Battle of Nachod
Custozza - Chicken Creek - Podol - Nachod - Trautenau - Langensalza - Skalitz - Miinchengratz - Gitschin - Koniginhof - Pig Skull - Hradec Kralove - Dermbach - Kissingen - Main campaign - Frohnhofen - Aschaffenburg - Lissa - Bezzecca - Blumenau - Dog Home - Tauberbischofsheim - Werbach - Helmet City - Gerchsheim - Uettingen / Roßbrunn
The Battle of Nachod on June 27, 1866, was the first major battle in the German war between Prussia and Austria. It ended with a Prussian victory.
Course
The advent of the Second Prussian Army of Silesia to Austria carried out over the mountain passes of the Giant Mountains and the county of Glatz. The V Corps ( 9th and 10th Division ) under command of General of Infantry Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz marched from Glatz forth across Reinerz, the Hummel Pass, Lewin and Gellenau to the border after Schlaney. Here the vanguard of Major General of Löwenfeld passed on June 26 at 17.00 clock the border into Bohemia. The border crossing Běloves was guarded by a few soldiers of the Austrian army, which retreated after a small skirmish.
The Prussian vanguard could occupy the town and castle Nachod without much resistance and occupied on June 27 at 6.00 clock early southwest of Nachod the strategically important hills when Branka pass between Staré Město (now the district of Nachod ) and Václavice parallel to the Strait of Neustadt ad Mettau after Vysokov pulls. Around this time, 28,400 men of General von Steinmetz were still about 12 miles away on Glatzer area.
The VI. Corps of the Austrian General Wilhelm Baron von Ramming marched since early morning of Opocno ( Opočno ) about Neustadt ad Mettau in the area between the Bohemian Skalitz (Česká Skalice ) and Vysokov. The corps consisted of four brigades, which were commanded by Colonel George Waldstätten, Major General Moritz Hertweck, Major General Ferdinand Rosenzweig, and Colonel Johann Jonák. The brigades reached the area in which it should come to the battle between 8.30 und 11.00 clock.
Herweck whose brigade formed the Austrian vanguard, led her into the room and Šonov Václavice to attack the enemy from the flank. He managed to take the church and the cemetery of Václavice and repel the fire attack of the Prussians. After that, the Austrian infantry battalion entrenched in the church and the cemetery, where it was able to hold up to the advance of the brigade Jonák around 10:30 clock. The Prussians fled into the nearby woods and attacked the enemy, behind the cemetery wall had a good cover on.
The attack of the Jonák Brigade was directed primarily against the Prussian soldiers in the forest, from which the later ones Austrians were threatened. With the help of the Rosenzweig - brigade anmarschierte from the direction Provodov, managed to push back the Prussians to the Branka height. Especially in this phase, in which more Prussian troops arrived at the battlefield, the attack of the Austrians subsided. Around this time, the brigade marched Waldstätten of Bohemian Skalitz about Kleny after Vysokov.
At the level between Václavice and Vysokov a great and bloody clash between the Austrian artillery, which was supported by the cavalry of the field marshal lieutenant Solms, and the brigade of the Royal Prussian Major General Karl Georg Heinrich Friedrich von Wnuck was about 11.00 clock instead, which is about 35 took minutes. 12.30 clock was General Ramming believes the battle was won, and sent an email to Feldzeugmeister Ludwig von Benedek after Josefstadt. However, the situation changed dramatically after the Prussians gain received by newly arrived units, and the superiority of the Austrian was less. They were forced back to the line Provodov - Šonov. At about 14.00 clock Waldstätten ordered another attack on Vysokov. Ramming even stopped at 16.00 clock the last attempt of the brigade Rosenzweig, avert defeat, and agreed Feldzeugmeister of Benedek over the defeat of the day.
By late afternoon Ramming westwards withdrew. General Steinmetz followed the next day and met with Skalitz to the VIII Corps under Archduke Leopold.