How Prussia Won the 1866 Austro-Prussian War (no, it wasn’t just because of the needle rifle) 

Great video, loved the intro showing the Dreyse's needle rifle's superiority. While the telegraph and logistics definitely played a large part, there was ample miscommunication between the Prussian army groups, and Moltke eventually ended up travelling towards Bohemia right before Königgrätz not because that was a predetermined strategy, but because he realised he was receiving information which, by the time he received it, was outdated up to 24 hours. Keep up the great work, this is such an interesting time period!

You call this "a little dry"? Sir, do you know your audience? It was riveting from beginning to end, and left me wanting more:)

Trains, Telegraph and logistics

So i, an austrian born and bred, hear the following story which resonates with my modern austrian self-image very much: kaiser franz saw the british use fire tactics and equips the austrian army with the tool to do it (austrian institutions are pretty decent at technological solutions). The austrian army gets the impossible mission to make riflemen out of their diverse conscripts and not only did nobody dare to contradict the kaiser (austrian institutional culture does not encourage contradicting superiors). When it became apparent that they failed in italy, they also didn’t admit they failed, but but blamed it on the french shock tactics being better than their own fire tactics (which weren’t fire tactics at all. Austrian institutional culture encourages covering your own backside to admitting failure and actually fostering learning). And the confirmation bias from denmark, well that fits the picture

I was just searching for a long form interesting history piece to listen to while I do some garden work and then you drop this! Noice!

I think this is by far the best source on weapons and tactics of the 19th century on RU-vid. You do absolutely fantastic work. And it was by no means "dry", I almost felt like being on the battlefield myself, watching the horrors of being "shot to ribbons". War is hell, indeed!

I was going to say that someone has read “the destroying angel” but after some googling turns out you wrote it! I read it the other week and thought it was serendipitous that I see a video on the subject.

So, as I understand it, the Prussians had the 1850s-1860s equivalent of an army armed with submachine guns.

Wonderful! Even more important than the specifics of the Lorenz vs. the Dreyse is the exposition of the typical mistake historians make in interpreting events out of context and as a way to support their biases (and Generals are historians when they consider past battles). Fantastic work, Brett, as always.

“ the last 100 yards of the battlefield belongs to the Infantry “

Thank you for this video! I appreciate the History of the 19th Century a bit more. Love from the Philippines 🇵🇭

From what I understand in total war terms, the Prussians set thier units into spread out formations so the enemy fire was much less effective, once they were within range and charging range, these formations were united again under various rally points to volley fire mad minute style then charge with melee mode on?

I never knew about this tactic of `stoss-tactic’, all I knew from other documentation was, that you load and shoot the needle rifle while laying down and so give the opponent a lower target profile. This was probably the advantage of the needle rifle in comparison with the muskets. I really feel sorrow for all the brothers and sisters who died in this war.

The Dreyse was the coolest, most bestest gun ever, until john browning made the 1911, which was so good they named a year after it.

Bayonet "wounds" are rare because they were invariably fatal in the pre-20th century battlefield. Having said that, the casualty rate for the bayonet is very low compared to gunfire since, as you said, the enemy would normally break before the two sides closed to hand to hand range.

Another brilliant Brett production - well-informed, well-paced and filled with and accurate assessment of two contemporary but very different 'takes' on the infantry rifle of the day.

Oh boy another 1 hour video on esoteric mid Victorian musketry

Love when your videos drop, Major. Looking forward to paying you a visit in July while I’m in town for a preservation march.

This video should be shown in schools and universities, fantastic overview.

phenomenal presentation, thank you for taking the time to share your research and observations. stay safe out there.

I can, without a doubt, say this is one of the best videos I have ever watched on this platform. This is an amazing video about of of the most fascinating periods of history. Great work.

just went through gettysburg last month shame you were out woulda loved to stop by and say hello!

Really enjoyed the talk you gave, it wasn't dry at all and made a lot of good points.

Thank you for your service sir! Get back home safe !

so, they Dreyse is responsible for the victory less from a technological standpoint, and more from forcing the evolution of strategy. though of course its unique performance gave that new strategy something to work with. it goes to show strategy is one of the most decisive tools.

