armies--each also consisting of several Army Corps--of which the
combined strength was about 384,000 men; and so quickly had the
Germans--who are famous for their powers of organisation--done the
difficult work of mobilising their forces (that is to say, preparing
them to take the field), that, within a fortnight after the order for
this process had been issued, no fewer than 300,000 helmeted defenders
of the Fatherland stood ranked up and ready along the Rhine. Old King
William of Prussia assumed the nominal command of all this tremendous
fighting force; but in reality the man who directed and controlled its
movements was Field-Marshal Count von Moltke, who was perhaps the most
studious and scientific soldier the world had ever seen. He had divided
all the field strength of Germany into three separate armies--each
also composed of several Army Corps. The First Army, on the right,
was commanded by General von Steinmetz; the Second, in the centre, by
Prince Frederick Charles, known as the “Red Prince,” and the Third, on
the left, by the Crown Prince, son-in-law of Queen Victoria.
The Crown Prince was the first to draw blood, on the 4th August (war
had only been formally declared on the 19th July), when he won the
great battle of Weissenburg, and on the 6th at Wörth, when he completed
the defeat of Marshal MacMahon’s army. On this very same day, too,
Steinmetz, on the right, had stormed the heights of Spicheren at a very
great sacrifice of life, causing Frossard, who held these heights, to
fall back on the excessively strong fortress of Metz, which stands in
the lovely valley of the Moselle. MacMahon had retreated towards the
great training camp--the Aldershot, so to speak, of France--at Châlons;
while the rest of the “Army of the Rhine” meanwhile retired on Metz,
and thither the Germans now also began to push with might and main.
It was thought probable by Moltke, from all appearances, that the
French meant to make a desperate stand in front of Metz. But he met
with less resistance there than he expected; and on the 14th August
a victory gained by the Germans at Colombey-Nouilly had the effect
of making all their opponents in the open field thereabouts withdraw
towards the fortressed city. This battle had been fought on the east of
Metz, while on the west side ran the high road to Verdun and Paris. On
the 15th the Germans came to the conclusion that the French in Metz,
not wishing to expose themselves to the risk of being cooped up and
rendered useless within their fortress, meant to escape towards Verdun,
to join hands with MacMahon’s beaten forces, and then give battle to
the advancing Germans in the plain.
For the French were confident that they could give a good account of
their hitherto victorious foes, could they but meet them on pretty
equal terms in the open. The Germans saw very well that the object
of the French at Metz was to escape to the west, and they therefore
determined to strain every nerve to prevent this. Yet they sadly feared
they would not succeed, for they were on the right, or east, bank of
the Moselle, while the French were on the left, or west side; and it
was necessary for their pursuers to make a wide sweep in order to cross
the river and insert themselves in good time between Metz and Paris, so
as to have the retreating Frenchmen face to face.
As early as the evening of the 15th a Division of Cavalry--the 5th,
under Rheinbaden--had crossed the Moselle, and pressed round and
forward with prying intent as far as the village of Mars-la-Tour, on
the Verdun road, where it bivouacked for the night. It had seen certain
masses of French troops away in the direction of Metz, but was unable
to conclude whether this formed the rear-guard of the French army
retreating on Verdun, or only its vanguard. As a matter of fact, this
army was still struggling with the difficulties of getting away from
Metz.
Early on the morning of the 16th the French Emperor, escorted by two
brigades of cavalry, had driven away to Verdun by the Etain road, which
was still comparatively safe, leaving the command of the Metz army to
Marshal Bazaine.
All the roads from Metz were blocked by heavy baggage, and the French
army could not get away from the fortress with expedition and method.
The left wing of the army was ready to march, but not the right; and
so the left had been sent back to its bivouacs until the afternoon.
Thus Bazaine lost much valuable time, and what he lost the “Red
Prince” won. For by 10 a.m. on the morning of the 16th August, the
3rd, or Brandenburg, Army Corps--one of the best and bravest in all
Germany--had come within sight of the Verdun road, marked at intervals
of about a mile by the successive villages (coming from Metz) of
Gravelotte, Rezonville, Vionville, and Mars-la-Tour, which the German
soldiers punningly called _Marche-rétour_ after the French had
been finally beaten back on Metz. It was an excessively hot day, the
sun pouring down its rays on field and wood with almost tropical force;
and by the time the brave Brandenburgers of General von Alvensleben,
who had crossed the Moselle at Novéant the previous night, and resumed
their forced march after a brief snatch of rest--by the time, I say,
they had threaded the wooded glen of Gorze, leading right on to the
Verdun road, they beheld to their great joy that a French force was in
front of them.
