My Experiences of the War between France and Germany

Front matter

MT EXPERIENCES OF THE WAE BETWEEN FEANCE AND GEEMANY. VOL. I. " News of battle ! News of battle ! Hark ! 'tis ringing down the street ; And the archways and the pavement Bear the clang of hurrying feet. News of battle ! Who has brought it ? " W. E. Aytoun, Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers. MY EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. BY ARCHIBALD FORBES, ONE OP THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS OF "THE DAILY NEWS.' IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHEES, 13, GEEAT MAKLBOKOTJGH STREET. 1871. The Right of Translation ie Reserved, LONDON : BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WH1TEFRIARS. PKEFACE. It is right to state that a large proportion of the material of these two volumes consists of letters con tributed to "The Dady News," so far as concerns the events written of in Parts IL, III., and IV. ; to " The Morning Advertiser," as regards Part I. I have modified, excised, and re-Avritten not a little, only to find the desire, which cannot be gratified, grow stronger and stronger to re-write the whole.

As it is, what follows can claim to be no more than an honest narrative of events Avhich passed within my own ken ; nor did I adow any consideration to deter me from bringing as many events as possible within my ken. Yet even of these the book makes no pretensions to be a historical record ; but it may be of some service to the historian which the late war is sure to evoke. CONTENTS. PAET I. THE STEOKES OF THE SLEDGE-HAMMEE. PAGE

Chapter II. Pucella Rapta

b VOL I. PAET I. THE STEOKES OF THE SLEDGE-HAMMEE. MY EXPERIENCES OF THE WAK BETWEEN FKANCE & GEB1MY.

CHAPTER I. THE EARLY' DAYS.

He must have lived in some very sequestered vale indeed who did not in some measure participate in the thrill of excitement which ran through Britain on that day, the 15th of July, 1870, on which the Due cle Grammont in his master's name proclaimed that France had resolved to make war with Prussia. The general impression probably was, that there would be a pitched battle the same evening, and when day after day passed and no overt warfare was reported of a more serious character than the blowing-up of a bridge, the capture of a couple of douaniers, or the harmless exchange of shots between the hostile pickets and patrols on the frontier line, the intensity of the concentrated expectancy only grew keener because of the lurid hush that preceded the VOL. I. B '_> THE WAK BETAVEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY7. 2 breaking of the storm.

In these early days, Avhile access Avas possible to the vicinity of the frontier line— on the German side at least— there was little of interest to attract anyone whose mission it was to contribute what he might toward feeding the popular appetite Avith what has come to be knoAvn ever since the Crimean times as "War Correspondence." But there AA7as no lack in Germany of more interesting work than competing with Reuter in the transmission of telegrams, or in gazing continuously across the boundary line through a field glass on the chance of seeing a feAv brisk little men in red breeches popping out and in among the trees. One might see with his own eyes the working of that huge machine, on the elaboration of every cog and pinion of which Von Moltke and his subordinates had bestoAved so much pains.

The word had gone forth for the mobilisation of the German army a few days before I reached Cologne, on the 19 th July. Already, before leaving London, I had noticed and Avondered what a power and scope had this machine — the German military system — that it could bridge the Channel and SAveep into its feeder with a suction-poAver not to be resisted, Germans long resident in Britain, and unthiried from the machine save by the astrictron of patriotism. There was little need in these days of July to ask one's way to the office of the North German Consul in the city. You knew you were coming to the Consulate before you got within sight of it. The pavements Avere thronged by Germans who monopolised the " croAvn of the causeAvay" Avith a stolid masterful good humour wdiich Avas not to be gainsaid.

You might have Avalked over the heads of the densely-packed mass of men Avho stood about wedged in, chatting, smoking, spitting, grumbling occasionady — not viciously — at the delay they experienced in getting their passports put in order. I should think at least three hundred Germans were in waiting for their pass ports when I procured my visa. Four-fifths of the men — for the most part stalwart, lissom young felloAvs — Avere starting to join the German army. There Avas no compulsion on them, save what Ave might call moral compulsion. They might have become naturalised Eng lishmen on their arrival among us, or at all events when they found themselves beginning to have a stake in the country. But Fatherland was their all-in-all. The)' had thrown up, not a feAv of them, positrons of high trust and considerable emolument, that they might re turn to serve in its ranks as private soldiers.

Nor Avas there any impulsive, thoughtless recklessness in the step. On the contrary, many of them regretted, in my hearing. that prospects so good should thus be thrown to the winds ; but in this regret was not mingled a tinge of recalcitrancy. It seemed as if they had never so much as let the consciousness daAvn upon them that it w7as possible to draw back. What they Avere doing Avas a B THE AVAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. simple matter of inevitable duty. And it appeared to me that it was in true consistency that there should have been but little display of enthusiasm. They seemed to know each that his neighbour Avas genuine, without bursting out into spasmodic professions of devotion and mutual exhortations savouring of " high-falutin." Several policemen Avere among the number, and I Avas sorry to find — AA7hile the employes of private persons had not only been treated liberally as regarded the present, but in many cases, on the part both of English and foreign houses, had been promised favourable consideration on their return to claim their hurriedlyvacated situations — that the public servants had been very scur vily dealt Avith.

One policeman, who Avas a third-class constable, notAvithstanding that he spoke four languages, and saved the force the cost of an interpreter, had been suspended summarily immediately on his intimating that duty to his native country compelled him to quit the police ; had been depriA7ed of his uniform Avithout a moment's Avarning, and in a contumelious manner ; had been refused any testimonial as to character, and finally Avas about to leave England, leaving behind a w7eek's Avages Avhich Avere OAving to him, and payment of which Avas Avithheld. It was not a time favourable for the voyaging of the migratory Britons, avIio are Avont to croAvd the Channel boats in the later summer months. Such of our countrymen as Avere to be found on foreign shores Avere for the most part hurriedly betaking them selves to their insular fatherland to be out of harm's Avay and the evil days that Avere dreaded ; and if perchance you encountered a feAv with their faces turned the other way, those faces were set and anxious, for their OAvners were hurrying to bring home children or relatives from school or residence in some German toAvn — peaceable enough still, but ere long, it might be, to be the scene of a battle and the victim of a hostile occupation.

But the Ostend boats, for a feAv Aveeks at all events in the be ginning of the Avar, did not miss the suspension of the tourist exodus. There Avas hardly standing room on their decks, thronged as they were by Germans crowding home to swell the great national army. The night I crossed I had a talk with two men Avho had come all the way home from New York for this purpose, haying started as soon as the first tidings of a probable rupture crossed the Atlantic, and they assured me that they would be speedily folloAved by vast numbers. What an extraordinary compound were they of Germano- Yankee financial 'cuteness and pure single-hearted patriotic zeal ! Long and regretfully did they discourse about the id effects of the war-panic ; hoAV this security Avent doAvn seven per cent., and that ten. But their quiet, contented conclusion was, " Never mind, Germany Avill conquer, and what for that is the money ?

" No German seemed to doubt that Germany would ultimately conquer; THE WAR BETAVEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 6 but there were few Avho had not made up their minds to lose a battle or tAvo at the outset, and that for sure the opening scene at least of the stupendous drama would be played within the borders of their native land. How the world halted betAveen tAvo opinions till Worth and Spicheren gave data not to be resisted, seems strange and half unreal noAv Avhen we have so long stood in the full light of after-experience. When I reached Cologne on the 19th July, Avorking parties had already begun to fell the trees on the ramparts and to face up the scarps of the outlying forts. A state of siege had been formally declared, so that the place might be got in trim for an actual siege if the fortune of AA7ar and the traditional dash of the French should bring the crest of the Avave to lap against the hoary fortifications of the ancient Ehineland city.

And then, too, not in the city alone, but in every village and parish throughout the length and breadth of the land, the great mobilisation machine — Gneisenau's patent, Avith improvements by Von Moltke — was in full sAving. How this machine does its work it is not easy to realise, unless one has actually watched its operation. To do this I halted for a feAv days, taking Cologne as headquarters, and made daily excursions into the neighbouring country where the mobilisation machine Avas in operation. What I saw left me divided between admiration of its quiet regularity and its surprising efiiciency ; and a feeling of sadness which no man Avith any feeling could escape. "While the Uhlan patrols and the Chasseurs-a-cheval are looking at each other across the frontier, a short description of the working of the mobilisation machine may not be un interesting.

