The Seven Weeks' War

by H M Hozier

  On the night of the 24th, the Prussian advanced posts near Kratzkau could see the light of the Austrian bivouac fires, and the next morning the Magdeburg hussars who cleared the way for the army had a skirmish with some of Radetzky’s Austrian hussars. Shots were exchanged, two of the Prussians were wounded and five of the Austrians were wounded, with two killed. A combat was expected at Reichenberg. Three Austrian cavalry regiments, Lichtenstein’s hussars, Radetzky’s hussars, and the hussars of the regiment of Hesse-Cassel, were known to be in front of the Prussian advance, and it was anticipated that in the fine strategical position of Reichenberg the Austrians might stand to fight; for this town covers the junction of roads which leads over the mountains by Gabel, Grottau, Friedland, and from Hirschberg. But the Austrian cavalry retired through the town, and it was occupied about ten o’clock by the Prussian advanced guard; and Prince Frederick Charles, without a blow, gained the south side of the mountains, and commanded the issues of the passes.

  The march of the 24th, although over a hill country, was not over a severe road, for the summit of the mountain chain dips so deeply into the gorge which forms the defile of Reichenberg, that the road through the pass both ascends and descends with a moderate gradient; on either side of the way the mountains rise high, but not steep, for the whole character of this range is more rounded and swelling than bold and sharp. As the army passed between the hills in the early morning, the tops were shrouded in a dense mist, which occasionally lifted high enough to show the lower parts of the dense fir woods which clothe the upper mountain sides, but never to afford a glimpse of their summits.

  The rain fell heavily and without ceasing; it battered down the grain which grew in the fields by the wayside, and filled the mountain watercourses with rushing mud-coloured streams; there was no wind to give it a slanting direction, and it came straight down on the men’s helmets, only to roll off in large drops upon their backs and shoulders, but it did not seem to depress the spirits of the troops; they stepped along cheerily, marching as well as they did the first day they left their garrisons, and many of the soldiers said that they preferred the wet weather to heat. All along the line of march the commander of the army was loudly cheered.

  When Prince Frederick Charles reached the market-place of Reichenberg, he halted to await the arrival of the troops who had marched by the Friedland road. The town looked dull, for as it was Sunday the shops were all shut, and at first the Bohemians seemed inclined to remain in their houses; but the bands of the marching regiments roused their curiosity, and they soon collected and lined the street in dense crowds to see the troops go by. The soldiers who had arrived early and had been dismissed from their ranks joined in the crowd, and a common language soon made them great friends with the townspeople. Many tales are told of the dreadful devastation to which a country is subjected by the plunderers of an invading army.

  So far as the Prussian Army had yet advanced into Bohemia the soldiers had treated the Austrians with the greatest kindness; as in the British service, everything that a soldier wished to buy must be scrupulously paid for, and there seemed to be no desire among the men that it should be otherwise; in fact, the troops were much more plundered than plunderers, for the cigar merchants and public-house keepers were driving a most prosperous trade, and took very good care that they themselves did not suffer, for the soldiers were unaccustomed to Austrian currency, and had to pay an equivalent of Prussian coin.

  Reichenberg was, on the morning of the 24th, occupied by the Prussians about ten o’clock. Before evening nearly the whole army, attended by artillery and waggons, marched through the narrow winding streets of a town which to these artificial disadvantages for free locomotion adds the natural one of being built upon a steep hill; still there was no confusion in the marching columns, and, although the troops had to move by different streets and were sometimes obliged to march in and out of the town by country lanes and narrow paths, no column took a false direction or made an unnecessary halt; yet the Quartermaster-General von Stülpnagel had only a few minutes allowed him in which he could arrange his plans.

  The column which had marched by the Friedland route was brought through the market-place and past the commander-in-chief. This corps was composed of men of the province of Brandenburg; they were taller than the average of the Prussian infantry, but were not so thick and stout, and did not look so strong as the sturdy Pomeranians; but they had intelligent faces, and could readily be seen to be, as they were, men of an education superior to that which is usually found in the ranks. The regiment of the late king led; the men bore his cipher on their shoulder cords, instead of a number. The whole corps marched magnificently.

