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 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 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 Lebœuf 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 Lebœuf, 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 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.