A letter of Count Von Moltke has recently been published, showing that
the question of the conquest of France was under consideration by the
Count and Bismarck as early as August of 1866. It is demonstrated that
these two powerful spirits were already preparing, aye, had already
prepared, to trip the Emperor Louis Napoleon, throwing him and his
Empire into a common ruin. The letter also proves that the plan of the
North-German Confederation, under the leadership of Prussia, with
German unity and a German Empire just beyond, was already clearly in
mind by the far-sighted leaders who surrounded King William in 1866.
Count Von Moltke shows that it was possible and practicable _at that
date_, and within a period of two or three weeks, to throw upon the
French border so tremendous an army that resistance would be
impossible. The antecedents of the Franco-Prussian War had been
clearly thought out by the German masters at a time when Louis
Napoleon was still tinkering with his quixotical Empire in Mexico.
When the war between France and Germany actually broke out, four years
later. Germany was prepared, and France was unprepared for the
conflict. Louis Napoleon did not know that Germany was prepared. He
actually thought that he could break into the German borders, fight
his way victoriously to the capital, make his headquarters in Berlin,
and dictate a peace in the manner of his uncle. It was the most
fallacious dream that a really astute man ever indulged in. From the
first day of actual contact with the Germans, the dream of the Emperor
began to be dissipated. Within five days (August 14-18, 1870,) three
murderous battles were fought on French soil, the first at Courcelles,
the next at Vionville, and the third at Gravelotte. In all of these
the French fought bravely, and in all were defeated disastrously,
with tremendous losses.
By these great victories, the Germans were able to separate the two
divisions of the French army. The northern division, under command of
the Emperor and MacMahon, began to recede toward Sedan, while the more
powerful army, under Marshal Bazaine, numbering 173,000 men, was
forced somewhat to the south, and pressed by the division of Prince
Frederick Charles, until the French, in an evil day, entered the
fortified town of Metz, and suffered themselves to be helplessly
cooped up. There was perhaps never another great army so safely and
hopelessly disposed of!
Metz, after Antwerp, is the strongest fortress in Europe. It is
situated at the junction of the rivers Seille and Moselle. It is the
capital of the province of Lorraine, destined to be lost by France and
gained by Germany in the struggle that was now on. The place was of
great historical importance. Here the Roman invaders had established
themselves in the time of the conquest of Gaul. It was called by the
conquerors, first Mediomatrica, and afterward Divodurum. Its
importance, on the very crest of the watershed between the Teutonic
and Gallic races, was noted in the early years of our era, and to the
present day that importance continues for the same reason as of old.
Metz is on the line of a conflict of races which has not yet, after so
many centuries, been finally decided.
The position is one of great strategic importance. But such were the
military conditions at the end of August, 1870, that to occupy Metz
with one of the greatest armies of modern times was the most serious
disaster that could befall the French cause. Bazaine's army was
needed, not in a fortified town, but _in the field_. It was a
tremendous force. The army that Prince Frederick Charles locked up in
Metz could have marched from Parthia to Spain against the resistance
of the whole Roman Empire, at the high noon of that imperial power! It
could have marched from end to end of the Southern Confederacy in the
palmiest day of that Confederacy, and could not have been seriously
impeded! And yet this tremendous force was pent up and shut in, as if
under seal, while King William and the Crown Prince and Bismarck and
Von Moltke hunted down the French Emperor and his remaining forces,
brought them to bay, and compelled a surrender.
This was accomplished by the first of September. The Empire of
Napoleon went to pieces. The Third Republic was instituted. The
Empress fled with the Prince Imperial to England, while her humbled
lord was established by his captors at the castle of Wilhelmshohe.
Republican France found herself in possession of a political chaos
which could hardly be stilled. She also found herself in possession of
a splendid army of more than one hundred and seventy thousand men shut
up helplessly in Metz. The situation was highly dramatic. The Republic
said that Bazaine should break out, but the Marshal said that he could
not. What he said was true. The Germans held him fast. But the
Republic believed, as it still believes, that Bazaine, loyal to the
fallen Emperor rather than to his country, wished to handle his army
in such a manner as should compel the restoration of the Empire, under
the auspices of the German conquerors.
This idea was hateful above all things to the French Republicans.
September wore away, and more than half of October; but still the
siege of Metz was not concluded. Vainly did the new Republic of France
strive to extricate herself. Vainly did she raise new armies. Vainly
did she look for the escape of Bazaine. Finally, on the twenty-seventh
of October, that commander surrendered Metz and his army to the
Germans. It was the most tremendous capitulation known in history.
Never before was so powerful an army surrendered to an enemy. The
actual number of French soldiers covered by the capitulation was
fully one hundred and seventy thousand! The prostration of France was
complete, and her humiliation extreme.
Bazaine became the Black Beast of the public imagination. A tribunal
was organized at Paris, under the presidency of the Duc d'Aumale, son
of Louis Philippe--the same who with the Prince de Joinville had been
on McClellan's staff during the peninsular campaign in our Civil War.
Before this court Bazaine was haled as a traitor to his country. He
was tried, convicted and condemned to degradation and death. It was
only by the most strenuous efforts in his behalf that a commutation of
the sentence to imprisonment for twenty years was obtained.
The Marshal was accordingly incarcerated in a prison at Cannes,
whither he was sent in December of 1873, and from which he effected
his escape in the following August. He succeeded in making his way to
Madrid, and took up his residence there. He sought assiduously by
writings and argument and appeal to reverse the judgment of his
countrymen and of the world with regard to the justice of his
sentence; but he could not succeed. It is probably true that the
greatest surrender of military forces known in the history of the
world was brought about by the preference of the commanding general of
the conquered army for an Emperor who was already dethroned, as
against a true devotion to his country. There was also in the case a
measure of incapacity. Bazaine was no match as a military commander
for the powerful genius of Von Moltke and the persistency of Frederick
Charles and the more than two hundred thousand resolute Germans who
surrounded him, and brought him and his army to irretrievable ruin.
Astronomical Vistas.