Bismarck In The Franco German War 1870 1871

Front matter

THE TEXT IS FLY

WITHIN THE BOOK

ONLY

CHAPTER II. From the frontier to Gravolotto , 17

* CltAPTKR IV.

+ CI1APTKR VI, From tho MittM to ih* Mant4i * ,,.$!,

Vi. CONTENTS.

CHAPTEH VII.

>ismarck and Favre in Haute-Maison A fortnight in Rothschild^ s OHAPTEJB VOX

The Journey to Versailles The House of Madame Jesse' Our usual

* OHAPTEK IX.

Autumn Days in Versailles ..... 1 28

CHAPTER X.

Thiers and the Pirst Negotiations for an Armistico . * 1;V>

En XL

XT I.

The Difficulty in the Tt-MichBta^alJotii UHJ (Jonvontion with li removedThe Uombardment put oil , , ,

XUJ.

Prospects "before Paris improve ...

* CHAPTKR XTV.

*' CKAPTKR XV.

First Weeks of th BombnrtlaM*nt ,..

CONTENTS. Vll.

CHAPTER XVI.

PAGE.

The Last Weeks before tho Capitulation of Paris .... 310

'' CHAPTER XVII.

Negotiations for the Capitulation of Paris ...... 329

"CHAPTER xvm.

From Gambetta's Retirement to the Conclusion of the Peace Preliminaries ........... 356

BISMARCK

IN THE

FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.

CHAPTER I.

DEPARTURE OP THE CHANCELLOR I FOLLOW HIM TO SAAR* BRUCKEN JOURNEY CONTINUED TO THE FRENCH FRONTIEE THE MOBILISED FOREIGN OFFICE.

ON" the 31st July, 1870, at half -past five in the afternoon, the Chancellor, who had some days before partaken of the Sacrament in his own room, drove from his residence in the Wilhelm Strasso to the station, accompanied by his wife and daughter, in order to start with King William for the Seat of War, in the first instance for Mainz. Several Councillors of tho Foreign Office, a secretary of the despatch department of the Central Bureau, two experts in secret ciphering, and three* or four messengers of the Chancellor's department were appointed to go with him. The rest of us followed him only with our good wishes, as, helmet on head, he walked down the stairs between tho two Sphinxes, through the great hall, and stepped into tho carriage. I had resigned myself to taking part in tho 2

10 Bismarck in the Fmnco-Gewnan War.

war only on maps and in newspapers. But a much better fate was in store for me,

On the evening of the 6th of August the Government received the telegram announcing the victory at Worth. Half an hour afterwards, work being over, I earned the joyful news, still fresh and warm, to a company of friends who were waiting in expectation in a wine-shop in Potsdam Street. Every one knows how Germans celebrate good news, and this was so good that it was celebrated by many too well, and by most of us at any rate, too long. In consequence I was still in bed when next morning a chancery messenger appeared, bringing the copy of a telegraphic despatch, requiring me to set out for headquarters in the course of the day.

Benignant fate ! say I. So quickly were my few necessaries collected, that by midday I had my railway-pass, my passport, and my military billet j and by eight o'clock in the evening I was joined by the two companions ordered by the Minister to accompany me. We travelled^ the Anhalt railway, going by Halle, Nordiausen, and Cassel, anxious, by God's help, to reach headquarters as fast as possible.

We began our journey in a first-class coupe, but we came down to a third-class, and at last to a luggage-van. Everywhere there were long delays, which seemed longer to our impatience than they really were. We crossed the Ehine by night. As the day broke we found, lying beside us on the floor ofthe van, a well-dressed gentleman, who was talking English to some one, whom we afterwards discovered to be his servant. This turned out to be the London banker, Mr. Deichmann, who was bound for headquarters, in the hope of obtaining leave from Hoon to serve as a volunteer in a cavalry regiment, for which purpose he had brought his horse with him. The train being now brought to a stand in consequence of the many others blocking up the line in front of us, we drove across the plain, by Deichmann's advice, in a fast-trotting country car to ISTeustadt in the Palatinate, which we found swarming with soldiers Bavarian riflemen, Prussian red hussars, Saxons, and other uniforms. From ISTeustadt we proceeded, amidst much discomfort, to St. Johann, a suburb of Saarbriicken lying on the right bank of the Saar, where we saw few traces of the French bombardment of a few days before, though it presented a lively picture, in other respects, of a state of war. A medley of forage-carts, baggage-waggons, soldiers on horse and 011 foot,

