertained the guests.

Gottfried asked what the two thought of a unified Germany.  Ludolph said it was going to be led by Prussia.  Zane said he agreed, but Austria still was powerful in the southern German states like Thuringia and Saxony.  

The trio started singing some old German ballads, Gottfried, Ludolph and Zane joined in as did most of the guests.  Ludolph and Zane thought Gottfried had a great voice, so pushed him up to the stage and he joined the trio for Nieder and Auf, and Mein Vater war ein wander Mann.  

Finally, the crowd thinned out, but many had said to Gottfried that he could be a singer.  That only made Gottfried blush. 

*****

The next day Gottfried went on to Chemnitz.  At Hohenstein (literally “High Rock”), Gottfried could see the smoke rising from Chemnitz.  While it was hard to determine what smokestack was sending up what smoke, it was easy to tell that the city was truly an industrial city.  Zane was also going to Chemnitz, so the two of them walked and rode together.  

Zane was telling Gottfried about the iron ore and the coal deposits in the eastern Czech nation, and how Chemnitz was the hub of railroad track manufacturing, and locomotives. There was a train from Chemnitz to Dresden, but Gottfried wasn’t going to take it.  He needed to keep Donner with him and trains were scary to horses and very few trains had the facility for horses.  And, Gottfried had never seen a train, let alone ride one.  

To ride Donner to Dresden would take two days, but to take the train would be about two hours.  

Gottfried stayed with Zane and his family that evening.  Zane had invited him to join his family.  Arriving at the Schitt family home, Gottfried helped pay his way with taking care of the horses.  

Zane’s family welcomed Gottfried as if he was a brother.  Gottfried played on the floor with Zane’s two sons - ages 6 and 4.  He gave them piggyback rides and swung them around in the air.  Zane’s wife, Elizabeth wanted Gottfried to stay over an extra night so Gottfried could meet her unmarried sister, but Gottfried wanted to get to Dresden but promised that he would meet her when he came back through Chemnitz.

*****

Gottfried awoke early.  Elizabeth heard him and packed him a lunch for the road.  He bid goodbye to his new friends and started on the last leg of his journey - 12 hours of walking and riding from Chemnitz to Dresden.  

Zane had told Gottfried of a cheap but good inn in Kusslitz, on the southwestern side of Dresden.

*****

To be continued next week.