After some preliminary skirmishing and wood-fighting, Alvensleben came
to the conclusion that he had to deal with the whole, or at least the
greater part, of Bazaine’s army, which had thus not escaped after all.
But before the arrival of Alvensleben’s Corps on the scene, the action
had been opened by the horse-batteries of Rheinbaden, which, advancing
from Mars-la-Tour towards Vionville, opened a destructive shell-fire on
Murat’s dragoons, who, encamped thereabout, were engaged in cooking. A
regular stampede ensued, the dragoons bolting through the camp. But the
French infantry were quickly on their guard, and opened so heavy a fire
on the audacious German horsemen--who had, of course, followed their
guns--that the latter were soon driven to seek shelter in hollows and
behind copses.
It was at this time that Alvensleben’s Corps made its timely
appearance, and began to enter into action, although it could not doubt
that it had to contend against desperate odds. But it had been sent
forward by its old commander, Prince Frederick Charles--who still wore
the scarlet uniform of one of its Hussar (Zieten) regiments, and hence
was known as the “Red Prince”--to seek out and hold Bazaine at bay,
as a bulldog would a bull, until the arrival of reinforcements; and
the doughty Brandenburgers were ready to resist to the very last man,
if they must die for it. What would their beloved “Red Prince” say if
they allowed the game to escape? Their only chance lay in the hope that
Bazaine would not be able to concentrate all his colossal host and hurl
it against them at once, and that the 10th Prussian Corps, with other
parts of their army which they knew to have been despatched on the same
errand as themselves, would meanwhile hurry up to their assistance and
save them from complete annihilation.
The infantry part of the battle began on some wooded hills above the
village of Gorze, about eight miles south-west of Metz, on a stream
running from Mars-la-Tour into the Moselle at Novéant. “The Prussians,”
said a correspondent of the _Daily News_, “pushed into the woods,
gradually, by dint of numbers and sheer hard fighting, driving the
French skirmishers from them. What happened in this part of the battle
no one knows or can know, as it was entirely in the woods and valleys,
and no general view of it could be obtained. The French position here
was a most formidable one, and the wonder is, not that it took the
Prussians seven hours to take it, but that they ever got it at all.
The woods above Gorze extend to within about two miles of Gravelotte,
behind which village the French lay in the morning, as also at
Rezonville, another village higher up on the road from Metz to Verdun.
Nearly the whole of the Prussian second position was backed by the
thick woods they had got possession of in the morning.
“The plain on which the battle was fought extends from the woods to
the Verdun road, about one mile and a half, and is about three miles
in length. On the French right the ground rises gently, and this was
the key of the position, as the artillery, which could maintain itself
there, swept the whole field. More towards the centre are two small
valleys, one of which, being deep, was most useful to the Prussians in
advancing their troops. In the centre of the field is the road from
Gorze to Rezonville and Gravelotte, joining the main road to Verdun
between the two villages.[7] From the woods to Rezonville, on the
Verdun road, there is no cover, except one cottage midway on the Gorze
road. This cottage was held by a half-battery of French mitrailleuses,
which did frightful execution in the Prussian ranks as they advanced
from the wood.”
The Brandenburg Corps consisted of two Divisions, one (the 5th)
commanded by Stülpnagel, and the other (the 6th) by Buddenbrock.
The latter was on the right of the German line, and it fought its
way to the front with desperate courage, but with varying fortune.
One regiment in particular--the 52nd--lost heavily in recovering
some ground which had been wrested from it by the French. Its first
battalion lost every one of its officers, the colours were passed from
hand to hand as the bearers were successively shot down by the bullets
of the chassepôts, and the commander of the brigade, General von
Döring, fell mortally wounded. General von Stülpnagel rode along the
line of fire to encourage the men, while General von Schwerin collected
the remnants of the troops bereft of their leaders, and held the most
commanding point on the field of battle until reinforced by a portion
of the 10th Corps.
But it was Buddenbrock’s Division, on the left wing, which began to be
so sorely pressed. This Division had been ordered to advance on the
old Roman road, also leading from Metz to Verdun, on the assumption
that Bazaine might choose this as his main line of retreat. But on
approaching Tronville, near Mars-la-Tour, it was quick to see how
matters stood, and then, wheeling to the right, it advanced with the
most death-despising courage against Vionville and Flavigny.
It is impossible in the space at my disposal to describe all the ins
and outs of the tremendous conflict which now ensued; I can only give
its salient points and incidents. When Bazaine had seen the Germans
advance _from the direction of Verdun_, whither he himself was
bound, he muttered to himself: “_C’est une reconnaissance_” (“It
is only a scouting affair”). But he was quickly undeceived, and saw
that he would have to fight and conquer before he could continue his
westward march. The position of the French was one of great advantage,
their left flank being protected by the fortress of Metz and their
right by formidable batteries along the old Roman road, while they
also had at their disposal a very strong force of cavalry (three and
a-quarter Divisions to two German ones), so that they could thus afford
to wait an attack on their centre.
The two Infantry Divisions of the Germans began to get very much mixed;
but, by taking advantage of every rise in the ground for cover, the
regimental officers got their men steadily forward in spite of the
very heavy fire from the French infantry and guns. Flavigny was taken
by assault, and one cannon, with a number of prisoners, fell into the
hands of the brave Brandenburgers. Slowly, but surely, the Prussians
made their way beyond Flavigny and Vionville, and, assisted by a heavy
fire from their artillery, compelled the right wing of the 2nd French
Corps to retire on Rezonville--a movement which turned into a perfect
flight when the French generals Bataille and Valazé had been killed.
To regain the lost ground, the French Cuirassier Guards turned
resolutely on their Prussian pursuers; but their charge was cut short
by the _schnellfeuer_ (or rapid fire) of two companies of the 52nd
Regiment, drawn up in line (like the 93rd Highlanders at Balaclava),
who waited until the rushing horsemen, with their flashing swords and
waving plumes, were within 250 yards, and then poured a murderous
volley into the teeth of their assailants. The latter, parting to
right and left, rushed past and into the fire of more infantry behind,
leaving 243 of their horses and riders lying on the plain. These
French Cuirassiers barely escaped complete annihilation; for scarcely
had they turned to retire when they were set upon by Redern’s Horse
Brigade (of Rheinbaden’s Division), consisting of the 11th Black
Brunswickers--Prussia’s “Death or Glory” boys--and 17th Hussars, who,
emerging from a hollow behind Flavigny, dashed straight at the flying
foe and cut many more of them out of their saddles.
[Illustration: COUNT VON MOLTKE.]
But their pursuit was presently checked by a French battery in front of
Rezonville, which began to blaze away at them; and for this battery,
in turn, they went like the wind. Shots and sabre-cuts are exchanged
in the wild _mêlée_, the gunners are cut down, and only a knot of
mounted French officers remain. One of them--a short, broad-shouldered,
bull-necked man, with drawn sword--is evidently a general of high rank
from the richness of his uniform. As a matter of fact it is Bazaine
himself, the commander-in-chief of the French army, who has placed this
battery in position. A knot of the Black Brunswickers make a dash at
him, but his Staff surrounds him, parrying the sabre-thrusts and cuts
of the Hussars, till at last he is rescued by a timely charge of the
5th French Hussars forming his escort, and many of the Brunswickers
straightway find death as well as glory.
But now the 6th Cavalry Division of the Prussians--Cuirassiers,
Lancers, and Hussars--led on by the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
rushes up in turn to repel this cavalry counterstroke of the French
which had the effect of rescuing Bazaine; and then is seen another
surging mass of mounted combatants mingling in a “murder grim and
great.” Presently the eye is diverted from this dust-enveloped
spectacle by the sight of the red-tunicked Zieten Hussars--so called
after the Great Frederick’s greatest horse-captain--emerging from
the dust-clouds and dashing themselves with a wild cheer at a line
of French infantry--Grenadier Guards--in their front. But at about
500 paces distance they are received with a truly infernal fire from
chassepôt, field-gun, and mitrailleuse, and their colonel--also a Herr
von Zieten--falls dead out of the saddle, while Captain von Grimm
is mortally wounded, and the horse of the adjutant, Lieutenant von
Winterfeldt, is literally torn to pieces by a shell. The bravest men
on earth cannot face such a fire; so the Zieten Hussars wheel round
and rush back to their lines, leaving the ground strewn with scarlet
uniforms, as if it were an English battle-field. The French fire is too
murderous; the Germans must check their advance; the battle for some
little time after becomes an artillery duel.
