ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
651 
Hozier says “at this time tlie Austrian artillery were making splendid 
practice, and about one o'clock the whole battle-line of the Prussians 
could gain no more ground, and was obliged to fight hard to maintain 
the position it had won. At one time it seemed as if it would be lost, 
for guns had been dismounted by the Austrian fire." 
And when Prince Frederick Charles sent the 5th and 6th Divisions 
forward to support the attack, they were unable to make any progress 
either. The counter-attack which might have followed on the resisting 
power developed by a powerful artillery was, as we all know, stifled 
by the pressure on the Austrian rig-lit, and the end was soon inevitable; 
but during the remainder of the disastrous day the Austrian batteries 
nobly sustained the reputation of the arm, and staved off ruin though 
they could not bring about a victory. 
The guns which had so long held the 1st Prussian Army at arm's 
length in the wood of Sadowa were captured, it is true, but not until 
the troops which were supporting them had disappeared and almost 
the whole of their detachments and teams had been destroyed. 
Yon Moltke 1 2 himself has borne testimony to their devotion in the 
following words :— 
“ As we came out of the wood of Sadowa we found still a part of the 
great battery which had so long prevented us from debouching there, 
but the teams and gunners lay dead by the wrecked guns. There was 
nothing else to be seen of the enemy for a long way round." 
The Austrian retreat from the position, stormed on both sides, had 
become inevitable, and had, in fact, been effected some time since. 
Their capital artillery, firing on to the last moment, had screened their 
retreat, and given the infantry a long start. 
The Austrian batteries which were held in reserve behind the centre 
of their position likewise did excellent service, when it was clear the 
day was lost, and when the Prussians, pressing on triumphantly, both 
in front and on the flank, threatened to cut off the retreating masses of 
their opponents from the bridges across the river behind them. All 
accounts concur in praising the courage and self-sacrifice displayed at 
this period of the battle by the Austrian artillery. The 1st and 2nd 
Divisions of the Reserve Artillery were brought into action between 
Chlum and Nedelitz about two o'clock to oppose the menacing advance 
of the 2nd Army under the Crown Prince from this position, and from 
two others which they subsequently retired into in rear, these eight 
batteries did all that was possible to hold back the enemy, and by the 
splendid spirit of self-sacrifice which they displayed averted the utter 
ruin which the Austrians would otherwise have experienced. Taubert 3 
says that but for the unflinching front shown by these guns up to the 
last moment the catastrophe might have been immeasurably greater, 
and something like total destruction would have fallen on the beaten 
army. Yet, covered by their fire, Benedek succeeded in drawing off his 
troops still in formation across the Elbe, and nothing like a rout super¬ 
vened on the defeat. According to Taubert these eight batteries lost 
9 officers, 139 men, 259 horses, and 32 guns. 
1 In the appendix to the “ Franco-Prussian War.” 
2 “ Der Gebrauch der Artillerie un Feld Kriege.” 
