by H M Hozier
The Würtembergers had occupied Hohenzollern, and had driven away our officials. They must now quit that principality, (principalities of Hohenzollern); the black and white flag waves again over the town of Hohenzollern. I must express my thanks to the generals, commanders, officers, and to all the rank and file. I also thank the military surgeons for their unremitting and self-sacrificing care of the wounded, both under fire and in the hospital, as well as to the non-combatant departments for their successful administration of the army’s supplies. Soldiers of the Army of the Maine! I know that you are thankful to God, and I expect that during the armistice your recognised manliness and careful behaviour towards the inhabitants of the country will be worthy of the Prussian name.
The relics of the diet quickly approached dissolution. On the 1st of August the small knot of diplomatists which at the hotel of the Three Moors, at Augsburg, still assumed the functions of that august body, were deserted by the ambassadors of England, France, Spain and Belgium; while the Russian representative remained at Augsburg only on account of illness. The sitting of the 4th August acknowledged the end of the last shadow of the Germanic Confederation. Prince Charles of Bavaria reported the conclusion of an armistice with Prussia by the governments of Austria, Bavaria, Würtemberg, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse; and reported at the same time, that he resigned the command-in-chief of the western Federal Army, which had been bestowed on him by the decree of the diet of the 27th June.
Brunswick had very tardily placed its troops on a war footing, but by the beginning of August they were attached to the second Prussian reserve corps. That State a short time previously declared its withdrawal from the confederation.
The remaining members of the diet annulled the protests which had been made against Prussia, and decreed that no obstacle should be offered to the North-German troops in the Federal fortresses in retiring to their homes.
On the 28th July, the troops of Saxe-Meiningen had already been permitted by the Governor of Mainz to leave that fortress, which, in virtue of the subsequent treaties of peace, was occupied by and given over entirely to Prussia on the 26th August.
This decree was the last act of the diet of the Germanic Confederation, which was constructed after the fall of the first French Empire. By it, it practically published its own death warrant.
BOOK 9
CHAPTER 1: Prussian Advance From Königgrätz to Brünn
Feldzeugmeister von Benedek had headed in person the troops with which he attempted to retake Chlum after the Prussian Guards had possessed themselves of that village, and so turned the scale of the Battle of Königgrätz. After his three attacks on the burning houses and the garrisoned churchyard had been repulsed, he saw that all was lost, and himself in vain attempted to find a soldier’s grave on the field of battle, and with his blood to wash out the memory of his misfortune. The rapid advance of the whole Prussian army forced the Austrians speedily to retreat. During the night of the 3rd of July, in great disorder, having but half of its artillery, with its staff separated and scattered, the defeated army pushed across the crowded bridges over the Elbe, and wearily dragged itself in the direction of Hohenmanth. Benedek himself retreated to Holitz, on the road to this place, and there on the morning of the 4th, made the best arrangement he could for the safety of his troops.
Their losses in men, matérial, and guns rendered it impossible for him to think of any new dispositions until they were thoroughly reorganised. To carry out such a reorganisation he must seek a place of shelter, and the cover he desired was to be found under the guns, and behind the entrenchments of Olmütz. With the exception of the tenth corps, which had suffered most severely, and which he therefore despatched by railway directly to Vienna, he ordered the remainder of his army to move on the entrenched camp at Olmütz, while he left his first light cavalry division to watch the road from Pardubitz to Iglau, and his second to delay the enemy, if possible, on that from Pardubitz to Brünn.
On the 4th July he also sent Field Marshal Gablenz, one of the most able of the Austrian generals, to the Prussian headquarters, in order to treat for a suspension of hostilities, as a preliminary to the conclusion of peace. This was a new proof of the desperate condition of the Austrian army. Gablenz reported himself on the 4th July at mid-day, at the outposts of the crown prince’s army, and received permission to go to the king’s headquarters. He was blindfolded in passing through the army, as is the custom of war, and accompanied by a Prussian officer, was conducted to Höritz. When he reached that town the king was absent, as he had gone to visit his troops on the field of battle. General Gablenz was taken to meet him, and fell in with the king between Sadowa and Chlum, who at first took him for a wounded Austrian general, and was about to condole with him, but being informed of his mission, ordered the bandage to be removed, and requested the Austrian general to return with him to Höritz. Here Gablenz expressed Benedek’s desire of an armistice, but no truce could be granted, for Prussia and Italy were mutually bound to agree to no suspension of hostilities without a common agreement General Gablenz returned unsuccessful to the Austrian headquarters.
Equally unsuccessfully did the Austrian Government endeavour to make a separate peace with Italy. It determined, however, to leave only garrisons in the fortresses of the Venetian quadrilateral, and to transfer all the remaining troops of the Army of the South from the Mincio to the Danube, to shield its capital against its northern enemy.
