The scene represented is the triumphant conclusion of the battle.  The field is wide and stormy.  In the centre, riding at full gallop with his staff, is King William.  Already he is receiving the cheers and salutations of victory.  By his side are seen the stalwart figures of Bismarck, Von Roon, Von Moltke, the Crown Prince, Prince Frederick Charles, and many others destined in the ensuing ten years to rise to the heights of military fame.  To the right of the group of commanders charges the column of the Uhlans.  The Austrians before are broken, and falling into rout.  Far to the left and in the distance may be seen the half-obscured wrecks of battle.

This conflict proved to be the Waterloo of Austria.  It was the climax of the Seven Weeks’ War.  Already the Germans, under the leadership of Prussia, were making haste toward empire.  The activity and energy displayed by the Prussian Government at this juncture were prodigious.  It was like the days of Frederick the Great come again.  The trouble with Austria had arisen about the claims of the Duke of Augustenburg to the government of Holstein.  Bismarck desired that that duchy should be disposed of in one manner, while Austria was determined on another.

The German States were drawn into this controversy, and the support of Italy was sought by each of the contestants.  Prussia held out to Italy the temptation of recovering Venice, as the reward of her entrance into a Prusso-Italian alliance.  This bait was sufficient.  The smaller German powers, with the exception of Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, the Saxon States, and three Free Cities, took their stand with Austria, and the German Diet approved of the Austrian demand.  It looked for the time as though Prussia, with the exception of the aid of Italy, was to be left naked to all the winds of hostility.  The event showed, however, that that great power was now in her element.  She declared the action of the German Diet to be not only a menace, but an act of overt hostilities.  This was followed by an immediate declaration of war against a foe that had nearly three times her numerical strength.

On the fifteenth of June, 1866, King William called upon Saxony, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel and Nassau to remain neutral in the impending conflict, and gave them twelve hours in which to decide!  Receiving no answer, he ordered the Prussians out of Holstein to seize Hanover.  This work was accomplished in two days.  In another two days Hesse-Cassel was occupied by an army from the Rhine, while at the same time a third division of the Prussian forces was thrown into Dresden and Leipsic.  On the twenty-seventh of the month, a battle was fought with the Hanoverians, in which the latter were at first successful, but were soon overpowered and compelled to surrender.  George V., King of Hanover, fled for refuge to Vienna.