The Second Empire of the French was pounded to powder in a bowl. This
is literal, not figurative. To attempt to describe Sedan after Victor
Hugo has described it for all mankind were a work futile and foolish.
To Hugo we concede the palm among all writers, ancient and modern, as
a delineator of battle. His description of the battle of Waterloo will
outlast the tumulus and the lion which French patriotism has reared on
the square where the last of the Old Guard perished. His description,
though not elaborate, is equally graphic and final. He was returning,
in September, 1871, from his fourth exile. He had been in Belgium in
banishment for about eighteen years. It is in the "History of a Crime"
that he tells the story. He says that he was re-entering France by the
Luxembourg frontier, and had fallen asleep in the coach. Suddenly the
jolt of the train coming to a standstill awoke him. One of the
passengers said: "What place is this?" Another answered "Sedan." With
a shudder, Hugo looked around. He says that to his mind and vision, as
he gazed out, the paradise was a tomb. Before substituting his words
for our own, we note only that nearly thirteen months had elapsed
since Louis Napoleon and his 90,000 men had here been brayed in a
mortar. Hugo's description of the scene and the event continues as
follows:
The valley was circular and hollow, like the bottom of a crater; the
winding river resembled a serpent; the hills high, ranged one behind
the other, surrounded this mysterious spot like a triple line of
inexorable walls; once there, there is no means of exit. It reminded
me of the amphitheatres. An indescribable, disquieting vegetation,
which seemed to be an extension of the Black Forest, overran all the
heights, and lost itself in the horizon like a huge impenetrable
snare; the sun shone, the birds sang, carters passed by whistling;
sheep, lambs and pigeons were scattered about; leaves quivered and
rustled; the grass, a densely thick grass, was full of flowers. It was
appalling.
I seemed to see waving over this valley the flashing of the avenging
angel's sword.
This word "Sedan" had been like a veil abruptly torn aside. The
landscape had become suddenly filled with tragedy. Those shapeless
eyes which the bark of trees delineates on the trunks were gazing--at
what? At something terrible and lost to view.
In truth, that was the place! And at the moment when I was passing by,
thirteen months all but a few days had elapsed. That was the place
where the monstrous enterprise of the second of December had burst
asunder. A fearful shipwreck!
The gloomy pathways of Fate cannot be studied without profound anguish
of heart.
On the thirty-first of August, 1870, an army was reassembled, and was,
as it were, massed together under the walls of Sedan, in a place
called the Givonne Valley. This army was a French army--twenty-nine
brigades, fifteen divisions, four army corps--90,000 men. This army
was in this place without anyone being able to divine the reason;
without order, without an object, scattered about--a species of heap
of men thrown down there as though with the view of being seized by
some huge hand.
This army either did not entertain, or appeared not to entertain, for
the moment any immediate uneasiness. They knew, or at least they
thought they knew, that the enemy was a long way off. On calculating
the stages at four leagues daily, it was three days' march distant.
Nevertheless, toward evening the leaders took some wise strategic
precautions; they protected the army, which rested in the rear on
Sedan and the Meuse, by two battle fronts, one composed of the Seventh
Corps, and extending from Floing to Givonne, the other composed of the
Twelfth Corps, extending from Givonne to Bazeilles; a triangle of
which the Meuse formed the hypothenuse. The Twelfth Corps, formed of
the three divisions of Lacretelle, Lartigue and Wolff, ranged on the
right, with the artillery between the brigades, formed a veritable
barrier, having Bazeilles and Givonne at each end, and Digny in its
centre; the two divisions of Petit and Lheritier massed in the rear
upon two lines supported this barrier. General Lebrun commanded the
Twelfth Corps. The Seventh Corps, commanded by General Douay, only
possessed two divisions--Dumont's division and Gilbert's division--and
formed the other battle front, covering the army of Givonne to Floing
on the side of Illy; this battle front was comparatively weak, too
open on the side of Givonne, and only protected on the side of the
Meuse by two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains, and by
Guyomar's brigade, resting in squares on Floing. Within this triangle
were encamped the Fifth Corps, commanded by General Wimpfen, and the
First Corps, commanded by General Ducrot. Michel's cavalry division
covered the First Corps on the side of Digny; the Fifth supported
itself upon Sedan. Four divisions, each disposed upon two lines--the
divisions of Lheritier, Grandchamp, Goze and Conseil-Dumenil--formed a
sort of horseshoe, turned toward Sedan, and uniting the first battle
front with the second. The cavalry division of Ameil and the brigade
of Fontanges served as a reserve for these four divisions. The whole
of the artillery was upon the two battle fronts. Two portions of the
army were in confusion, one to the right of Sedan beyond Balan, the
other to the left of Sedan, on this side of Iges. Beyond Balan were
the division of Vassoigne and the brigade of Reboul, on this side of
Iges were the two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains.
These arrangements indicated a profound feeling of security. In the
first place, the Emperor Napoleon III. would not have come there if he
had not been perfectly tranquil. This Givonne Valley is what Napoleon
I. called a "wash-hand basin." There could not have been a more
complete enclosure. An army is so much at home there that it is too
much so; it runs the risk of no longer being able to get out. This
disquieted some brave and prudent leaders, such as Wimpfen, but they
were not listened to. If absolutely necessary, said the people of the
imperial circle, they could always be sure of being able to reach
Mezieres, and at the worst the Belgian frontier. Was it, however,
needful to provide for such extreme eventualities? In certain cases
foresight is almost an offence. They were all of one mind, therefore,
to be at their ease.