Cipher Despatch. 11

Knights of St. John with their crosses, and such like, hurried through the streets, Hessian troops, dragoons and artJlerv, were marching aloni\ singing the while :

"Bed cL w * that lights me to my early 3 T ?e.' s

At the inn -where we alighted, I heard that the Chancellor was still in the place, and had taken up his quarters at the house of one Haldy, a merchant and manufacturer. In spite of all difficulties, I had thus happily reached the desired haven. It was not a moment too soon, for as I was going to Haldy's house to report myself I heard on the stairs from Count Bisniarek-Bohlen, the Minister's cousin, that we were to more on immediately in the afternoon.

I took leave of my fellow-travellers from Berlin, for whom there was no room in the Minister's carriages, and of the London banker. I then moved my baggage from the inn to the. cook's van, which, with other vehicles, had crossed over at the Saar bridge. Having arranged this, I turned back to Haldy's house, where, in the ante-room, I presented myself to the Chancellor, who was just coming out of his own room on his way to the King. I then sought out the newly-established Bureau, that I might hear whether there was anything for me to do. There was plenty to do ! The gentlemen had their hands full; and I immediately undertook the translation of the Queen of England's speech on opening Parliament, which had just come, for the use of the Kong. Of the highest interest, even though I did not quite understand it, was the declaration in a despatch, which they gave me to dictate in secret cipher to one of the experts, that we on our side should not be content with the mere overthrow of Napoleon.

It seemed like a miracle ! Strassburg ! Perhaps the Vosges ! Who could have even dreamed of this three weeks

A little before one o'clock, in the bright sunshine, the carriages drove to the door, all with four horses, with soldiers for outriders, one for the Chancellor, one for the councillors and Count Bismarck-Bohlen, one for the secretary and the two cipherers. After the Minister had taken his seat with Privy- Councillor Abeken and his cousin, and the two other councillors had mounted their horses, the others followed with their portfolios beside them. I took a seat in the carriage of the counfillers, as I always did afterwards, whenever those gentlemen rode on horseback Five minutes afterwards we crossed the river and entered the long main street of Saarbriicken. From ihence the poplar-shaded road led up to Forbach, past the battlefield of the 6th of August, and in half an hour after leaving St. Johann we were on French soil. Of the bloody battle which had raged here just on the frontier, five days before, there were still many traces to be seen : trunks stripped by the balls, knapsacks thrown away, tattered garments, linen rags lying about the stubble fields, trodden-clown potato fields, broken wheels, holes made by shells, little wooden crosses roughly tied together to show the place where some of the fallen were interred, and so on. But, so far as we could see, all the "dead were already buried.

And here at the beginning of our journey through France, I will interrupt my narrative for a little, to say a few words about the mobilised Foreign Office, and the mode and fashion in which the Chancellor travelled, worked, and lived with his people. The Minister had in Ms suite the acting Privy-Councillors Abeken and von Keudell, Count Hatzfeld, and Count Bismarck- Bohlen. There were besides, the private secretary Bolsing from the Central Bureau, the cipherers Willisch and Saint- Blanquart, and lastly myself. Engel, Theiss, and Eigenbroclt acted as messengers and attendants ; the last of whom was replaced in the beginning of September by the active and intelligent Kruger. We were accompanied by Herr Leverstrom in a similar capacity, the " black horseman," so well known in the streets of Berlin as a government courier. For the care of our bodies we had a cook, whose name was Schulz or Schultz. Let it be noticed, how exact I am trying to be, and that I rob no one of his name or title I In Ferrieres the group of Councillors was completed by Lothar Bucher, and a third cipherer, Herr Wiehr, also joined us there. Holnstein, young Count Wartensleben and Privy-Councillor Wagner joined us at Versailles. Bolsing, being unwell, was replaced there for some weeks by Wollmann, and business increased to such an extent that we required the services of a fourth secret cipherer, as well as of one or two additional messengers whose names have escaped me. The kindness of our " Chief," as the Chancellor was called in ordinary conversation, by those belonging to the Foreign Office, had arranged things so that his fellow- workers, both secretaries and couiicellors, were all to a certain extent

The Chancellor's Uniform. 13

members of his household. We lived, whenever circumstances would permit, in the same house with him, and had the honor of dining at his table.

