594

Effects of the battle of Gravelotte

[1870 darkness and the tardy arrival of part of the French Guard alone stopping the weary pursuers. Though their right had suffered a disastrous defeat, the French centre and left had repulsed all attacks. A division of the second German corps had been hurried forward to support Steinmetz; and, on its arrival, a renewed attempt was made to carry Frossard's lines, with the object of preventing reinforcements being sent to Canrobert. This attack met with no better success than the former; and at nightfall the French in this part of the field had more than held their own. The battle of Gravelotte had, however, been won and lost, as Moltke had foreseen, on the other flank. There were many anxious hearts at the royal headquarters during the afternoon, but through it all Moltke had awaited the result with quiet confidence. Bazaine had altogether underestimated the strength of Frossard's position. Deceived by mere demonstrations against the town and by Steinmetz' fierce attacks, he was deaf to appeals from Ladmirault and Canrobert, and kept his reserves behind his left six miles from the point where the issue of the day was decided. Absorbed in the events on his left, he considered that he had at last succeeded in baffling the enemy, until late in the evening, when he received the news of the disaster to his right. Thereupon he issued orders to the army of the Rhine to retire under the guns of Metz, whose shelter they were never to leave again except as prisoners of war. On the German side about 200,000 men were engaged; on the French about 140,000. The German losses in killed and wounded amounted to 20,584 men, those of the French to about 13,000, besides 5000 prisoners.

On August 19, the fact that the army of the Rhine had fallen back on the forts surrounding Metz, and was holding positions which could not be carried by assault, was known to Moltke. The original plan of campaign had contemplated that, while the armies advanced to Paris, Metz should be masked by a Landwehr division, which was already approaching. The new situation demanded a reorganisation of the armies, which was at once undertaken. The whole of the first army, and the second, third, ninth, and tenth corps of the second army, with the Landwehr division, were formed into an army of investment, 175,000 strong, under Prince Frederick Charles. From the remainder of the second army (the Guard, the fourth and twelfth corps), the army of the Meuse was created, and placed under the Crown Prince of Saxony. Thus, with the third army, 240,000 men were available for the advance on the French capital. The third army and fourth corps had reached the Meuse on August 19, and were there halted to enable the new army to come up. On August 22 a general advance was begun on Châlons, where troops were believed to be collecting.

When the Emperor drove into Châlons from the battlefield of Mars-la-Tour on August 16, he found there the twelfth corps, which had been formed of troops from the Spanish frontier, a division of

1870]

Formation of the army of Châlons

595

marines from the expeditionary force, and some newly formed regiments; also one infantry division, the cavalry and half the artillery of Canrobert's corps which had been unable to get through to Metz, and some Gardes Mobiles from Paris. During the next few days the refugees from Wörth and the fifth corps arrived, while the seventh corps was on its way from Belfort. Macmahon was directed to form an army, to be called the army of Châlons, out of this collection of units. The material was not promising; many of the regular units were in a state of demoralisation, while the Parisian Gardes Mobiles were openly insubordinate, and had to be sent back to the capital. Of the machinery that makes an army an effective weapon of war part was totally lacking, the rest wofully deficient. Yet something had to be done, for the third German army was already across the Meuse, and there was no time for hesitation.

Macmahon was for leading the army back to Paris, where a thirteenth corps was being formed, and where, with the immense resources of all France upon which to draw, he would have more time for organisation. The Emperor agreed; but the Empress and Palikao had still to be reckoned with. A dispatch from Bazaine after Mars-la-Tour had reached Paris, in which he announced that, after replenishing his supply columns, he intended to march west. If Macmahon were to fall back, the Paris mob might construe the movement to be an abandonment of the army of the Rhine; and in that event the Empress did not care to face the consequences. Macmahon, in perplexity, proposed a compromise. It was clearly impossible to remain at Châlons with the army incomplete in every detail, while the enemy were fast approaching. So, on the 21st the camp was abandoned in haste; immense accumulations of stores were burnt; and a move was made to Reims. Here the seventh corps joined the army by rail, bringing its strength up to 150,000 men organised in four corps. At Reims Macmahon was in a position to act against the flank of a direct advance on Paris, and could still stretch out a hand to Bazaine, if opportunity offered. The state of the troops which had last arrived confirmed Macmahon in his intention to move on Paris. Orders to this effect were issued, but, on the 22nd, another dubiously worded dispatch arrived from Bazaine, giving details of Gravelotte, and announcing his intention to break out towards Châlons, by Montmédy, or if that were not possible, by Sedan. Macmahon inferred that Bazaine was about to start, and reluctantly and with full knowledge of the danger, ordered the fatal march to the Meuse, which was to lead to the downfall of the Empire. If the army moved swiftly and secretly, it might be possible to get round the right of the army of the Meuse before the third army could come up; but the condition of the troops, and of the supply and transport services, upon which the mobility of armies depends even more than upon the marching powers of the men, gave little promise of swiftness, while the want of a numerous cavalry

