Battle of Königgrätz

Fought on 3 July 1866 close to the Bohemian town of Königgrätz (Hradec Králové) and the village of Sadová, in today's Czech Republic, this was the battle that decided the Austro-Prussian War. The army of the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrians and their Saxon allies in the largest European battle since Leipzig in 1813. The victory ended Austria's leadership in German affairs and cleared the way for a Prussian-led Germany.

When war broke out in June 1866, Prussia had three armies spread along its borders: the Army of the Elbe, commanded by Karl Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Prince Friedrich Karl's First Army, and Crown Prince Frederick William's Second Army. The chief of the general staff, Helmuth von Moltke, took the risk of sending them by separate routes into Bohemia to converge on the enemy. The Austrian commander, Ludwig von Benedek, who had reluctantly accepted the post, failed to strike the Prussian armies one at a time. After a string of defeats in late June, he asked Emperor Franz Joseph to make peace to avoid a catastrophe. The request was refused, and Benedek drew up his army for a stand near the Elbe between Sadová and Königgrätz.

Counts of the forces vary. The Prussians had something over 220,000 men in the area and Benedek perhaps 206,000 to 215,000, including some 22,000 Saxons. The Austrians held strong positions on wooded hills with good artillery, but the Prussian infantry carried the Dreyse needle gun, a breech-loader that could be reloaded lying down and fired much faster than the Austrians' muzzle-loading Lorenz rifles. Prussia also made unusually full use of railways to move troops.

Fighting began in rain and mist on the morning of 3 July with only two Prussian armies on the field; the Second Army was still on the march, summoned by riders sent through the night because the telegraph lines were down. Austrian guns pinned the Prussian right and stalled the attack in the centre, where the Prussian 7th Division fought its way into the Swiepwald forest. Austrian counter-attacks there drew in more and more of Benedek's troops, but the close fighting among the trees blunted the advantage of their artillery, and the needle gun took a heavy toll.

At about 2.30 p.m. the Crown Prince's Second Army, close to 100,000 strong, arrived on the Austrian right flank. Prussian Guards seized the village of Chlum behind the Austrian centre, and the Army of the Elbe broke through on the left. Benedek ordered a general retreat. Costly cavalry charges held off pursuit and kept the Elbe bridges open, allowing much of the army to escape.

Prussian casualties were about 9,000 killed, wounded or missing. Austrian losses are given variously at between about 31,000 and 43,000, a large share of them prisoners, and the Austrians also lost 187 guns. Because Austria had not signed the first Geneva Convention, its medical staff withdrew with the army, and many wounded were left untended on the field.

The Prussians pursued the beaten army until a last skirmish near Bratislava on 22 July, and the war was concluded by the Peace of Prague. Austria was excluded from German affairs, Prussia formed the North German Confederation, and Otto von Bismarck's path to the unification of Germany lay open. French resentment, voiced in the cry "revenge for Sadová", helped set the stage for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Our 1815 map shows Bohemia within the Habsburg monarchy beside Prussia, and the 1878 map shows the German Empire that emerged from Prussia's victories.