The Prussian Army the night of the Battle of Königgrätz, bivouacked on the field. The following afternoon it began to move forward, to seize the passages over the Elbe. The Second Army on the left was directed upon Pardubitz. It left behind it the sixth corps d’armée to watch the fortresses of Josephstadt and Königgrätz. No siege against these places was undertaken. Yet the town of Königgrätz was nearly destroyed On the 5th July, the day after the Prussian armies had marched from the vicinity of the fortress, the commander of the troops left to mask the place, opened a cannonade on the town from some of the Austrian guns, which had been captured in the battle. The shells burst among the dry houses, and the place would soon have been in flames had not a gun from one of the bastions opened with singular effect upon the Prussian gunners and compelled them to withdraw.
The army of Prince Frederick Charles, and that of Herwarth, were both directed upon Przelautsch. At the same time the division of Landwehr of the Guard, which had followed in rear of the main armies, was despatched to Prague, the capital of Bohemia. The Austrian garrison did not attempt to defend this town, and the Imperial lieutenant transferred the seat of the government of the province to Pilsen. The Prussian soldiery here found a very welcome booty in twenty-seven millions of cigars, which, as tobacco in Austria is a government monopoly, were confiscated for the benefit of the Prussian troops. On the 8th July, this division reached the ancient town on the Moldau, and hoisted the Prussian flag upon the Hradschin, the palace of the kings of Bohemia. On the 11th, General Mülbe took the command of the place, having moved the first Prussian reserve corps from Saxony into Bohemia.
The first division of the Landwehr of the line remained in Saxony, to which later a newly-formed second division was added. The detachments made from the Prussian main armies for masking fortresses, and escorts of prisoners, as well as the losses in battle and from sickness, were replaced by a portion of eighty-one new battalions, which had been lately formed out of the troops left at the regimental depôts. The first line armies, when they moved from the Elbe, were of the same, or rather superior, strength to those which ten days before had crossed the Bohemian frontier.
In consequence of the Battle of Königgrätz, Feldzeugmeister Benedek resigned the command of the Austrian Army of the North, and the Archduke Albrecht, the victor of Custozza, was appointed to the supreme command of the whole army. Until its arrival on the Danube, however, Benedek commanded the Army of the North. Count Clam Gallas had been ordered to give up his command after Gitschin, and the chief of the staff, Field Marshal Baron Henikstein, had, before the 3
rd July, been ordered to cede his post to Major-General Paumgarten, who had hitherto commanded in Gallicia. The latter reached the army the evening before the battle of Königgrätz, but did not interfere with the dispositions of his predecessor.
One feeling alone existed in the army of Benedek. He possessed the admiration of his officers, and the love of his men. This affection towards him only increased in the hour of his misfortune in the camp. But the populace of Vienna blindly raged against him, and failing to perceive the negligence and errors of the ministers and administrators who had sent the army into the field in its unprepared condition, inveighed in unmeasured terms against the unfortunate general who had commanded it.
On the evening of the 4th July, the armies broke up from the bivouac they had occupied near the field of Battle of Königgrätz, and advanced towards the Elbe.
On the 5th, they crossed the river; the First Army, under Prince Frederick Charles, at Przelautsch; the Second, under the crown prince, at Pardubitz. The march was begun the previous evening. After going a short way the troops halted for the night, and slept by the side of the road. Early on the morning of the 5th they again set forward, and reached the Elbe late in the afternoon. The villages along the road had been mostly deserted, for the inhabitants had fled south with the retreating Austrian army. The houses looked desolate, with their doors and windows wide open, and shutters flapping mournfully in the wind, while there still remained in the street in front vestiges of the hasty packing up of such articles as could be carried away.
A stray dog or two were seen here and there, which still stood on the threshold and barked at the soldiers as they marched by; but even these were rare, and often the poultry had invaded the dwelling rooms, and were roosting among the furniture. For twenty-five miles the army marched through a luxuriantly fertile country, but almost entirely deserted; sometimes one or two peasants stood by the side of the road staring vacantly at the passing troops, or a few women might be found in a village who, half frightened by the sight of the soldiers, supplied them with the drinking water which they everywhere requested. But the people had no cause to fear; they would have done better to remain, for some of the troops had to be billeted in the houses along the road, and when the inhabitants were not present, the soldiers took what they required, and there was no one to receive payment for what they consumed.
The children did not seem so timid; they were present along the roads in large numbers, for the cherries were just ripening, and they took advantage of the panic among their elders to make a raid on the trees which grew in long strips by the side of the way. With them the soldiers soon became great friends. The boys ran along the battalions with their caps full of the fruit, and got coppers in exchange for handfuls of it; the sellers, exulting in the pockets full of coin they soon collected, seemed to have no scruples as to whose property it rightfully was, but laughed with delight at this unexpected result of the war.
But for the most part the country in front of the army was still and silent No church clocks sounded, for their guardians had fled. There was no one to wind them up, and the hands stood motionless on the dials. No horses neighed, for they had all been taken to carry away the flying inhabitants, or perhaps to aid in dragging off the retreating Austrian guns. The flowers before the wayside shrines of the Madonna were dried up and withered, for the votaries who were wont to renew them had fled, fearful of the invading army. The cattle had been driven away, and the pastures were vacant. Broad belts of corn, trodden flat to the ground, showed the lines along which the Austrian battalions had hurried, and here and there lay a knapsack or ammunition pouch which some fatigued fugitive had cast away as an impediment to his flight.