It was now two o’clock. So far, Alvensleben had skilfully deceived the
enemy, with regard to the slender number of his troops, by incessant
assaults. But the battle was now at a standstill, the battalions
visibly thinned by four hours of the hardest and bloodiest fighting,
while the infantry had almost exhausted their cartridges. There was not
a battalion, not a battery, left in reserve all along the exposed line.
Nevertheless the Brandenburgers would not yield a single inch of the
ground they had so bravely won.
Presently, however, they were threatened with a new danger. Their left
wing at Vionville was very much exposed to the French artillery on the
Roman road, and they were threatened with a turning of this weakest
flank. At the same time Marshal Canrobert, our old Crimean ally,
discerned from his position in the centre the true moment to make a
push for Vionville with all his forces. Ruin or retreat stared the
Germans in the face. It looked as if they were going to be completely
overwhelmed in this part of the field. The reinforcements from the
10th Corps, which they were so anxiously awaiting, had not yet made
their appearance, and the French were assuming an ever more threatening
attitude. What was to be done?
In a hollow behind Vionville was standing Bredow’s heavy Cavalry
brigade, consisting of the 7th Magdeburg Cuirassiers (Prince Bismarck’s
regiment) and 16th Uhlans, or Lancers, both of the Old Mark of
Brandenburg. The former was commanded by Colonel Count von Schmettow,
the latter by Colonel von der Dollen. The regiments were in a reduced
condition, having only three squadrons each instead of five. Before
them were the enemy’s guns, and behind these, dense masses of infantry,
fresh to the front. “That infantry over there must be broken!” said
an aide-de-camp to General von Bredow. “That infantry?” echoed the
General, in some surprise, as his eye ranged along its bristling front
behind the guns. “The fate of the day depends upon it,” was the brief
reply.
[Illustration: “THE PRUSSIANS PUSHED INTO THE WOODS ...
DRIVING THE FRENCH SKIRMISHERS FROM THEM” (_p._
342.)]
That was quite enough. Leading his brigade out of the hollow in column,
he quickly formed it into line of squadrons--the Cuirassiers on the
left and the Uhlans on the right, a little thrown back--and then, with
a “Forward!” “Trot!” “Charge!” while their thrilling clarions rang
out above the din of battle, away dashed the devoted troopers with a
loud and long-continued roar more than a cheer. It is Balaclava over
again. In a few moments they are among the first French guns, sabring
and stabbing the gunners; and then, in the teeth of a frightful hail
of bullets from cannon, musket, and mitrailleuse, they storm across to
the next infantry line, with which they play equal havoc. The second
infantry line was next broken through by the ponderous horsemen, many
of whom had already fallen, and the panic they created by their heroic
_Todtenritt_, or ride to death, even spread to the remoter line of
batteries, which prepared to limber up. In its excitement the brigade,
like the Scots Greys at Waterloo, rode far beyond its mark, and, like
the gallant Greys, it suffered terribly for its excess of ardour.
After charging on thus for about 3,000 paces, it was set upon in the
most furious manner by an overwhelming force of French horsemen--the
cavalry brigades of Murat and Gramont, and the entire division of
Vallabreque. Thinned as Bredow’s ranks now were, and exhausted by their
exertions so far, how were they to cope with such hordes of horsemen?
Yet cope they did with them stoutly and gallantly, like Scarlet’s
Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, riding in and out of the ranks of their
assailants and bearing many of them to the ground.
And as “Scotland for Ever!” was the cry of the “Greys,” both at
Waterloo and Balaclava, so Scotland is also again to the front on this
battle-field of Vionville in the person of one of her adventurous sons.
This is young Campbell of Craignish, in the shire of Argyll, who is
serving as a lieutenant in the Bismarck Cuirassiers, and who, rushing
where the fight is thickest, captures a French eagle after cutting
down its bearer. Then he is set upon by a crowd of French troopers,
who are determined to win this darling badge of honour back. It is the
one French standard which has been captured, and at all costs it must
be recovered. A pistol-shot shatters Lieutenant Campbell’s hand, and
he has to relinquish his trophy. But some of his men, hewing their way
into the circle of his assailants, succeed in cutting him out of the
_mêlée_.
[Illustration:
Battle of Mars-la-Tour or Rezonville.
Aug. 16. 1870. (6. p.m.)]
