364 



GERMAN-ITALIAN WAR. 



Charles of Bavaria, the Hanoverians, and the 

 8th- Federal army corps (the contingent of 

 "Wurteinberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse- 

 Oassel, etc.), under command of Prince Alex- 

 ander of Hesse, would aid them by an army of 

 at least 150,000. It was generally expected 

 that Bonedek would assume the offensive, but 

 this he was prevented from doing because his 

 government had failed to make in time the ne- 

 cessary preparations. Thus the war began by 

 an advance of the Prussiaus into Bohemia, and 

 not, as had been expected, by an advance of 

 the Austrians into Saxony and Silesia. 



On the side of Prussia, eight and a half army 

 corps were concentrated on the frontier of Sax- 

 ony and Bohemia, and fully equipped, about 

 the middle of May. The chief command of all 

 these troops the king reserved to himself. He 

 was to be accompanied to the seat of war by 

 Count Bismarck, the minister of war (Von 

 Eoon), and the chief of the general staff, Von 

 Moltke. The troops were divided into three 

 armies. The First army (2d, 3d, 4th army 

 corps, and the cavalry of the guard), under 

 Prince Frederick Charles, a nephew of the king, 

 was stationed along the Saxon frontier. The 

 Second army (1st, 5th, 6th army corps, and the 

 guard-corps), under the crown prince, was sta- 

 tioned in Silesia. The Army of the Elbe (8th 

 army corps, and one division of the Tth) was 

 under command of General Herwarth von Bit- 

 tenfeld, near Halle, in Prussian Saxony. In 

 Berlin, a reserve corps of eight regiments of the 

 landwehr had been organized. The aggregate 

 effective strength of the three armies was esti- 

 mated at about 236,000 men, with 792 pieces 

 of ordnance. 



After the rapid occupation of the Kingdom of 

 Saxony, which has already been referred to, the 

 Prussians resolved to leave the reserve corps 

 under General von der Mulbe, as a garrison 

 in Saxony, and to march without delay all 

 the three armies into Bohemia, and effect a 

 junction as soon as possible. The First army 

 and the Army of the Elbe were to enter Bohe- 

 mia first, in order to engage the attention of 

 Benedek, and to facilitate the march of the 

 crown prince, who had to overcome greater 

 obstacles in crossing the mountains between 

 Silesia and Bohemia. The entry of the First 

 army and the Army of the Elbe was not op- 

 posed by the Austrians, as the troops available 

 in this direction (the 1st army corps, under 

 Count Clam-Gallas) numbered only 60,000, 

 against 120,000 Prussians. The main body of the 

 army of the Elbe entered Bohemia near Rum- 

 burg and advanced upon Niemes and Hiinner- 

 wasser. Of the First army, the 4th army 

 corps advanced from Zittau (in Saxony) upon 

 Reichenberg, the first commercial city in Bohe- 

 mia, while the 3d entered Bohemia near Gor- 

 litz. On the 24th Reichenberg was occupied 

 by the vanguard of the First army. The 4th 

 army corps on the 28th occupied Liebenau, 

 from which, after a brief fight of artillery, the 

 Austrians withdrew, partly to Turnau and 



partly to Miinchengratz. An attempt of the 

 Austrians to dispute the passage of the Iser at 

 Podol (near Turnau) was unsuccessful. An- 

 other attempt to arrest the march of the Army 

 of the Elbe at Hiinnerwasser (June 27th) 

 equally failed, and the retiring Austrian army 

 was concentrated near Munchengrtitz. The 

 army of Prince Frederick Charles crossed the 

 Iser at Turnau, three-fourths of a German mile 

 above Podol, and the army of General Her- 

 warth at an equal distance below Podol. Thus, 

 the union between the 120,000 men of the two 

 armies was consummated. The united army 

 advanced upon Munchengratz, which Clam- 

 Gallas evacuated after severe fighting. He 

 fell back upon Gitchin (in Bohemian, Jicin), 

 which, in the night from June 29th to June 30th, 

 was stormed by the Prussians. Clam-Gallas, 

 but little pursued, retreated to Nechanitz. 



In the mean while, the Second army, under 

 the crown prince, had also commenced opera- 

 tions. The first troops which crossed the fron- 

 tier belonged to the 5th army corps, com- 

 manded by General von Steinmetz, who already 

 enjoyed the reputation of being one of the 

 ablest generals of the Prussian army. On the 

 26th, the village of Nachod (near the frontier) 

 was occupied, the Austrian garrison falling 

 back upon Neustadt. On the 27th a severe 

 fight took place near Nachod (on the roads 

 leading to Skalitz and Neustadt) between Gen- 

 eral von Steinmetz and the 6th Austrian (Hun- 

 garian), army corps, under Ramming, who had 

 to fall back upon Skalitz, and lost, besides the 

 killed and wounded, several thousand prisoners. 

 About one-half of them entered a Hungarian 

 legion which was forming in Silesia, under 

 Klapka and Vetter. The 6th Austrian army 

 corps was at once reenforced by the 8th, under 

 Archduke Leopold, who had an engagement 

 with the advancing Prussians on the 28th, near 

 Skalitz, and was compelled to withdraw toward 

 Jaromierz. The 1st Prussian army corps, un- 

 der General von Bonin, had, on June 26th, ad- 

 vanced from Liebau (Silesia) to Goldendls 

 (Bohemia). Oil the 27th, Bonin advanced as 

 far as Trautenau, but had to fall back before 

 the larger Austrian force under General von 

 Gablenz. The latter was then ordered to ar- 

 rest the advance of the Prussian guard-corps, 

 which (on June 26th) had entered into Bohemia 

 from Braunau. He encountered these troops 

 on the 28th, at Burgersdorf and Soor, and was 

 compelled by them to abandon Trautenau, and 

 to retreat to Koniginhof. The Prussians lost 

 about 1,000 men, while the Austrians had from 

 4,000 to 5,000 killed and wounded, and lost 

 some 5,000 prisoners and ten pieces of ord- 

 nance. The total loss suffered up to this time 

 by the 8th, 4th, and 10th Austrian army corps, 

 was estimated at 15,000 men and twenty-four 

 pieces of ordnance. On the 29th the Prussian 

 guard-corps occupied, after some fighting, the 

 town of Koniginhof, on the Elbe, when, again, 

 400 Austrians were captured. On the same 

 day, and on the 30th, the 5th Prussian army 



