The Campaign of Sedan: the downfall of the Second Empire. August-September, 1870, etc

Preface

. The War of 1870-71 was opened by a campaign of thirty days, complete in itself, and the author must plead the dramatic unity of the great event as a reason for treating it in a separate form. Although the foundation of those ulterior successes which enabled the Germans to proclaim the King of Prussia Emperor in Germany, and to do so in the palace of Louis XIV., yet, from a historical point of view, the astonishing series of battles and marches which ended in the In vestment of Metz, and the Capitulation of Sedan may be regarded as standing apart, because they carried with them the Downfall of the Second Empire. The Campaign of Sedan, in this respect, is the suprjlernent of the Campaign of Waterloo ; but, of course, there is no resemblance between Napoleon III. and Napoleon I., nor in the political and military conditions and results of the two catastrophes.

The materials at the disposal of any author who ven tures to narrate the campaign are abundant and yet incomplete. The History of the War prepared by the German Staff is minute even to weariness, but it must always stand as the authentic foundation of every narra tive. Unreadable to the general public, it is invaluable to the soldier-student, and to all who wish to know what the German Army is like, and how it wages war.

PREFACE.

. VI It need scarcely be said that the Staff narrative is the basis of this book, which is an endeavour to present its essence in a succinct and readable form. Unhappily, the French accounts are wanting in precision, so that it is difficult to comprehend how they fought their battles, and impossible to ascertain accurately what was their numerical strength at any moment. The deficiency is serious, because it mars the completeness of the story, and frustrates every attempt to do them full justice. For, if the Army, as an Army, was wasted by incapable commanders, the soldiers fought well and did nothing to derogate from their old renown. They had to en counter better commanders, more numerous and better soldiers, and they were beaten, but they were not dis graced. The whole lesson of the war is lost, if the fact is ignored that the German Army, from top to bottom, was superior in every way to that of Napoleon III., as well as more numerous ; and that what made it superior was the spirit of Duty, using the word in its highest sense, which animated the host, from the King, who was its shining exemplar, to the private who was proud to rival his King.

The contrast, which this war exhibited, between the French and German methods of making and using an Army is so violent, that it becomes painful, and imparts an air of one-sidedness to the narrative. But the facts must be stated, although the bare statement suggests partiality in the narrator. I have, nevertheless, tried to be impartial, and in doing my best, I have found it impossible to read the abounding evidence of Imperial neglect, rashness and indecision, without feeling pity for the soldiers and the nation which had to bear the penalties. The French Army has been re-modelled and increased enormously; the secular quarrel between Germany and France is still open; and some day it may

PREFACE.

. VII be seen whether the Republicans, out of the same materials, have been able to create an Army such as the Imperialists failed to produce. Whether they have succeeded or not, it may be fervently hoped that the deep impression which the examples of thoroughness, revealed by the wars of 1866 and 1870, made on our own country will never be effaced ; and that the public will insist that our small Army, in every part, shall be as good as that which crossed the French frontier in 1870, and triumphed in the Campaign of Sedan. Kensington, April 6th, 1SS7. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction l» Chapter I. The Causes of the War. French Demands for the Rhine. — Luxemburg. — An Interlude of Peace. — The Salzburg In terview. — The Emperor seeks Allies. — The Hohenzollern Can didature. — The French Government and the Chamber. . . 18 Chapter II.

The Gathering of the Hosts. German Mobilization. — French Mobilization. — War Methods Contrasted 58 Chapter III. Stage Thunder. The Combat at Saarbriick. — Preparing to go Forward. — Positions on August 4. — The Moral and Politi cal Forces 7& Chapter IV. Invasion in Earnest. The Combat on the Lauter. — French Position on the Saar. — German Position on the Saar ... 86 Chapter V. Two Staggering Blows. 1. Woerth. — The Battle Begins. — Attack on Woerth. — Attack on the French Right. — Attack on Elsasshausen. — MacMahon Orders a Retreat. — The Close of the Battle. — 2. Spicheren. — The Germans Begin the Fight. — The Red Hill Stormed. — Progress of the Action. — Frossard Retires X CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter VI. Vacillation in Metz. The Emperor Resigns his Com mand. — The German Advance. — The German Cavalry at Work. — The Germans March on the Moselle 134 Chapter VII.

