striking upon the water-line, but no damage whatever was done. The "Drache" was very hotly engaged. Captain von Moll, who was on deck directing her, was struck by a shot which carried away half his head and instantly killed him; the steam-drum was injured; the mainmast fell; and a shell bursting on board set her on fire, but the flames were very quickly got under. Her crew did not suffer severely, as they were kept lying down as far as possible. She it was who set the "Palestro" on fire. The "Salamander" endeavored to ram, but did not succeed. Her conning-tower was struck by a shell, her commander, an officer, and a man wounded.

As for Persano, the impression among both Italian officers and Italian people was that he had taken one of the finest ironclads out of the fighting line, and made little or no use of her. The officers of the wooden ships saw him maneuvering backward and forward outside the battle-smoke, when the "Re d'Italia," hard beset, was fighting for her life. "After firing on the Austrian flag,' says Persano, "the 'Affondatore' tried to ram, but failed; then traversing the hostile line at a distance of fifty yards, fired again on the flagship, and crossing the line, rammed one of the Austrian ships round the 'Portogallo.'" This appears to be an

absolute fabrication. "Issuing from the smoke, she signaled to the wooden ships to attack, but they made no movement." She tried to ram the "Kaiser," but missing her blow, only scraped sides, and received from the line-of-battle ship a plunging fire which perforated her deck, while the riflemen in the enemy's tops played havoc among the men on her deck, who were trying to fix in its place one of the anchors, which had broken loose and was bumping violently against her side. Still keeping close to the "Kaiser," she tried to ram again, firing her 300-pounders at the Austrian, who again eluded her, and with a heavy broadside set her on fire. Perceiving that the "Kaiser" was in a bad way, Persano felt "he could no longer concentrate his attention upon a disabled ship," and retired. He complains that the "Affondatore" was a most awkward ship to handle and steered very badly.

The losses of the victors were extraordinarily small. Thirtyeight were killed and one hundred and thirty-eight wounded on board the Austrian ships, but on the armorclads only three were AA-VOL. II.

killed. The "Kaiser" suffered far the most. The Italians lost five killed and thirty-nine wounded, excluding those who perished in the attacks on Lissa, and on board the "Re d'Italia" and "Palestro." These brought up the figure of their dead to about six hundred and twenty, and the total of their wounded to one hundred and sixty-one. They lost two ironclads in the battle, and a third, the "Affondatore," sank a few days after the fight in Ancona harbor, probably because of the severe pounding she had undergone. The damage done to the Austrian ironclads was very slight. The Italian projectiles in no case went through their armor and backing; with one exception the dents were insignificant. The "Ferdinand Max," which had a blunt, slightly projecting prow, not formed of a single steel or iron casting, but simply of armorplates carried right forward and meeting at her cutwater, had lost her paint where her prow had penetrated into the "Re d'Italia.” A few plates were started and she made a few inches of water an hour, but she was not seriously injured.

Turning next to the Italian ships, all the ironclads were much battered, but not one seriously harmed. The "Formidabile” had been disabled in her action with the Madonna battery. The "Maria Pia" had one plate shattered; a hardened-steel projectile remained stuck in another; and she had been on fire badly, the flames all but reaching her powder magazine. The "San Martino" was repeatedly hit, and once perforated where her armor was four inches thick, but the shot had not passed through the backing. In her collision with the "Maria Pia" her ram had been twisted, causing the ship to leak. She was on fire twice, but on each occasion the flames were got under, though not without difficulty. The "Castelfidardo" was set on fire in the captain's cabin by a bursting shell. The "Ancona" had many plates displaced, while one shell burst in her battery, coming through a porthole. The "Carignano" had one plate shattered, one gun had burst on board her, and a shell exploded below her conning-tower. The "Portogallo" had many of her armor-plates loosened or forced in by the "Kaiser's" attempt to ram. Lastly, the wooden frigate "Maria Adelaide" had been struck fourteen times, one shell entering her bunkers.

The defeat of the Italians can now be readily explained. The

battle was fought without a leader on their side: in the words of an Italian, Amico, "La battaglia di Lissa fu dunque combattuta senza capo, senza direzione, senza unità d'azione."* Except Vacca, the subordinate commanders showed either positive cowardice or irresolution. Albini, looking calmly on deaf to orders, while his comrades fought and perished, is no very heroic example. Persano's sudden change to the "Affondatore" threw the line into confusion at the critical moment, and left his captains ignorant of his whereabout. The gunnery of the Italians was wretched: while they suffered considerably from Austrian shells striking the portsills and exploding there, the Austrians did not lose a man in this way. It may have been that the Italian fuses were defective, for Boggio in a letter complains of them, or it may more probably have been the case that the gunners werc inexperienced, and, handling very heavy weapons when the ships were rolling in the swell, fired on the upward roll. Yet of one thousand four hundred and fifty-two shot discharged by the seven Italian ironclads, which were hotly engaged and survived the engagement, perhaps a fourth hit the mark. If this seems a high proportion, there is the fact that the fight was at very close quarters.