But where the army marched all was bustle and noise; the infantry tramped monotonously along the roads, while the cavalry spread in bending lines through the fields, and behind the combatants toiled long trains of waggons, which carried the stores of this large army. Along every road and every lane foot soldiers marched, and cavalry occupied the intervals between the heads of the columns—all pointing southwards, towards the Elbe. For miles on either side could be seen the clouds of dust raised by the marching troops; in some places it rose from trees and woods, in others from among houses, or from the hard straight roads leading through the wide corn land, where the hot July sun poured its rays straight down upon the soldiers’ heads and made them suffer much from heat and thirst.
As the foremost troops neared the Elbe all ears listened eagerly for the sound of cannon, for it was thought that if the Austrians could bring their troops under fire again they would oppose the passage of the river, and whether they did so or not would be accepted as a criterion of how much they had suffered by the defeat at Königgrätz. The heads of the columns steadily advanced nearer and nearer to the line of willows which marked the course of the stream. No cannon sounded, no rifle even was discharged, and it seemed that the advanced guard must have passed unopposed. At last the news came back that the passage was secured, and that there were no signs of the enemy on the opposite bank. Soon the troops closed down to the river and filed across the wooden bridge which, with four arches, spans the muddy stream; and the black and yellow stripes on its parapets were the only visible signs that the Prussian Army was in the dominions of the emperor of Austria.
Prince Frederick Charles occupied Przelautsch about six on the evening of the 5th, and almost at the same time the crown prince entered Pardubitz. The line of the Elbe was now secured as a basis for future operations, and the Austrian railway communication between Vienna and Prague was cut. At the latter town there were said to be only four Austrian battalions, and it was expected to be evacuated by them and occupied by the Prussians within a few days.
As was the case. Then, notwithstanding the fortresses of Königstein in Saxony, and Josephstadt, Königgrätz, and Theresienstadt in Bohemia, the Prussian armies, after making some necessary repairs, obtained railway communication from Pardubitz and Przelautsch by way of Prague and Reichenberg with their own country, which was of great importance to them in their further advance.
The towns of Przelautsch and Pardubitz were entirely filled with Prussian soldiers. On every door was written in chalk the name of the regiment and company to which the house was allotted, and the number of men which it was to accommodate. The numbers appeared enormous for the size of the house, fifty or sixty men were sometimes billeted in a small house with four rooms, but the soldiers managed well enough so long as they could get straw to lie upon; but here there was a great scarcity of that, and the men had to sleep as they could, on the floors or in the gardens. The greatest difficulty prevailed in getting any accommodation for horses; all the stables were occupied by the horses of generals, and inferior officers would fain have had sheds, cowhouses, or any place with a cover, for the weather looked lowering, and it seemed that it would probably rain, but all the sheds were occupied by the troops, and most of the horses had to spend the night in the streets.
But there were advantages here which compensated for more than a little overcrowding. Large Austrian stores of bread, beer, and cigars had been found, and the soldiers were delighted to think that they would again have their rations of tobacco served out to them, which they had not had since they left Saxony; for to a German soldier tobacco is almost as necessary as meat, but transport had not been found for tobacco with the army, as there had been lately a difficulty in bringing up even food.
The headquarters of the armies halted on the 6th July in the same position as they took up the previous evening. The First Army at Przelautsch. The crown prince with the Second Army was at Pardubitz, whither the king himself went the same evening. Detachments were pushed along the railway towards Prague. On the morning of the 6th, an advanced guard was pushed out to feel the country south of the Elbe. It consisted of light cavalry, horse artillery, and some infantry.
The Weissenfels hussars led the way, followed by the hussars of Ziethen, and the 3rd dragoons, whose squadrons were very weak, for their ranks had been t
erribly thinned by the Battle of Königgrätz. As soon as the columns got out of the town the hussars spread themselves out over the fields by the side of the road, and studded the country with horsemen. Some went pushing through the corn, others galloped forward to gain every piece of rising ground, and from the summit to scan the country beyond. Every wood was carefully beaten, and every village inspected by the nimble horsemen before the main body approached, for Austrian marksmen might be lurking among the trees, or cavalry might lie in ambush behind the houses. But no signs of an enemy could be found; and, although at every moment they expected to hear the sharp crack of a rifle and the puff of blue smoke which would tell that an outlying post had been disturbed, they pursued their way unmolested, and it was evident that the Austrians had retreated far south or east.
But, though the headquarters halted at Przelautsch and Pardubitz, the 6th was a busy day there. All the sickly and weak were draughted out of the ranks, and were sentenced to be left behind—a sure sign that long and severe marches were expected, and that it was intended that the army should move free of all possible encumbrance. In vain did those who were selected to be left behind protest that they were the strongest men in the regiment, and call upon their comrades to bear witness to their marching powers. The doctors were good-naturedly obdurate, and the men selected had to bear the disappointment of not going forward with the army, being solaced with the assurance that they should rejoin as soon as possible. Those destined to be left behind were far from numerous—indeed, their number was surprisingly small, for the army had been making long marches and bivouacking out nearly every night in most changeable weather.