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 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 Lebœuf 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 Lebœuf, 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 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 Lebœuf 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 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 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, 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 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, Lebœuf, 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 Lebœuf’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 Lebœuf’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 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 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!