Von Moltke Keeps the Whip Hand. The French Propose to Move. — The Battle of Colombey-Nouilly. — Von Golz Dashes In.— The End of the Battle.— The French Retreat.— The Ger mans Cross the Moselle. — The Cavalry Beyond the Moselle. — Orders for the Flank March. — The Emperor Quits the Army. 148 Chapter VIII. The French Retreat Thwarted. Vionville-Mars-la- Tour. — The Vionville Battlefield. — The French are Surprised. The Third Corps Strikes In. — Arrival of Bazaine. — Bredow's Brilliant Charge. — The Fight becomes Stationary. — Arrival of the Tenth Corps. — The Great Cavalry Combat. — End of the Battle 171 Chapter IX. Pressed Back on Metz. Marshal Bazaine. — The Battlefield of Gravelotte. — The German Plans. — The Battle of Gravelotte. — Prince Frederick Charles at the Front. — Steinmetz Attacks the French Left. — Operations by the German Left Wing. — General Frossard Repels a Fresh Attack. — The Last Fights near St. Hubert. — The Prussian Guard on the Centre and Left. —The Capture of St. Privat 193 Chapter X. The State of the Game, and the New Moves.

The King marches Westward. — The Cavalry Operations. — The Emperor at Chalons and Reims. — MacMahon Retires to Reims. — The Chalons Army Directed on the Meuse 234 Chapter XI. The Grand Right Wheel. The Cavalry Discover the Enemy. — Movements of the French. — The Marshal Resolves, Hesitates, and Yields. — Movements of the Germans. — Effects of MacMahon's Counter-orders. — German and French Opera tions on the 29th.— The Combat at Nouart.— The State of Affairs at Sundown. — The Battle of Beaumont. — The Surprise of the 5th Corps.— The Flight to Mouzon CONTENTS. XI PAGE Chapter XII. Metz and Strasburg. The Battle of Noisseville .... 282 Chapter XIII. Sedan. German Decision. — Confusion in the French Camp. — The Movements of the Germans. — The Battlefield of Sedan. — The Battle of Sedan. — MacMahon's Wound and its Conse quences. — Progress of the Battle on the Givonne. — The March on St. Menges. — The Eleventh and Fifth Corps Engage. — The Condition of the French Army. — The French Cavalry Charge. — General de Wimpffen's Counter stroke. — The Emperor and his Generals. — King William and his Warriors. — How the Gene rals Rated Each Other. — The Generals Meet at Donchery. — Napoleon III.

Surrenders. — The French Generals Submit. — The End 292 Appendices : — I. The German Field Armies. II. The French Army. III. The Protocol of Capitulation. — IV. A List of the principal Works Consulted for the Campaign of Sedan 347 MAPS AND PLANS. I. Battle of Woerth. II. ,, „ Spicheren. III. ,, ,, Colombey-Nouilly. IV. „ „ Vionville-Mars la Tour. V. ,, „ Gravelotte. VI. „ „ Sedan. VII. General Map. " The policy of your Government will bring you to Jena," said M. de Moustier to Herr von Bismarck during the Crimean War. " Why not to Waterloo?'' was the prompt and prophetic reply. Wo Kraft und Mulh in deutscher Seele fiammen.

Introduction

. In July, 1870, fifty-five years after the Allied Armies, who had marched from the decisive field of Waterloo, entered Paris, a young diplomatist, Baron Wimpfen, started from the French capital, for Berlin. He was the bearer of a Declaration of War, from the Emperor Napoleon III., to William I., King of Prussia; and the fatal message was delivered to the French Charge" d'Affaires, M. le Sourd, and by him to the Prussian Government on the 1 9th of July. Thus, once again, a Napoleon, at the head of a French Empire, was destined to try his strength against the principal German Power beyond the Rhine. Yet, under what different conditions ! The Emperor was not now the Napoleon who surrounded the Austrians at Ulm, broke down the combined forces of Austria and Russia at Austerlitz, and extorted a peace which set him free to overthrow, at Jena and Auerstadt, the fine army left by Frederick the Great, and allowed to crystallize by his weak successors.