The Chancellor wore uniform during the whole of the wargenerally the undress of the yellow regiment of heavy Landwehr cavalry, with its white cap and great top-boots. " When riding, after a battle, or in watching its course, he wore a black eather case, fastened by a strap round the chest and back, which held a field glass, and sometimes a revolver and a sword. During the first months he generally wore as & decoration the tross of the order of the Bed Eagle ; afterwards he also wore the Iron Cross. I never saw him but once, in Versailles, in a dressing-gown, and then he was not well his health was excellent through the whole campaign. During the journey he generally drove with Councillor Aheken, since dead, and once, for several days in succession, with me also. As to quarters, he was most easily satisfied, and even where better were to be had, he put up -with the most modest accommodation. At Versailles, when colonels and majors had splendidly furnished suites of apartments, the Chancellor, all the five months we were there, was content with two little rooms, of which one was study as well as bedchamber, and the other, on the ground floor, though neither spacious nor elegant, served as a reception-room. )nce, in the school-house at Clermont, in Aj-gonne, where we stayed some days, he had not even a bed, so that we had to make him up one on the floor.

During the journey we generally drove close behind the King's carnage. "We started about ten in the morning, and usually accomplished nearly forty English miles a day. On arriving at our quarters for the night we at once established a Bureau, in which work was seldom wanting, especially when ^the field telegraph reached us ; by its means the Chancellor again became what, indeed, he always was at this time, with 'brief interruptions the centre of the civilized -world of Europe. f Even where we only halted for one night, restlessly active hullself, he kept all about him in constant employment till quite late. Orderlies came and went, couriers arrived with letters and telegrams, and were immediately sent off again. According to the directions of the Chief, the Councillors prepared notes and orders ; the clerks copied and registered, ciphered and deciphered. Material streamed in from all points of the compass in the shape of reports, questions, articles iii the newspapers, and such like, most of which required immediate

attention.

Among the councillors the one who was fastest at work before the arrival of Bucher, was, undoubtedly, Abeken. He was in fact a rerv power in himself. From long years of service he vas thoroughly acquainted with all the ins and outs of business, a lover of routine, furnished with a fine store of phrases, which dropped from his pen without much necessity for thought. Master of several languages, so far, at any rate, as was needed for the work required of him, he seemed made to put the thoughts of his Chief into proper dress. He did it with the rapidity of a steam-engine. The substance was supplied by the genius" and knowledge of the Minister, who occasionally improved the style in which Abeken had presented his ideas.

The almost superhuman capacity of the Chancellor for work, sometimes creating, and sometimes appropriating and sifting the labours of others, his power of solving the most difficult problems, of at once seeing the right thing, and of ordering only what could be practically done, was, perhaps, never so wonderfully displayed as at this time \ and tin's inexhaustible power of work was the more remarkable as Ms strength was kept up with so little sleep. The Minister lived in the field much as he did at home. Unless an expected battle summoned him before daybreak to the army at the side of the King, he generally rose late, as a rule about ten o'clock. Eut he passed the night sleepless, and fell over only when the morning light shown through his window. Often, hardly out of bed, and not yet dressed, he began to think and work, to read and make notes on despatches, to study the newspapers, to give instructions to the Councillors and other fellow-workers, to put questions or state problems of the most various kinds, even to write or dictate. Later in the day there were visits to receive, or audiences to give, or a statement to be made to the King. Then came the study of despatches and maps, the correction of papers he had ordered to be prepared, the jotting down of ideas with the well-known big pencil, the composition of letters, the news to be telegraphed or sent to the papers for publication, and in the midst of all this the reception of unavoidable visitors, whc must sometimes have been far from welcome. Tt was not til] two or often three o'clock .that the Chancellor, in places where a halt of any length was made, allowed himself a little breathing-time ; then he generally took a ride in the neighborhood.

