CHAPTER VIII. THE FRENCH RETREAT THWARTED.

Vionville—Mars la Tour.

That feebleness and hesitation which had been so conspicuous on the side of the French from the outset of the campaign were not likely to cease when dangers and difficulties increased with every passing hour. The Emperor, while he commanded, had been incapable of taking, not merely a bold, but any resolution, and the mental qualities of Marshal Bazaine were not sufficiently far above the average to enable him to remedy the mischievous effects of the long course of erroneous conduct to the heritage of which he succeeded. Moreover, neither Bazaine nor any other French commander, despite recent experiences, had formed a correct estimate of German energy and enterprise. Least of all could they believe that a single Corps and two divisions of cavalry would venture to plant themselves across the road to Verdun. The evil consequences were increased by the inactivity of the cavalry, and the bad, unsoldierlike habit of making perfunctory reconnaisances carried only a mile or so to the front and on the flanks. Marshal Bazaine’s phrase—“les reconnaissances doivent se faire comme d’habitude”—reveals the whole secret. At Wissembourg, on the 4th of August, General Abel Douay’s horsemen returned from a short [p 168] excursion and reported that no enemy was near; and at eight in the morning of the 16th, General Frossard was informed by the patrols which had come in that there was no adversary in force on his front. The German horse were near at hand, yet De Forton’s cavaliers had not felt out as far as their bivouac. Marshal Bazaine’s original intention was that the two corps ordered to follow the Mars la Tour road should start at four o’clock; and Frossard had his men out in readiness to move at that hour when a fresh order postponed the march until the afternoon. During the night Marshal Leb?uf, alarmed at the absence of two divisions and at the continued sojourn of De Ladmirault in the Moselle valley, had suggested that it would be better to stand fast until the several Corps had been once more brought within supporting distance; and Marshal Bazaine had readily yielded to the suggestion. Still no measures were taken to ascertain whether foes were approaching or not, and the soldiers, horse and foot, took up their ordinary camp duties as they would have done had they been at Chalons in time of peace. The actual situation, if they had known it, required that every horse, man and gun should have been in motion at dawn, yet they all lingered; and it may be said that neither superiors nor subordinates were alive to the peril in which they stood—not of defeat, still less rout, the odds available against German enterprise were too great,—but of a blow which would make them reel and, perhaps, turn them aside from the paths to the Meuse.
PLAN IV: BATTLE of VIONVILLE–MARS LA TOUR, ABOUT 4. P.M.
Weller & Graham Ltd. Lithos.? London, Bell & Sons
The Vionville Battlefield.

The road from Gravelotte to Verdun passes by the villages of Rezonville, Vionville and Mars la Tour through a generally open and undulating country. The ground [p 169] slopes irregularly and gently upward on all sides from the highway; the villages on the route are in the hollows or shallow valleys. North and south of Rezonville a ridge separated two ravines, the larger, on the east, formed by the Jurée brook, had its origin north of Gravelotte, the smaller on the west, came down also from the northern uplands, and parallel to its bed ran the principal road from Gorze to Rezonville. At the southern declivity of the ridge, and extending eastward as far as the Moselle, were a series of forests—the Bois de Vionville, Bois St. Arnould, the Bois des Ognons, the Bois des Chevaux. To the west and south-west of Rezonville the country was generally open; but there was a clump of trees shading a pool near Vionville, and, north of the high road, were larger patches of woods, named after the village of Tronville. North also of the highway, and within the French lines, woodlands covered the hill sides towards St. Marcel, the hamlet of Villers aux Bois being seated on the highest ground. Along this upper plateau are traces of a Roman road, running due west, the ancient route from Verdun to Metz; traces visible also in the fields nearer to the fortress. The French occupied the higher stretches on the eastern and north-eastern edge of this irregularly undulating and wooded region. General Frossard was posted on the left of the line in front of Rezonville; Canrobert on the heights towards St Marcel; Leb?uf had his troops about Vernéville, the Guard stood at, and in rear of Gravelotte, and the careless cavalry brigades under de Forton and Valabrègues had set up their camps west of Vionville, and thence kept a listless watch towards the heights and hollows, west and south-west, just in their immediate front.

