THE BATTLE OF GRAVELOTTE AND THE

FALL OF SEDAN

THE FRANCO - PRUSSIAN WAR-PARISIAN ENTHUSIASM-THE OPPOSING FORCES - THE ENGAGEMENT AT SAARBRUCK - THE STORMING OF GEISBERG-THE BATTLE OF TROSCHWELLERGRAVELOTTE-THE INVESTMENT OF STRASBURG-BAZEILLES

AND BALAN-SEDAN AND AFTER

A.D. 1870-1871

N July 4, 1870, the throne of Spain was offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern. The fact created great excitement in France. Threatening speeches were made. On July 12th Prince Leopold declined the offer. On the morrow France demanded a guarantee that any future offer of the kind would be refused. The king of Prussia would not listen to the proposition. The French minister, through whom the demand had been transmitted, then asked for his passports. War was imminent.

At the prospect Paris grew mad with enthusiasm. Crowds assembled in the streets, shouting "Down with Prussia!" "Long live France!" "To the Rhine!" "To Berlin!" The papers abounded with inflammatory appeals, and, after the impulsive French fashion, glorified beforehand the easy triumphs that were to be won over the Prussians. Men told one another that they would be across the Rhine in a week, and at Berlin in a fortnight. The excitement in Prussia was not less than that in France. The people, with scarcely an exception, declared their readiness for war, and seemed to find a pleasure in the opportunity now presented for settling old quarrels. Like the people of Paris, the Prussians shouted "To the Rhine!" The French cry of "To Berlin!" had its counterpart in the German ejaculation of "To Paris!"

and Leipsic was as much talked about by the Prussians as Jena by the French.

Even before the declaration of war, Prussia began to mobilize her troops, and to make other preparations for the conflict. Meanwhile the French government was silently pushing forward its preparations, and at length the opening of the campaign drew near. The emperor, accompanied by the Prince Imperial and Prince Napoleon, left St. Cloud, on July 28, for Metz, the base of the French operations.

The forces which the Prussian government was enabled to bring to the frontier not many days after the formal declaration of war were divided into three armies: the first consisting of 50,000 infantry, 6,600 cavalry, and 192 guns; the second comprising 190,000 infantry, 24,200 cavalry, and 672 guns; the third amounting to 172,000 infantry, 17,000 cavalry, and 576 guns. The three armies, taken together, formed a grand total of 412,000 infantry, 47,800 cavalry, and 1,440 guns. Of these armies the first was commanded by General Steinmetz, with Major-general von Sperling as chief of the staff; the second by Prince Frederick Charles, with Colonel von Stiehie as chief of the staff; and the third by the crown prince, with Lieut.-general von Blumenthal as chief of the staff: the entire forces being under the general command of the king of Prussia, assisted by General von Moltke, as chief of his staff. Stong reserves were formed at Coblentz, Maintz, Frankfort, and Hainau; and the north was defended by an army under General von Falckenstein. Taken altogether, and including the Landwehr and other resources, Prussia had at her disposal, for the purposes of war, a million and a quarter of well-armed and well-drilled soldiers. Of the forces actively employed, the first army reached the frontier some time before July 28, and proceeded to occupy the line of the Saar, resting its right on Saarburg, with advanced posts at that place and at Merzig, Saarlouis, Saarbruck, and Bliescastel, and massing the main body behind at Ottweiler, Neunkirchen, Homburg, and Landstuhl. The second army, with the royal headquarters, crossed the Rhine at Maintz and Mannheim, and, on August 1, took up its station to the left of General Steinmetz, occupying Zweibrucken

and Pinnasens, with its main body echeloned along the line of railway from Landstuhl to Landau. A day or two later the third army arrived by Mannheim and Germersheim, and formed to the left of the second army, with its main body at Neustadt, Spires, Landau, and Germersheim.

The men were perfect in drill, and so accustomed to combined action that they seemed to form parts of one vast machine, capable of being directed with the greatest facility and effect to any object that might be contemplated by the commanders, yet at the same time the intelligence and self-reliance of the individual soldier were not sacrificed to the completeness of the whole body. Arming, equipment, commissariat, transport, medical and surgical attendance, were all arranged in the best possible manner; and the rough test of war showed that what had previously held good in theory was equally excellent in practice. The forces were provided with a field-telegraph and a field-post, with the means of reconstructing railways that might be destroyed by the enemy, and with a corps of grave-diggers; and (by an arrangement characterized by a grim horror, yet unquestionably useful) every man was required to wear around his neck a label establishing his identity if killed, or, in case of his being wounded, supplying the surgeon with a form whereon to describe his case, for the instruction of the medical officers of the hospital to which he might be sent.

The directing intellect of all this vast mechanism was undoubtedly Count von Moltke, who was to the military system of Prussia what Bismarck became to its political system.

The French armies on the eastern frontier were supposed to present a grand total of 165,400 infantry, 18,400 cavalry, and 456 guns, with two corps of reserve, of 61,500 infantry, 12,350 cavalry, and 198 guns, commanded by Marshal Canrobert and General Felix Douay. A division was placed on the Spanish frontier to watch the policy of the governing party across the Pyrenees; and another body of troops was detailed for the Baltic expedition. The general command of the invading army was retained by the emperor in his own hands, assisted by Marshal Leboeuf (removed, for the purpose, from the Ministry of War) as chief of the staff; and the commanders of the several corps (five in number) into which

the whole was divided, were Marshal MacMahon, General Fros sard, Marshal Bazaine, General de l'Admirault, and General de Failly. In addition to these corps was the Imperial Guard, under General Bourbaki. Like the German army, the French forces had the advantage of a highly elaborated railway system, by which they could rapidly concentrate on particular points, or establish communications between city and city. In connection with their line of operations, or in their rear, were the fortified towns of Strasburg, Metz, Bitsche, Phalsburg, Thionville, Toul, and other places of strength.

The less important operations of the war began even before the formal declaration of hostilities. As early as the 16th of July there was a Prussian reconnaissance at Landau; on the 17th the French were concentrating on the frontier at Metz and Thionville, while the Prussians, who were pouring into the Rhenish provinces, occupied a French village near Longwy. War, as we have seen, was formally declared at Berlin on the 19th. On July 23, an attack was made by the French on the open town of Saarbruck, just within the Rhenish-Prussian frontier, but it was repulsed. The attempt was renewed on August 2, and with success. Saarbruck is situated on the river Saar, which waters a country abounding in fortresses. The ancient and picturesque city of Trèves (or Trier, as the Germans call it) is situated some miles to the north of Saarbruck. The emperor Napoleon, seeing that the town was a station of some importance to the Germans, who had here the command of three lines of railway, on which troops and stores were being rapidly moved, determined to take the place by a vigorous assault. Between nine and ten o'clock on the morning of August 2, the French moved up large bodies of troops, and occupied the heights overlooking the town. A good deal of wood surrounded the place, and from this ambuscade the Prussian cannon was heard at intervals as General Bataille, of the 2d corps, advanced with his men. Suddenly a loud cheer burst forth to the right, on the road running from Forbach (in the French territory) to Saarbruck. The emperor had arrived, and was seen riding along the front of the columns.

Lieut.-colonel Thebeaudin, with two battalions of his regiment

(the 67th), in advancing to the attack of the village of St. Arnual, found it strongly occupied and defended by batteries of position planted on the right bank of the Saar. To demolish this artillery, General Micheler ordered into action a battery of the 15th regiment, which effectually opened fire on the Prussian guns. Supported by a battalion of the 40th regiment of the line, and by a company of sappers and miners of the 3d division, materially assisted by the flank movement of Colonel Mangin (who, with the remainder of the 67th regiment and the 66th regiment, descended the heights on the left), Lieut.-colonel Thebeaudin carried the village of St. Arnual, and occupied it with a battalion of the 40th regiment and the company of sappers and miners. The battalions of the 67th rushed up the slopes of the hillock of St. Arnual, and established themselves on the crest opposite Saarbruck. The 66th took possession of the heights up to the exercising ground, driving the enemy from all his positions. At the same time, General Bataille rapidly moved his 1st brigade to the rising ground on the left of the Saarbruck road, connecting his movement with that of the 2d brigade by advancing a battalion of the 33d regiment. Advancing in line, the battalions of the 23d and 8th regiments, their front covered by numerous skirmishers, carried the many ravines which run across the ground, which is very difficult and thickly wooded. One battalion of the 8th regiment, working its way across the woods, followed the railway as far as the village of Frotrany, where it effected its junction with the other battalions of the regiment, and together they attacked the exercising-ground on the right. On gaining the heights, General Bataille planted one of his batteries in front of the lines of the 66th regiment, and another on the exercising-ground, to fire on the railway station, and silence the enemy's artillery, which had taken up a position on the left of Saarbruck. This had the desired effect; and after some more artillery practice, a battery of mitrailleuses of the 2d division threw the German columns of infantry into disorder. Their effect was remarkable. Battalions were scattered with great loss, the remainder flying in all directions. When the French had gained the heights commanding the town, a battery of mitrailleuses was placed in position in presence of the emperor and the prince im