The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-26 00:00:00

THE AUSTRIAN ARMY.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
HEAD-QUARTERS, VIENNA, July 21.
Last night it was reported that two engagements
had taken place between the Austrians and Prus-
sians near Prerau the day before yesterday. Ac-
cording to oral and printed rumours the Austrians
were beaten in the first engagement, and lost two
guns. But Benedek appeared with fresh troops
from his corps at Olmutz, and routed the Prussians,
with the loss of four guns as well as of the two
cannon they had previously captured. Then there
is a story that next day Benedek, pursuing his suc-
cess, gained a more considerable success in the valley
cf the March, and much is expected from the diver-
sion of the Austrian corps which has crossed the
frontier and invaded Prussian Silesia. But the tele-
graph rebukes each dull delay of the post, and
withers speculation and conjecture, making them
stale and unprofitable. Here there is nothing to do
but to watch the regiments which go and the regi-
ments which come, traversing the capital like the
sparks which wind in and out of the ashes of paper
in the grate. The King and the Crown Prince have
a long way to stretch their hands from flank to
flank, but the Austrians must make a long arm too,
and the effort is not without its effect on the troops,
although they are in far better spirits than they
were. The officers assume their old air, and speak
more cheerfully and less despondingly, and the
gundnadel-gewehr has suffered a great deterioration
in interest, and perhaps in future effect. The mode
and form in which the Austrians will meet their
enemy will, we are assured, be different. When an
army is beaten it is apt to console itself with the re-
flection that its misfortunes have been caused by
too much bravery. We have accounted for some
of our defeats by that flattering ;causation ere
now. Every nation talks of its prowess with
the bayonet, and firmly believes in its su-
periority at close quarters. Suwaroff almost
taught his troops to regard the musket as the
means of carrying the steel. The Frenchman
thinks if he can only get near enough to attack his
man ala fourchette the field is won. The Austrian
has faith in close quarters, the butt and bayonet.
Need we say what we think the British soldier em-
ploys with the most effect, and arrogates to his own
exclusive use ?
Well, the Austrian is no longer to rush at his
enemy, because it has been found that his enemy is
able to kill or cripple him in his rush. He is to
manoeuvre in looser order, he is to try skirmishing
lines, to seek cover, to make flank attacks. His ca-
valry is no longer to waste its best material in Bala-
klava charges among infantry and guns. Artillery
ammunition is not to be wasted—in fact, the system '
is to be changed, and, although changes in the face
of an enemy are dangerous, they must be made if
the old methods are found to be defective or mis-
chievous. Many experiments are being made with
various kinds of breechloaders, and the resources of
the Arsensal will enable Austria to make large addi-
tions to her present stores, for she is not destitute of
supplies of an arm which she has learnt to value at
such an enormous cost and by such bitter teaching.
Her artillery is in very good order, and in mobility
and accuracy leaves little to be desired for practical
purposes.

The movements of troops about Vienna are inces-
sant and continuous, but it would not be proper to
indicate the directions in which they are made, even if
it were interesting to people at home to be made
acquainted with isolated facts, the value of which
can only be tested by subsequent events. A letter
may fall into the hands of the enemy like the cele-
brated epistle of the Prussian Chief of the Staff, of
which all the world has heard by this time and by
which the friends of the Austrians are much com-
forted, seeing that there is fair room for criticism in
the enemy's arrangements as well as their own. The
information contained in unofficial documents might
be of the highest importance to an enemy, even in
the details which appeared most insignificant at the
time of writing, and it is best to take a retrospec-
tive attitude. That the Prussians set great store
on information is manifest by their efforts to ob-
tain it. Not a day passes without the discovery of
spies in all sorts of disguises, and the zeal of the
soldiery and police, and of all good subjects, is
whetted by the reward of 2001 to the lucky detec-
tive.