[p 170]
The French are Surprised.

Suddenly, about nine o’clock, they were struck by shells fired from a battery which seemed to have sprung out of a rounded hill a few hundred yards to the west of Vionville. The missiles fell among the tents and burst about a squadron filing up in watering order to the tree-shaded pool. In quick succession three additional batteries appeared on the crest and opening fire added to the confusion below. Murat’s dragoons broke and fled and, accompanied by the baggage train, horses, carts, men, galloped and ran off towards Rezonville; and De Gramont’s troopers, further to the rear, mounted and retired in good order up the northern slopes, halting on the right of the 6th Corps. The batteries, six in number, then moved up to a height closer in to Vionville and smote the infantry camps. They were promptly answered by the guns of Frossard’s Corps, while his brigades stood to their arms, formed up and sprang forward with alacrity. About the same time, a solitary German battery, visible to the south, fired a few rounds into the French left and then withdrew over the crest unable to bear the storm of Chassepot bullets which were poured from the aroused and irritated infantry.

The collision, so unwelcome to the French, had been brought about in this wise. Prince Frederick Charles had ordered the 3rd and 10th Corps and the 6th Division of Cavalry to start early in the morning and strike the Verdun road west of Rezonville. As General von Voights-Rhetz, commanding the 10th, intended to move upon St. Hilaire, beyond Mars la Tour, he instructed Von Rheinbaben to reconnoitre in the direction of Rezonville, increased his horse artillery, and supported him with an infantry detachment from Thiaucourt. About the same time that the 10th Corps advanced its foremost brigades [p 171] from Thiaucourt, and the rest from Pont à Mousson, the 3rd Corps and the 6th Division of Cavalry also made for the hills west and south of Vionville, the right division proceeding by Gorze, and the left, by Buxières, towards Tronville. Thus these two Corps were moving on two parallel curves, the 3rd being next to the enemy, and the 10th on the outer and larger arc. The Prince and his Generals did not anticipate a battle, but they all hoped to fall in with and punish a rear-guard, or, by striking far to the westward, intercept and compel the French Army to halt and fight before it reached the Meuse. It was Rheinbaben’s abrupt and thorough home-thrust which revealed the fact that the French had not passed Rezonville, or, at least, that a large part of the Army was near that village. His advance-guard, three squadrons and a battery, had moved within musket-shot of De Forton’s camp “without encountering a single patrol;” and, taking advantage of such supineness, his artillery, hastening forward, created the panic near Vionville, which has already been described. Frossard’s Corps, which always behaved well, speedily took up defensive positions. Bataille occupied Vionville and Flavigny, and the high ground above the villages; Vergé prolonged the line to the left, and placed one brigade facing south to front the Bois de Vionville, and connect the array with Lapasset’s brigade on the ridge which, from the north, overlooked the Bois St. Arnould and the ravine leading to Gorze. The 6th Corps, encamped north of the main road, continued the line on that side, and rapidly developed a front facing south-west between the highway and the Roman road. The sound of the cannonade was heard as far off as Jarny and Conflans, startled Leb?uf at Vernéville, and aroused the Marshal, busy in his quarters at Gravelotte.

[p 172]
The Third Corps strikes in.

