The Battlefield of Sedan.
The battlefield of Sedan may be described as the space lying within the angle formed by the Meuse, and its little affluent, the Givonne, which flows in a southerly direction from the hills near the Belgian frontier. After passing Bazeilles and its bright meadows, the greater river meanders towards the north-west, making, a little below Sedan, a deep loop inclosing the narrow peninsula of Iges on three sides, and then running westward by Donchery, Dom le Mesnil and Flize to Mézières. From the northern end of the loop to the Givonne, the ground is a rugged, undulating upland, attaining its maximum of height a little south of the Calvaire d’Illy, at a point where the Bois de la Garenne begins to clothe the steep slopes on the south and east. Lower still is a deep defile, called the Fond de Givonne, through which, turning the wood, runs the highway from Sedan to Bouillon, a town on the Semoy in Belgium. The eastern face of the position, therefore, was the line of the Givonne, a belt of cottages, gardens, factories and villages; the southern and south-western was the fortress and the Meuse; the north-western front was on the hills between Floing and Illy, and the lowlands on the loop of the Meuse. The interval between Illy and the Givonne was, at first, neglected because the French held that no troops could work through the dense forest and broken ground. The issues from this man-trap were the narrow band of territory between the head of the Meuse loop and the wooded Belgian frontier; the high road to Bouillon; the routes eastward to Carignan up the Chiers, and the gate of Torcy on the south. They were all difficult, and in the nature of defiles which can only be traversed slowly, even in time of peace, by large bodies of men, horses, guns and wagons.
Within this remarkable inclosure the French Army sat down on the 31st of August. The 12th and the 1st Corps, Lebrun’s and Ducrot’s, held the line of the Givonne, looking east and south-east, because Lebrun had to guard the Meuse at Bazeilles. The 5th Corps, now under De Wimpffen, was partly in the “old camp,” close under the fortress, and partly behind the 7th, which, as we have said, occupied the rolling heights between Floing and Illy with a strong outpost in St. Menges, at the head of the Meuse loop on the road which led to Mézières through Vrigne aux Bois—the road supposed to be unknown to the Germans, because it was not laid down on the French maps. The cavalry posted in rear of the 7th were the divisions of Margueritte, Bonnemains and Amiel, while Michel was behind Ducrot’s left at the village of Givonne. The sun set, and the night passed, yet Marshal MacMahon expressed no decision. Believing that the enemy’s numerical strength had been exaggerated, or that he could break out in any direction when he pleased, or trusting to fortune and the opportunities which might offer during the conflict, perhaps imagining that Von Moltke would grant him another day, the Marshal became the sport of circumstance which had escaped his control. “The truth is,” he said to the Parliamentary Commission, “that I did not reckon on fighting a battle on the ground we occupied. I knew already that we had no provisions, and that the place was barely supplied with munitions, but I did not yet know on which side I ought, on the morrow (the 1st) to effect my retreat.” The unfaltering adversary had no such doubts, and his firm purpose brought on not only the Battle, but the Investment of Sedan. For the information which reached the Great Head-quarters during the evening of the 31st, induced Von Moltke to quicken the operations. He inferred that no attempt would be made by the French to break out by Carignan; that they might try to reach Mézières or pass into Belgium; and as he was eager to frustrate their escape by any route, he instructed the Prussian Crown Prince to set his Corps in motion during the night. The Prince immediately issued the needful orders, and directed Von der Tann to attack with his Bavarians at dawn, without awaiting the arrival of the 12th Corps, so that Lebrun in Bazeilles being held fast, the attention of the French might be attracted towards that side. The Saxon Prince, being duly informed, entered with characteristic spirit and daring into the plan, and not only determined to be early on the scene of action with the 12th and the Guard, but to push the latter well forward, so as to anticipate the French should they endeavour to gain the Belgian border. Thus a common motive animated the German chiefs who, in taking firm steps to gain a decisive result, were so well seconded by their tireless and intrepid soldiers.
The Battle of Sedan.
