Conflict with France unavoidable
The situation in central Europe after 1866 was considered by many observers at home and abroad to be transitional. In view of the growing domestic weakness and anti-Prussian stance of the French government, the Franco-Prussian relationship acquired an increasingly important role. As it did, Bismarck became more and more convinced that a conflict with France was unavoidable in the long run and that such a conflict simultaneously offered irrefutably advantageous opportunities for the completion of the unification process on his terms. However, the idea was to see that it occurred without outside intervention if possible and that its development remained controllable.
The pretext arose when Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a member of a southern German Catholic branch of the Prussian royal house, became a candidate for the Spanish throne. After French protests caused the prince to withdraw his candidacy, the government of France tried to compound Prussia's diplomatic defeat by demanding guarantees against any future renewal of a Hohenzollern candidacy for the "throne of Charles V." Bismarck saw in this move a favourable opportunity to portray France as the aggressor. He rebuffed the government in Paris on 13 July 1870 with the provocative "Ems dispatch" (Emser Depesche), and the French began mobilizing against Prussia the next day. A formal declaration of war followed on 19 July.
In public opinion, Napoleon was the peace breaker. In the international press, France was called the "oppressor in Europe" (as in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 17 July 1870). In the ensuing Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck, as chancellor of the North German Confederation, played a key role in the containment of the conflict and the simultaneous negotiations with the southern German states on the issue of unification.
The victories of Prussia in 1866 over the Austrians and their German allies rendered it evident to the statesmen and soldiers of France that a struggle between the two nations could only be a question of time. Army reforms were at once undertaken, and measures were initiated in France to place the armament and equipment of the troops on a level with the requirements of the times. The chassepot, a new breechloading rifle, immensely superior to the Prussian needle-gun, was issued; the artillery trains were thoroughly overhauled, and a new machine-gun, the mitrailleuse, from which much was expected, introduced.
The mitrailleuse was a manually-fired volley gun. It was the first rapid-firing weapon to be used as standard equipment by any army in a major conflict. The word mitrailleuse nonetheless became the generic term for a machine gun in the French language, although the mitrailleuse itself was entirely manually-operated. The weapon was characterised by a number of rifled barrels clustered together and mounted on a conventional artillery chassis or a tripod. The ammunition was secured in a single pre-loaded plate or block and placed into the breech, behind the open ends of the barrels.
All of the barrels were loaded simultaneously by a manual closing lever or large horizontal screw. A second lever could be worked rapidly (or in some models, a crank could be turned) to fire each barrel in succession. This earned the weapon its French nickname of “moulin á café” (coffee grinder). (A very similar name was earned by the "coffee mill gun" in America during the American Civil War).The ammunition plate had to be removed by hand before another loaded plate could be inserted. Unlike in later rapid-firing automatic weapons, the entire loading and firing process was manual. The mitrailleuse's major innovation was simply that it speeded up these processes over the regular infantry rifles.
The Chassepot was called after its inventor, Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833-1905), who, from 1857 onwards, had constructed various experimental forms of breechloader, and it became the French service weapon in 1866. The needle-gun was the invention of the gunsmith Johann Nicholas von Dreyse (1787-1867), who, beginning in 1824, had made many experiments, and in 1836 produced the complete needle-gun. From 1841 onwards the new arm was gradually introduced into the Prussian service, and later into the military forces of many other German states. In practice the needle-gun proved to have numerous defects; its effective range was very short compared to that of the muzzle-loading rifles of the day, and conspicuously so as against the chassepot. A significant amount of gas escaped at the breech when the rifle was fired, and a paper cartridge was used. An improved model, giving greater muzzle velocity and increased speed in loading, was introduced later, but this was soon replaced by the Mauser rifle.
But above all it was the new Krupp guns made of cast steel that should have a devastating effect on the French troops. These new Krupp guns were the first breech-loading cannon used in action. In these the bullets and gunpowder were not loaded from the mouth of the cannon, but locked into the back, the breech, in the form of a big cartridge, or the projectile, in the form of a bullet or a bag of shot, was forced into the breech ahead of a bag of gunpowder, which was then ignited by a priming device. Further improvements were the development of clean, smokeless gunpowder, which greatly increased the rate of fire, and the use of "mushroom obturators," sabots or o-rings, driving bands around the base of the projectiles, which increased efficiency all around.
Wide schemes of reorganization were set in motion, and, since these required time to mature, recourse was had to foreign alliances in the hope of delaying the impending rupture. In the first week of June 1870, General Lebrun, as a confidential agent of the emperor Napoleon III., was sent to Vienna to concert a plan of joint operations with Austria against Prussia. Italy was also to be included in the alliance, and it was agreed that in case of hostilities the French armies should concentrate in northern Bavaria. where the Austrians and Italians were to join them, and the whole immense army thus formed should march via Jena on Berlin. To what extent Austria and Italy committed themselves to this scheme remains uncertain, but that the emperor Napoleon believed in their bona fides is beyond doubt.
To prevent a two-front war, Field Marshal and chief of the staff of the Prussian army, Helmuth, Graf von Moltke had wanted to "avoid any appearance of aggression." After completing mobilization in accordance with the provisions of the military assistance pacts concluded in 1866-67 with the armies of the North German Confederation and the southern German states of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg, and Bavaria, Prussia commanded an infantry of 462,000 men and a cavalry of 56,800. It was opposed by a French army of approximately 336,000 men, a number that matched earlier calculations by the Prussian General Staff.
In Berlin and southern Germany patriotic fervour ran high, fed mainly by intense French agitation for war after the Hohenzollern prince had renounced his candidacy. Having declared war, Bismarck now sought to restrict it to France and the allied German states and was successful in ensuring the neutrality of Austria, Italy, England, Russia, and Denmark.
Many Germans saw the war as a "national necessity." This view was also expressed by the lawyer Justus von Ihering in a letter to Oskar von Bülow on 5 August: “How I thank God that I have lived to see this time. The rebirth of the German nation is at hand, and in the period of a few weeks it will make up for every sin it has committed in the course of a millennium. It is rising now as a united nation like Hercules in the cradle how different from the Italian [nation]! to crush the head of the serpent.”
War fever did not remain confined to nationalist circles; it affected nearly all political groups and strata of the population in Germany, even Germans living abroad. This war thereby became the instrument for nationalist aspirations.
War fever did not remain confined to nationalist circles; it affected nearly all political groups and strata of the population in Germany, even Germans living abroad. This war thereby became the instrument for nationalist aspirations.
When Napoleon had declared war on 19 July 1870, he meant to take a strong initiative and invade Germany; but he found the movements of the German armies too quick for him. The first important battle was fought at Weissenburg in Lower Alsace, August 4, 1870, and was won by the Germans. The French were turned back, and their enemies became the invaders. German victories followed in rapid succession - Woerth, Spicheren, Colombey-Nouilly, Vionville, Gravelotte were all won by August 18th - the French were driven from all sides toward Sedan, and there, on September 1st, the decisive battle of the war was fought. Moltke's account of this engagement, which, on the German side, he directed as chief of staff under King William, forms a part of his famous history of the Franco-Prussian War.
While the Fifth French Corps were still fighting at Beaumont (defeat of a division of the French army under General MacMahon, August 30, 1870), and before the rest of the army had crossed the Meuse, General MacMahon had given orders that it was to concentrate on Sedan.
He did not intend to offer battle there, but it was indispensable to give his troops a short rest and provide them with food and ammunition. He meant to retreat afterward via Mezieres, whither General Vinoy was just then proceeding with the newly formed Thirteenth Corps. The First Corps, which had arrived at Carignan early in the afternoon, detached two of its divisions to Douzy in the evening to check any further advance of the Germans.
Though pursuit immediately after the battle was prevented by the intervening river, the retreat of the French soon assumed the character of a rout. The troops were worn out with their efforts by day and night, in continuous rain, and with but scanty supplies of food. The marching to and fro, to no visible purpose, had undermined their confidence in their leaders, and a series of defeats had shaken their self-reliance.
Marshal MacMahon must have known that the only chance of safety for his army, or even part of it, was to continue immediately the retrograde movement on September 1st. Of course the Crown Prince of Prussia (The Crown Prince Frederick William in the Franco-Prussian War commanded the Third Army) who held the key to every passage over the Meuse, would have fallen on the flank of the retiring army, and would have pursued it to the frontier, a distance of little more than a mile. That the attempt was not risked is probably owing to the state of the worn-out troops. They were as yet incapable of a retreat in close order; they could only fight where they stood.