It is unnecessary to Avaste space in describing in detail the Prussian military system, uoav adopted by all the German States. If there are those among my readers Avho are not, by this time, familiar Avith these details, it maybe taken as pretty certain that such would obdurately skip a paragraph furnishing them noA\-\ All that seems necessary is to point out that there are three strata of fighting men in Germany — the regular army, the " reserve," and the landAvehr. It is a mistake into which many fad, and among others the Times in a leading article in the earlier days of the campaign, that the reserve is "hi the rear of the regular army." This is not the case. The Avar strength of a regiment is just double its peace strength, and the increment consists of the reserve. The blending of the tAA7o in time of war is thorough and complete.

The medalled men of 1866, and of the Sleswig-Holstein campaigns, calledup from reserve, are Avelded into the same ranks Avith the young soldiers Avho are serving their first period of three years. Bayonet for bayonet, the old and the young soldiers balance each other, and the amalgamation is perfect THE AVAR BETAVEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY". 8 betAveen dash and steadiness — betAveen whatever reck lessness there may be in the braA7ery of youth, and the staid valour of maturer years. It is an utter mistake to think of the Prussian army or the Prussian reserves, as a militia similar to our highly estimable but rather weak-kneed " constitutional force." The British militia man has, in very few instances, been a soldier otherwise than in the militia, He is quite a militia veteran, if he has gone through his month's chill once a year for four or five years, and he is not liable to serve abroad.

The Prussian reserve man, in Avhatever stratum he may be, can point backward to three full years spent in active soldiering Avith the colours of his regiment. He has his drill every year, like our respected militiaman, but he is liable for foreign service, and that, too, even after he is out of the " reserve," and in the ranks of the landAvehr. The mobilisation machine grinds its grinding in this wise. The whole country is divided into districts, in the central city of each of Avhich are the head-quarters of the army corps recruited from that district. Thence is sent forth the edict for mobilisation to the toAvns, the villages, and the quiet country parishes. The authorities there make out individual summonses, appointing day and place for the gathering, and these are left at the " respective places of abode " of the reserve men.

Max has married, and children have begun to toddle around his modest table. He is in the midst of his harvest, and Gretchen is daily expected to add to the population of the Fatherland. Carl is to be married next week ; he has bought his humble plenishing, and the priest or the minister has been spoken to. Hans is just entering into partnership ; he has built neAV premises, and his presence may be essential to make the spoon — his absence will spoil the horn. Heinrich is on the eve of emigrat ing. His traps are bought, and his ticket is paid for. But the burgomaster's clerk, or the orderly corporal, comes round one pleasant summer evening, and serves on one and all a certain bit of paper. Max, Avhen he reads it, groAvls "Donner wretter," and actually lets his pipe out in the dismal pause that folloAVs its perusal.

Carl walks off Avith it to his SAveetheart, and there is a blubbering match. But when the appointed day arrives, Max and ad the rest of them come to the front — genuine children of the Fatherland. Max leaves the harvest in static quo, kisses his Gretchen, and wishes her well through her trouble, slobbers the bairns, and strides off to the muster — the Avallet on his shoulder, into which Gretchen has crammed a couple of shirts, a lump of Schwartz brod, a few slices of schinken, and a coil of fearfully and Avon derfully made sausages — a little unaccustomed AA'ater in his eye, and a queer lump in his bare broAvn throat. Carl puts off his wedding indefinitely, and war becomes his mistress, vice the other frdulein, superseded for the time being. Heinrich postpones expatriation, perhaps to THE WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 10 enrich the soil of France AA7ith certain phosphates, the product of the decomposition of bones.

