The Royal Prussian Guard out-marching both friends and enemies first reached the Nancy road (Aug. 18, 1870) and until the German corps reached the battlefield this body of picked troops successfully withstood the assault of nearly the entire French army. In the first half-hour the Guard lost 8,000 men.
As the result of all this, Marshal Bazine with 150,000 men was forced back into and taken in the intrenched camp at Metz; and the Emperor Napoleon III, Marshal MacMahon and a second French army of 140,000 men was captured at Sedan (Sept. 1, 1870), in an attempt to rescue Marshal Bazine.
“I must tell you beforehand this will be a bloody touch. Tilly has a great army of old lads with iron faces that dare look an enemy in the eye; they are confident of victory, have never been beaten and do not know what it means to fly. Tilly tells his men he will beat me and the old man is as likely to do it as to say it.”—Gustavus Adolphus.
“Tilly’s men were rugged, surly fellows; their faces mangled by wounds and scars had an air of hardy courage. I observed of them that their clothes were always dirty, their armor rusty from winter storms and bruised by musket-balls, their weapons sharp and bright. They were used to camp in the open fields and to sleep in the frosts and rain. The horses like the men were strong and hardy and knew by rote their exercises. Both men and animals so well understood the trade of arms that a general command was sufficient; every man was fit to command the whole, and all evolutions were performed in order and with readiness, at a note of the trumpet or a motion of their banners.
“The 7th of Sept. (1631) before sunrise, the Swedish army marched from Dieben to a large field about a mile from Leipsic, where we found old Tilly’s army in full battalia in admirable order, which made a show both glorious and terrible.
“Tilly, like a fair gamester, had taken up but one side of the plain, and left the other side clear and all the avenues open to the King’s approach, nor did he stir to the charge until the Swedish army was fully drawn up and was advancing toward him. He had with him 44,000 old soldiers and a better army I believe never was so soundly beaten.…
“Then was made a most dreadful slaughter, and yet there was no flying. Tilly’s men might be killed or knocked down, but no man turned his back, nor would give an inch of ground, save as they were marched, wheeled, or retreated by their officers.… About six o’clock the field was cleared of the enemy except at one place on the King’s front, where some of them rallied; and though they knew that all was lost, they would take no quarter, but fought it out to the last man, being found dead the next day in rank and file as they were drawn up.”