Nor did the late Emperor find in his front a divided Germany, and the mere survival of a great military organization. He found a united people, and an army surpassing in com pleteness, as it did in armaments — the victors of Prague, "V B

INTRODUCTION.

. Rosbach, and Leuthen. The Germany known to the Congress of Vienna had disappeared — the deformed had been transformed. The little seed of unity, sown early in the century, had grown into a forest tree. The spirit of Arndt had run through the whole Teutonic nation, which, after the turmoil of 1848 had subsided, and the heavy hand of Russia had been taken off by the Crimean War, found a leader in the strongly organized kinosdom of Prussia. When the weak and hesitating will of Frederick William IV. ceased, first, by the operation of a painful disease, and then by ex tinction, to disturb the course of his country's fortunes, Prussia, in a few years, became practically a new Power. King William I., who crowned himself with his own hands at Konigsberg, began his task, as a ruler, in a grave and earnest spirit, holding that kingship was not only a business, but a trust, and taking as his watchwords, Work and Duty.

No monarch in any age, no private man, ever laboured more assiduously and conscientiously at his metier, to use the word of Joseph II., than the King of Prussia. He became Regent in 1858, when Napoleon III. was engaged in preparing for his Italian campaign against the House of Austria. French policy, with varying watchwords, had run that road for centuries; and, during the summer of 1859, it was the good fortune of the Emperor to win a series of victories which brought his army to the Mincio, and before the once famous Quadrilateral. The German Bund had taken no part in the fray, but the rapid suc cesses of the French aroused some apprehensions in Berlin, and there went forth an order to mobilize a part of the army, which means to put each corps on a war-footing, and to assemble a force in Rhenish Prussia. Whatever share that demonstration may have had in producing the sudden arrangement between the rival

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 Emperors, who made peace over their cigarettes and coffee at Villafranca, the experiment tried by the •Berlin War Office had one important result — it brought to light serious defects in the system then practised, and revealed the relative Aveakness of the Prussian army. From that moment, the Regent, who soon became King by the death of his brother, began the work of reforming the military system. For this step, at Jeast from a Prussian standpoint, there was good reason; since the kingdom, although it was based on a strong and compact nucleus, was, as a whole, made up of scattered fragments lying between great military Powers, and therefore could not hope to subsist without a formidable army. The relative weakness of Prussia had, indeed, been burnt into the souls of Prussian statesmen; and King William, on his accession, determined that so far as in him lay, that grave defect should be cured.

A keen observer, a good judge of character and capacity, his experience of men and things, which was large, enabled him at once to select fit instruments. He picked out three persons, two soldiers and a states man, and severe ordeals in after years justified his choice. He appointed General von Roon, Minister of War, and no man in modern times has shown greater qualities in the organization of an army. He placed General von Moltke at the head of the General Staff, which that able man soon converted into the best equipped and the most effective body of its kind known to history. It rapidly became, what it now is, the brain of the army, alike in quarters and in the field. Finally, after some meditation, he called Herr 0< to von Bismarck from the diplomatic service, which had revealed his rare and peculiar qualities, and made this Pommeranian squire his chief political adviser, and the manager of his delicate and weighty State affairs.

INTRODUCTION.

. Thenceforth, the long-gathering strength of Prussia, the foundations of which were bedded deep in the history of its people, began to assume a form and a direction which great events revealed to astonished and incredulous Europe. The experiment undertaken by the King and his chief councillors was rendered less difficult by that effect of the Crimean War which so materially lessened the influence of Russia in Germany. The intimate and friendly relations subsisting between the two Courts remained unbroken, and to its preser vation in fair weather and foul, Prussia owed, to a large extent, the favourable conditions surrounding the application and development of her policy. It seemed as necessary to Prussian, as it now does to German interests, that the Russian Government should be, at least, benevolently neutral ; and probably the art of keeping it so was profoundly studied by Herr von Bismarck when he filled the post of Ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburg.

