27.6. 1866 Battle of Náchod

The Austrian defeat ended the Battle of Náchod in June 1866. Over six thousand soldiers died, were wounded or fell into captivity. Frightened families fled to the adjacent forests.

On the afternoon of 26 June 1866, the vanguard of the Prussian 5th Army Corps approached the Nachod Pass and seized it without any resistance. "This pass is worth three battles!" one senior Prussian officer is said to have exclaimed, and others confessed that their hearts skipped a beat when they saw the infernal rock cleft. At the border town of Belovsi, the Prussians attacked the customs house on the road to Hronov, guarded by a half-set of infantrymen from Josefov with two cannons and a platoon of cuirassiers.

The Battle of Nachod itself broke out a day later, one of the clashes of the Seven Weeks War between Prussia and Austria. General von Steinmetz led 28,400 Prussian soldiers against 27,150 Austrian soldiers under the command of Willem Raming. "Those who could, packed a few essentials at home and fled the city into the surrounding woods. There was an agonizing tension in the town. Families who could not or would not leave their homes cowered behind closed doors or hid in the cellars of their houses," writes Karel Richter in his book, Perhaps in Iron and Blood: The Prusso-Austrian Wars 1740-1866

The battle ended in an Austrian failure caused primarily by a lack of knowledge enemy movements and dispositions, unfavourable starting positions and the ill-considered deployment of individual brigades in the attack.

"The much-emphasized disadvantage of the Austrian armament of obsolete rifles with slowerfrequency of fire compared to the more modern Prussian rear rifles was of only minor importance. The Prussian rear rifles in use at this time were among the newest weapons and still suffered from a number of technical problems. The Austrian army retreated towards the Josefov fortress. In total, more than 6,500 soldiers died in the battle, only a third of them on the Prussian side, and 650 horses," write Milan and Roman Plch in their book Where to Go for Military Monuments.

The battle is commemorated by a number of monuments. There are sixty stone crosses in the area where the battle took place. To get acquainted with the most interesting places of the whole battlefield, you can use the educational trail Following the footsteps of the 1866 Náchod War on foot or by bicycle. It starts at the Náchod railway station and leads through the castle, the military cemetery, Kramolna, the hunter's monument, Vysokov, the cavalry monument, Dobenín to Václavice and Provodov.

"The trail is nine kilometres long with three branches and connects the most important places and monuments of the entire battlefield. Another nature trail, starting in Česká Skalica, runs the entire retreat route of the Austrian troops up to the Josefov fortress," Plchovi further states.

Sources:
Milan Plch and Roman Plch, Where to Go for Military Monuments
Karel Richter, Iron and Blood: the Prusso-Austrian Wars 1740-1866
www.wikipedia.org