The penalty invariably, I believe, is death, and
even the Prater has witnessed the execution of vic-
tims to military zeal or cupidity. The possession of
a pass from the Chief of the Staff, Gen. John, has
enabled us to go about the lines with some freedom,
though not with immunity from interruption ; but,
as it was only issued the day before yesterday, we
have not been able to make any lengthened excur-
sion along the front. The passes issued byFeldzeug-
meister Von Benedek's Chief of the Staff became
inoperative as soon as the chief command of the
army was transferred from him, and it is owing to
the condescension of his Imperial Highness the Arch-
duke Albrecht, who now commands the army, that
I have been supplied with a papirschein in lieu of
the document which I was promised on the day of
my arrival at Josephstadt, the 28th June, but which
I received only on the 12th July at Olmutz. In-
deed, the head quarters had something else to think
of, for the affair at Skalitz was already on hand
when I got up to Josephstadt. Next day was the
march to Dubenetz ; then the retreat from Sadowa
and Nechanitz to Koniggratz ; the battle of July
3d; the rapid retrograde movements to Zwittau and
Brunn ; and the changes in the Staff and in the chief
command. The day before yesterday I went, in
company with four English officers, to visit the
heights of Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg, about
three hours from Vienna.
The scene which lay at our feet was well worth
more trouble. It ought to be known to every
visitor to the city, and for extent, variety, and
interest cannot be surpassed in Europe, although
it wants the grand ranges of the Oberland
and the fresh sea which greets the eye from
the summit of the Calton. At our feet ran the
Danube, threading its swift way past islands and
bridges outside, and the domes and spires and
palaces of the Imperial capital. In front, and be-
yond the wide-spreading stream, lay plains which
appear made for great harvests and great battles,
commanded here and there by wooded hillocks, and
dotted with churches marking the sites of villages.
Stockerau, on the left, was hidden by one of these
hillocks, but Leobendorf, which was visited by the
Prussians the day before, and Kornenberg, which
was said to be " infested" by them to-day, were
close to us, and Enzerfeld and Stammersdorf were
on the right front, where their patrols had been seen
in close proximity to the railway. Towards the east,
beyond the city, which was displayed with great dis-
tinctness, lay Presburg itself, just visible under the
blue fold of the Carpathians—a peaceful scene; but
all along that front every hamlet was occupied by
Pomeranian or Brandenburger, by Hungarian or
Sclave, watching each other as man watches man in
war, and as we looked no doubt there were shot
king and sword-cutting and lance-thrusting going
on in the woods and valleys which seemed so silent
and tranquil. And, indeed, there were ; for on our
return to the city a small party of Prussian Hussars,
in red jackets, dusty and blood-stained, were
marched through the street as the spoils of a skir-
mish near Kornenberg ; and later in the day more
prisoners, but not
many, were brought in from
another place in the vicinity. The most interesting
portion of the scene was, however, the position at
Floridsdorf and the bridges across the Danube,which
may become the scene of most sanguinary battles.
Some drowsy little nook of
a place may make itself
famous for ever, and be as notorious
in history as the
Aspern, Wagram, or Essling out yonder, which were
suddenly brought forth from obscurity and lighted
up with the blaze of immortal conflicts.
Florids-
dorf is strong, and so are the bridges, and the
Prussians, though they
have lost some
spies
in
ntr-
ing to find out all about them, are probably quite
well acquainted with the nature of the kernal they
will have to crack before they get at the nut they
covet from that quarter. Much indignation was
excited in the minds of some beer-absorbing citizens
who had clambered up to the heights because an
officer of hussars, who knew one of my companions,
brought the party within the enclosure of the old
tower at Leopoldsberg, whence the ancestor of 'the
Kaisers could gaze on the boundaries of the whole