Rheinbaben’s bold horsemen and gunners had done their work; they had gained for the oncoming infantry that species of moral advantage which always accrues from a surprise. As they fell back to more sheltered positions behind the swelling hills, the right wing of the 3rd Corps, under Stülpnagel, entered the field from the south; the left wing, directed by the fiery Alvensleben himself, came down into the arena from the south-west, and several batteries, urged on by Von Bulow, dashed up and formed the centre of the assailants. Indeed, the guns were in action before the infantry could march over the distance between their starting points and the outward spray of the French line of battle; so that for an appreciable interval the groups of batteries had to depend upon themselves. Yet not for long. Stülpnagel’s battalions plunged into the dense woods on the right, and waged a close combat with the skirmishers of Jolivet’s brigade, who were slow to give ground. Beyond the thickets, the left wing of the division drove Valazé’s skirmishers from an eminence, the highest in those parts, and a battery was speedily in action on its bare summit. By degrees, as they came up, the battalions of the 10th Brigade went forward on the left, or western, flank of the height, where the contest, conducted with vigour on both sides, eddied to and fro, until the German onset, repeated and sustained, gained the mastery, and cleared the slopes so effectually that five other batteries, driving up the hill as fast as they could clear the defile, took ground on its top, and gave support to the companies in the wood and on the open down. About an hour was consumed in this desperate work, made all the more arduous because the German infantry pushed eagerly into the fight, not in compact masses, but one [p 173] battalion after another as each struggled up to the front. Major-General Doering was killed, and many officers went down in this sanguinary strife: one battalion which dashed forward to resist a French attack at a critical moment lost every officer. But as it retired, broken and wasted, the French were smitten in turn by its comrades, forced to give way, and the position was, at this heavy cost, secured. For the troops engaged in the forest had now attained the northern edge of the Bois de Vionville, the batteries on the lofty hill were safe, and Stülpnagel’s Division was solidly established upon the most commanding uplands in that part of the field.

To their left rear was the 6th Cavalry Division; but between them and the fields west of Vionville were no infantry, only lines of guns, protected by a few squadrons of horse. For the 6th Infantry Division, coming on from Buxièries, had gradually wheeled to the right until they faced to the east, the 11th Brigade crossing the high road, north of Tronville, the 12th moving upon Vionville; so that they formed a line of attack directed upon Bataille’s division which held Vionville and Flavigny, having on its right, beyond the Verdun road, the division of Lafont de Villiers belonging to Canrobert’s Corps. While Stülpnagel was striving to obtain a grip of the woods and heights on the French left, Buddenbrock, the other divisional commander, acting under the eyes of his chief, threw the weight of his division upon the two villages which covered what was then the French centre. Vionville was first carried by the usual turning movement, and its capture was followed by the outburst of a still more murderous conflict. The French had brought up more and heavier pieces, and these poured a crushing fire into the village. The Germans answered by continuing the attack on the French infantry. Yet so confused was the engagement on [p 174] the bare hill side, so completely was it a “soldiers’ battle,” such was the swaying to and fro of the mingled companies which, crushed and mangled, yet welded themselves together and pressed on, that, once more, the official German historian renounces the task of minute description. But the effect of the hurly-burly was soon manifest—Bataille’s entire division, unable to endure the torment, and seeing its General fall wounded, went about and retired; Valazé’s brigade, “taken in flank,” says Frossard, by a German battery, and losing its gallant commander, also marched off through Rezonville; and the nearest brigade of Canrobert’s Corps likewise receded, either under pressure or weakened in purpose by example. The Germans paid a great price for the immense advantage secured; but as Flavigny fell into their hands, as the left of Stülpnagel’s Division joined in its capture, and as the front of battle was now no longer an arc but its chord, the prize was well worth its cost. The sole reinforcements which had arrived to aid the 3rd Corps, were two detachments, parts of the same brigade, and pertaining to the 10th which, on their way to join that Corps then moving westward, had turned aside, attracted by the magnetism of the cannonade. How much of the success obtained was due to the valour, devotion, and endurance of the artillery may be gathered from the French narratives. No troops could have fought with greater hardihood and dash—not fleeting, but sustained—than the infantry of the 3rd Corps, all Prussians from the Mark of Brandenburg. But they had their equals among the dauntless gunners, deserving to be called “tirailleurs d’artillerie,” who literally used their batteries as battalions, dragging them up to the very outward edges of the fight, often within rifle-shot, and when pressed, retiring some scores of paces, then halting and opening at short range upon their pursuers. The line, composed of [p 175] groups of batteries, especially in the forenoon, was the backbone of the battle.
Arrival of Bazaine.

