The wonderful thing about our North Star 1672 range is that the figures will do for many different nations armies in the period 1665-1680. This isbecause it is a time just before uniforms, and the figures are all dressed in the fashions common amongst soldiers throughout Western Europe.
This of course includes Britain.The years covered by our range is called the Restoration Period inBritain as it was the time the monarchy, represented by Charles II, was restored after the English Civil War. It was also the genesis of the British Army. Britain, tired of soldiersand war, had disbanded much of it’s forces after the Civil War andOliver Cromwell’s reign. With the return of Charles II to England in1660, the units still under arms swore allegiance to the King andbecame the senior units of the British Army.Some of the infantry regiments:Coldstream GuardsGrenadier GuardsScots Guards1st Regiment (Royal Scots)2nd Regiment (The Queen’s)3rd Regiment (The Buffs)
Colour.
Below. The all conquering Prussian infantry.
On 22 June, Prussia’s Chief of the General Staff, Helmuth vonMoltke, ordered both armies under his command to Jitschin(Jičín) near the Austrian positions, a daring manoeuvreundertaken to limit the war’s duration despite the risk of onearmy being overtaken en route.Fortunately for Prussia, Benedek was indecisive and failed touse his superior numbers to eliminate the Prussian armiesindividually. Initially, the Austrians were pressed backeverywhere except at Trautenau, where they bested thePrussians despite great losses to their own forces. By 29 June,Prince Friedrich had reached Jitschin and inflicted a severedefeat on the Austrian I Corps under General Clam-Gallas. TheCrown Prince had reached Königinhof (Dvůr Králové) despitestiff resistance.On 30 June, Friedrich’s First Army advanced to within oneday’s march of the Second Army. However, for the next twodays the Prussian cavalry lost sight of the Austrians entirely,although Moltke’s guess as to their actions — a retreat to theElbe River — proved correct.Eve of the battleDismayed by his losses, Benedek had ordered a withdrawal andurgently requested that Emperor Franz Josef make peace as theonly way to save the army from a “catastrophe”. When this was refused, and an ambiguous last sentence of the imperialtelegram was interpreted as ordering a final stand, Benedekdrew his Austrians up against the Elbe between Sadowa andKöniggrätz.The Prussians finally sighted the Austrians on the eve of 2 July
The Battle of Königgrätz, also known as the Battle of Sadowa,was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War (or SevenWeeks’ War), in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated theAustrian Empire. Taking place near Königgrätz and Sadowa inBohemia (a province in the Habsburgs’ Austrian Empire) on 3July 1866, it was a classic example of battlefieldconcentration, a convergence of multiple units at the samelocation to trap and destroy an enemy force between them.The CampaignAt the outset of the war in June, the Prussian armies weregathered along the Prussian border: the Army of the Elbeunder Karl Herwarth von Bittenfeld at Torgau, the First Armyunder Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia between Senftenbergand Görlitz, and the Second Army under Crown PrinceFriedrich in Silesia west of Neiße (Nysa). The Austrian armyunder Ludwig von Benedek was concentrated at Olmütz(Olomouc). The campaign began with Herwath vonBittenfeld’s advance to Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony,where he easily defeated the Saxon army of 25,000 and joinedwith the First Army.Reluctant CommanderThe reluctant Austrian commander Benedek had moved histroops out of their staging point at Olmütz only on 18 June,moving north in three parallel columns with the I Corpsprotecting the right flank. The Austrians took up positions atthe fortress Josefstadt and the mountain passes from Saxonyand Silesia.