The Germans, on their side, still believed that the enemy would make for Mezieres. The Army of the Meuse was instructed to attack them in their position and detain them there; the Third Army to press ahead on the right side of the river, leaving only one corps on the left bank.
The rear of the French was protected by the fortress of Sedan, The Meuse and the valleys of the Givonne and the Floing offered formidable obstructions, but this line of defence must be obstinately held. The Calvary of Illy [Calvaire d'Illy] was one of their most important points, strengthened as it was by the Bois de Garennes in its rear, whence a ridge extends to Bazeilles and offers protection in its numerous dips and shoulders. The road ran past Illy, should it become necessary to enter neutral territory. Bazeilles, on the other hand, which, as regards situation, formed a strong point d'appui for the line facing the Givonne, stands on a promontory, which, after the loss of the bridges across the Meuse, was open to attack on two sides.
The rear of the French was protected by the fortress of Sedan, The Meuse and the valleys of the Givonne and the Floing offered formidable obstructions, but this line of defence must be obstinately held. The Calvary of Illy [Calvaire d'Illy] was one of their most important points, strengthened as it was by the Bois de Garennes in its rear, whence a ridge extends to Bazeilles and offers protection in its numerous dips and shoulders. The road ran past Illy, should it become necessary to enter neutral territory. Bazeilles, on the other hand, which, as regards situation, formed a strong point d'appui for the line facing the Givonne, stands on a promontory, which, after the loss of the bridges across the Meuse, was open to attack on two sides.
In order to cooperate with the Army of the Meuse and hem in the French in their position, General von der Tann sent his first brigade over the pontoon bridges toward Bazeilles by four o'clock in the morning in a thick mist. The troops attacked the town, but found the streets barricaded, while they were fired on from every house. The company at the head pressed forward to the north gate, suffering great losses, but the others were driven out of the western part of Bazeilles, while engaged in street fighting, on the arrival of the Second Brigade of the French Twelfth Corps. However, they kept possession of the buildings at the southern end of the town and thence issued to repeated assaults. As fresh troops were constantly coming up on both sides, and the French even were reinforced by a brigade of the First and one of the Fifth Corps, the murderous combat lasted for many hours with wavering success; the fight for the Villa Hanemann, near the end of the high street and commanding its whole length, was especially fierce. The citizens took active part in the struggle, and they too had to be shot down.
The strong array of guns drawn up on the left ridge of the Valley of the Meuse could not be brought to bear on the crowded streets of Bazeilles, now blazing in several places; but when, at eight o'clock, the Eighth Prussian Division had arrived at Remilly, General von der Tann ordered his last brigade into action. The walled park of Monvillers was stormed and an entrance was gained to Villa Hanemann, The artillery crossed the bridges about nine o'clock, and the Eighth Division was required to give its aid in a struggle begun by the Bavarians at La Moncelle, to the south of Bazeilles.
Prince George of Saxony had despatched an advanced guard of seven battalions from Douzy in that direction at five o'clock in the morning. They drove the French from La Moncelle, pressed ahead to Platinerie and the bridge there, and, in spite of a hot and steady fire, took possession of the houses on the other side of the Givonne, which they immediately occupied for defensive purposes. Communication with the Bavarians was now established, and the battery of the advanced guard was drawn up on the eastern slope; but the brave assailants could not be immediately reinforced by infantry.
Marshal MacMahon had been struck by a splinter from a shell at La Moncelle at 6 A.M., and he nominated General Ducrot as his successor in command, passing over the claims of two senior leaders. When General Ducrot received the news at seven o'clock, he issued orders for concentrating the army at Illy and for an immediate retreat upon Mezieres. Of his own corps he despatched Lartigue's division to cover the passage at Daigny; Lacretelle and Bassoigne were ordered to assume the offensive against the Bavarians and Saxons, so as to gain time for the rest of the troops to retire. The divisions forming the second line immediately began to move toward the north.
The Minister of War had appointed General von Wimpffen, recently returned from Algiers, to the command of the Fifth Corps, vice General de Failly, and had also empowered him to assume the chief command in case the Marshal were disabled. General von Wimpffen knew the army of the Crown Prince to be in the neighborhood of Donchery, he regarded the retreat to Mezieres as an impossibility, and was bent on the diametrically opposite course of forcing his way to Carignan, not doubting that he could rout the Bavarians and Saxons, and so effect a junction with Marshal Bazaine. When he heard of the orders just issued by General Ducrot, and, at the same time, observed that an assault upon the Germans in La Moncelle appeared to turn in his favor, he determined, in an evil hour, to exercise his authority. General Ducrot submitted without remonstrance; he was perhaps not averse to being relieved of so heavy a responsibility. The divisions of the second line that were about to march were ordered back; and the weak advance of the Bavarians and Saxons were soon pressed by the first line, who at once attacked them.
By seven in the morning one regiment of the Saxon advanced guard had marched to the taking of La Moncelle; the other had been busy with the threatening advance of Lartigue's division on the right. Here the firing soon became very hot. The regiment had marched without knapsacks, and neglected previously to take out their cartridges. Thus they soon ran short of ammunition, and the repeated and violent onslaught of the zouaves, directed principally against the unprotected right, had to be repelled with the bayonet. On the left a strong artillery had gradually been formed, and by half-past eight o'clock amounted to twelve batteries. But Lacretelle's division was now approaching on the Givonne lowlands, and dense swarms of tirailleurs forced the German batteries to retire about nine o'clock. The gunners withdrew to some distance, but then turned about and reopened fire on the French, and, after driving them back into the valley, returned to their original position.
The Fourth Bavarian Brigade had meanwhile reached La Moncelle, and the Forty-sixth Saxon Brigade was coming up, so the small progress made by Bassoigne's division was checked. The right wing of the Saxon contingent, which had been hard-pressed, now received much-needed support from the Twenty-fourth Division, and they at once assumed the offensive. The French were driven back upon Daigny, and lost five guns in the struggle. Then joining the Bavarians, who were pushing on through the valley to the northward, after a sharp fight, Daigny and the bridge and farmstead of La Rapaille were taken.
It was now about ten o'clock, and the guards had arrived at the Upper Givonne. They had set out before it was light, marching in two columns, when the sound of heavy firing reached them from Bazeilles and caused them to quicken their step. In order to render assistance by the shortest road, the left column would have crossed two deep ravines and the pathless wood of Chevallier; so they chose the longer route by Villers-Cernay, which the head of the right column had passed in ample time to take part in the contest between the Saxons and Lartigue's division, and to capture two French guns.
The divisions ordered back by General Ducrot had already resumed their position at the western slope, and the Fourteenth Battery of the guards now opened fire upon them from the cast. At the same hour (ten o'clock) the Fourth Corps and the Seventh Division had arrived at Lamecourt, and the Eighth at Remilly, both situated below Bazeilles; the advanced guard of the Eighth stood at the Remilly railway station.
The first attempt of the French to break through to Carignan eastward had proved a failure, and their retreat to Mezieres on the west had also been cut off, for the Fifth and Eleventh Corps of the Third Army, together with the Wurtemberg division, had received orders to move northward by that route. These troops had struck camp before daybreak, and at six o'clock had crossed the Meuse at Donchery, and by the three pontoon bridges farther down the river. The advanced patrols found the road to Mezieres clear of the enemy, and the heavy shelling, heard from the direction of Bazeilles, made it appear probable that the French had accepted battle in their position at Sedan. The Crown Prince therefore ordered the two corps that had arrived at Brigne to march to the right on St. Menges; the Wurtembergers were to remain to keep watch over Mezieres. General von Kirchbach then pointed out Fleigneux to his advanced guards as the next objective, to cut off the retreat of the French into Belgium, and maintain a connection with the right wing of the Army of the Meuse.
The narrow roadway between the hills and the river leading to St. Albert, about two thousand paces distant, was neither held nor watched by the French. It was not till the advanced guard reached St. Menges that they encountered a French detachment, which soon withdrew. The Germans then deployed in the direction of Illy, two companies on the right taking possession of Floing, where they kept up a gallant defence for two hours, without assistance, against repeated attacks.
The first Prussian batteries that arrived had to exert themselves to the utmost to hold out against the larger force of French artillery drawn up at Illy. At first they were protected only by cavalry and a few companies of infantry, and as this cavalry managed to issue from the defile of St. Albert it found itself the misleading object of attack, for the Marguerite cavalry division halted on the Illy plateau. General Galliffet, commander of the division, at nine o'clock formed his three regiments of Chasseurs d'Afrique and two squadrons of lancers into three divisions, and gave the order to charge. Two companies of the Eighty-seventh Regiment were the first in the line: they allowed the cavalry to approach within sixty paces, and then fired a volley that failed to stop them. The First Division rode on a little farther, then wheeled outward to both flanks and came upon the fire of the supports established in the copse. The Prussian batteries, too, sent a shower of shrapnel into their midst, when they finally retired to seek protection in the Bois de Garennes, while a trail of dead and wounded marked their way.
About half an hour later, that is, at ten o'clock, and at the same time when the assaults of the French in Bazeilles and at Daigny were being repelled, fourteen batteries of the Eleventh Corps were erected on and beside the hill range southeast of St. Menges; those of the Fifth Corps were soon added to this artillery park.
Thus, with the powerful infantry columns advancing upon Flegneux, the investing line drawn around Sedan was nearly completed. The Bavarian corps and the artillery reserves remaining on the left embankment of the Meuse were considered strong enough to repel any attempt of the French to break through in that direction. Five corps were standing on the right flank, ready for concentric attack.
The Bavarians and the Saxons, reinforced by the advanced guard of the Fourth Corps, issued from the burning town of Bazeilles and from Moncelle, and drove sections of the French Twelfth Corps, in spite of a stubborn resistance, from the east of Balan back to Fond de Givonne. Having thus taken possession of the spur of Illy, while awaiting a fresh attack of the French, the most necessary step now was to re-form the troops, which were in much confusion.
When this was done the Fifth Bavarian Brigade advanced on Balan. The troops found but feeble resistance in the village; but it was only after a hard fight that they were allowed to occupy the park of the castle, at the extreme end. Thence, soon after midday, the foremost battalion got close to the walls of the fortress and exchanged shots with the garrison. The French were now trying to take up a position at Fond de Givornne, and a steady fire was opened on both sides. At one o'clock the French had evidently received reinforcements, and when, after the artillery and mitrailleuses had done some preliminary work, they assumed the offensive, the Fifth Bavarian Brigade was driven back a little distance, but, assisted by the Sixth, regained its old position after an hour's hard fighting. Meanwhile the Saxon Corps had spread itself in the northern part of the valley toward Givonne. There the foremost companies of the guards were already established, as also in Haybes. The Prussian artillery forced the French batteries to change their position more than once, and several of them had already gone out of action. To gain an opening here, the French repeatedly tried to send ahead large bodies of tirailleurs (sharpshooters) and ten guns were got into Givonne, after it had been occupied, but these were taken before they could unlimber. The Prussian shells also fell with some effect among the French troops massed in the Bois de Garennes, though fired from a long range.
After the Franctireurs de Paris (light infantry) had been driven out of Chapelle, the cavalry advanced through Givonne, and up the valley, and at noon the hussars had succeeded in establishing a connection with the left wing of the Third Army.
The Forty-seventh Brigade of that body had left Fleigneux to ascend the upper valley of the Givonne, and the retreat of the French from Illy in a southern direction bad already begun. The Eighty-seventh Regiment seized eight guns that were being worked, and captured thirty baggage-wagons with their teams and hundreds of cavalry horses wandering riderless. The cavalry of the advanced guard of the Fifth Corps captured General Brahaut and his staff, besides a great number of infantry and one hundred fifty pack-horses, together with forty ammunition and transport-wagons.
At Floing there was also an attempt on the part of the French to break through; but the originally very insufficient infantry posts at that point had gradually been strengthened, and the French were driven from the locality as quickly as they had entered. And now the fire from the twenty-six batteries of the Army of the Meuse was joined by that of the guards' batteries, which took up their position at the eastern slope of the Givonne Valley. The effect was overwhelming. The French batteries were destroyed and many ammunition-wagons were exploded. General von Wimpffen at first thought the advance of the Germans from the north a mere feint, but recognized his mistake when he himself proceeded to the spot toward noon. He therefore ordered the two divisions in the second line, which was behind the Givonne front of the First Corps, to return to the height above Illy and support General Douay.
