Battle of Sadowa (Königgrätz)
Prussia beat Austria in seven weeks in 1866, and the battle that did it was fought on 3 July near the Bohemian village of Sadová. The war was Bismarck's. He had manufactured a quarrel with Austria over the administration of Schleswig and Holstein, which the two had taken together from Denmark two years earlier, and had secured Italian help and French neutrality in advance. The Prussian army had two advantages that were not obvious beforehand. The needle gun was a breech-loader, so an infantryman could fire five rounds a minute lying down while the Austrians fired two standing up; and Moltke's staff moved five armies by rail on separate lines and concentrated them on the battlefield, which the doctrine of the day said was reckless. At Sadová, also called Königgrätz, some 220,000 Prussians met about 215,000 Austrians and Saxons. The First Army attacked the centre and was held all morning in the Swiepwald with heavy losses, and the Second Army under the crown prince came onto the Austrian right in the early afternoon after a night march. The Austrian army lost about 44,000 men to 9,000 and got away over the Elbe because the Prussian cavalry did not pursue. Bismarck then refused to march on Vienna or take Austrian territory, against his king and the generals, on the argument that Austria would be needed later as a friend. The peace excluded Austria from Germany permanently and left Prussia as the only German power. France understood what had happened four years too late.
- Year: 1866 CE
- Category: Military