The large military reforms designed by the King and his advisers aroused an uncompromising opposition in the native Parliament, which was only overcome by the firmness with which King William supported his outspoken and audacious Minister. The victory was secured by methods which were called, and were, unconstitutional. The control of the Chamber over the Budget was placed in abeyance, by a clever interpretation of the fundamental law. It was held that if the Deputies could not agree with the Government respecting the estimates of the current year, the law which they had sanctioned in the preceding year still remained valid. Thus the taxes were collected, appropriated and expended, just the same as if the Chamber had not virtually " stopped the supplies" in order to defeat the measures which were intended to give the army stability, numbers, efficiency and

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 cohesion. The whole transaction ran counter to English maxims and customs ; but it should be remembered that Parliamentary Government, and espe cially government by party, were never, and are not even now established in Berlin. The net result of the contest was the renovation and the strengthening of the National Army to an extent which, while it did not exceed, perhaps, the expectations of those who laboriously wrought it out, left some Powers of Europe ignorant, and others incredulous respecting its value. Not that the military institutions of Prussia, dating back from the " new model," devised during the stress of the Napoleonic Wars, had been fundamentally altered. Nothing was done except to increase the numbers, close up and oil the machinery, render its working prompt and easy by prudent decentralization, give it a powerful brain in the General Staff, and impart to the whole system a living energy.

The art of war, if the phrase may be allowed, was, in accordance with venerable traditions rooted in the Hohenzollern House, taken up as a serious business ; and that deep sense of its im portance which prevailed at the fountain head, was made to permeate the entire frame. That is the real distinguishing characteristic of the Prussian, now the German army, as contrasted with the spirit in which similar labours were undertaken by some other Powers. The task was a heavy one, but the three men who set about it were equal to the task. King William, with a large intelligence, a severe yet kindly temper, and a thorough knowledge of his work, threw himself heart and soul into the business, and brought to bear upon its conduct Æ—t essential condition of success, the "master's eye^^General von Roon framed or sanctioned the administrative measures which were needed to

INTRODUCTION.

. create an almost self-acting and cohesive organism, which could be set in motion by a telegram, as an engineer starts a complicated piece of machinery by touching a lever. Von Moltke, as chief of the General Staff, supplied the directing intellect, and established a complete apparatus for the collection and classifi cation of knowledge, bearing upon military affairs, which might be applied wherever needed. These men, working with " unhasting, unresting " diligence, founded a school of war, not based on "the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not," but upon the vital principle that a good army should possess in itself such a power of adaptation, as will make it always abreast with the latest genuine discoveries in tactics, arms, material appliances, and discij)line. Also the army was treated as a great school in which officers and men alike were teaching and learning from dawn to sunset, throughout the allotted period of service.

The principal trio had other and able helpers, but they were the main springs moving and guiding the marvellous product of constant labour applied by rare capacity. The ultimate, although not the immediate, effect of the French successes at Magenta and Solferino, was the creation of an Italian kingdom, which included within its boundaries, Naples, Sicily, the States of the Church, except Rome, and of course the Duchies on the right bank of the Po. The price of compliance, exacted by the Emperor Napoleon, whose plans had been thwarted, was the cession to him of Nice and Savoy. Venice and the territory beyond the Mincio remained Austrian for several years. While the map of Italy was in course of reconstruction, the political conflict in Berlin raged on with unintermitted violence. Simultaneously the Austrian Emperor was induced to

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 assert his claims to predominance in Germany, but the plans laid, in 1863, were blighted by the prompt refusal of William I. to take any share in them. It was the first symptom of reviving hostility between the two Powers, although a little later, on the death of the King of Denmark, they were found, side by side in arms, to assert the claims of the German Bund upon Holstein, Schleswig and Lauenburg, and avert the occupation of those countries by the troops of Saxony and other minor States alone. The campaign which ensued brought the new model of the Prussian army to the test of actual experiment. But the brave ad versaries they had to encounter, if stout in heart, were weak in numbers; and Europe did not set much store by the victories then achieved by Prussia. The public and the Governments were intently occupied with the Secession War in the United States of America, and the astounding expedition to Mexico, which was designed to place an Austrian Archduke on " the throne of the Montezumas," under illustrious French patronage.

