From a military point of view, nothing in this century has been more
brilliantly successful than the campaign of Prussia into Bohemia
against the Austrians, culminating on the sixth of July, 1866, in the
great conflict called the battle of Sadowa or Königgrätz--the one or
the other from the two towns near which it was fought. The historical
painter, Wilhelm Camphausen, of the School of Düsseldorf, has left
among the art trophies of the world a painting of this battle which is
as true to the field and the combatants as anything which we recall
from the sublime leaves of historical art.
The scene represented is the triumphant conclusion of the battle. The
field is wide and stormy. In the centre, riding at full gallop with
his staff, is King William. Already he is receiving the cheers and
salutations of victory. By his side are seen the stalwart figures of
Bismarck, Von Roon, Von Moltke, the Crown Prince, Prince Frederick
Charles, and many others destined in the ensuing ten years to rise to
the heights of military fame. To the right of the group of commanders
charges the column of the Uhlans. The Austrians before are broken, and
falling into rout. Far to the left and in the distance may be seen the
half-obscured wrecks of battle.
This conflict proved to be the Waterloo of Austria. It was the climax
of the Seven Weeks' War. Already the Germans, under the leadership of
Prussia, were making haste toward empire. The activity and energy
displayed by the Prussian Government at this juncture were prodigious.
It was like the days of Frederick the Great come again. The trouble
with Austria had arisen about the claims of the Duke of Augustenburg
to the government of Holstein. Bismarck desired that that duchy should
be disposed of in one manner, while Austria was determined on another.
The German States were drawn into this controversy, and the support of
Italy was sought by each of the contestants. Prussia held out to
Italy the temptation of recovering Venice, as the reward of her
entrance into a Prusso-Italian alliance. This bait was sufficient. The
smaller German powers, with the exception of Oldenburg, Mecklenburg,
the Saxon States, and three Free Cities, took their stand with
Austria, and the German Diet approved of the Austrian demand. It
looked for the time as though Prussia, with the exception of the aid
of Italy, was to be left naked to all the winds of hostility. The
event showed, however, that that great power was now in her element.
She declared the action of the German Diet to be not only a menace,
but an act of overt hostilities. This was followed by an immediate
declaration of war against a foe that had nearly three times her
numerical strength.
On the fifteenth of June, 1866, King William called upon Saxony,
Hanover, Hesse-Cassel and Nassau to remain neutral in the impending
conflict, and gave them _twelve hours_ in which to decide! Receiving
no answer, he ordered the Prussians out of Holstein to seize Hanover.
This work was accomplished in two days. In another two days
Hesse-Cassel was occupied by an army from the Rhine, while at the same
time a third division of the Prussian forces was thrown into Dresden
and Leipsic. On the twenty-seventh of the month, a battle was fought
with the Hanoverians, in which the latter were at first successful,
but were soon overpowered and compelled to surrender. George V., King
of Hanover, fled for refuge to Vienna.
Within two weeks the field in the South was cleared, and the Prussian
army was turned upon Austria. King William's forces numbered 260,000
men. They were commanded by the Crown Prince, Prince Frederick
Charles, Von Moltke, Von Roon and General Bittenfeld. The King in
person and Bismarck were present with the advance. The impact was more
than Austria could stand. On the twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth of
June, Frederick Charles defeated the Austrian advance in four
indecisive engagements. Count Clam-Gallas, the Austrian general, was
obliged to fall back on the main body for support.
In these same days the Crown Prince gained several preliminary
successes over the principal Austrian army under Benedek. Then, on the
river Bistritz, on the sixth of July, came the great battle of Sadowa.
The opposing commanders in the beginning of the engagement were
Frederick Charles and Benedek. The battle began at eight in the
morning, and raged with the utmost fury until two in the afternoon.
Thus far the Prussians had gained but little advantage; but at that
hour the powerful division of the Crown Prince, which, like that of
Blücher at Waterloo, had been delayed by recent rains, appeared on the
Austrian right. The wing of Benedek's army was soon turned. Bittenfeld
then broke the left, and under a general advance of the Prussian lines
the Austrian centre gave way in confusion. The field was quickly
swept. The overthrow of the Austrian army became a ruinous rout, and
the out-flashing sun of evening looked upon a demoralized and flying
host, scattering in all directions before the victorious charges of
the Prussian cavalry.
The overwhelming victory of the Prussians was not without its rational
causes. Indeed the antecedents of victory may always be found if all
the facts of battle are known and analyzed. It remained for the battle
of Sadowa to demonstrate practically the superiority of the
needle-gun. This arm had been adopted by the Prussian government and
was now for the first time on a great scale brought to the crucial
test. Hitherto the old plan of muzzle-loading had been followed by all
the nations of Europe and America. In our country the Civil War had
come almost to its climax before breech-loading was generally
introduced. Austria had continued to use the old muzzle-loading
muskets. It seems surprising that nations, of whom intelligence and
self-interest may well be predicated, should continue in such a matter
as war to employ inefficient weaponry long after a superior arm has
been invented.
If one might have looked into the gunshop of M. Pauli at Paris in the
year 1814, he might have seen a gunsmith, twenty-seven years of age,
plying his trade under the patronage of Napoleon the Great. That
gunsmith was Johann Nicholas Von. Dreyse, of Sömmerda, who presently
became an inventor as well as a smith, and in 1824, having returned to
his own country, he took a patent for a new percussion method in
musketry. Three years afterward he invented a needle-gun, retaining
the muzzle-loading method. He continued his experimentation until
1836, when he made and patented the first breech-loading needle-gun
complete. This was done under the patronage of the Prussian
government. It was not until 1841, however, that this arm began to be
supplied for Prussian troops, and it was twenty-five years after that
date before the general adoption of this arm contributed to the rout
of the Austrians at Sadowa.
The Prussians being armed with needle-guns, were enabled to get the
double advantage of rapid firing by loading in a chamber at the
breech of the piece, and the equally great advantage of a long range
and most deadly missile; for in the cartridge of this gun the needle
runs through the charge, firing it first at the front of the chamber,
thus securing the whole force of the explosive, which burns backward
in the enclosed space and expends itself entirely on the projectile.
Those breech-loading pieces which fire the cartridge by percussion
against its back end have the disadvantage of the charge burning
forward, and thus wasting itself partly in the air after the bullet
has left the muzzle. This difficulty, however, has been overcome in
recent gunnery, and the needle-gun such as it was in the hands of King
William's soldiers at Sadowa, must now be regarded as a clumsy and
obsolete weapon.
The battle of Sadowa was to Francis Joseph the handwriting on the
wall; but he made vain exertions to save his tottering fabric. Now it
was that the shadow of a great hand was seen behind the conflict. It
was the hand of Bismarck. His scheme was the unification of Germany.
The NORTH GERMAN UNION was formed on the basis of Protestantism and
the unity of the German race. Already the Empire might be seen in the
distance.