  After a wet day and a long journey they came up the hill of Reichenberg with ranks closed up, with as perfect a step as on a holiday parade, and went swinging along as if they could not know fatigue; yet they were heavily encumbered, for every man carried his knapsack, the weight of which tells severely against a soldier’s marching, and might, in a country where transport is plentiful, be carried for him. After the late king’s regiment came the 64th, Prince Frederick Charles’s own: the faces of the soldiers showed that they recognised their colonel, and they went past him without cheering, for in the town the men marched as on parade, but with that appearance which is more pleasing to a soldier than any acclamations.

  The headquarters were established in the schloss or castle of Reichenberg, another of the properties of Count Clam Gallas, who thus twice became the involuntary host of Prince Frederick Charles. Here a curious scene was afforded: the castle stands on a hill, overlooks the picturesque town, and commands a beautiful view of the plains and mountains beyond it The side of this hill below the castle was covered with carefully-tended turf, and luxuriant shrubberies. The place seemed only fit to be the quiet home of a country gentleman, but up and down its gravelled avenue chargers were being led ready saddled for the aides-de-camp, who were waiting to carry out the evening orders; military train horses were being led to water, soldiers, in stable dress, were hurrying about, mounted dragoons were in attendance as orderlies, and near the door of the castle stood the horse of the officer of Uhlans, who had brought in the last report from the outposts.

  On the afternoon of the 24th, the Thuringian regiment of Uhlans, who are much the same as lancers, took up outpost duty, and one squadron of them had a skirmish with some of Radetzky’s hussars. The hussars were led by a staff officer, who came too near the Prussian infantry picket, and the deadly needle-gun shot the first officer who fell a victim to this war. The hussars and Uhlans mutually charged each other, and in the mêlée which ensued, two Prussian officers and seventeen men were wounded. The Austrian loss was not ascertained.

  The possession of Reichenberg allowed Prince Frederick Charles to open railway communication with the Silesian and Saxon lines, which was of great importance in the supply of the army’s necessities. The railway from Reichenberg to Zittau was almost immediately restored, for to each Prussian army was attached a corps of pioneers, architects, and railway officials, who followed the advancing army, laid down the lines torn up by the enemy, and rapidly reorganised the working of the line for the purposes of military transport.

  Two other excellent institutions of the Prussian Army were quickly established, and put in working order at every halting-place; they were the Field Telegraph and the Field Post-office. As soon as it was determined where headquarters were to be fixed for the night, the field telegraph division started off to the nearest permanent telegraph station where the line could be fixed in working order; from this starting point they carried a single line along the side of the shortest road to the head quarter house, and generally by the time the chief of the staff arrived at his quarters he found his telegraph ready, by which he could get information or send his orders. The field post-office was established also at headquarters, but had branch offices at the headquarters of each corps d’armée; it carried the private letters of soldiers and officers, as well as official despatches, and s
ent out a mail nearly daily. This was a greater convenience than the field telegraph, but the latter was one of the neatest appliances of modern science to the art of war which it is possible to conceive.

  The whole of its apparatus was carried in some light waggons; one contained the batteries and needles, and was used as a small room in which the telegraphist worked; the other waggons carried the poles and wires, with the implements for putting them up. The wires were coiled round revolving discs, which were fitted in the waggon, so that the wire could be passed as the waggon went along, or the disc could be transferred to a stretcher earned between two men, so that it might be laid off the road in places where it was desirable to cut off corners. The detachment who laid the lines were all instructed in repairing damage done to the permanent wires. When it is remembered that on the morning of the 23rd the Austrians were close up to the frontier, and that at midday the castle of Grafenstein, five miles from the nearest permanent station, was in direct telegraphic communication with Berlin, some idea can be formed of the advantages which this apparatus gives to an army in the field.