On rejoining the Twelfth Corps he found it in full retreat on Sedan, and urgently requested General Douay to despatch assistance in the direction of Bazeilles. Maussion's brigade marched thither at once, followed by Dumont's, as their position in the front had been taken by Conseil Dumesnil's division.
All these marches and countermarches were executed in the space south of the Bois de Garennes under fire of the German artillery on two sides. The retreat of the cavalry heightened the confusion, and several battalions returned to the doubtful protection of the forest. General Douay, it is true, when reinforced by sections of the Fifth Corps, retook the Calvaire, but was forced to abandon it by two o'clock; the forest, at the back of the Calvaire, was then shelled by sixty guns of the guards.
Liebert's division alone had so far maintained its very strong position on the hills north of Casal. The assembling in sufficient strength of the German Fifth and Eleventh corps at Floing could be effected only very gradually. At one o'clock, however, part of them began to scale the hill immediately before them, while others went round to the south toward Gaulier and Casal, and more marched down from Fleigneux. These troops became so intermixed that no detailed orders could be given; a fierce contest was carried on for a long time, with varying fortunes. The French division, attacked on both flanks, and also shelled, at last gave way, and the reserves of the Seventh Corps having already been called to other parts of the battle-field, the French cavalry again devoted themselves to the rescue.
General Marguerite, with five regiments of light-horse and two of lancers, charged out of the Bois de Garennes. He fell among the first, severely wounded, and General Galliffet took his place. The charge was over very treacherous ground, and, even before they could attack, the ranks were broken by the heavy flanking fire of the Prussian batteries. Still, with thinned numbers but unflagging determination, the squadrons charged on the Forty-third Infantry Brigade and its reinforcements hurrying along from Fleigneux. Part of the German infantry on the hillside were lying under cover, others were fully exposed in groups. Their foremost lines were broken through at several points, and a detachment of these brave troops forced their way past eight guns through a hot fire, but the reserves beyond checked their further progress. A troop of cuirassiers, issuing from Gaulier, fell on the German rear, but encountering the Prussian hussars in the Meuse Valley galloped off northward. Other detachments forced their way through the infantry as far as the narrow way by St. Albert, where the battalions holding it gave them a warm reception - others again entered Floing only to succumb to the Fifth Jaegers, who fell on them front and rear. These attacks were repeated by the French again and again, and the murderous turmoil lasted for half an hour with steadily diminishing success for the French. The volleys of the infantry, fired at short range, strewed the whole field with dead and wounded. Many fell into the quarries or over the steep precipices, a few may have escaped by swimming the Meuse; and scarcely more than half of these brave troops were left to return to the protection of the fortress.
But this magnificent sacrifice of the splendid French cavalry could not change the fate of the day. The Prussian infantry had lost but few in cut-and-thrust encounters, and at once resumed the attack against Liebert's division. But in this onslaught they sustained heavy losses; for instance, the three battalions of the Sixth Regiment had to be commanded by lieutenants. Casal was stormed, and the French, after a spirited resistance, withdrew at about three o'clock to their last refuge, the Bois de Garennes.
When, between one and two o'clock, the fighting round Bazeilles at first took a favourable turn for his army, General de Wimpffen returned to his original plan of overthrowing the Bavarians, exhausted by a long struggle, and making his way to Carignan with the First, Fifth, and Twelfth corps; while the Seventh Corps was to cover their rear. But the orders issued to that effect never reached the generals in command, or arrived so late that circumstances forbade their being carried out.
In consequence of his previous orders, Bassoigne's division, with those of Gozo and Grandchamp had remained idle. Now, at about three in the afternoon, the two last named advanced from Fond de Givonne over the eastern ridge, and the Twenty-third Saxon Division, which was marching in the valley on the left bank of the Givonne, found itself suddenly attacked by the compact French battalions and batteries, but with the aid of the left wing of the guards and the artillery thundering from the eastern slope they soon repelled the French, and even followed them up, back to Fond de Givonne. The energy of the French appears to have been exhausted, for they allowed themselves to be taken prisoners by hundreds. As soon as the hills on the west of the Givonne had been secured, the German artillery established itself there, and by three o'clock twenty-one batteries stood in line between Bazeilles and Haybes.