of his dominions as he stood on the dizzy parapet a
thousand years ago. A Croat sergeant was also
very indignant, but the storm was quelled when
they all heard we had passes. Not all the storms,
however; a tremendous tempest came on as we re-
turned to the capital. Except in India, such vio-
lence of wind and rain, such clouds of dust, such
flashing lightning, and such roaring thunder, could
not be equalled. Nature seemed to be affected by
the passions of man, and to indulge in sudden and
startling outbreaks, for the day before a tornado of
thunder, wind, and rain, swept over and around
Vienna, the like of which has not been seen for a
quarter of a century. Fortunately, most of the
troops had been moved out of the camps in the
Prater before it came on. Trees were blown down
and windows driven in on all sides, and troops on
the march were obliged to halt and huddle together
for shelter. Yesterday I devoted to an excursion in
the direction of Presburg, but could gain no tidings
of the enemy. The number of the Austrians in the field
is marvellous in the eyes of a civilian, and when one
knows how they are scattered, how Benedek has got
an army still under his command, and garrisons are
placed in every fortress— how a whole corps d'armee
is still watching the Italian passes, he is inclined to
doubt the wisdom of the critics who concluded that
her sun had set behind the gory hills of Koniggratz.
As we were entering Vienna, at nightfall, we met
General Hartung and his staff at the head of a
column of the troops which have been victorious in
Italy, and who did not look at all apprehensive of
Prussians or needle-guns ; and all along the road
were batteries of artillery, squadrons of cavalry, and
battalions of infantry, mixed up with waggons and
supply trains. The last rays of sunlight were re-
flected from bayonet tops inside the glacis, and the
first object to be made out clearly in the morning
light is some form of polished iron. Immense quan-
tities of new stores have been issued to the men ;
new clothing has been given to regiments most in
need, and I have not seen any men in want of shoes
or great coats, or any necessary for campaigning.
They are, on the whole, exceedingly healthy, and,
as far as I can see, well fed and taken care of ; and
assuredly French troops in similar circumstances
would make no complaints, except that they had not
got their tentes d'abri. What the moral force of the
army may be I cannot so readily determine, but it
must have improved very greatly also ; and the news
of victories gained at sea, for which the church
bells are ringing as I write, will put the men in still
better case.

The position of Austria may have deteriorated or
remained stationary in a political sense for the last
few days, but, assuredly, as regards the defence of
her capital, there can be no question of her advatrie.
She has made herself infinitely stronger. In men
and in measures Austria has become truly formid-
able on the Danube. The Prussians feel the force
of the situation. They cannot ignore the facts
concerning their own position, which become
patent every day. They feel them in their
failing supplies, in their diminished trains, in the
animosity of the peasantry, in the renewed activity
of the Austrian horse, which never leaves them
night or day, hanging on their flanks and worrying
the heads of their columns. So their advance is
slow and apparently indecisive. They may be
gathering their strength for a great effort--making
assurance doubly sure ; but no one will have failed
to perceive that their movements have lately lacked
the vigour and precision which characterised their
movements previous to Koniggratz.

The battle of Koniggratz was fairly over before
the evening of July 3. The 4th may have been de-
voted to the removal of the wounded and the burial
of the dead. But on the 6th the Crown Prince's
head-quarters were at Pardubitz, which is only
three-and-a-half German miles from Koniggratz. On
the same day the King's army was at Prelane, which
is about the same distance from the battle field, and
about eight and a-half west of - Pardubitz. On the
7th the King had only got as far as Hermanmiestetz,
about seven miles from his last halt, but next day,
turning eastwards, he took up his quarters at
Cheart, about four German miles south and east, so
as to get nearer to the Crown Prince. Now they
are for the first time near Vienna.
The Archduke Albrecht is one of the three field-
marshals of the Austrian army, the Emperor being
only feldzeugmeister, a rank below field-marshal
and above that of field-marshal-lieutenant, which,
again, is above that of major-general, and corre-
sponds to lieutenant-general in the British service:
He is very much of a soldier in look and manner,
slightly like Mr. Kinglake, with the addition of the
Hapsburg lip, and in his address is singularly simple,
direct, and frank. His chief of the Staff, Major-
General Franz Freiherr von John, is a Knight of
the Order of Maria Theresa, of the Order of the
Iron Crown, and of the Military Verdienst Kreuz,
and one of those officers who has fought his way up
by sheer merit.

(From the Times' Military Correspondent)

VIENNA, July 22.
Whenever an unexpected, but decided, failure
, takes place reasons of all kinds will not be want-
ing, and those who have to suffer will throw the
blame right and left, each according to his own
peculiar opinions. The controversy may •then be-
come so hot and so much obscured by its own smoke
as to render a clear understanding of .the point at
issue extremely difficult. Such is the case at present.
An army assembled but a few weeks ago from all
parts of the Austrian Empire, and marched north-
wards. Well appointed, well clad, well drilled for
the most part, composed of men strong, brave, and
under excellent discipline, led by a commander who
had been chosen by the people and who held the
hearts of the soldiers in his hand, provided with
first-rate artillery and numerous transport waggons,
—why has this army been beaten in almost every
engagement and driven to take up a defensive posi-
tion, hoping at the best to protect the capital and
gain time to reinforce its shattered ranks and to
carry out a new system of armament and tactics ?
Here is a subject sufficiently interesting to engage
the attention of observers for some time to come.
Is the fiasco to be attributed to the commanders or
to the men ? Are we to blame the tactics or the
weapons ?