  The headquarters of the First Army halted at Reichenberg on the 25th, to allow the cavalry that came by the Friedland road which had covered the march of the column to come in. During the day the outposts were pushed forward, but the Austrians were not felt.

  Count Clam Gallas had drawn his army together on the south of the line of Iser, round Münchengrätz. The Poschacher brigade, supported by the light cavalry, was posted as his advanced guard on the northern side of the river, and was pushed forward along the road to Reichenberg. This was the same Austrian brigade which had in Schleswig, in 1864, on account of the sturdy manner in which it stormed and occupied the Königsberg, gained the name of the “iron brigade.” It was now destined to commence the contest against its former allies in the

  COMBAT OF LIEBENAU

  The Austrian brigade occupied the hills south of the village of Liebenau, about half way between Reichenberg and Türnau, and had pushed detachments into the village itself.

  The road from Reichenberg to Türnau crosses a range of hills which separates the valley of the Upper Neisse from the country beyond, and drops down from this range by some sharp zigzags to the valley in which lies the village of Liebenau.

  This village is built on the banks of a stream which forms a defile through a second range of hills lying between Liebenau and Türnau. This rivulet, in the part of its course above the village of Liebenau, runs at right angles to the defile, and forms a valley between the two hills which lie north of Liebenau towards Reichenberg, and those which lie to the south towards Türnau. The railway from Liebenau to Türnau passes through the defile formed by the stream which runs through the village; but the road turns to the left and ascends the southern range, passing near the top between a steep cutting through rocks. This cutting is about 100 yards in length, and here the road is only about 30 feet wide.

  The hills are on their side covered with thick plantations of fir trees; but when the traveller leaving Liebenau has by the road gained the summit of the range which lies south of the village, he finds before him a wild plateau extending for about two miles in the direction of Türnau. This plateau was this morning covered with high-standing crops of wheat and barley, already whitening for the harvest The road runs through the cornfields, and at the end of the plateau drops down by a gentle slope into the valley of the Iser. From the brow of this slope Türnau can be seen lying on the river towards the left front The Schloss of Sichrow, standing on the very edge of the Liebenau defile, is directly on the right, and the view to the front is bounded by the firclad and fantastically rocky hills which form the southern boundary of the valley of the Iser, while on the left the church of Gentschowitz stands raised on a knoll above the general plain, and looking down upon the orchards and cottages of the little hamlet which clusters round its foot.

  Between the bottom of the slope which falls from this flat plain into the valley and the Iser, and about half way between the foot of the hill and the river itself, there runs a low range of hills, having an elevation considerably inferior to that of the plateau. On this lower range, immediately surrounded by orchards, but in the midst of a wide-stretching corn land, lies the village of Kositz.

  On the evening of the 25th the Prussian advanced posts were pushed forward to the tops of the range of hills which bound the valley of Liebenau on the north. The next morning General von Horne, who with the 8th division held the outposts, had advanced early to occupy Liebenau. As his advanced guard entered the village, the Austrian rear-guard were discovered tearing up the pavement, in order to form a barricade across the narrow street through which the high road runs. On the approach of the advanced guard they retired to the hill over which the road to Türnau passes south of the village. Here the Austrians took up position; their artillery, placed on the brow of the hill, looked down upon the village of Liebenau, which Horne had just occupied, and their cavalry covered the guns.

  But they were not in force. They had little infantry, and their main strength appeared to be only four regiments of cavalry, with two batteries of horse artillery. Horne’s division passed through the village, and began to ascend the hill, while General von Hann came down to Liebenau with the Prussian cavalry, and the field artillery took up a position on the hills which bound the Liebenau valley on the north. Thus the guns of the Austrians were on the southern, those of the Prussians on the northern range, which form the valley of Liebenau; the valley between them is about 600 yards wide, and there seemed to be an opportunity for a smart combat. Down in Liebenau, between the opposed batteries, were the wings of Horne’s divisions, and columns were already issuing from the village, making their way along both the railway and the chaussée, while the skirmishers were getting among the short spruce firs that clothe the hill beside the road.