Very important insights not generally available very well done

Excellent video! Its clear that you have a real passion for the subject matter and it makes watching you talk for an hour go by like a breeze! I love learning about history, and being in the military myself, i especially like to explore the nitty gritty details, like the equipments used, the training, the uniforms etc and imagine how it must have been for the average grunts at the time. It was very interesting to see the live action demonstration of the rifles used in this conflict, and hear you talk about the SOPs as it were of the factions involved. The various pictures of the uniforms and troops involved was also a great addition.

Wow! Well done professor! Great lesson(s)!

WIE ES EIGENTLICH _WAR_ VERDAMMTNOCHMAL! :) great stuff.

Another excellent presentation. Thank you.

Excellent analysis and I love the depth of this video. Putting everything into its social, doctrinal, and technological frame is a very valuable decision and I have no doubt that your research for this topic took a great amount of effort. Thank you for sharing this! Und Grüße aus dem Vaterland! Ihr Deutsch ist prächtig!

Magnificent summary 👏

I absolutely love these videos. My wife is a high school history teacher, and you had better believe that I'm trying to make sure some of this is getting passed on into her lectures!

It is nice to see how innovation was borne out by limitation. The Prussians didn't come up with new organisation and CC out of curiosity, but because they realised they had a substantial disadvantage that they had to mitigate.

You really should try out the Nessler projectile, which was used bei the Württembergians in the Vereinsgewehr 1857. This rifle has the same caliber as the Lorenz. The Nessler-bullet was a special minié projectile which is supposed to have a more symmetrical expansion. The Danes use Thouvenin projectiles in "Dorn"-Rifles where the bullet is rammed onto a spike, thus expanding into the rifling.

I really enjoyed your perspective on the Dreyse versus the Lorenz. If you ever need a real German to translate I am happy to help. Couple of observations I wanted to share with you. We got a dreyse 41 and we are working on the original treibspiegel. We are using newspaper paper about one meter long , wrapping it. We are doing it over and over again- but it is rather difficult to get a satisfying result, however my son reach a point were he is getting now decent results. And we noticed a better treibspiegel gets better accuracy. Also we did not noticed much fauling as you mentioned and I am wondering if it had to do with the treibspiegel you are using. We shot over the winter and we also saw that our treibspiegel shredded to very small pieces in the snow unlike what you saw. I personally think that a dreyse is verse sensitive to what you are using as a treibspiegel and you might improve on accuracy the closer you get to the original Kartusche. I also believe that a dreyse is more simple than other black powder guns- you don’t need tools and I believe that the treibspiegel is removing almost all the fouling from the barrel. What I am not quite sure is on how much the the treibspiegel and the bullet is engaging with the deep rifling of the dreyse. I am sure that the explosion is pushing the treibspiegel and the langblei out of the barrel - however i am not convinced that it is a synchronized move. Accuracy will suffer if it is not. As a structural engineer I do like the original treibspiegel design as long as you get it tight. To me a hole in the treibspiegel will cause the langblei to be pushed out of the barrel faster than the treibspiegel resulting in bullets that do not spin and the wrapped newspaper creates a rather strong bond 90 degree against the force of the explosion. Our goal is to get a hold of an original Lorenz - we are curious especially my son Otto if it is really as good as you say. I am wondering if the Lorenz has already the progressive rifeling. My son is your biggest fan- keep doing what you are doing. It’s wonderful to get to know you in this digital way.

Very interesting and scholarly, thanks Major! Stay safe and I’m looking forward to the summer and your new content from Pennsylvania! Greetings from Suffolk 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I love this kind of content of your, please make more, this changed my perspective and added great insights in this underrated yet very important war

Awesome detailed video, as an Austrian myself the war of 1866 is a quite interresting yet painful topic for me. Very good coverage of doctrine beyond the rifles.

I might be wrong. But I believe the superior rifle of the mid 1800s was the Spencer. Of course doesn't use a paper cartridge so it's not on the subject.

Dude ...... that was epic. You call it dry. You are mistaken, humbly mistaken. I was getting a little bit excited as that final battle unfolded in your words. So good. Please proceed. Thank you, Gus.

Glad to see another video!! It’s always interesting to learn more about European warfare in this time since my focus has always been on the American civil war. Always looking forward to any content you might release here. And of course it wouldn’t a Paper Cartridge video without your friend in the background. I hope these last few months fly by and your able to return home safely.

I would also add that rifle role is a bit overestimated to this day. Because a little bit of well placed artillery can cause a lot more damage than hundreds of rifles.