I have already written what appear to have been
the radical errors of the plan of campaign wherever
they may have originated, and they may be summed
up in the one expression, " Too late !" Too late to
take the offensive in the first instance, too late to
occupy the passes, too late to save the Saxons and
the Ist corps at Gitschin, too late to prevent the
concentration of the Prussians at Sadowa ; and even
now it seems doubtful whether Benedek has not re-
mained too long at Olmutz with the three corps
which now form his command. A part of his troops
have reached Presburg it is true, but the Prussians
are following hard after him, and seemingly striv-
ing to interpose lotween him and Vienna; he has
been forced successively from the line of the Olmutz
Ludenburg Vienna railway,
and from the ()Kuntz
Presburg direct road has crossed the Carpathians at
Jawaraik, and is marching down the valley of the
Waag. It remains to be seen whether he will reach
Presburg with his whole force, or be driven to fall
back on Komorn. The Prussians will do their best
to prevent him from carrying out his designs, if pos-
sible, for he would be a formidable adversary to
have upon the flank or rear of their army in case of
a battle to the north, east, or south of Vienna.
But though the strategical dispositions for the cam-
paign may have been unsuccessfully planned and
carried out, it by no means follows that battles should
be lost when the two armies are drawn up face to
face, and it is at this point that the controversy will
be hottest, as to whether the Generals were incap-
able, the soldiers wanting in courage and strength,
or the Prussian arm invincible. No one who has
seen the Austrian soldier fight will accuse him of
cowardice for a moment, and the Generals were only
too ready to push their corps straightforward against
the enemy, before whom they were almost invari-
ably forced to recoil ; and hence one party will say
that the fault was in the tactics of the leaders, who
sacrificed their troops unnecessarily, and no one can
deny that appearances justify the criticism. Another
party will declare that the soldiers would have car-
ried the positions against which they were sent, or
have held the adwhch they were directed to
defend, but forgitZ
needle-gun
bable. ; and this is also pro-
The truth seems to be that the possession of a new

1 and powerful weapon gave the Prussians an immense
advantage, which might, however, have been partly
neutralised by a more defensive system of tactics,
and a little more ingenuity in raising the spirits of
the men by attacking the weakest instead of the
strongest parts of the' enemy's line, and by taking
every pains to avoid fighting at disadvantage of
numbers, especially in the first battles. The soldier
does not trouble himself much whether he is advanc-
ing or retreating, as long as he is safe and has plenty
of food; but no troops can retrain their confidence
if beaten in every battle or infantry skirmish that
occurs. Should peace not be proclaimed within the
next few days, the Prussians will have to attack an
army partly composed of victorious troops, certain
not to be exposed as they were in Bohemia, and
fighting almost under the eyes of their families and
their Emperor. Rumour asserts that there is much
sickness in the enemy's camp, and a report was in
circulation yesterday that the King of Prussia had
died of cholera, though it obtained little credence,
and is not confirmed to-day. To the honour of the
army be it said that no unseemly joy was shown at the
reported news. The men are in good spirits, and the
sound of military music begins to be heard again.

2 r.m.

Two days ago reinforcements were sent towards
Presburg, as the Prussians were known to be ad-
vancing in that direction, and Benedek's main army
had not arrived. To-day the enemy attacked the
town, and the fight was still raging when the five
days' truce was signed here, at 12 o'clock noon, but
two hours ago. It is an anxious moment, for if
Presburg falls into Prussian hands before the truce
is known to be agreed upon, they will, perhaps, en-
deavour to retain it, and it is known that they are
in stronger force on the immediate spot than the
Austrians, though the latter have a superior force on
its way. There is little doubt that the truce, which
may develope into an armistice of six weeks' duration,
is as acceptable to the enemy as to this army, for
they find difficulty in getting supplies, and appear
to be doubtful as to the future course of events run-
ning so smoothly as it has done ; at any rate, they
made objection to none of the proposals sent to them
by the Archduke Albrecht. The naval victory in Italy
has come too late to give much pleasure, for what is
the satisfaction of holding positions which are cer-
tain to be given up in a few weeks ?