  A little before nine o’clock Prince Frederick Charles and his staff came upon the hill where the artillery was placed. It was almost exactly the same hour when a flash of fire, with a heavy puff of white smoke on the Austrian hill, showed that their artillery had opened, and a rifle shell came whistling over the heads of Horne’s division. The Prussian artillery answered, and for a few minutes the hills echoed with the noise of their rapid discharges; while the smoke, drifting but slowly on the lazy breeze, hid from sight the opposite guns, though the quick reports and the whistling of the shells told that they were not idle. But the Prussian guns were too numerous. Horne’s division was pushing up the hill, and the Austrian artillery had to retire. Then the Prussian cavalry pushed forward by the road, and in a short time, eight fine cavalry regiments were formed on the northern edge of the plateau. The Thuringian Uhlans, the Uhlans of the Prince of Hohenlohe, and the dragoons of the Prince of Mecklenburg were extended to the left, while the Brandenburg hussars of Ziethen, conspicuous by their red uniform, were nearer the road. On the right of the cavalry was the horse artillery, and Prince Frederick Charles, himself a cavalry officer, was in the front.

  The retreat of the Austrians could be traced by the broad paths trampled down in the corn, and every now and then they halted, their artillery came into action, and two or three rounds were fired at the forming lines. When Prince Frederick Charles had completed his dispositions he ordered the advance, and the troops pressed forward. The cavalry and artillery moved on the plateau, while Horne’s infantry, on the right, made for the Schloss of Sichrow and the woods around it The cavalry pushed on quickly, and the guns moved well with it, but every now and then halted and came into action. The Austrians, inferior in numbers and already retiring, could not hope to stand against the force thus displayed, and they drew quickly over the plateau, making for the hills of Kositz. Three regiments of cavalry were launched after them, and went dashing through the corn, but did not reach the retiring troops before the latter had quitted the plateau, and then the woods and broken ground on the side of the slopes impeded their progress.

  As soon as the Austrians gained the Kositz hills their artill
ery opened, and poured shells briskly into the advancing lines, but the gliding motion of the advancing troops and the undulating ground deceived their aim, for only about twenty casualties occurred When the Prussian guns gained the southern brow of the plateau, they opened on the Austrian batteries; a smart cannonade ensued, but the Austrians were ultimately silenced Yet they did well, for they made good their retreat; but had not the Prussian horse been detained by having to pass through the narrow street of Liebenau, the field artillery which that day fired into the Prussian ranks would probably have gone as a trophy to Berlin.

  It is evident that the Austrian commander had not calculated on the rapid advance of General von Horne. His dispositions for the defence of the Liebenau position were incomplete; the street of Liebenau was not rendered impracticable, for the workmen were disturbed by the Prussian advance guard, and in the cutting which the road leading from the village passes through at the top of the hill leading on to the plateau, although the trees which stood by the wayside had been cut down, they were not formed into abattis, nor was the cutting blocked by waggons or any barricade. The Austrians retreated across the Iser, and broke the bridge of Türnau, but the Prussians after the combat occupied that town with Horne’s division, while the main body of the army bivouacked on the plateau, and one division occupied Gablenz, which lies five miles to the north-east.

  On the same day the 14th division, which belonged to the Army of the Elbe, occupied Böhmisch Aicha, and assured free communication between Prince Frederick Charles and General Herwarth von Bittenfeld.

  The plateau that looks down on Liebenau was sadly changed in the course of the day. The corn was trampled down by the feet of horses and the wheels of artillery; dead horses lay dotted here and there over the plain, while large holes in the ground showed where shells had struck and burst But these marks were not frequent, for the Austrian shells often penetrated into the earth without bursting, and several were dag out by the soldiers in the afternoon. Nor was the practice of their artillery good. The Ziethen hussars, whose red uniforms drew their fire, were at one time exposed to a heavy cannonade; but though above fifty shells struck the ground around them, not one fell among their ranks, not at that time had they a man touched.