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 is because 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 in Britain 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 soldiers and war, had disbanded much of it’s forces after the Civil War and Oliver Cromwell’s reign. With the return of Charles II to England in 1660, the units still under arms swore allegiance to the King and became 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 von Moltke, ordered both armies under his command to Jitschin (Jičín) near the Austrian positions, a daring manoeuvre undertaken to limit the war’s duration despite the risk of one army being overtaken en route.Fortunately for Prussia, Benedek was indecisive and failed to use his superior numbers to eliminate the Prussian armies individually. Initially, the Austrians were pressed back everywhere except at Trautenau, where they bested the Prussians despite great losses to their own forces. By 29 June, Prince Friedrich had reached Jitschin and inflicted a severe defeat on the Austrian I Corps under General Clam-Gallas. The Crown Prince had reached Königinhof (Dvůr Králové) despite stiff resistance.On 30 June, Friedrich’s First Army advanced to within one day’s march of the Second Army. However, for the next two days the Prussian cavalry lost sight of the Austrians entirely, although Moltke’s guess as to their actions — a retreat to the Elbe River — proved correct.Eve of the battleDismayed by his losses, Benedek had ordered a withdrawal and urgently requested that Emperor Franz Josef make peace as the only way to save the army from a “catastrophe”. When this was refused, and an ambiguous last sentence of the imperial telegram was interpreted as ordering a final stand, Benedek drew his Austrians up against the Elbe between Sadowa and Königgrätz.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 Seven Weeks’ War), in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. Taking place near Königgrätz and Sadowa in Bohemia (a province in the Habsburgs’ Austrian Empire) on 3 July 1866, it was a classic example of battlefield concentration, a convergence of multiple units at the same location to trap and destroy an enemy force between them.The CampaignAt the outset of the war in June, the Prussian armies were gathered along the Prussian border: the Army of the Elbe under Karl Herwarth von Bittenfeld at Torgau, the First Army under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia between Senftenberg and Görlitz, and the Second Army under Crown Prince Friedrich in Silesia west of Neiße (Nysa). The Austrian army under Ludwig von Benedek was concentrated at Olmütz (Olomouc). The campaign began with Herwath von Bittenfeld’s advance to Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony, where he easily defeated the Saxon army of 25,000 and joined with the First Army.Reluctant CommanderThe reluctant Austrian commander Benedek had moved his troops out of their staging point at Olmütz only on 18 June, moving north in three parallel columns with the I Corps protecting the right flank. The Austrians took up positions at the fortress Josefstadt and the mountain passes from Saxony and Silesia.