596

Macmahon's march to the Meuse

[1870

trained to keep prying eyes at a distance warranted small hope of secrecy. In brief, a hastily organised, ill-equipped, and half-demoralised force was attempting the desperate venture of a flank march between the enemy and the Belgian frontier, on the ground that Bazaine might be doing something, and could not, if he were, be left without support.

Fortune at first favoured Macmahon; the German headquarters, well aware of the condition of the army of the Rhine, could not believe that the French would uncover the capital and risk their last field army in a forlorn hope. The lines of march of great armies are not to be lightly altered. Ill-considered changes throw into confusion the immense trains toiling painfully in the rear, and, as many a luckless Frenchman had found, entail hardships no less severe than the loss of a battle. So, not until the evening of August 28, when news from London had confirmed the reports of the cavalry, did Moltke direct a movement northwards to intercept the rash enemy. The army of Châlons had thus gained three days; but already the intendance was breaking down, and in three days the army had only reached the Aisne, barely 25 miles on its way. Still the position was not hopeless. Macmahon expected Bazaine to break out to the north-west, and hoped to join him near Montmédy. To do this he had to cross the Meuse near Stenay or Mouzon; for the Belgian frontier bends to the south near Montmédy, and he would have been cramped for room, had he crossed lower down. On the evening of August 25, the right of the army of Châlons was some twelve miles nearer Stenay than was the right of the army of the Meuse. The Germans were still uncertain of the enemy's movements, and had to execute a difficult change of direction. The next few days altered the situation decisively. On the 26th an encounter with a strong body of German cavalry on the right flank caused unwarranted alarm; and the 27th, on which day the first German troops occupied Stenay, was spent in moving the rest of the army to the assistance of the seventh corps which was on the right. The events of this day once more convinced Macmahon of the hopelessness of his task, and orders were issued for a retreat. But during the night vigorous protests arrived from Paris, whence Palikao telegraphed, "If you desert Bazaine, there will be a revolution in Paris." Macmahon preferred the probability of defeat and capture, if he advanced, to the certainty of slander and disgrace if he retired. The counter-orders produced more than ordinary confusion, and the army gained little more than ten miles on the 28th, on which day the twelfth Saxon corps held the Meuse at and south of Stenay, while the remaining German corps were fast approaching from the south. Macmahon moved northwards to seek a crossing lower down the river, leaving the fifth corps under de Failly to cover the movement. This corps had a skirmish with the advanced guard of the Saxons on the 29th, yet allowed itself to be surprised next day a few miles further north, near Beaumont.

1870]

The Germans close in

597

On the morning of the 30th the head of the third German army had, by splendid marching, come up with the army of the Meuse. The German line stretched from Stenay on the Meuse to Vougiers on the Aisne, down which river the eleventh corps and three cavalry divisions were marching to cut off Macmahon, should he try to fall back westwards. Six corps could be concentrated for a battle, a seventh corps, the sixth, was following half a march in rear. Thus the net was already spread, and, as it was drawn together, the French were pressed back on the Meuse. August 31 found their army hemmed into a triangle with sides about four miles in length. The base, with the town of Sedan in its centre, was formed by the Meuse, which was swollen by rains. Lines of hills skirted by streams formed the sides, and furnished natural ramparts strengthened by well-built villages, positions capable of a stubborn defence, but with the cardinal defect that they were every where encircled by heights, which afforded unlimited opportunity for the employment of an overwhelming artillery.