Hans leaves the neAv business and partner (an " exempt " let one hope) to take their course ; he for the time has other fish to fry. The contingent of the village, duly caded aver and found complete, is sent off toAvards head-quarters. By the Avay it meets other contingents, till finally, as the ren dezvous is reached, the several contingents make quite a procession in traversing the streets. Now, it can be recognised A\7hat a pure democracy, in a social sense, is the Prussian army. In the same file Avalk the labouring man and his master's son, the farmer's boy and the banker's clerk. And if you folloAV them till they have got their uniform, it is likely enough that you Avill find the labouring man, Avho already has his medals on his breast, Avearing the gold stripes round his throat, and the petty centurion over his quondam superior, to Avhom he sayeth, " Do this," and he doeth it.

One is able also to recognise in this procession the genuine military experience of Prussia. Many of its members look louts — they drag their legs as if they had never been an hour at the goose step, and their shoulders are as round as if they had never learned the meaning of suppling motions. One of our smart sergeants of Charles Street Avould emphatically d n the lot all round as "heart-breaks." But the heart-breaks have seen and done Avhat, in ad probability, the recruitingsergeant has only a very faint conception of. They have seen and shared in the shock of battle — they are veterans. Two-thirds of the number Avear the war medals of former campaigns. Max Avas at the storming of the DanneAverk ; Heinrich plied the needle-gun at Koniggratz. Let us folloAv the party to the arsenal. On the road there is not a drunken man to be seen, and there is no need of carts or ambulances to carry the weary and footsore, for there are none such.

" Falling out " is a trick that the Prussian reserAre men do not seem to haA7e learned. At the arsenal they get their uni forms, and on the peg Avhence each military suit is taken, is hung up the civilian raiment, there to aAvait its 0A\7ner on the return of peace. If the unclaimed personal flotsam and jetsam is a perquisite of King Wdhelm, the worthy old-clo' men of the Juden Strasse have had a fine harvest of it. For Gretchen may have been a Avidow before her baby was out of long clothes, and the priest may have never been called upon to marry Carl. The serving-out process is admirably systematic, betoken ing a state of active preparation highly creditable to the quartermaster's department. HoAvever, it takes the best part of a day ere the clodhopper of the morning is fully transformed into the soldier.

And AAirat a transfor mation is that effected by a spiked helmet, pair of breeches, and boots ! The man is a different being now. The slouch has gone from his shoulders, his chest is THE AVAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. throAvn forward, his legs straightened, his chin " Avell off the stock " (in military phrase), his step brisk, and his carriage altogether soldierlike. The associations of the uniform have done it all. And now, as these newly re-made soldiers crowd the streets, one can gauge their military physique Avith some precision. They are not trim, dapper men. The regimental tailor of a British crack regiment would have been in despair over the gaunt, long-thighed, big-jointed, thin-flanked fellows, all corners and muscle. But it is clear they are as tough as Avhrp-cord, and strong, lasting, useful soldiers.

Their sobriety and docility are simply astonishing. They go about the business of the hour as if they Avere Avork ing for their own hand ; and noAv, in the evening, although the toAvn is swarming Avith soldiers, it is as quiet as if there Avere not a man beyond the ordinary garrison. No piquets promenade the thoroughfares to pick drunken men out of the gutter, or to apprehend rioters ; the barrack-gates are not infested by hordes of soldiers' women, and are not the theatres of scenes cal culated to make decent people shun the vicinity. All is orderly, decent, and reputable. We have an impression among us — and I confess I. shared it — that he makes the best soldier Avho is the most of an enfant perdu. Cut your soldier off from all civil associations — no matter if from ad associations of civilisation as well — make the army his trade, the barrack-room his home, and alternate the canteen with the Ioav public-house as his chosen haunt, Let every douce civilian body Avag his head in a half-kindly, half chiding Avay over the soldier, regard him as more or less God-forgotten, yet still a fine felloAv in his Avay, and capital food for powder.