The Chancellors Table. 15

Afterwards he went to work again till dinner at five or six o'clock, and in an Iiour and a half at the latest lie was back once more in Ids room at Ms writing-table, midnight frequently iinding hirn reading or putting Ms thoughts on paper.

The Count differed from other men in the matter of sleep, and he arranged his meal times in a peculiar manner. Early in the morning he took a cup of tea, and perhaps one or two eggs ; after that, generally nothing till dinner in the evening. He very seldom took a second breakfast, and then only tea, which was served between nine and ten o'clock. m Thus, with very few exceptions, he ate only once during the four-and-twenty hours, but then, like Frederick the Great, he ate plentifully and with appetite. Diplomatists proves bially keep a good table; and, I am told come next to prelates. It is part of their daily business to entertain distinguished guests, who, for some reason or other, have to be put into a good humor by the contents of a well-stocked cellar and the efforts of a skilful cook. Count von Bismarck therefore kept a good table, which, when circumstances permitted, rose to the rank of a very good table. This was the case, for instance, at Rhetms, Meaux, ITerrieres, and Versailles, where the genius of the artist who wore the livery of the household prepared breakfasts and dinners for us, to which persons accustomed to simple fare did justice, feeling almost as if they were sitting in Abraham's bosom, especially when, beside the other good gifts of G-od, champagne was not wanting in the list of drinkables. For such feasts the travelling kitchen contained pewter-plates, tumblers of some silverlike metal, gilt inside, and cups of the same kind. During the last five months of the campaign, presents from home added grac6 to our hospitable board : for home, as it was right it should, thought lovingly of its Chancellor, and liberally sent him dainty gifts both solid and fluid, corned geese, game, fish, pheasants, cakes, capital beer, and fine wine, with many other excellent things.

To conclude this chapter I remark that, beside the Chancellor, only the ^Councillors at first wore uniform, von Keudell that of the Blue Cuirassiers, Count Bismarck-Bohlen that of a regiment of Dragoon Guards, Counts Hatzfeld and Abeken the undress uniform of officers in the Foreign Olfice. It was afterwards suggested that all persons belonging to the Minister's permanent staff, not of course the two first-named gentlemen, who were also military officers, should wear this dress. The

Chief consented, and so Versailles saw the chancery messengers in a costume which consisted of a dark blue coat, with two rows of buttons, with black velvet collar and cuffs, a cap of the same color, and for the Councillors, secretaries and cipherers, a sword with a gold porte-epee. In this costume old Privy Councillor Abeken, who made his horse prance about bravely, had quite a military air, and I think he knew this and liked it. He was well pleased to look like an officeiyjust as he once travelled through the Holy Land in Oriental costume, without under standing either Turkish or Arabics

Forbach, 17

CHAPTER II.

I IT the preceding chapter I halted at the French frontier. That -we had crossed it, was evident from the names of the villages. " Departement de la Moselle " was to be read on all the -way-posts. The white road swarmed with carts and waggons and troops on the march, while soldiers were quartered everywhere. In the neighborhood, which was hilly and partly wooded, little camps were to he seen rising up here and there, with horses fastened to picket-posts, guns, ammunition waggons, forage-carts, holes for the cooking fires, and soldiers in their shirt-sleeves, busied in the preparation of food.

In about two hours we reached Forbach, which we passed through without stopping. In. the streets where we drove, we observed that while the goods and trades of the different shops were described in French, the names of the proprietors were mostly German : for instance, " Schwarz, Boulanger." Many of the inhabitants who were standing before their doors saluted the carriages as they passed ; most of them looked very cross, which did not add to the charm of their appearance, but was very easily explained, for they had evidently more soldiers quartered on them than they liked. Every window was full of blue Prussians.