This video communicates important ideas that rely on numerous underlying and interacting factors. And it presents them in a very accessible way. Thank you for making it. I had a very cursory grasp of some of the material before, but this has enriched that very efficiently.

Great video. I would like to see a video comparing the technology and tactics in Europe vs US civil war.

One correction: 31:04 "Ihn möglichst auf der Ebene zu stellen" "jemanden stellen" is more like "confronting". And "Ebene" means not only level but it seems like "open ground" or "in the plain". So its more like "Confront him on open/even ground" And "Geist" wasnt meant in form of spirit but "Klugheit"

Rich, detailed, and very fully contextualised: and the reason that it's not dry is that there is an active strand of enquiry animating the whole thing. And, finally, that it's not just all directed to neat take aways and Lessons Learned, but there's still the awareness that often the outcomes are due to sheer contingency, and that things could have gone otherwise -- even although the Austrians didn't (? couldn't) change their tactics to make the most of their main weapon.

First class Brett. Held me spellbound to the end, even with pauses to read the text. Thank you. Hopefully next will be how the Prussians won the 1870 War with the worst rifle against the better French artillery - command and control ie the French lost the war rather than the Prussians won it. That should fire up some comments……

Manuver and use of tactics conformed to soldier and equipment have always and will always win wars. Magnificent video gave a real insight into this war bravo.

I’ve just read ‘The Destroying Angel’ and it’s absolutely brilliant. Very well written I thought Brett. Great work

Not a bad rifle at all and pointed the way forward, but with black powder and no cartridges i wouldn't want one after a dozen shots.

That was a brilliant presentation! 👍

Great Video! You got my Sub! All Best to you! Greets from prussia´s greatest archievment, Gemany :D

33:00 that is simply not correct. Half used Taprifles and half used minie rifles. (for most of the war each of hte two 800 man battalions in a regiment had one battalion with the taprifle and one with the minie. Late in the war exchanges where made to give each regiment the same arms) The Minies where moslty ex french M1822s that where converted to percussion before being sold to Denmark in 1848 for the first war. Then uprifled and shortened a bit 1861. (so collected today often call them "ex french minigevær M1822/48/61") The big issue in regard to the firearms was that all the reservist that had done their mandatory service before 1861 had been trained on both the M1822 as a smoothbore and on the taprifle. But half the army ended up armed with the M1822 as a minierifle... And where ramming the bullet multiply times as one do with a Taprifle do nothing good for accuracy. And that the otherwise ok marksmanship program was not allways followed because of cost)

Just demonstrates that things are never as simple as they might seem and a proper detailed analysis is how you should reach conclusions. Great video as always, with excellent primary source material.

Thanks for the video👍 loved it. Sadly here in ferlach our teachers often tell us, that the prussians "only" won because of the Zünandelgewehr. But i guess thats just how it is because ferlach is mainly focused on hunting, and hunting guns. I would translate drauf los gehen with pushing without thinking

Great video and great military history. Keep up the good work.

Great video! Just an FYI - your voice is very quiet in this video, it might be worth looking into the levels. Good stuff, keep it up.

I loved your video. You said at the end it might've been a little dry but honestly quite the opposite. Usually I watch videos in the back like a podcast but this one I watched "porperly" I guess im a bit more involved as a saxon myself. You are one of the few that explain things indepth showing the background of things and from both perspectives. I can even use some of the things you talked about to adapt them for my personal projects. Great video that's all I can say really.

It’s the side with the shortest hair that always wins.

Outstanding video stay safe buddy👍👍

A very enjoyable and informative talk Brett. Thank you.

Excellent storytelling!

This was quite interesting. I had a vague understanding of the Dreyse, but my understanding was that it was ahead of its time and had virtually won the Prussian-Austrian war as it permitted a soldier to fire much faster and open up the ability to do so from a prone position. I had no idea it had such intense drawbacks.

Excellent video, love the focus on the less thought of details that ties in great with the gun info

Another outstanding video, building on your discussion of the effect of rifling (or lack of) on tactics and outcomes. Thank you for illuminating something I've always found puzzling about 19th century (especially American Civil War) tactics. Small quibble with concluding that Austria drew the 'wrong' conclusion from the Italian wars. If the the lesson was that, whatever the theoretical capability of the Lorenz, their their massive, multinational conscript army would never achieve a level of mastery of the Lorenz that would allow them to effectively use fire tactics, arguably they learned the correct lesson. Königgrätz, with what you argue was a near Austrian win based on shock tactics, support the idea that they made the best choice given their inherent limitations. Just as the Prussians made the best tactical choice given the limitations of the Dreyse. Sure, it didn't work out for the Austrians but it doesn't seem like they had a clear alternative.