Thus the quality of the troops, the great influence of the famous " needle-gun," the character of the staff, and the excellent administrative services escaped the notice of all, save the observant few. The political aspects of the dispute were keenly discussed. Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell were, at one moment, disposed to fight for the Treaty of 1851; but the Danish King committed grave blunders ; Russia stood aloof, the Emperor Napoleon III. distinctly refused to enter the lists, and the House of Commons was de cidedly averse to war. Here it should be noted that the French Emperor, meditating on the value to him of the rival Powers in Germany, had determined to stand well with both. He hoped to please Austria by making the brother of Francis Joseph Emperor of

INTRODUCTION.

. Mexico, and to keep open the possibilities of an alliance with Prussia, by throwing no obstacles in her way on the Eider. Then began the great strife between the two Govern ments which had wrested the Elbe Duchies from the Dane. When the short war ended, certain divisions from each army were posted in the conquered country, and the rivalry which animated the two Courts was carried on by diplomats and statesmen. Prussian policy, since the days of Frederick II., had leaned always towards, if not an alliance with Russia, yet the main tenance of a solid understanding with that growing Power. Herr von Bismarck, who was a deep student in the history of his own country, and Avho had always nourished large ideas, kept steadily on the well-trodden path, but imparted to his methods a boldness, an inventiveness, and an energy most unusual in Prussian statescraft.

The Polish insurrection of 1864 gave him an opportunity which he did not neglect, and while the poor patriots were assisted from the side of Galicia, on the Posen frontier they were ruthlessly repressed, the Russian and Prussian troops making common cause, and crossing the frontier whenever that step seemed needful. The ill-fated Poles, of course, were defeated ; Prussia had recorded a fresh claim upon the benevolent neutrality of Russia, while Austrian " in gratitude," never forgiven in St. Petersburg, took a deeper tinge in the eyes of the Czar. The Prussian Government had not long to wait for their reward. During the summer of 1865, the abiding quarrel between Vienna and Berlin, respecting the future status of the conquered or restored Duchies, nearly came to an open rupture. Neither side, however, was ready for a blow, and the " Convention of Gastein," which Bismarck, in a letter to his wife, defined as a

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 mode of " pasting together the cracks in the building," was devised to gain time. The Prussian army, still incomplete from the royal and the military point of view, had been augmented after the Danish war, and the new levies of horse and artillery had not acquired the requisite instruction. So the summer and autumn of 1865 wore away, revealing the spectacle of King William and Herr von Bismarck battling fiercely with the Parliament, and not so clearly displaying Von Moltke and Von Roon labouring hourly to bring the machine entrusted to their charge up to the highest attainable efficiency. There were other reasons for delay. As it was more than probable that the South Germans, and possible that the King of Hanover would not rank themselves with Prussia, but go with Austria and the Bund, an ally was wanted who would divide the forces of the largest Power.

That ally was found in the newly united kingdom of Italy. But before the Italian envoy astonished the diplo matic world by his apparition at Berlin, in March, the controversy between Austria and Prussia had gone on rapidly, step by step, nearer towards a rupture. Count Mensdorff, on behalf of the Emperor Francis Joseph, set up a claim to full liberty of action in the Duchy of Holstein, and began openly to favour the pretensions of the Duke Frederick of Augustenburg to the Ducal Chair. That position was vigorously con tested by Herr von Bismarck, who put an opposite construction on the Treaty, which created what was called the " condominium." The consequence was a frequent and animated exchange of despatches, con taining such " arguments " as seemed proper to the occasion. Into the merits of this dispute it is needless to enter now, since the whole drift of the verbal struggle shows that while Prussia was intent on

INTRODUCTION.

