Now our happiness was restored to us.
I kept working with Steinway & Sons until 1864 when an old acquaintance of mine came to my house and offered me a job in their business which I accepted. Now I worked with the Firm of "Lydecker & Schmidt," corner of 3rd Avenue and 14th Street, where we covered piano hammers for different piano establishments. Here I had a good place and steady work with good wages and where I have worked 'til 1876.
In 1865 another boy was born to us, we gave him the name John, and in that year 1865 the war came to a close. The North was victorious and so the Union was established again. Now was peace in the United States and a good time for every body.
In 1864 they had war also in Europe. It was in Denmark. The Province of Schleswig & Holstein had trouble with Denmark as Denmark had tried for some time to make these provinces Danish by subduing the German language, where upon Prussia & Austria declared war on Denmark. Little Denmark showed fight but was soon subdued, and the Province of Schleswig & Holstein was taken away from Denmark, to which they had belonged since 1648. Now Prussia began to work to get them two provinces annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia, where upon came a rupture between Prussia and Austria until finally in 1866 when Prussia declared war to Austria.
Now Saxony, Bavaria, Hessen, and Hannover, took sides with Austria while the rest of the German States took sides with Prussia. Prussia had also made common cause with Italy and attacked Austria from North and South.
The next day after war was declared, the Prussian troops entered Cassel, Hannover, and Dresden. Those three states were taken almost by surprise, only the Saxon troops came through and joined the Austrians now the Prussian troops defeated the Hanovarians at Langen Lasa, surprised the Hessian troops and took the Prince of Hessia as prisoner, defeated the Bavarians and Hessen-Darnestadler, and then marched to the Bohemian Frontier where all the Prussian forces made junction and then met the Austrian forces, where at Kunigskratz it came to a desperate battle. The Prussians came out in this war with their "Bridge Loading" muskets which almost revolutionized the whole world, and their superiority was so great that inside thirty days, Austria declared themselves defeated. Austria gave up Venice to Italy, yielded the Supremacy of Prussia in Germany, and paid a heavy war indemnity to Prussia. Now all the German states North of the River Main were formed together as " The North German Union " with Prussia as Chief. The King of Hannover was abdicated and Hannover became a Prussian province.
The Prince of Hesse-Cassel, and the Duke of Kassan