The Prussian Second Army, invading Bohemia, had had to split up in order to negotiate the difficult passes of the Krkonoše.
General Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz's 5th Corps is nearly caught as it emerges from a gully by the village of Nachod, Bohemia.
The King’s Grenadiers are in the advance guard, and race forward, first to occupy some woods outside the gully’s opening, and then to take possession of the heights above Wenzelsberg.
The Austrian Colonel Hertwegh is supposed to occupy the next village, Wysokow, so as to block the road, but instead, when he gets to Wenzelsberg he wheels right to attack the Prussians on the ridge above; the King’s Grenadiers simply mow his men down.
It is now that the superiority of Prussian equipment makes itself felt.
Their new breech-loading needle guns enable them to fire three shots to the Austrians’ muzzle-loader's one.
The Prussian cavalry now rides forward along the road to stop the Austrians reaching Wysokow, and here a cavalry battle develops.
The King’s Grenadiers now come down the slope over the bodies of Herwegh’s men and occupy Wenzelsberg.
A new Austrian brigade arrives and a fearful struggle ensues over the churchyard.
The grenadiers ware driven out of it but hold on to most of the village for two hours while the rest of the 9th Division arrives.
Yet another Austrian brigade now appears, and this time it has unmistakable orders to take Wysokow.
As the famous Viennese Hoch-und-Deutschmeister Regiment, the last fighting vestige of the old Teutonic Order, bursts into the town, Colonel Louis von Blumenthal arrives at the head of the 52nd Foot on their right flank.
Though the fighting continues, the result is not now in doubt.
The Prussian firepower goads the Austrians into courageous but costly bayonet charges; their officers lose control, and five and a half thousand men fall to the Prussians’ thousand.
The news electrifies Berlin.
Von Steinmetz is hailed as the “Lion of Nachod,” and Bismarck finds for the first time in his life that he is popular.
