Excerpt from The Last Campaign of Hanover: A Lecture Delivered at the Royal United Service Institution, on 1st April, 1870, Before Field Marshal H. R. H. The Duke of Cambridge, K. G., Etc;, Etc;, Commanding-in-Chief The importance to Prussia, with the view to subsequent operations against the south, of first making herself mistress of these three countries, was very great. Hanover lies directly between the western and eastern provinces of Prussia, and, in an enemy's hands, interposes an effectual bar to the passage of troops between them; in like manner hesse-cassel interposes between these western and eastern possessions; and, moreover, through Cassel passes that railroad which is the great artery of communication between those provinces. Of Saxony I need not now speak. At once, after her declaration of war, Prussia put her tr00ps in motion. At this time the army of Hanover was in that unfortunate condition which is known as a peace footing. Large numbers of her infantry were on furlough; her cavalry and her artillery were perhaps in a some what better condition than usual, because it was the season of the summer drills, and they happened to be called out for regimental exercise; but they had only horses for a peace establishment. Neither cavalry nor artillery had the preper number of horses required for them to take the field, and some of the guns were actually led out to fight this campaign horsed with horses from the King's stables, and driven by the King's stablemen. At the time of this declaration of war, and of the immediately subsequent movement of Prussian troops, the Hanoverian army was in a state of dislocation, as it is termed, though immediately after the decree of mobilisation had been passed in the Diet on the 14th of June, it had been ordered that the tr00ps should be assembled at certain points by the 23rd June. But all the arrangements for the mobilisation of the army pointed towards concentration in the northern portion of the kingdom. There were no arrangements what ever for the assembly of troops in the south there were no maga zines, there were no stores of supplies, there was, in fact, nothing ready for such a concentration. But when Hanover saw that the Prussian tr00ps were about to advance from Minden towards Hanover, when she saw that troops were actually in the north of her own terri tory, as some of them were, before war was declared, it was impossible for her, as she well knew, to concentrate in time in the north, and there fore the order was issued for the concentration of the whole army in the extreme south of the Hanoverian territory, at the well known uni versity town of Gottingen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In the spring of 1866, the so-called German Confederation, then a loose organization of autonomous states, was thrown into crisis by a rift between the two largest members, the Austrian Empire, and The Kingdom of Prussia. Since the founding of the Confederation, in 1815, it had been tacitly accepted that Austria was the overseeing authority. Now, however, a more belligerent Prussia sought a leading role. Under a new and ambitious Chancellor, the ruthless Prince Otto von Bismarck, Prussia would no longer accept a secondary role. This vital question of leadership naturally affected all member states, and none could ignore it. Matters, however, had moved beyond discussion, and, in June, hostilities began, with the Prussian invasion of the Kingdom of Hanover, and the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel. This volume chronicles the conflict over the unification of Germany, which actually occurred on German soil. The campaign in southern and western Germany ensured that political control of German affairs would be firmly in Prussian hands, controlled by Bismarck, in much the same way that the great battles between Prussia and Austria in the east would exclude Austria from German affairs altogether. The detailed story of this, the war of unification within Germany itself, is narrated here, compiled from numerous published and unpublished sources, including many contemporary and first-hand accounts, as well as official reports. The importance of the campaign, far too often ignored, is told here. This is an invaluable resource for any student of European military history of the mid-19th Century. Key topics include the historical background to the conflict, the political crisis of 1866 in the "German Parliament" and the build-up to war, full descriptions of all military forces involved, the various phases of the campaign. The book includes comprehensive orders of battle, informative maps, numerous illustrations (some in color) and photographs, many informative charts and diagrams. The author also presents a detailed analysis of contemporary and later sources. This is the latest title in Helion's ground-breaking series of 19th Century studies, and will appear in hardback as a strictly limited edition printing of 750 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the author on a decorative title page.