it so under conditions highly
favorable to the Prussians. The ghost of Wallenstein might have returned
to its rest with entire complacency, and with the firm resolution to
trouble this sublunary world no more, had it witnessed the flight of the
Austrians through Gitschin. By a "curious coincidence," it happens that
a large number of the vanquished were Saxons, descendants, it may be, of
men who had acted with Gustavus Adolphus against Wallenstein in 1632.

The battle of Sadowa was fought on the 3d of July, the third anniversary
of the decisive day of our battle of Gettysburg. At a moderate estimate,
four hundred and twenty thousand men took part in it, of whom one
hundred and ninety-five thousand were Austrians and Saxons, and two
hundred and twenty-five thousand Prussians. This makes the action rank
almost with the battle of Leipzig, the greatest of all battles.[47] It
is satisfactory evidence of the real greatness of Prussian generalship,
that it had succeeded in massing much the larger force on the final
field, though at a distance from the Prussian frontier and far within
the enemy's territory; and also that while the invaders of Austria were
opposed by equal forces on the left and centre of the Austrian line,
they were in excessive strength on that line's right, the very point at
which their presence was most required. Yet further: these great masses
of men were all employed, and admirably handled, while almost a fourth
part of the Austrian army remained idle, or was not employed till the
issue of the battle had been decided. The Austrian position was strong,
or it would have been so in the hands of an able commander; but Benedek
was unequal to his work, and totally unfit to command a larger army than
even Napoleon I. ever led in any battle. There seldom has lived a
general capable of handling an army two hundred thousand strong. The
Prussians, to be sure, were stronger, and they were splendidly handled;
but it must be observed that they were divided into two armies, and that
those armies, though having a common object, operated apart. In this
respect, though in no other, Sadowa bears a resemblance to Waterloo, the
armies of the Crown Prince and of Prince Frederick Charles answering to
those of Bluecher and Wellington. The Prussian force engaged far exceeded
that of all the armies that fought at Waterloo, and the Austrian army
exceeded them by some five or six thousand men. War has very rarely
been conducted on the