We went up hill and down dale, through woods and villages, till we reached Saint-Avoid., where, about half-past four o'clock, we were quartered with the Chancellor in the house of a M. Laity, No. 301, in the Hue des Charrons. It was a oiiestoried house with white blinds, and though it had only five windows in front it went back a longway,and was tolerably roomy. It opened behind on a well-planted garden, with trim walks among fruit and vegetables. The day before our arrival the possessor, apparently a retired officer, and well-to-do, had gone

IS Bismarck in ike franco-German War.

away with his wife, and had left an old woman, who could speak nothing but French, and a maid. The Minister had the one front-room ; the rest of the party shared the rooms opening on the passage leading to the back parts of the house. In half an hour, the Bureau was established in the first of these back rooms, which served also as a sleeping-room for Keudell. The next room, which looked out on the garden, was given to Abeken and me. He slept in a bed placed in a recess in the wall. At the head of the bed there was a crucifix, and over the feet a Madonna with a bleeding heart. The people in the house, therefore, were thorough Catholics. They made a very comfortable bed up for me on the floor. The Bureau was at once set to work ; and as there happened to be nothing to be done in my particular line I endeavoured to help in deciphering some despatches, a task which presented no great difficulty.

After seven we dined with the Count in the little parlor next his room, the window of which looked into a court prettily ornamented with flower-beds. The conversation at table was lively, the Minister taking the lead. He thought a surprise not impossible ; for, as he had seen for himself, our outposts were only three English miles from the town, and very far apart. He had asked at an outpost where the next one was, but the men did not know. Afterwards he remarked that in his flight our landlord had left all his drawers full of clean linen, and added : "If the people from the ambulances come here, they will cut up his wife's fine chemises to make lint and bandages, and very properly too. But then, of course, it will be said that Count Bismarck carried them off."

We then talked of the disposition of the troops, and the Minister said, " Steinmetz has shown himself very self -willed and disobedient. He will," said he, in conclusion, "come to grief with his obstinancy, in spite of the laurels he won at Skalitz."

We had on the table cognac, red wine, and sparkling Mainz wine. Some one spoke of beer, and remarked that we had none. The Minister rejoined : " That is of no consequence. The wide-spread use of beer is much to be deplored. Beerdrinking makes men stupid, lazy, and impotent. It is the cause of all the democratic pot-politics which people talk over it. Good corn brandy would be better."

I do not know, how or in what connection the subject of the Mormons came up, but the conversation turned on the question,

Dining with the Count 19

whether they and their many vires should The tolerated. The Count took the opportunity to express his own opinion on religious liberty, and declared himself very decidedly for it ; only it must, he said, be impartially managed. Cu Every man must be saved after his own fashion,' 1 he added, " I will one day agitate this question, and the Reichstag will certainly vote with me. But the Church property must of course remain with those who stand by the old Church which acquired it. A man who secedes from the Church ought to be able to make a sacrifice for his conviction, or rather for his unbelief. It does not offend us when Catholics or Jews are orthodox. "Where Lutherans are so it does j and the Church is constantly accused of a c persecuting spirit J when she casts out the non-orthodox : but people consider it quite en regie that the orthodox should be persecuted and maligned by the press and in their lives."

With the morning there arrived a green orderly from Berlin with dispatches. Sf ch messengers have winged feet, yet this one had not been quicker than I in my fright lest I should arrive too late. He had started on Monday, the 8th of August, and had changed horses several times, and yet it had taken him quite four days and nights to reach us. Early in the morning I again assisted the cipherers with their work. Later, while the Chief was with the King, I went with the Councillors to see the fine large church in the town, over which the sacristan conducted us. In the afternoon, when the Minister rode out, we inspected the Prussian park of artillery, placed on a hill behind the town.

The Chancellor returned by four o'clock, when we dined. He had been a long way to find his two sons who were serving as privates in the Dragoon guards, and he had learned that the German Cavalry had already gone forward to the upper Moselle. He seemed to be in good humor, perhaps because our cause was prospering, and quite inclined to talk. When the conversation turned on mythology, he said that "he never could bear Apollo. He had flayed Marsyas from conceit and envy, and for the same reasons had killed !N lobe's children. He is," he continued, "the very type of a Frenchman ; that is, one who cannot bear that another should play the flute as well or better than he. That he had sided with the Trojans, did not prejudice him in his favour. Honest Yulcan would have been his man,, and Neptune would have suited him still better, perhaps because of the quos ego /" He did not, however, say this.