The Bois de Garennes, where corps of all arms had found refuge and were wandering about, still remained to be taken. After a short cannonade the First Division of guards ascended the hills from Givonne and were joined by the Saxon battalions, the left wing of the Third Army at the same time pressing forward from Illy. A wild turmoil ensued, some of the French offered violent resistance, others surrendered by thousands at a time, but not until five o'clock were the Germans masters of the fortress.
Meanwhile long columns of French could be seen pouring down on Sedan from all the neighboring hills. Irregular bands of troops were massed in and around the walls of the fortress, and shells from the German batteries on both sides of the Meuse were continually exploding among them. Columns of fire soon began to rise from the city, and the Bavarians, who had gone round to Torcy, were about to climb the palisades at the gate when, at about half-past four, flags of truce were hoisted on the towers. The Emperor Napoleon had refused to join with General von Wimpffen in his attempt to break through the German lines; he had, on the contrary, desired him to parley with the enemy. On the order being renewed, the French suddenly ceased firing.
General Reille now made his appearance in the presence of King William, who had watched the action all day from the hill south of Frenois. He was the bearer of an autograph letter from the Emperor, whose presence in Sedan had till now been unknown. He placed his sword in the hands of the King, but as this was only an act of personal submission, the answer given to his letter demanded that an officer should be despatched thither, fully empowered to treat with General von Moltke as to the surrender of the French army. This sorrowful duty was imposed on General von Wimpffen, who was in no way responsible for the desperate straits into which the army had been brought.
The negotiations were held at Donchery during the night between September 1st and 2d. The Germans were forced to consider that they must not forego the advantage gained over so powerful an enemy as France. When it was remembered that the French had regarded the victory of German arms over other nationalities in the light of an insult, any act of untimely generosity might lead them to forget their own defeat. The only course to pursue was to insist upon the disarmament and detention of the entire army, but officers were to be free on parole.
General von Wimpffen declared it impossible to accept such hard conditions, the negotiations were broken off, and the French officers returned to Sedan at one o'clock. Before their departure they were given to understand that unless these terms were agreed to by nine o'clock next morning, the bombardment would be renewed. The capitulation was signed by General von Wimpffen on the morning of the 2d, further resistance being obviously impossible.
It is difficult to understand why the Germans celebrate September 2 when nothing at all remarkable happened but that which was the result of the previous day's work; the day the army really crowned itself with glory was September 1st. This splendid victory had cost the Germans 460 officers and 8,500 men. The French losses were far greater: 17,000 were killed or wounded - the work principally of the strong force of German artillery - and 21,000 were taken prisoners in the course of the action, and 83,000 surrendered. Three thousand men had been disarmed on Belgian territory. The trophies at Sedan consisted of 3 standards, 419 fieldpieces, and 139 guns; 66,000 stands of arms; more than 1000 baggage- and other wagons, and 6000 horses fit for service.
The triumphant military victory of Sedan on 2 September, the capitulation of one of the two main French armies, and the capture of the French emperor stunned the world and enhanced the prestige and popularity of the Prussian General Staff. The initial successes of the German armies and their rapid advance into France encouraged German expectations of victory. If at first the goal was to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible, all diplomatic and political activities were henceforth centred on containing the acts of war geographically. In the beginning, Bismarck had refrained from exerting influence on military leaders, but after Sedan, politics demanded due consideration. As he saw it, the military aspect of the war had already been decided. In his opinion, all that stood in the way of concluding peace was the imperial captive, Napoleon.
In the cottage of a weaver at Donchéry, Bismarck stated his conditions for the defeated emperor's capitulation: all weapons were to be laid down and the entire army was to be taken prisoner. His key question was: "Whose sword has Emperor Napoleon surrendered? France's or his own?" When the authorized French representative, Henri-Pierre-Abdon Castelnau, replied that it was only the sword of the emperor, it was clear that the war would have to continue. Above all, Bismarck insisted on "a material pledge to secure military results that have been obtained." At first, he considered the conditions of capitulation a "purely military issue" and left their arrangement to the Chief of the Prussian General Staff, Count Helmuth von Moltke, and the French plenipoteniary, General Felix de Wimpffen. Wimpffen held out in vain for the withdrawal of the French Army with weapons, baggage, and flags to a part of France to be stipulated by Prussia or to Algeria. Moltke, however, demanded that all French troops become prisoners of war.