Just as Frossard’s infantry, yielding to the vehement pressure, retreated behind Rezonville, Marshal Bazaine appeared on the scene, and rode into the thick of the contest. At Frossard’s request he directed a Lancer regiment, supported by the cuirassiers of the Guard, to charge and check the pursuers. The Lancers went forth with great spirit, but soon swerved aside, broken by the infantry fire. The Guard horsemen, however, led by General du Preuil, rode home upon the eager and disordered companies who were marching to the east of the flaming village of Flavigny. But these foot soldiers, reserving their fire until the mailed cavaliers were within two hundred and fifty yards, plied them with shot so steadily that the squadrons swerved to the right and left, only to fall under the bullets from the rear ranks which had faced about. “The cuirassiers,” says General du Preuil, “were broken by the enemy’s infantry, which received them with a murderous fire. After the charge, the wreck of the regiment rallied at Rezonville, having left behind on the field 22 officers, 24 sous officiers, about 200 men and 250 horses. When the regiment was re-organized, instead of 115 mounted men per squadron, there were only 62!” Colonel von Rauch had close to Flavigny two Hussar regiments; with one he pressed on the flying cuirassiers, and with the other charged the French infantry struggling rearward. Bazaine had just brought up, and was posting a battery of the Imperial Guard, when the Hussars charged down upon him, taking the battery in front and flank. It was here that the Marshal was surrounded, separated for a moment from his [p 176] staff, and obliged, as he himself says, to “draw his sword.” Two squadrons of his escort came to his relief, and a rifle battalion opened upon the Prussian horse, who had to retreat, leaving behind the battery which they had temporarily seized. General Alvensleben had ordered up the 6th Division of Cavalry, but when they arrived, Bazaine had brought forward the Grenadier Division of the Guard to replace the 2nd Corps in the front line, for Jolivet’s brigade, on the French left, had also retired to the high ground in its rear. The 6th formed up to the south of Flavigny and advanced, but they could not make any impression upon the re-invigorated enemy, and they drew back, having lost many officers and men. “This demonstration, apparently without any result,” says the official German account, “was still useful, since it provided the artillery with an opportunity so vehemently desired of pressing up nearer to the front.” In fact, the lines of the artillery were now between the edge of the wood of Vionville and Flavigny, and to the right, left, and front of Vionville itself—a distinct approximation towards the French infantry and guns; so that there were changes on both sides, with the difference that the French brought up fresh troops, while the same German guns, horsemen and infantry continued the struggle.

The crisis of the battle had now arrived; for General von Alvensleben, in order to diminish the violent pressure on his left, which was beyond the Verdun road, had been obliged to thrust his sole reserve of infantry into the deadly encounter. Colonel Lehmann, commanding a detachment of the 10th Corps, consisting of three battalions and a half, had come up to the outskirts of the field in the forenoon, and he was directed to take post near Tronville. When, in consequence of the reverse inflicted on Frossard, Bazaine arrayed the Guard in front of [p 177] Rezonville and Canrobert put his reserve brigades into line on their right, and both established their reserve artillery on the heights to the north and east, Alvensleben sent forward Lehmann’s battalions, which, with great difficulty, managed to keep their ground in the copses of Tronville beyond the Verdun road. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon and the German leader had no reserves, every foot soldier and gun was engaged, while the greater part of the 10th Corps was still remote from the field. Luckily for him, the reports of the fugitive peasantry and the steady advance of the German right through the southern woods, aroused in the mind of Bazaine a fear that he might be turned on his left, a fear shared by at least one of his subordinates. He, therefore, caused the Guard Voltigeurs to form front to the south in the Bois des Ognons, so as to watch the ravines, down one of which the Mance flowed to Ars, and in the bed of the other the Jurée ran to Novéant. Lapasset, who barred the road from Gorze, was reinforced by a regiment of Grenadiers, and Montaudon’s division of the 3rd Corps was taken from Leb?uf and placed near Malmaison, a little to the north of Gravelotte. Thus the French line, instead of standing north and south, faced generally to the south-west, between the Bois des Ognons and the high ground north of the copses of Tronville. At this time Leb?uf, with one division and a half—for Metman had not yet joined him—was moving south-west from Vernéville, and De Ladmirault’s divisions—for he had quitted the Moselle valley in the morning—were only just showing their leading troops towards Doncourt. Nevertheless, Canrobert, who had developed a strong line of guns as well as infantry on the right of Picard’s Grenadiers, both on the face and flank of the German left, determined to attempt the recapture of Vionville and Flavigny. He was led to do so by a belief that the partial cessation of the [p 178] German fire indicated exhaustion, and, aided by the whole of his artillery, he certainly delivered a formidable onset carried up to the very outskirts of the two villages. It was then that Alvensleben called upon the cavalry to charge, solely with the object of gaining time and relieving the wearied foot, and hardly-treated gunners.
Bredow’s Brilliant Charge.