20 Bismarck in the Franco-German Wav.

After dinner we liad to telegraph the following joyful message to Berlin : "By the 7th August, we had above 10,000 prisoners. The effect of the victory at Saarbrucken turns out to be much greater than we at first believed. They left behind a pontoon train, with about forty waggons, nearly 10,000 blankets, which are now of great use for the wounded, and a store of tobacco worth a million of francs. Pfalzburg and the pass over the Yosges at that place are in our hands. Bitsch is watched by a company, as it has a garrison of only 300 Mobile Guards. Our cavalry is already close to Luneville." A little later we were able to send another pleasant message, namely, that the Minister o Finance in Paris, evidently in consequence of the approach of the German army, had issued a proclamation warning the Trench people not to keep their money at home, but to send it all to the Bank of France.

On the 13th of August, we arrived at Faulquemdnt, or, as it is now written, Falkenberg. Like that which we had traversed at Saarbriicken, the country through which we drove was hilly, often covered with brushwood, and equally full of martial sights. The road was covered with trains of waggons, artillery, ambulances, gensdarmes and orderlies. Long lines of infantry were marching on the road and to the right across the stubble fields to follow the course of the columns, marked out thwro by poles with wisps of straw round them. Sometimes wo saw a man fall clown in the ranks ; and here and there strati ora lay in the ditches, for the August sun shone fiercely from a cloudless sky. The troops who were before us, and, latterly, mostly behind us, were the 84th Regiment (Schleswi^IIoLste.iuers), and the 36th. At last we got out of the thick cloud of yellow dust which rose from their steps, and entered the little town, -where I was quartered on one Schmidt, a baker. Tho Minister had disappeared in the doucis of duHfc, and it wa some time before I learned from one of the Councillors remaining in Falkenberg that he had gone OH with the King to the village of Herny, five English milfvs further.

Falkenberg is a place of some 2,000 inhabitant^ with only one tolerably long principal street, and sundry little narrow lanes on either side. It lies on the riclgo of a #outly-Hlopin# hill, ^Nearly the whole of the day troops continued to m*m;h through. Among them wore some HoBBiuii iufautry. Tho Saxons were stationed close by. They seat their BufclwH ovtju

Divine Service. 21

in the night-time to my baker to get bread, who was soon left in consequence without any.

The people with whom I was quartered were very polite and agreeable. They cleared out for me the best of their rooms, and though I begged them not to trouble themselves on my account, they brought me a good breakfast with red wine, and coffee in the French manner, in a little bowl with a silver spoon, with which I was to drink it ; and this they made me take in spite of my reluctance. The woman spoke only broken German, but the man talked fluently, though in a German patois, and with here and there a word of French. The pictures in their rooms showed them to be Catholics.

Sunday, August 14. After luncheon, we followed the Minister to Herny. The sky over our heads was of the deepest blue, and the fields reeked from the scorching heat. Near a village on the left of the road some Hessian infantry held divine service in the open air, the Catholic soldiers in one circle, the Protestants a little distance off in another, each round their own clergyman. The latter sang the hymn

Arrived at Herny, we found that the Chancellor had taken up his abode in the first story of a long, low, whitewashed house, a little aside from the principal street where his window looked on to a dung heap. The house was tolerably roomy, so that we joined him there, and I was again with Abeken. Hatzf elcl'H room was also the Bureau. The King took up his quarters with the pastor, near a fine old church the windows of which wore filled with painted glass. The village consists of one broad straggling street, with a well-built mairie, which contain, 5 ; also the parish school, and of houses mostly crowded close together, looking at the back into the little railway station. In that we found a great deal of wanton destruction, papers scattered about, books, torn up, and such like. Near it some solcliorH were guarding two French prisoners. After four o'clock we heard for several hours the heavy thunder of artillery from the neighbourhood of Metz, At tea-time the Minister said, " I did not think a month ago that I should to-day drink tea with you gentlemen in a peasant's house in Herny." Amongst other matters we talked of Gramont, and the Count wondered that this strong, healthy man, after such unhappy antecedents, had not joined a regiment, in order to atone lor his stupidity.