Because the Battle of Sedan had left no universally accepted partner with whom peace could be negotiated, a continuation of the war and a march on the capital seemed unavoidable to the Prussian military leaders. Moltke gave the corresponding orders on 2 September after Napoleon had already signed the capitulation. Bismarck criticized the decision of the army command and stressed later, too, that he had always considered the siege of the city a mistake. On 6 September, German headquarters in Reims received the news that the French imperial government had been overthrown in Paris. The empress had been driven from the throne, a provisional government had been formed by members of the former opposition, and a republic had been proclaimed. A bloodless revolution had in fact taken place on 4 September 1870, when a crowd of people stormed the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the Chamber of Deputies. In the city hall, members of the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies in Paris had formed a "Government of National Defense," with Jules Favre taking over the foreign ministry and Léon Gambetta, the war and interior ministries. Bismarck's problem was with whom peace negotiations were to be conducted in the future.
Napoleon III had been brought as a prisoner of war to the Palace of Wilhelmshöhe near Kassel while 140,000 French soldiers in German camps awaited a decision. After Sedan, the French Army of the Rhine, whose 170,000 troops had been isolated in the fortress of Metz since 18 August, and the Metz Garrison were the only French units still intact, whereas the German army of occupation commanded by Prussian Prince Charles had grown to almost 200,000 men. Bismarck's aim was to cement the results of a war that had not yet ended. On 24 October a French council of war in Metz decided to surrender the Army of the Rhine, and the capitulation was signed on 27 October in accordance with the stipulations of Sedan. The entire Army of the Rhine passed into German captivity.
In view of the rapid German advance on Paris, the French foreign minister, Favre, decided to meet with Bismarck. On 19 and 20 September their encounter in the Rothschilds' chateau, Ferrieres, ushered in talks that were completed at the end of January 1871 with the armistice of Versailles. Because Favre was not prepared to cede any territory, no discussions of a preliminary peace came of these encounters. Bismarck did not want to agree to a cease fire based on the military status quo. Furthermore, German headquarters was counting on a quick military decision outside Paris. One of Bismarck's demands was the surrender of a key point in the Paris fortifications in return for a guarantee to supply the surrounded city with food and to restore communications between Paris and the provinces. Favre rejected these proposals. Announcement of the German demands heightened the patriotic mood in Paris into an indominable will to resist. Far from seeing itself as vanquished, the Paris government demanded an armistice and peace on its terms or a continuation of the war. The belligerents were still irreconcilable.
Although the supply problems under which Paris was suffering had steadily worsened since German troops had begun their siege of the capital, Bismarck's negotiations with Adolphe Thiers, the provisional government's "ambassador-at-large," collapsed in early November, thereby perpetuating the war. In addition, the temporary successes of the Army of the Loire at Coulmiers on 7 and 8 November had rekindled the fighting spirit of the French.
Beginning in mid-October, ministerial conferences with the southern German states were held in Versailles, opening the decisive phase of the struggle to shape the covenant that was to lead to the "German Empire." As a prelude, talks were opened with Bavarian mediators at headquarters in Reims, where Bismarck plainly stated his desire for a "unification of Germany into a federal state." Otherwise, the German Question would have to be settled without Bavaria in such a way that Baden, Hesse, and Württemberg would join the North German Confederation. If Bavaria were to show herself favorably disposed to the federal idea, Bismarck would consider granting King Louis special conditions.
German artillery commenced the bombardment of Paris at the end of December. Despite the fact that the war was still in progress, Bismarck pressed for a quick decision on the issue of national unity. On 18 January 1871, King William was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. After French units in the west, east, and, at last, in the north had been defeated in mid-January, Bismarck and Jules Favre resumed negotiations in private from 23 through 28 January. The capital surrendered and laid down its arms; the bombardment of Paris ceased. The Government of National Defence had to accept the occupation of several forts by the German army and the surrender of the Paris garrison. As a result of the peace preliminaries of 26 February, France had to cede Alsace and parts of Lorraine to Germany and pay a war indemnity of five billion francs. The domestic problems that led to revolt and the establishment of the Paris Commune on 18 March 1871 were not solved by the imposition of German occupation troops.