Let the soldier accept this view of himself, drink his pay, Avax his moustache, wink at the girls, and swagger about the Avorld in peace time — and ha war \ Of course your reckless scapegrace, Avithout a tie in the Avorld, Avho carries his life in his hand, is just the man to make a dashing charge, to cover himself Avith glory, to start the bells a-ringing and the park guns a-firing, and — to drink himself to death with the multitudinous pots which a temporardy proud and grateful civilian population press upon his acceptance. Why? Wherefore should a man fight any better because he is a disreputable scapegrace 1 You talk of a stake in the country having a tendency to stimulate patriotism in ciril life. Why should the same cause not have the same effect in military ? Whether do the " tears fall and blind " the soldier most, Avhen the band strikes up " The girl I leaA7e behind me," if she be an honest AA'oman, a true Avife, and the mother of his children, or some dirty garrison trull hardly troubling to see him off in her anxiety to make the acquaintance of his successor ?

In most of the printsellers' Avindow7s in London is an engraving representing a fareAvell betAveen THE AA7AR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. an officer and his wife, as he quits for foreign service. I often appreciated the true sentiment of Millais' picture, yet never more so than during those early days AA7hen the mobilisation mill was grinding. The husband, leaning from a carriage AvindoAv, stretches forth his hand, AA7hich the wife clasps in both of hers, gazing into his face in a speechless yearning agony of parting. I Avitnessed the scene, with variations, dozens of times in toAvn and country Rhineland. Noav it Avas a sun-burnt Avoman Avith tanned cheeks, and deeper tanned hands, grim, thin cheeked, and angular-featured, Avho gripped the hand of a slightly greasy, equally broAvn man, in a blue slop, and boots suggestive of small boats.

But the look out of the eyes Avas the same as in the picture ; and the hussar officer had no fuller heart as the bell rang and the train started, than had the greasy landmann as he turned aAvay with the broken muttered "Goot behiite Dich," and pulled his cap over his eyes for a spell before he re-lit his pipe. Did the landmann fight any the Avorse, think you, because he had left behind him in the Aillage the sunburnt frau and their young ones, than AArould your dashing devil-may-care, Avho goes jauntily away to the Avar Avith a laugh and a jeer ? I venture, for my part, to think not. After a run to Frankfort-on-the-Main in connection with the great " legitimation " question, I set my face at length, on the 24th July, toAvards the frontier. France was still unaccountably holding her hand, and every day Germany Avas breathing the freer, as the high-pressure mobilisation machine rapidly and efficiently overtook its work.

Even pessimists dared to hope that the Turcos might not, after all, be quartered on them the day after but one ; and the confidence AA7as steadily gaining ground that the army to inaugurate invasion Avould consist not of Gauls but of Teutons. Men came to realise with flashing eyes and speech umvontedly excited, hoAV the lean, silent man, in his bureau in Berlin, was fulfilling the engagement, Avhich not a feAv thought an impossible boast unAvorthy of Von Moltke. The 24 th of July Avas among the last of the clays for ordinary traffic on the Rhine Valley Raihvays, tdl the hosts had done passing on their Avay to battle. Mayence was quite on a war footing. Bingerbruck — the terminus of the line Avhich quits the Rhenish system and runs up the Nahe, tow7ards Saarbriick, AAras totally blocked for civilian passengers and given over to the transport of troops and munitiorrs of Avar.

With a permission from General Von Goben, commanding the 8th Army Corps, I found no difficulty in travelling by the military trains, and capital fun it was. I Avent up the Nahe in a long Noah's ark style of raihvay Avaggon, in one corner of which I found sitting room on my knapsack ; and my fellow-passengers Avere thirty-nine men of one of the regiments of the Prussian Guard. Better fellows there could not be— all civil, jolly, and w7ell bred. The ser geant of the squad was a medical student, Avho had temporarily given up learning how to cure, to betake himself to the practice of the art of killing, and several of his comrades were the sons of merchants. As the train jogged along at a very sIoav pace, for it had sixty carriages, and contained about two thousand men, the soldiers were vehemently cheered by the crow7ds collected at every station and every Avayside village.

Of course they cheered back again, the bugler or the drummer giving vent to his patriotic emotions on his instrument ; while occasionally the spirit moved a grave young man — who looked as if he were doing chronic battle with a huge brazen serpent, but Avho was merely a trombonist or ophecleidist — to send a stave gurgling and throbbing through the many inA-olutions of his fearful and wonder ful instrument, that emerged at length from the big end in a deafening roar. We exchanged cigars. My soldier friends proffered me brown biscuits harder than the nether millstone, and seemed seriously hurt Avhen I could not make an impression on them. Water-bottles, con taining something that Avas not water, Avent the round ; then came a song, something, of course, about the " Vater land," and so we moved on merrily.