If they had been uneasy they would have cut the bridges of the Meuse,
but they did not even think of it. To what purpose? The enemy was a
long way off. The Emperor, who evidently was well informed, affirmed
it.
The army bivouacked somewhat in confusion, as we have said, and slept
peaceably throughout this night of August 31, having, whatever might
happen, or believing that they had, the retreat upon Mezieres open
behind it. They disdained to take the most ordinary precautions, they
made no cavalry reconnoissances, they did not even place outposts. A
German military writer has stated this. Fourteen leagues at least
separated them from the German army, three days' march; they did not
exactly know where it was; they believed it scattered, possessing
little unity, badly informed, led somewhat at random upon several
points at once, incapable of a movement converging upon one single
point, like Sedan; they believed that the Crown Prince of Saxony was
marching on Chalons, and that the Crown Prince of Prussia was marching
on Metz; they were ignorant of everything appertaining to this army,
its leaders, its plan, its armament, its effective force. Was it still
following the strategy of Gustavus Adolphus? Was it still following
the tactics of Frederick II.? No one knew. They felt sure of being at
Berlin in a few weeks. What nonsense! The Prussian army! They talked
of this war as of a dream, and of this army as of a phantom....
The masterful description of the great novelist and poet then
continues in a narrative of the attack and catastrophe:
Bazeilles takes fire, Givonne takes fire, Floing takes fire; the
battle begins with a furnace. The whole horizon is aflame. The French
camp is in this crater, stupefied, affrighted, starting up from
sleeping--a funereal swarming. A circle of thunder surrounds the army.
They are encircled by annihilation. This mighty slaughter is carried
on on all sides simultaneously. The French resist and they are
terrible, having nothing left but despair. Our cannon, almost all
old-fashioned and of short range, are at once dismounted by the
fearful and exact aim of the Prussians. The density of the rain of
shells upon the valley is so great that "the earth is completely
furrowed," says an eye-witness, "as though by a rake." How many
cannon? Eleven hundred at least. Twelve German batteries upon La
Moncelle alone; the Third and Fourth _Abtheilung_, an awe-striking
artillery, upon the crests of Givonne, with the Second Horse Battery
in reserve; opposite Digny ten Saxon and two Wurtemburg batteries; the
curtain of trees of the wood to the north of Villers-Cernay masks the
mounted _Abtheilung_, which is there with the third Heavy Artillery in
reserve, and from the gloomy copse issues a formidable fire; the
twenty-four pieces of the First Heavy Artillery are ranged in the
glade skirting the road from La Moncelle to La Chapelle; the battery
of the Royal Guard sets fire to the Garenne Wood; the shells and the
balls riddle Suchy, Francheval, Fouro-Saint-Remy, and the valley
between Heibes and Givonne; and the third and fourth rank of cannon
extend without break of continuity as far as the Calvary of Illy, the
extreme point of the horizon. The German soldiers, seated or lying
before the batteries, watch the artillery at work. The French soldiers
fall and die. Amongst the bodies which cover the plain there is one,
the body of an officer, on which they will find, after the battle, a
sealed note containing this order, signed Napoleon: "To-day, September
1, rest for the whole army."
The gallant Thirty-fifth of the Line almost entirely disappears under
the overwhelming shower of shells; the brave Marine Infantry holds at
bay for a moment the Saxons, joined by the Bavarians, but outflanked
on every side draws back; all the admirable cavalry of the
Margueritte division hurled against the German infantry halts and
sinks down midway, "annihilated," says the Prussian report, "by
well-aimed and cool firing." This field of carnage has three outlets,
all three barred: the Bouillon road by the Prussian Guard, the
Carignan road by the Bavarians, the Mezieres road by the
Wurtemburgers. The French have not thought of barricading the railway
viaduct; three German battalions have occupied it during the night.
Two isolated houses on the Balan road could be made the pivot of a
long resistance, but the Germans are there. The wood from Monvilliers
to Bazeilles, but the French have been forestalled; they find the
Bavarians cutting the underwood with their billhooks. The German army
moves in one piece, in one absolute unity; the Crown Prince of Saxony
is on the height of Mairy, whence he surveys the whole action; the
command oscillates in the French army; at the beginning of the battle,
at a quarter to six, MacMahon is wounded by the bursting of a shell;
at seven o'clock Ducrot replaces him; at ten o'clock Wimpfen replaces
Ducrot. Every instant the wall of fire is drawing closer in, the roll
of the thunder is continuous, a dismal pulverization of 90,000 men!
Never before has anything equal to this been seen; never before has an
army been overwhelmed beneath such a downpour of lead and iron! At
one o'clock all is lost! The regiments fly helter-skelter into Sedan!
But Sedan begins to burn, Dijonval burns, the ambulances burn, there
is nothing now possible but to cut their way out. Wimpfen, brave and
resolute, proposes this to the Emperor. The Third Zouaves, desperate,
have set the example. Cut off from the rest of the army, they have
forced a passage and have reached Belgium. A flight of lions!
Suddenly, above the disaster, above the huge pile of dead and dying,
above all this unfortunate heroism, appears disgrace. The white flag
is hoisted.