The Express.
London, England, 1866-07-11 00:00:00

THE LATE AUSTRIAN DEFEAT.

From a lofty tower commanding the Prague
gateway, whence Josephstadt on the north and the
whole of the positions of the armies were displayed
as if on a raised map, the special correspondent
of the Times saw the whole of the late
battle of Sadowa looking on a scene in which
every village was vomiting forth fire and smoke,
every knoll the scene of murderous conflict, every
valley the indiscriminate grave of thousands of
men, every cornfield covered with the full harvest
of death, and trodden under foot by furious
legions before day was done. From this point
the main incidents of the battle could be
followed. At one moment "My God, Imilovitz is
in flames," exclaimed the guardian of the tower.
The officers who was in the tower said " Ja so!" and
"Hem !" and uttered various other sounds of varied
import possibly, smoked their cigars, and looked on,
Soon after "Gott in Himmel:" cried the guardian
of the tower, " Sadowa burns now !" From the
left of Klum to the Prague road, and beyond it, all
was fire and smoke. The tumult of voices was dread-
ful, and such as is never to be heard save in some
such awful agony of bailie. Soon there were six or
seven villages and hamlets on fire from left to right.
The battle was assuming a more awful and
tremendous aspect, and the faint rays of sunshine
which shot at intervals through the lifting clouds
only gave the scene greater terror. Horses with-
out riders careered among the wounded, who
were crawling all over the plain, dismounted
dragoons dragged themselves to the rear, and men
came crawling along in such numbers that they ap-
peared like a broad fringe to the edges of the battle,
At length a wedge growing broader and driven in
more deeply every instant was forced into the very
body of the Austrian army, separating it at the
heart and dividing its left and centre from the
right. The troops in the centre and left were dis-
mayed at hearing the enemy's guns in their rear,
and were soon exposed to the fire which most of
all destroys the morale of soldiers already shaken
by surprise.
Chests and Visa were now burning, so that from right to
left the flames of ten villages, and the flashes of guns and
musketry, °untended with the sun that pierced the clouds
for the honour of illuminating the seas of steel and the
fields of carnage. It was 3 o'clock. The efforts of the
Austrians to occupy Blum sad free their centre had
failed, their right was driven down in a helpless mass
towards Koniggratz, quivering and palpitating as
shot and shell tore through it. " Alla lit terieren ,"
Artillery still thundered with a force and violence
whisk might have led a stranger to such scenes to

~~5.,,f..;..-.

yr----no curry.could withstand it. The Austrian
still Yang like white thunder-clouds on
toni
flanks, and threeleed the front of the Prus-
k them kr square and solid columns.
s tim;jesins were streaming away from
ggrats, placing the Elbe and Adler between
6-, tismn and the enemy. The grip of the Prussians could not
be shaken. Word was brought to me to leave at once,
for the city gates were about being closed, and the gunners
on the walla were laying their pieces to cover the in-
undations and the causeways. One more glance showed a
very hell of fire—own-fields, highways, slopes, and dells,
and hill-sides covered with the slain—the pride and might
of Austria shattered and laid low. What happened more
I can only tell from hearsay. But lam told that at the
last the Austrian horse saved all that was not lost, and in
brilliant charges rolled back the tide of Pruden
infantry ; that the gunners threw their pleas into
the Elbe and into the inundated fields as they re-
treated ; that men were drowned in hundreds M
they crowded over pontoon bridges hastily laid and sunk
or burnt era the columns could cross over: that luggage-
trains, reserve ammunition, guns, and prisoners, the spoils
of that enormous host, fell into the hands of the victors,
who remained masters of that bard-fought field, covered
for nine miles with myriads of the slain. Well might Be-
nedek exclaim, " All is lost but my life ! Would to God
I bad lost that too !"

The correspondent thinks that the Austrian
looses including prisoners amount to 25,000, and
the loss of guns from 150 to 180, though it would
not astonish him to hear it was more. Marshal
Benedek's means he considers were not inadequate•
The battle was not unexpected, and the posi-
tion was favourable. His army consisted
of at least 225,000 men, but a large deduc-
tion must be made for the baggage guards, the
various escorts, the garrisons of Josephstadt and
Koniggrats, the sick, and those tired by march-
ing, and the killed, wounded, and prisoners in
recent actions—so that, probably, he had not
more than 190,000 or 195,000 actually in
hand. The ground he had to oover from right
to left was about nine miles in length. Gene-
ral Benedek spent, it appears, the previous day in
arranging for the battle, but his plans were only
communicated to his chief of the staff, Count
Henichstein, who is now deprived of command, and
if General Benedek had fallen in the momeut+d
victory it'ia very likely his generals would not hive
known how he intended to use it. "So people
say, at all events. But, oddly enough, we are
always hearing in camp of gcaerals betraying
secrets to the enemy, and the fear of treason is
epidemic."