Bredow’s heavy brigade, the 7th Cuirassiers of Magdeburg, and the 16th Uhlans of Altmark, eight squadrons, from which two were withdrawn on the march to watch the Tronville Copses, was selected to assail Canrobert’s destructive batteries and stinging infantry. Von Bredow drew out his two regiments, led them into the shallow but protecting hollow on the north of Vionville, and, without pausing, wheeled into line on the move, so that the array of sabres and lances fronted nearly eastward. Then breaking into a headlong gallop the troopers rushed like a torrent over and through the infantry on their broad track and into the batteries, near the Roman Road, which for the moment they disorganized. But now the French horse swarmed forward on all sides, and the survivors of Von Bredow’s heroic men, having cheerfully made the heavy sacrifice demanded from them, turned about to retreat through the French infantry, punished as they rode back by De Forton, Gramont, Murat and Valabrègue who brought up three thousand dragoons, chasseurs and cuirassiers against the remains of the devoted brigade. Von Bredow sought safety behind Flavigny, whither Von Redern had ridden up with a regiment of hussars, but he did not attack because the hostile cavalry halted in their pursuit. The charge had cost the Magdeburgers and Altmarkers 14 officers and 363 men, nearly one-half the strength with [p 179] which they started on their astonishing ride; but the glorious remnant had the proud satisfaction of knowing that the two regiments had put an end to offensive attacks from the side of Rezonville, that their infantry comrades of the Brandenburg Corps had received effectual succour in time of need, and that the steadfast artillery had gained precious moments which they used to prepare for fresh exertions.
The Fight becomes Stationary.

During the next three hours, and, indeed, to the end of the day, the combat on the German right and centre remained stationary, varied by desperate attempts to win ground from the Imperial Grenadiers which cost many lives and achieved no marked success. Seven fresh batteries, however, came successively into action, so that about four o’clock, the German line of guns, between the wood of Vionville and Flavigny had been increased to more than a hundred pieces and their fire effectually stayed the French from advancing. Some portions of the 7th, 8th and 9th Corps, which had struggled up from the Moselle valley during the sultry afternoon, entered the woods, were pushed up the ravine road from Gorze, or were thrown forward in front of the big battery which was the mainstay of the left wing. Prince Frederick Charles himself arrived about four o’clock. He had ridden straight from Pont à Mousson on learning that a serious engagement was afoot, and as he cantered up to the front he was heartily welcomed by the men of the 3rd Corps which he had commanded for ten years.
Arrival of the Tenth Corps.