Those water-bottles served out to the Prussian troops are very different to the horrible wooden tubs, Avith the inevitable leak, which British soldiers are condemned to carry, cursing them as they go. They are flat glass flasks, securely covered Avith stiff leather, and have a screw stopper. No fall Avill break them ; they are cooler than w7ood, and they lie conveniently on the side opposite the SAVord. It Avas at Kreuznach where we had the earliest opportunity of recognising a fact Avith Avhich all the Avorld is uoav familiar, the extraordinary marching power of the German troops. A battalion marched in during the eA'ening, after a fifteen miles' tramp in heavy marching order, under an intensely hot sun, and the men Avearing new boots. PoAvdered thick, as the sturdy square-budt felloAvs wrere, it was plain they Avere good, if need were, for another fifteen miles.

I saAV a battalion in complete marching order come into Bingen the night before. It had marched about ten miles, and was, of course, poAvdered white Avith dust. The pace at Avhich the battalion passed could have been but little short of four miles an hour. The men marched four abreast, Avith considerable intervals betAveen the files, so that the air circulated freely. But there was no straggling all over the road ; a single wrord of command would have sufficed to bring the battalion into regularity of formation; and, not- Avithstanding the length of the march, and the rate at Avhich the ground was covered, only one man had been compelled to fall out. I suppose it is petty Avell appreciated by this time everywhere, hoAV much this remarkable povver of the c VOL. I. Germans to march long distances quickly, and that for consecutive days, helped to win for them their victories.

Yet, Avithout having personally Avitnessed their endur ance displayed, often under unfavourable conditions, it is difficult for one to believe in the possibility of the accomplishment of perfectly Avell authenticated feats. I have knoAvn men march thirty English miles a day for three consecutive days. It must be remembered, too, that Avhen the clay's march Avas over the troops had to do their fire-lighting and cooking, and, indeed, had occasionally to go some distance for the food to cook. Nor must it be forgotten that the German troops on the march almost invariably bivouac in the open. They carry no tents — an excellent arrangement in fine summer weather, when it is a positive pleasure to sleep " under the beautiful stars," but one that is very trying Avhen the weather is broken and inclement.

They carry burdens on the march much heavier than the kit of our English soldiers, and in the burning dog-days they plodded sturdily forward ad day long, yet I only heard of a feAv cases of sunstroke. I attribute this exemption to the comparative sobriety of the German soldiery. It was not long ago — nor is the case an isolated one — that a loud clamour Avas raised in England because a regiment had been marched some distance in the sun with the result of several sunstrokes, one of which was fatal. Those who cried shame over the trifling Kingston march should have seen the Germans striding steaddy forward, the thermometer at eighty or eighty five in the shade, Avith needle-gun, heavy knapsack, eighty rounds of ammunition, huge greatcoat, camp kettle, SAvord (a useless encumbrance), spade, water bottle, haversack, and lots of odds and ends dangling about them, with perhaps a loaf, hke a curling stone, under the arm, and without the remotest symptom of sunstroke.

But then they had not been drunk Avith bad beer or worse spirits the night before, and it is this over-night intoxication to which, I think, inquiry would demonstrate that cases of sunstroke on the march are mostly attributable. So steady and unfluctuating are the marching pace and endurance of the German troops, that it must be a miscalculation on his own part if a leader is out in a. reckoning havina; these conditions for its basis. The generals knoAV Avhat the men can do, and feel assured that they will do it ; and thhs confidence enables them to devise strategical combinations in the full conviction, which is never falsified, that the troops will turn up at the appointed place true to time, and ready, too, for fighting, no matter hoAV long and severe the road has been. A day or tw7o before our Militdr-zug got to Kreuz nach there had been a panic in that mildest of all German watering places, and the Ansitors had quitted hotels and lodging-houses with as much precipitation o as if the toAvn had been warned that the fate of Gomorrah w7as to overtake it next day.