The Second Army was a formation of the Prussian Army during the Austro-Prussian War. Being a wartime formation, afterwards the field army was demobilized.
For the Austro-Prussian War Helmuth von Moltke, the Chief of the Prussian General Staff, formed three field armies (First Army, Second Army and the Army of the Elbe) for the war in the east as well as the Army of the Main for the campaigns in the west. Command of the Second Army was given to Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia, with Generalmajor Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal as Chief of Staff and Oberst Albrecht von Stosch as Oberquartiermeister.
The Second Army had the following order of battle:[1]
Commanding General: Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia
Chief of Staff: Generalmajor Leonhard von Blumenthal
Quartermaster General: Generalmajor Albrecht von Stosch
Chief of Artillery: Generalmajor Georg Albano von Jacobi
Chief of Engineers: Generalmajor Heinrich von Schweinitz
Commanding General: Generalleutnant Adolf von Bonin
Chief of Staff: Oberstleutnant August von Borries
Commander of Artillery: Oberst Hermann Robert Knothe
Commander of Engineers: Oberst Weber
1st Division (Generalleutnant Georg Friedrich von Großmann)
2nd Division (Generalleutnant Friedrich von Clausewitz)
Commanding General: General Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz
Chief of Staff: Oberst Ludwig von Wittich
Commander of Artillery: Oberst Karl von Kraewel
Commander of Engineers: Oberst Franz von Kleist
9th Division (Generalmajor Julius Ludwig von Loewenfeld)
10th Division (Generalleutnant Hugo von Kirchbach)
Combined Cavalry Brigade Major General Karl Georg Heinrich von Wnuck
Commanding General: General Louis von Mutius
Chief of Staff: Oberst Oskar von Sperling
Commander of Artillery: Generalmajor Friedrich Wilhelm Eduard Herkt
Commander of Engineers: Oberst Schulz
11th Division (Generalleutnant Heinrich von Zastrow)
12th Division (Generalleutnant Hugo von Kirchbach)
Commanding General: Prince August of Württemberg
Chief of Staff: Oberst Friedrich Franz von Dannenberg
Commander of Artillery: Generalmajor Louis von Colomier
Commander of Engineers: Oberst Biehler
During the Austro-Prussian War the Second Army received its marching orders from Von Moltke. He ordered the I Corps to move via Liebau and Trautenau to Arnau, the Guards Corps to move via Neurode, Braunau, Eypel to Koniginhof, the V Corps to move via Glatz, Reinerz, Nachod to Gradlitz, and the VI Corps to move from Waldenburg, via Trautenau to Koniginhof. While the Army of the Elbe and the First Army were ordered to campaign further to the east; the I Corps concentrated at Liebau and Schomberg, the V Corps was at Reinerz, about twenty miles from the I, and the Guards Corps just crossed the frontier, in front of Neurode, which was between the two corps. The VI Corps was at Landeck and Glatz.
On June 23, the Second Army pushed its I Corps against Trautenau. The I Corps was divided into left and right columns. They arrived at Trautenau on 27 June. Unlike what they anticipated, Trautenau was not occupied by the Austrians. Thus Friedrich von Clausewitz, commander of the left column, waited for the right column for 2 hours (8 AM - 10 AM). While waiting, Austrian forces arrived and attacked the Prussian forces. About 3'o clock the Austrian X Corps, commanded by Ludwig von Gablenz, arrived on the field. Then the other forces of the I Corps arrived to reinforce the Friedrich von Clausewitz. However the vigorous attack of the Austrians compelled the Prussians to retreat.[2]
On 28 June, at 1 o'clock in the morning, Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia received the news of the loss at Trautenau. He ordered his divisions to again attack the Austrian X Corps. The divisions and the Guards Corps fought a tactical victory for Prussia. The Prussians lost 713 men in the battle while the Austrians lost 3,674 men. On the same day the V Corps, commanded by Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz, was fighting against the Austrians at Česká Skalice. During that battle the Prussians lost 1,365 men against Austrian losses of almost 6,000 men.[3]
On 29 June, Frederick ordered a general advance. The I Corps marched to Pilníkov and the Guards Corps to Koniginhof. The V Corps marched to Schweinschädel, meeting several Austrian Brigades on the way. There they fought the Austrians in another victorious battle.[4]
On 30 June, Chief of Staff General von Moltke ordered the Second Army to stay in the upper Elbe area.[5]
During the Battle of Königgrätz, the Second Army was not on the battlefield but started to advance from 8 o'clock in the morning. At 8 o'clock, the V Corps and VI Corps started their march while the I Corps began theirs at 9:30.[6] However the arrival was delayed by bad road conditions due to heavy rains.[7] Still the arrival of Second Army proved to be decisive and lethal for the Austrians.