Surveying the scene from the lofty upland above the wood for a time, he rode off to another eminence near [p 180] Flavigny, because the stress of battle was then on the left wing, where the rest of the 10th Corps, so long absent from the field, had appeared just in time to encounter the fresh troops which had been led forward by Marshal Leb?uf and General de Ladmirault. When Von Bredow’s Brigade rode against Canrobert’s Corps, Von Barby’s horse were sent to guard the extreme left against a surprise from the masses of French troops gathering on the Doncourt hills. They pushed far northward, and sustained a cannonade from the enemy, who soon forced them to retreat; for Leb?uf, with Aymard’s Division—Bazaine had now called for Nayral’s as well as Montaudon’s—moved down towards the Tronville thickets, and Ladmirault, whose infantry had at length reached him from the Moselle valley, sent Grenier forward in line with Aymard. These two divisions, driving the horsemen back towards Tronville, at once assailed the woodlands, so often named, and combining their attack with that of Tixier, whose division formed the right of Canrobert’s Corps, they expelled the German infantry from the northern section of the wood. Lehmann’s Hanoverians and the wreck of the Brandenburgers gave ground slowly, but, after an hour’s severe bush-fighting, the left of the 3rd Corps was obliged to yield, and nothing restrained the advancing French infantry save the terribly effective fire of the German gunners, upon whom the brunt of the battle fell. As the most forward German guns were retired south of the highway, Grenier sent three batteries over the ravine, and fortune seemed, for the first time, to favour the Imperial soldiers. But, at this trying moment, the 20th Division of the 10th Corps—the men had already marched that day twenty-seven miles—appeared on the heights of Tronville. General von Kraatz, its commander, brought with him eight battalions, four squadrons, and four batteries, an opportune [p 181] reinforcement, which had been led thither because the summons, given by faint reverberations of a heavy cannonade, heard at Thiaucourt, had been clenched by the arrival of a note written on the field of battle.

The artillery, as usual, took the lead, hastening to the field across country, and, before the infantry could advance twenty-four guns in action north of Tronville, checked the French skirmishers, and obliged Grenier’s batteries to recross the ravine. Then the foot went into the wood, and soon chased the French from all the copses except a patch on the north. At this time, General de Ladmirault, who had been joined by heavy masses of cavalry, had on the heights, near the farm of Greyère, abundance of artillery and De Cissey’s Division. On his right ran a deep and steep ravine towards Mars la Tour; he was about to cross this obstacle, and had, in fact, entered the hollow, intending to sweep down upon the German left, when he became aware that a strong hostile body was approaching from the west. It was General von Schwarzkoppen, commanding a division of the 10th Corps. He brought on to the field the 38th brigade, diminished, however, by detachments to five battalions, two companies of pioneers, twelve guns, and six squadrons of Dragoons of the Guard. General de Ladmirault’s proceedings had been closely watched by some German horse, and his advance-guard of Chasseurs d’Afrique had been driven out of Mars la Tour by the Dragoons of the Guard. Seeing the oncoming enemy, he hastily recrossed the ravine, and placed De Cissey and his artillery in position to resist any attack. The intelligence that an enemy had shown himself on the west had run along the French line, and had induced Grenier and Leb?uf to suspend their apparently prosperous onset, thus diminishing the pressure upon Von Kraatz in the Tronville wood, and also on the artillery, which had been so [p 182] long engaged near Vionville. General Schwarzkoppen had, during the day, marched to St. Hilaire on his way to the fords of the Meuse; but, hearing the cannonade, he halted, sent out patrols, and finally moved off towards the battle, guided by columns of dust, clouds of smoke, and the deep-toned muttering of the rival guns. When he reached Mars la Tours, Voights-Rhetz, the Corps Commander, rode up. Both he and Prince Frederick Charles, who watched the fight from a hill above Flavigny, were under the delusion that the French right could be taken in flank by an attack from Mars la Tour; and Von Wedell, who commanded the newly-arrived brigade, was ordered to fall on. But, for once, the German Staff did not show their far-famed skill; for they did not reconnoitre the ground, nor had they observed the formidable array of De Cissey’s brigades. Von Wedell’s men dashed forward with alacrity, but found in their path a deep hollow, which covered the French front, as well as flank, on that side. Nevertheless, the battalions, in two lines, hurried down one bank and up the other, and then met an entire French Division. A brief and bloody fight at close quarters—the opposing lines were separated in some places by only fifty yards—ensued; but so continuous and deadly was the French fire that the sturdy Westphalians had to yield. Their dead and dying covered the summit, and filled the hollow way; two-thirds of the 16th Regiment were left on the field, and the whole brigade, shattered into a shapeless crowd of fugitives, hurried to the rear. Then forward to their succour came bounding the 2nd Dragoons of the Guard, Colonel von Auerswald at their head, spurring headlong to the front through the disordered crowd, taking the hedges and ditches in their stride, and galloping furiously into the midst of the pursuing French, who had leaped forward from the right of Grenier’s Division. It was a hopeless charge—a ride to [p 183] certain death—but the readiness of the Dragoons saved the right of the brigade; yet at great cost, for they left dead on the field their brave Colonel, a Major, and three Captains. Nine officers in all, and seventeen men were killed; four officers and sixty men were wounded; while one officer and five men were captured. Two of Count Bismarck’s sons, privates in this regiment, rode in the charge; the eldest, Herbert, was shot in the thigh, the youngest, Wilhelm, a stout trooper, lifted a wounded comrade on to his horse, and carried him off the field. The charge of the Dragoons enabled the broken battalions to draw off towards Tronville, but the guns in position still held on near Mars le Tour, west of which, towards Ville sur Yron, a horse battery and a squadron of the 2nd Dragoons of the Guard were engaged in a smart skirmish with a body of Chasseurs d’Afrique. This encounter was followed shortly afterwards by
The great Cavalry Combat.

