Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/351

Rh wood was fought the severest hand-to-hand battle known during the entire day. When the 27th Prussian regiment went into battle on that eventful morning, it had a strength of 3,000 men and 90 officers; when it emerged from the wood on the other side, having driven out the Austrians, there were less than 400 men in line and only 2 officers. All the rest were either killed or wounded. Every regiment of the division suffered nearly as much, though not quite as heavily, but they accomplished their purpose and forced the Austrians out of that strong defence. The Austrian line had now been driven in on both flanks, but a new line of battle was formed round Lipa, a short distance farther up the hill and including the wood which lies above Sadowa. While this line was being formed, the Prussian artillery crossed the Bistritz and opened fire upon the new position of the Austrians. At the same time the smoke of General Herewarth's advance toward the Austrian left was distinctly visible. He had crossed the Bistritz at Nechawitz, about seven miles below the point where the 7th division crossed. There he found some Austrian cavalry and a brigade of Saxon troops, which he drove in the direction of Lipa. The Austrian commander seemed determined to retain his position, and his cavalry and infantry were massed in great force on the most favorable part of the hill. The Prussian infantry which had occupied Sadowa and Dohelnitz was now sent to assault the wood above Sadowa, and skirting the wood between Sadowa and Lipa as they advanced against it, they lost heavily. The Austrians were in concealment, as in the wood which had already been taken, and they were supported by a battery at one end of the wood, which poured a destructive fire upon the advancing Prussians. Although the fire against them was very severe, the Prussians steadily fought their way forward, and finally dashed at the wood with the