about eight o'clock in the
evening
The courageous but strategically puzzling march of the Hanoverian army belongs to history , and is fully related in writings upon the war of 1866 . It may perhaps be granted to future times to unriddle the extraordinary movements made by the army , and perhaps to explain why the march upon Treffurt was given up when they had reached Heiligenstadt , and their course turned by Mühlhausen to Langensalza ; from thence right under the cannon of Erfurt they marched to Eisenach , and then suddenly , when this place was as good as taken , they halted , because an envoy from the Duke of Coburg-Gotha , without credentials , appeared at the Hanoverian headquarters . Major von Jacobi was sent by the Hanoverian general staff to Gotha to clear up this mission ; and there , deceived as to the number of Prussian troops occupying Eisenach , he telegraphed such an account of the enemy to Colonel von Bülow , the Hanoverian officer in command , that , misled by the report , he withdrew his troops from Eisenach , and concluded a provisional armistice with the enemy . When , therefore , -- so runs the official report of these events , -- General von Arentschildt arrived on the spot at about eight o'clock in the evening , expecting to find Eisenach taken , he was opposed to circumstances that completely defeated his plans , and contradicted all his majesty 's views , but which both the armistice just concluded and the approaching night prevented him from grappling with . Major von Jacobi was brought before a court-martial , the course of which was rendered impossible by succeeding events . The reception of the envoy , the negotiations commenced with him and with the Duke of Coburg in the midst of military action , combined with the withdrawal of the troops from Eisenach , caused the idea to gain ground in Berlin that the king wished to negotiate ; and King William of Prussia , animated by the desire of avoiding a bloody encounter with the Hanoverians , sent General von Alvensleben to the Hanoverian head-quarters , situated on the 25th June at Gross-Behringen , on the road to Eisenach . During the previous negotiations with the Duke of Coburg , and the withdrawal of the Hanoverian troops , the Prussians had seized the opportunity of reinforcing Eisenach so strongly that it was now very difficult to take it .