Ladmirault had sent six regiments of horse over the gully on his right—Legrand’s Hussars and Dragoons, Du Barail’s solitary regiment of Chasseurs d’Afrique, and the superb brigade of Lancers and Dragoons of the Guards commanded by General de France. On the other side Von Barby’s brigade had approached Mars la Tour during the fatal attack upon De Ladmirault’s infantry, and soon after it was joined by two squadrons of the 4th Cuirassiers, the 10th Hussars, and the 16th Dragoons. Sweeping round to the north of the village, Barby formed up his troopers in the narrow space between the Yron and the Greyère ravine, while Legrand and his comrades showed their compact masses to the north. The French regiments were placed in echelon, Legrand’s Hussars, led by General Montaigu, [p 184] on the left, Gondrecourt’s Dragoons on his right rear, and next the Guard Lancers and Dragoons. The Chasseurs d’Afrique were behind all. The first shock fell upon the 13th Dragoons which, having taken ground to the right, had only time to wheel partially into line before Montaigu’s Hussars rode through the squadron’s intervals, and it would have fared ill with the Prussians had not Colonel von Weise plunged in with the 10th Hussars and overset the French. Von Barby on the left, at the head of the 16th Uhlans and 19th Dragoons, met the French Guard Cavalry in full shock, and then ensued a furious confused fight upon the whole line. Each side endeavoured to fall upon a flank, and the squadrons swayed to and fro amid a huge cloud of dust. Suddenly, a squadron of Prussian Guard Dragoons, returning from a patrol, came riding across country from the west and struck the flank of the French Guards. Du Barail’s Chasseurs d’Afrique and Gondrecourt’s Dragoons dashed into the melée, but the Westphalian Cuirassiers drove like a wedge into the opposing ranks, and the 16th Dragoons fell upon and smote them in flank and rear. Legrand was killed, Montaigu wounded and a prisoner, and the French cavalry, wheeling about, rode out of the fight, throwing into disorder a brigade of Chasseurs, which had been sent by General de Clérambault to cover the retreat. The Gallic horse had brilliantly sustained their reputation, yet they were overmatched by the Teutons, who also lost three commanding officers. But Von Barby was able to reform his victorious squadrons on the plateau and withdraw them at leisure, watched, but not pursued, by a squadron of Dragoons belonging to De Clérambault’s division. General Ladmirault surveyed the field from the heights of Bruville, and came to the conclusion that no more could be accomplished by the French right wing. He had only two divisions, his [p 185] cavalry had been defeated, and he “discovered” between Tronville and Vionville “an entire Corps d’Armée.” So he rested and bivouacked on the hills about the Greyère farm. The forces of his next neighbour on the left, Leb?uf, had been reduced to Aymard’s division, for Marshal Bazaine had called away Nayral to support Montaudon near Rezonville; indeed, at one moment he had abstracted one of Aymard’s brigades, but, yielding to Leb?uf’s remonstrances, he sent it back.
End of the Battle.