Within this triangle many anxious conferences were held. Macmahon was above all desirous of getting the Emperor away to safety; but Napoleon III, sick in body and broken in spirit, a passive spectator of the miseries of his troops, not permitted to return to his capital, whence orders were issued of which he disapproved, and left with nothing but the honour of a great name, preferred to remain and suffer with his men. As to the future, the French Marshal had no very definite idea. The most pressing need was a day's rest for the troops, which were arranged rather with a view to holding off the enemy than to accepting a decisive battle. Macmahon did not grasp the extent of his danger, for he had not learned that lesson in tactics which September 1 was to make clear to the military world. Till then it had always been believed that it was only necessary to mass sufficient force, and to drive it home with determination, to be certain of breaking through any hostile position. In this war breech-loader was meeting breech-loader for the first time, and long-range field artillery was first employed. Few, if any, had perceived the power of resistance which the increase of range, accuracy, and rate of fire had conferred on an attenuated line, or the deadly effect of converging fire whether in attack or defence. Macmahon did not conceive it possible that Bazaine could be held in by a less numerous foe; and, believing the strength of the enemy in front of him to be exaggerated, he considered that he could break through at will, if his adversary were rash enough to attempt to surround him.

During the 31st General de Wimpffen, a protégé of Palikao, joined the army to replace de Failly in command of the fifth corps, with a brevet from the Minister appointing him Macmahon's successor in the event of any accident to the Marshal. On the same day a thirteenth French corps, which had been organised at Paris under General Vinoy, and moved by rail to the front, was directed by Macmahon to halt at

598

Battle of Sedan

[1870

Mezières, a clear indication of his intention to retreat on that place. The German plans were simple and consisted in an enveloping movement by two corps against each of the sides of the French triangle, covered from any movement from Mezières by two cavalry divisions, and the Würtemberg division. The first Bavarian corps was to attack the village of Bazeilles at the foot of the eastern face, while two corps remained on the left bank opposite Sedan in second line. The Bavarians opened the battle during the afternoon of the 31st, and, resuming it at daylight the next morning, carried the village after a fierce fight by 10 a.m., by which hour the two corps operating against the eastern face had developed their attack, and established a long line of guns on the heights behind them. During the fight at Bazeilles Macmahon was severely wounded, and handed over the command to Ducrot. The latter, impressed with the danger of the situation, ordered a retreat on Mezières; but the movement had scarce begun when de Wimpffen, producing his nomination from his pocket, countermanded it, after a fierce wrangle with Ducrot, and directed the army to break out eastwards towards Montmédy.

While the French generals were quarrelling, the Germans, methodically deploying battery after battery, crowned the heights west, south, and east with a circle of iron, which poured a ceaseless rain of shell into the ever narrowing space in front of the advancing infantry. Overwhelmed by artillery fire, de Wimpffen's efforts on the east were meeting with scant success, when his attention was called to a more pressing danger on the west. Here Douay's corps, attacked by two German corps, was in great peril; and it became necessary to countermarch troops to his assistance across ground swept by the German guns. Still the pressure on the western face was not relieved; and, as a last desperate throw, the cavalry were called up to retrieve the fortunes of the day. Five regiments of cavalry under General Marguerite charged home again and again, riding through the enemy's skirmishers, only to be swept back by the unshaken fire of the supports. Three generals and nearly half of those brave horsemen fell killed or wounded on the field. The splendid and hopeless gallantry of the attempt made it a fitting climax for the death-throes of an empire. Soon afterwards, the eastern and western attacks, uniting near the apex of the triangle, completed the pitiless circle which fenced in the unlucky army of Châlons; and by the Emperor's order the white flag was hoisted over Sedan. Macmahon's force had ceased to exist. No less than 81,000 officers and men, including the Emperor and a Marshal of France, surrendered as prisoners of war; while during the battle 21,000 had been captured, 3000 killed, and 14,000 wounded. The German losses amounted to 8960 men.

While the army of Châlons was struggling into the trap which Moltke had set, Bazaine, lost in the fog of war, uncertain whither Macmahon was moving, or whether he was moving at all, but possessed