Battle of Königgrätz

Battle of Königgrätz
	Part of the Austro-Prussian War
	; The Battle of Königgrätz, Georg Bleibtreu
Date	3 July 1866
Location	Königgrätz, Austrian Empire (modern day Czech Republic);
Result	Prussian victory
Belligerents
Prussia	Austria; Saxony
Commanders and leaders
Helmuth von Moltke ; Prince Friedrich Karl ; Crown Prince Frederick William ; Karl Bittenfeld	Ludwig Benedek ; Prince Albert
Strength
220,984	206,000–215,000 184,000 Austrians; 22,000 Saxons;
Casualties and losses
9,172 killed, dead, wounded, and/or missing	31,000 to 43,000 killed, wounded, and/or missing Austrians, including up to 22,170 prisoners; ; 1,501 killed, dead, wounded, and/or missing Saxon

50.27°N 15.75°E / 50.27; 15.75

The Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. It took place on 3 July 1866, near the Bohemian city of Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz) and village of Sadová, now in the Czech Republic. It was the single largest battle of the war, and the largest battle in the world since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.

Prussian forces, totaling around 285,000 troops, used their superior training and tactical doctrine and the Dreyse needle gun to win the battle and the entire war at Königgrätz on their own. Prussian artillery was ineffective and almost all of the fighting on the Prussian side was done by the First Army under Prince Friedrich Karl and one division from the Second Army. The Prussian 7th Infantry Division and 1st Guards Infantry Division attacked and destroyed 38 out of 49 infantry battalions of four Austrian corps at the Swiepwald and Chlum at the centre of the battlefield, deciding the outcome of the struggle and forcing an Austrian retreat at 15:00, before any Prussian reinforcements could even seriously engage the Austrian flanks.

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