All that the little remnant of the brigade could now do was to rally
as well as possible and sabre its way back to its own lines. This it
did, pursued by the masses of French horsemen, volleyed at by infantry,
and rained upon by mitrailleuse bullets, but game to the last. Less
than half of the men returned to Flavigny alive, where they were
reorganised into two squadrons--two, instead of six. Of 310 Cuirassiers
who had gone into action, only 104 came out of it; while only 90 Uhlans
answered to the roll-call. Of our Light Brigade charge at Balaclava,
Marshal Canrobert observed that it might be magnificent, but it
certainly was not war. But the charge of Bredow’s Heavy Brigade at
Vionville, which was equally witnessed by Canrobert, was both one and
the other, as the gallant Marshal himself must have been the first to
admit. It had been beautiful to look at, and it had entailed a fearful
sacrifice of life; but it had achieved its object, which was to save
Buddenbrock’s infantry Division and give it breathing-time. The French
had received such a shock from the charge of Bredow’s Brigade that,
for the present, they abandoned their attempt to encircle the German
left and advance on Vionville and Flavigny. The loss of life had been
immense, but it had been justified by the result; and, after all, that
is the main thing in war.
General Henry, of Canrobert’s Corps, afterwards said: “On taking
position with my battery nothing was to be seen of Prussian cavalry.
Where in the world had these Cuirassiers come from? All of a sudden
they were upon my guns like a whirlwind, and rode or cut down all my
men save only one. And this one was saved by Schmettow. The gunner ran
towards the Cuirassiers, crying ‘_Je me rends! je me rends!_’
But the Prussians, not understanding this, were for despatching him,
and were only prevented from doing so by their colonel, Count von
Schmettow.” The man lived to tell the tale, and to receive the golden
medal. General Henry continued: “It was only by the skin of my teeth
that I myself escaped as the mass of furious horsemen swept past
me, trampling down or sabring the gunners. But it was a magnificent
military spectacle, and I could not help exclaiming to my adjutant as
we rode away, ‘_Ah! Quelle attaque magnifique!_’”
On the other hand, Count von Schmettow, who commanded the Cuirassiers,
gave the following account of their “death-ride”:--“Every one of the
gunners of the first battery on which the troopers fell were cut
down or pierced” (the Count himself striking down the captain). “In
approaching the second battery my helmet was pierced by two bullets,
and my orderly officer thrown from his horse, wounded in two places.
Lieutenant Campbell, the Scottish officer, when the French Cuirassiers
fell in turn upon us, seized the eagle of the regiment in his left
hand, which was at once shattered by a bullet, and he was surrounded
by the French horsemen; but some of our own Cuirassiers cut their way
desperately towards him, and saved him. Never shall I forget the moment
when I gave the order to the first trumpeter I met to sound the rally.
The trumpet had been shattered by a shot, and produced a sound which
pierced us to the quick.” This incident has been immortalised by the
great German poet Freiligrath in the following ballad, entitled “The
Trumpeter of Mars-la-Tour”--the spirited English version being by his
daughter, Kate Freiligrath-Kroeker:--
Death and destruction they belched forth in vain,
We grimly defied their thunder;
Two columns of foot and batteries twain--
We rode and cleft them asunder.
With brandished sabres, with reins all slack,
Raised standards, and low-couched lances,
Thus we Uhlans and Cuirassiers wildly drove back,
And hotly repelled their advances.
But the ride was a ride of death and of blood;
With our thrusts we forced them to sever,
But of two whole regiments, lusty and good,
Out of two men, one rose never.
With breast shot through, with brow gaping wide,
They lay pale and cold in the valley,
Snatched away in their youth, in their manhood’s pride--
“Now, Trumpeter, sound to the rally!”
And he took the trumpet, whose angry thrill
Urged us on to the glorious battle,
And he blew a blast--but all silent and still
Was the trump, save a dull hoarse rattle;
Save a voiceless wail, save a cry of woe,
That burst forth in fitful throbbing--
A bullet had pierced its metal through,
For the Dead, the wounded was sobbing!
For the faithful, the brave, for our brethren all,
For the Watch on the Rhine, true-hearted!--
Oh! the sound cut into our inmost soul!--
It brokenly wailed the Departed!
And now fell the night, and we galloped past,
Watch-fires were flaring and flying,
Our chargers snorted, the rain poured fast--
And we thought of the Dead and the Dying!
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING SCOPE OF OPERATIONS OF THE
FRANCO-GERMAN WAR OF 1870–71.