We have now to consider the tactics of Tegetthoff. His purpose was to throw a mass of ships on one point, and by superior handling of his inferior force to neutralize his opponents' predominance in strength. He decided to break the line near one or other extremity of it, and chose the van rather than the rear, because, had he attacked the latter, he would have been exposed to the cross-fire of the wooden ships; perhaps, also, because he saw the gap between the "Ancona" and "Re d'Italia." His force had a front of under one mile and a half. He sought to produce a general melee, partly because his fleet was the best trained and best disciplined, and therefore, he thought, would be less likely to fall into disorder or confusion, and partly because he had no long-range cannon, and if he had engaged at a distance the Italian heavy guns would have crushed him. His ironclads were to attack and ram

"The battle of Lissa was fought throughout without a leader, without orders, without unity of action."

the vessels in front of them, and thus to protect the feebler wooden ships. His formation was well adapted for the use of the ram, but was defective in two ways, it lacked elasticity, and there was some danger of friend firing into friend. He was, however, assailing a fleet in no order at all; a fleet so circumstanced as to give him the very best chance of using the ram; and yet he only succeeded in sinking one ship with this weapon. "Tegetthoff," says Admiral Page, "had a remarkable chance; the circumstances were extraordinary. In spite of the power of the ram, the gun is still the principal and dominating weapon of naval war." This was written in 1866, and shows singular insight. The Italian tactics should have been a rapid concentration upon the wooden ships when the ironclads had cleared the line. Again, the Italian divisions should have kept together. It is obvious, from the accounts of the battle, that the Austrians hunted in threes and fours, while the Italians fought individually and isolated. But there was no remedying the initial mistake of the attack on Lissa before the Austrian fleet had been crushed or masked.

On the return of the fleet to Ancona, it was at first asserted that the Italians had won a great victory, and sunk three Austrian ships. But the loss of the "Palestro" and "Re d'Italia" was a manifest fact, while news came from Pola that all the Austrian vessels were safe. Gradually it leaked out; first, that the battle had been a Pyrrhic victory, and then that it had been a disgraceful and dishonorable defeat. The rage against Persano was furious, and it was not diminished by a dispatch of his in which he mentioned the "Re d'Italia," "Re di Portogallo," "Palestro," "San Martino," and his own "Affondatore," as the ships which had most distinguished themselves, when, even by his own account, the "Affondatore" had done next to nothing. The Italians have been blamed for this exhibition of feeling; it has been said that they forgot the splendid resolution of the Roman Senators, when, after Cannæ, they went forth to greet the defeated Varro, because he had not despaired of his country. [H. W. WILSON.

THE BATTLE OF SADOWA

THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION-THE DEFEAT OF THE

ΤΗ

AUSTRIANS-THE FOUNDING OF AN EMPIRE

A.D. 1866

HE Seven Weeks' War between Prussia and Austria, which resulted in the defeat of the latter at the battle of Sadowa

and indirectly in the establishment of the German Empire through the confederation of states then formed, originated in a dispute over Schleswig-Holstein. In 1863 a war had occurred between Denmark and Prussia on the same subject. It was terminated by the Treaty of Vienna, signed October 30, 1864, by virtue of which the direction of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenberg was handed over to Austria and Prussia, who took upon themselves their civil and military administration.

This occupation of the duchies by these two powers was openly announced as a temporary measure, and was so considered by the whole of Europe. Austria wished to resign her temporary trusteeship as soon as possible, and proposed to place provisionally the Duke of Augustenburg over the duchies, until the respective claims of that house and Oldenburg had been settled, and thus fulfill the object for which the war had been undertaken. But this did not suit the design of Prussia, which was evidently the annexation of Schleswig-Holstein. Bismarck declared in the Prussian chambers that Prussia would claim the whole of the duchies, and that, come what might, they would not give up Kiel. In August, active measures were taken with reference to the matter. The Emperor Francis and King William met at Gastein, a little town on the banks of the Achen, about forty miles from Salzburg, and here was