As Melchett would say, "Baaaaaahhhh!" Great video presentation!

great video as always! the sound is very low and even at max volume it is hard to hear you.

shock tactics were used more directly by the austrians here, previously you were to fire until you could in theory anahikate them in melee then charge to either get shredded, force them from the field or meet and overwelm them, at the austro prussian war the austrians go more direct

Great presentation ! Greetings from Czech republic

Great video. Some of the concepts and issues were also occurring when matchlock firearms themselves were entering into widespread use, they were not wonder-weapons on their own (although highly effective in their context) but had to be used as part of a bigger military system

Entertaining and informative! Great video Brett!

Excellent presentation. Like most things, the truth is usually much more complicated than what we think we know.

Not dry very interesting! Cheers mate!

Thanks for the video, really interesting. (2 comments to simplify answer, 1st here) From France, and knowing a basic bit of the Chassepot and Dresde on mechanical and historic PoV : it seems that they have developed a great tactic to fix a weakness of their rifles and this tactics was perfect for the day "finally, we have breach loading *rifles*". And, I could be wrong, but it looks like it have shape in a positive way, for instance British Empire on their late 19th century battles with the Martini Henry, like, the famous battle where the Zulu charged in massive number, and the British with bit of this German tactic *crushed them*. And like you said, the 1870 Franco-Prussian war was a complex campaign, France had a good artillery that helped, but the tactical superioty and doctrine of fire helped them to win against a better firearm (that was talking (sort of) almost the same language, unlike the Austrian army)

Vielen Dank! Liebe Grüße aus Österreich!

Excellent! As always love the theme song!!!

Holy crap, I thought you were kidding about the Dreyse fan boys, I was wrong! I guess the "wunderwaffe" ideology is still going strong for some people.

Fascinating video, thank you.

Pleased to see a Blackadder reference.

Very good analysis. Loved it. Funny thing is, I was thinking about General Melchett's tactics just before you mentioned him.

Another great video as always

I know artillery isn't really your expertise but got any book recommendations on how artillery and artillery doctrine changed in the mid 1800s?

Excellent work. Thanks

“Drauflosgehen” is a very old phrase. “Go for it and don’t stop” describes it exactly.

Excellent video, thank you

Thank you very much for this very inform|ative video.

Great picture showing the effect of fouling, must of been a few prussians missing eyebrows. Great work putting up the translations 🍻

What a great video! Especially in terms of research. Would love to see a similar video about the Franco-Prussian War. P.S.: Nice to see that there are still some people who can transcribe Frakturschrift. Quite rare these days.

Excellent! A masterful assessment.

Speaking of Prussian weapons, the caplock version of Potsdam muskets appeared in the Civil War as well. When are we going to cover the history of Potsdam Muskets? Both self-priming flintlock version and caplock are brilliant.

Great talk!

One thing the needle guns could do was shooting and reloading while being prone.

I think that the reaction of the Austrian officers to the idea of wargames just about says it all. They refused on the grounds you could not gamble on them!

It's interesting that Lundby was seen as such a big confirmation of the Dreyse's superiority. It was a company size engagement that was characterised by the utter lack of tactical enguinity by the Danish commander, that seems to have done this mindless attack to restore his own honour for leaving his men early during the Battle of Sankelmark. He approach an entrenched enemy with a head on bayonet charge in a 10 man wide 16 ranks deep marching column walking down a hillside. The volleys were fired at around 90 m, 70 m, and 50 m and it's only the closest one that had devastating effects. The Prussians could've had smoothbores and it would still have been a slaughter. It's a bit strange it's a called a "battle" in English. In Danish and German it's just called a fight/skirmish.

to be fair the muzzle loader was averaging a shot every 20 seconds. thats 3 a minute which is the standard for elite soldiery in the 18th and early 19th century

Excellent Presentation 👍👍👍

Very insightful, think youll have 100k subs one day easy if all ur videos as good as this, keep it up bro

"Drauflosgehen" or as it as modernly exclaimed as "fuck it, we ball"

Really enjoyed this