. providing a solid ground on which to fight out a long-standing quarrel — " inevitable," said Von Moltke, " sooner or later," — Austria was by no means inclined to shrink from a test directly applied to her position in Germany. Whatever line she had taken her rival would have discovered, or tried to discover, an op posing course; but, it so happened, that, whether by chance or miscalculation, Count Mensdorff, the Austrian Foreign Minister, managed his case so as to give advantages to his abler antagonist. In the last days of February a great council was held in Berlin. Not only the King and his chief Minister, but General von Moltke and General von Manteuffel, from Schleswig, took part in its deliberations. It was the turning point in the grave debate, so far as Prussian action was concerned; for the decision then adopted unanimously, was, that Prussia could not honourably recede, but must go forward, even at the risk of war.

No order was given to prepare for that result, because the organization of the army was complete, and moreover, because "the King was very adverse to an offensive war." Never theless, from that moment such an issue of the dispute became certain to occur at an early day. Yet neither party wished to fight over the Duchies ; each felt that the cause was too paltry. The Austrians, therefore, extended the field, by appealing to the Bund, a move which gave Herr von Bismarck the advantage he so eagerly sought. He answered it by resolving to push, in his own sense, the cause of federal reform. Learning this determination early in March, M. Benedetti observed to Herr von Bismarck that it would ensure peace. " Yes," answered the Minister President, — "for three months," a very accurate forecast by a prophet who could fulfil his own prediction, and who desired to fight the adversary promptly, lest a recon-

INTRODUCTION.

. ciliation should be effected between Vienna and Pesth, and Hungary, from a source of weakness, should thus become a tower of strength. A few days later, March 14th, General Govone, from Florence, arrived in Berlin. His advent had been preceded by attempts, on the part of Bismarck, to discover how the French would look on a Prusso- Italian alliance. The subject was delicate, and even after the General's arrival, it was officially stated that he had come, exclusively, to study the progress in small arms and artillery ! The pretence was soon abandoned, and the negotiations were avoided ; but the conclusion of a treaty was delayed for some days, because no specific date could be fixed on for the outbreak of war, Prussia having determined, at least to make it appear, that she was not the aggressor.

At length a form of words was devised, which satisfied both Powers, stipulating that Italy was to share in the war, providing it began within " three months," and the Convention was signed on the 8th of April. Not, however, before it had been well ascertained that France had really helped on the Prussian alliance and desired to see war ensue, although, avowedly, she did not interfere, giving out that she stood neuter, and that the understanding which might be ultimately come to between France and Prussia would be determined by the march of events, the extension of the war, and the questions to which it might give rise. This language foreshadowed the policy wbich the Emperor, if not M. Drouyn de Lhuys desired to follow ; and as Russia, recently obliged in the Polish troubles, was friendly, if not allied, Herr von Bismarck was convinced that no foreign Power would array itself on the side of Austria, unless the campaign were prolonged.

INTRODUCTION.

. Henceforth, the aim of each disputant was to secure a vantage-ground in Germany. Austria had partially collected troops in Bohemia and Moravia, and had secretly stipulated with several States to call out four Federal corps d'armee; while Prussia, who could wait, being always ready, had only carried her preparations forward to a certain extent. M. von Beust, the Saxon Minister, then intervened with a proposal that the Diet should name arbiters, whose decision should be final ; a suggestion instantly rejected by the principals in the quarrel. The Emperor Napoleon III., towards the end of May, when Prussian mobilization had practically been completed in eight corps, produced his specific — the characteristic proposal that a Conference should be held inParis to study the means of maintaining the peace.

Prussia accepted the offer, but Austria put an end to the hopes of Napoleon, by stipulating that no arrangement should be discussed which would augment the territory or power of any party of the Conference, and in addition that the Pope should be invited to share in any deliberations on " the Italian Question." These pretensions, by excluding, what everyone wanted, the cession of Venetia to Italy, decided the fate of the Conference. " They desire war at Vienna," said Von Bismarck to Count Benedetti. " These conditions have been conjured up solely for the purpose of giving the States in South Germany time to complete their military preparations." And when the news came officially from Paris that the Austrian answer had killed the project, the Minister President shouted in the French Ambassador's presence "Vive le Roi!"

The solution was war. The Prussian army, for once, had been mobilized by slow degrees. More than a month elapsed between the first precautionary and the final steps, but by the 12th of May the entire active army had