The Franco-German War of 1870-71
TRANSLATION REVISED BY
The translation has been thoroughly revised for the sense as well as in regard to technical military terms and expressions. To the name of every German general officer mentioned in the text has been affixed, within brackets, his specific command, a liberty which the reader will perhaps not resent, since the interpolation is intended to facilitate his clearer understanding of a narrative condensed by the author with extreme severity.
In further aid of elucidation there has been occasionally inserted, also within brackets, a date, a figure, or a word.
A few footnotes will be found, which may perhaps be excused as not wholly irrelevant. In the Appendix have been inserted the Orders of Battle of both sides, as in the first period of the war.
A. F.
Field-Marshal von Moltke began this history of the War of 1870—1 in the spring of the year 1887, and during his residence at Creisau he worked at it for about three hours every morning. On his return to Berlin in the autumn of that year, the work was not quite finished, but he completed it by January, 1888, at Berlin, placed it in my hands, and never again alluded to the subject.
The origin of the book was as follows. I had several times entreated him, but in vain, to make use of his leisure hours at Creisau in noting down some of his rich store of reminiscences. He always objected, in the same words: Everything official that I have had occasion to write, or that is worth remembering, is to be seen in the Archives of the Staff Corps. My personal experiences had better be buried with me. He had a dislike to memoirs in general, which he was at no pains to conceal, saying that they only served to gratify the writer's vanity, and often contributed to distort important historical events by the subjective views of an individual, and the intrusion of trivial details. It might easily happen that a particular character which in history stood forth in noble simplicity should be hideously disfigured by the narrative of some personal experiences, and the ideal halo which had surrounded it be destroyed. And highly characteristic of Moltke's magnanimity are the words he once uttered on such an occasion, and which I noted at the time: Whatever is published in a military history is always dressed for effect: yet it is a duty of piety and patriotism never to impair the prestige which identifies the glory of our Army with personages of lofty position.
Graf von Helmuth Moltke
The Franco-German War of 1870—71
Field-Marshal COUNT HELMUTH VON MOLTKE
ARCHIBALD FORBES
NOTE.
PREFACE.
CONTENTS.
Preparations for War.
Combat of Weissenburg.
Battle of Wörth.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Spicheren.
FOOTNOTES:
Right Wheel of the German Army.
Battle of Colombey—Nouilly.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Vionville—Mars la Tour.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Gravelotte—St. Privat.
FOOTNOTES:
New Distribution of the Army.
FOOTNOTE:
The Army of Châlons.
Battle of Beaumont.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Sedan.
FOOTNOTES:
PART II.
Sortie from Metz.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Noisseville.
FOOTNOTES:
Change of Government in Paris.
Retreat of General Vinoy.
FOOTNOTE:
Investment of Paris.
FOOTNOTE:
First Negotiations for Peace.
Reduction of Toul.
Reduction of Strasburg.
Operations round Paris to 15th October.
Action of Artenay.
Engagement at Orleans.
Reduction of Soissons.
Storming of Châteaudun.
Sortie Against Malmaison.
Storming of Le Bourget.
FOOTNOTES:
Sortie from Metz against Bellevue.
Capitulation of Metz.
FOOTNOTES:
New Distribution of the Army.
Operations of the XIVth Corps in the South-East.
FOOTNOTES:
Reduction of Schlettstadt.
Reduction of Breisach.
Taking of Verdun.
Advance of Ist and IInd Armies up to Mid November.
Engagement at Coulmiers.
FOOTNOTE:
Operations of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg.
FOOTNOTE:
Situation of IInd Army.
FOOTNOTE:
Battle of Beaune la Rolande.
The Advance of the Army of the Loire to the Relief of Paris.
Battle of Loigny—Poupry.
FOOTNOTE:
Paris in November.
FOOTNOTE:
The Attempt of the Army of Paris to break out.
FOOTNOTES:
The Advance of the Ist Army in November.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Amiens.
FOOTNOTE:
Reduction of La Fère.
Reduction of Thionville.
Investment of Belfort in November.
FOOTNOTE:
Battle of Orleans.
FOOTNOTES:
Offensive Operations South, East, and West.
Fighting of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg.
FOOTNOTES:
Interruption of Important Offensive Operations in December.
The XIVth Corps in December.
The Ist Army in December.
FOOTNOTES:
The Reduction of Mézières.
FOOTNOTE:
Paris in December.
FOOTNOTES:
The Army of the East under General Bourbaki.
FOOTNOTES:
The Advance of the IInd Army to Le Mans.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle in Front of le Mans.
FOOTNOTES:
OCCURRENCES NORTHWARD OF PARIS DURING JANUARY.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of St. Quentin.
FOOTNOTES:
Occurrences in the South-Eastern Seat of War up to 17th of January.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle on the Lisaine.
The Artillery Attack on Paris.
FOOTNOTES:
Battle of Mont Valérien.
Prosecution of the Artillery Attack on Paris up to the Armistice.
The Operations of the Army of the South under General von Manteuffel.
FOOTNOTES:
General Hann von Weyhern's March on Dijon.
Occupation of the Departments of the Doubs, Jura, and Côte d'Or.
Prosecution of the Siege of Belfort.
The Armistice.
The Homeward March of the German Army.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
FOOTNOTES:
ORDERS OF BATTLE
FRENCH AND GERMAN ARMIES IN THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.
ORDER OF BATTLE OF THE FRENCH ARMIES.
FOOTNOTE: