368 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
disordered state of tlie whole force, and the certainty that the Prussians 
would lose no time in attempting to drive them out of it, are quite sufficient 
to justify the other measure. Usually it is considered a great point gained 
in military operations to place your adversary in such a predicament that 
he must fight, whilst you can choose the scene of action. It is a sad state 
for a great army to be reduced to when the avoidance of the enemy, and a 
shelter behind impassable obstacles, take precedence of all other motives. 
This was the state of the Austrian army at the end of the Bohemian 
Campaign. 
Campaign on the river Maine . 
We now come to the other scene of war in Germany, where those Prussian 
troops which I mentioned at the beginning of the narrative as having overrun 
Hanover and Electoral Hesse, allied with some smallcontingents from theNorth 
German States, had to oppose forces brought into the field by the Austrian 
allies. These consisted of the 7th and 8th Corps of the army which was 
nominally under control of the German Diet, and was formed by contin¬ 
gents from all states in the German Confederation. The 7th Corps was 
contributed by Bavaria. The 8th Corps was made up by joint contingents 
from Wurtemberg, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, and Nassau. To these must 
be added the Hessian troops who had escaped when the Prussians entered 
their territory. 
The Prussian troops consisted of three divisions, amounting to 47,000 
men and 90 guns, united under the orders of General Yogel von Ealkenstein. 
The strength of the Bavarians was about 44,000 and 144 guns : that of the 
8th Corps about 47,000 and 144 guns : the two together would therefore 
have been nearly double the number of the Prussians, and with a vast 
preponderance of artillery ; but being under separate commands, with their 
present head-quarters at some distance from one another, it was possible for 
Ealkenstein to encounter them separately, and to delay or prevent their 
junction. 
The 8th Corps, under Prince Alexander of Hesse, assembled round*" 
Eriedberg, (16 miles north of Erankfort); the Bavarians, under Prince 
Charles of Bavaria had their head-quarters originally at Bamberg, but 
receiving an application to move northwards, with the view of giving 
assistance to the Hanoverian army, they left Bamberg, and at the end of 
June their head-quarters were at Meiningen. (See Plan 1). 
The Hanoverian army, taken by surprise when the Prussians entered the 
kingdom, and unable to make a stand against them, had retreated to 
Gottingen, at the southernmost point of the kingdom, about 60 miles from 
the nearest part of Bavaria. They marched thence on the 20th June, three 
days after the occupation of Hanover. By the 24th they were at Gr. 
Gottern, 50 miles from the Bavarian boundary, and if they had proceeded 
1866. The position had suggested itself to me as an advantageous one, hut I should not have 
insisted strongly upon it if the idea had not been supported by such excellent authority. I may 
take the opportunity of adding that the Austrians, if they had been less disorganized by the battle 
of Koniggratz, might previously have found a position, well calculated for checking the Prussian 
advance, in the mountains between Bohemia and Moravia.—See Eiistow’s History, p. 411. 