It was now past seven o’clock, and both sides were exhausted by the tremendous strain which they had borne so long; yet the battle continued until darkness had settled over the woods and villages and fields. For Barnekow’s division and a Hessian brigade had entered the woodlands and pressed forward on the Gorze road, creating new alarm in the mind of Bazaine, who throughout the day was governed by his belief that the Germans intended to turn his left and cut him off from Metz. So that when Colonel von Rex pushed boldly up the ravine against Lapasset and his flankers opened fire from the edge of the Bois des Ognons, the French Commander drew still more troops to that flank. Between Rezonville and the ridges near Gravelotte he had, by eventide, placed the whole of the Guard, Frossard’s Corps, Lapasset’s brigade, and one-half of Leb?uf’s Corps. Fearing the storming columns which ever and anon surged outward from the woods towards the commanding heights south of Rezonville, Bourbaki brought up fifty-four guns and arrayed them in one long battery. The closing hours of the day witnessed a stupendous artillery contest, which was carried on even when the flashes of flame alone revealed the positions of the opposing pieces. The [p 186] thick smoke increased the obscurity, and yet within the gloom bodies of German infantry, and even of horse, sallied from the woods or vales and vainly strove to reach the coveted crests or storm in upon Rezonville itself. At the very last moment a violent cannonade burst forth on both sides, yet to this day neither knows why it arose, where it began, or what it was to effect. At length the tired hosts were quiet; the strife of twelve hours ended. The German line of outposts that night ran from the Bois des Ognons along the Bois St. Arnould, then to the east of Flavigny and Vionville through the Tronville Copses; and after the moon rose upon the ghastly field the cavalry rode forth and placed strong guards as far westward as Mars la Tour and the Yron. The French slept on the ground they held, the heights south of Rezonville, that village itself, and the ridges which overlook the highway to Verdun as far as Bruville and Greyère. It had been a day of awful carnage, for the French had lost, in killed and wounded, nearly 17,000, and the Germans 16,000 men.

It is impossible to state exactly the numbers present on the field—probably, 125,000 French to 77,000 Germans. The latter brought up two complete Corps, the 3rd and 10th, two divisions of cavalry, the 5th and 6th—these sustained the shock and bore the chief loss—a brigade of the 8th Corps, the 11th Regiment from the 9th, and four Hessian regiments of that corps under Prince Louis, the husband of the British Princess Alice. They also had, in action or reserve, 246 guns. The French mustered the Imperial Guard, the 2nd Corps, three divisions and one regiment of the 6th Corps, three divisions of the 3rd, and two of the 4th Corps, five divisions of cavalry, and 390 guns; so that on the 16th, they were, at all times, numerically superior in every arm. When Alvensleben came into action a little after ten o’clock with the 3rd Corps and [p 187] two divisions of cavalry—perhaps 33,000 men—they had in their front the 2nd and 6th Corps, the Guard, and the Reserve Cavalry—not less than 72,000, the guns on the French side being always superior in number. The 3rd Corps, less one division, was at ten o’clock only three miles from the field; these and half the 4th Corps arrived in the afternoon, adding more than 50,000 men to the total, while the Germans could only bring up the 10th, and parts of the 8th and 9th, fewer than 40,000, some of them marching into line late in the evening. The French Marshal, who fought a defensive battle, did not use his great strength during the forenoon, or in the afternoon when his right wing had wheeled up to the front. The result was an “indecisive action”—the phrase is used by the official German historian—and that it was indecisive must be attributed, at least in part, to the fact that Marshal Bazaine, nor he alone, stood in constant dread of an overwhelming inroad of “Prussians” on his left, with intent to cut him off from Metz and thrust him, unprovided with munitions of all kinds, on to the Briey–Longuyon road. But it may be inferred from the mode in which the battle was fought by the French commanders, from the first shot to the last, that the Germans had obtained a moral ascendency over the leaders and the led, and that such an ascendency had a great influence upon the tactics, as well as the strategy, of Marshal Bazaine and his subordinates in command. Nothing supports the correctness of this inference more strongly than the fact that an Army of 120,000 men considered a great success had been achieved when it had resisted the onsets of less than two-thirds of its numbers, and had been driven from its line of retreat!