A thick white mist filled the valley of the Meuse on the morning of the 1st of September, 1870, so thick that Von der Tann’s Bavarians, marching towards the railway bridge and the pontoons above it, could not see many steps ahead, as in two columns they moved at four o’clock in careful silence through the dense and clammy atmosphere. At that very time General Lebrun, whose anxieties kept him awake, started up, and rushing forth, made the first bugler he encountered sound the call, which roused the wearied troops sleeping on the hills between Bazeilles and Balan. Yet it would seem that, outside the former village, no adequate watch was kept, for when the leading Bavarians emerged from the fog, they gained at once possession of several houses, and even entered the principal street without firing a shot. It was only when the enemy were within the place, that the gallant Marine Infantry, posted in the houses and behind barricades, abruptly arrested the intruders by opening a smart fire. Then began a sanguinary contest for the possession of Bazeilles, which raged during many hours; a series of street fights in which the inhabitants took an active part; combats ebbing and flowing through and round the market-place, the church, the larger mansions, and the pretty park of Monvillers, washed and beautified by the stream of the Givonne. Without a detailed plan, the incidents of this terrible episode in the battle, are unintelligible. Vassoigne and Martin des Pallières, before the latter was wounded on the 31st, had devised a plan of resistance worthy of the gallant division they led, and it may be said that the defence of Bazeilles was the most creditable feat of arms performed by the French on that dreadful day. During the earlier hours, indeed, they kept the upper hand, driving the Bavarians out of the village on all sides, but being unable to eject them from two stone houses abutting on the chief street. The Bavarian batteries beyond the Meuse could not open fire until six o’clock, because the fog had shut out the view, which even then was indistinct. About this time General Lebrun, who was quickly on the scene, had called reinforcements from the 1st and 5th Corps; but then the Saxons had come up opposite La Moncelle, where one battery, firing at long range, astonished Lebrun, who saw that the shells from his own guns fell short, or burst in the air. When the 12th assailed La Moncelle fresh Bavarian columns had crossed the Meuse, and the fierce conflict which began in Bazeilles, had extended to the park of Monvillers, where the French fought steadily. After four hours strenuous battle, no marked progress had been made in this quarter, where three Bavarian brigades had fallen almost wholly into skirmishing order, scattered amidst the houses and lanes of the villages, and some part of the park on the left bank of the Givonne. Von der Tann bringing over another brigade and the reserve artillery from the left bank of the Meuse, called up a division of the 4th Corps which he held back as a reserve. During the course of this stubborn combat, the Saxon Corps had seized La Moncelle, and had brought ten batteries to bear on that village and Daigny, their left flank being prolonged by two Bavarian batteries. The accuracy of their fire still further astonished General Lebrun, who confesses that he had never seen such artillery. He and his staff, six or eight persons, were on an eminence above La Moncelle. “The shells,” he writes, “cut off one branch after another, from the tree at the foot of which I stood holding my horse;” and he goes on to say that in quick succession, one officer was killed, two mortally wounded, and two men who bore his fanion were hit. He was as much impressed by the “avalanche de fer” as Marshal Canrobert himself. The infantry in Bazeilles resisted superbly, but the French General was none the less amazed by the terrible fire of the German guns. Between eight and nine the wave of battle was flowing up the Givonne, for the Guard were now approaching from Villers-Cernay.
MacMahon’s Wound and its Consequences.
Meanwhile, inside the French lines, the drama had deepened, for the Commander-in-Chief had been wounded. Marshal MacMahon has related how, before daybreak, fearing lest the Germans should have moved troops over the Meuse at Donchery, he had sent two officers to look into matters in that quarter, and was awaiting their return when, about five o’clock, he received a despatch from Lebrun, which made him mount his ready-saddled horse and ride towards Bazeilles. Arrived there he saw that the place was well defended, and went to the left intending to examine the whole line of the Givonne, especially as Margueritte had sent word that German troops were moving towards Francheval. Halting above La Moncelle, not far from Lebrun, the Marshal has stated that while he was gazing intently upon the heights in front of the Bois Chevalier, and could not see anything, he was struck by the fragment of a shell. At first he thought that he was only bruised, but that being obliged to dismount from his horse, which was also wounded, he fainted for a moment, and then found that his wound was severe. Unable to bear up any longer he gave over the command of the Army to General Ducrot, and was carried to Sedan. That officer did not hear of the event until seven or later; it is impossible to fix precisely the moment when the Marshal was hit, nor when Ducrot learned his destiny, the evidence is so contradictory; but sometime between seven and eight Ducrot took the reins. His first act was to order a retreat on Mézières; Lebrun begged him to reflect and he did, but soon afterwards became positive. “There is not a moment to lose,” he cried; and it was arranged that the retreat should be made in echelons, beginning from the right of the 12th Corps. Neither General knew the real facts of the situation, nor guessed even how vast were the numbers of the enemy.
The retreat began; it attracted the notice of Napoleon III., who had ridden on to the field above Balan; and it roused De Wimpffen. He carried in his pocket an order from Palikao authorizing him to succeed MacMahon, if the Marshal were killed or disabled. He had kept the fact secret; after the Marshal fell he still hesitated to use his letter, but not long. The combat about Bazeilles was well sustained; the cavalry had been out a little way beyond St. Menges and, as usual, after a perfunctory search, had “seen nothing,” the attack on the Givonne even was not fully developed. General de Wimpffen, perhaps from mixed motives, resolved to interfere and show his old comrades how a man who really knew war could extricate a French Army from perils in which it had been placed by weakness and incompetence. He certainly thought himself a great man, and he roughly stopped the retreat. Ducrot was indignant, but he obeyed. Lebrun was not more favourably affected by De Wimpffen’s loud voice and overbearing manner. “I will not have a movement upon Mézières,” he exclaimed. “If the Army is to retreat, it shall be on Carignan and not on Mézières.” It should again be observed that the new Commander-in-Chief was quite as ignorant of the facts as his predecessors, and even when he wrote his book many months afterwards had not learned from sources open to all the world how many men stood at that moment between him and Carignan, nor was he at all acquainted with the difficult country through which he would have to move. Ducrot’s plan, which would have placed the Army between the Meuse below Sedan and the forest on the frontier, leaving a clear sweep for the guns of the fortress, was far more sensible than that of his imperious rival. Still, to have a chance of success, it should have been begun early in the morning, when the 5th and 11th German Corps were struggling towards the woods; even then it would have probably failed, but there would have been no capitulation of Sedan. General de Wimpffen, although he did not know it, was actually playing into the hand of Von Moltke, who desired above all things that the French Corps on the Givonne should remain there, because he knew, so great were his means, so firm his resolution, and so admirable as marchers and fighters were his soldiers, that the gain of a few hours would enable him to surround the Army of Chalons.
How far the retreat from the front line was carried, when it was stayed, and in what degree it injured the defence, cannot possibly be gleaned from the French narratives, which are all vague and imperfect in regard to time and place. We know that the Germans did not carry Bazeilles until nearly eleven o’clock, and then only by dint of turning movements executed by the Saxons and fresh Bavarian troops from the direction of La Moncelle. General Ducrot, in his account, places his stormy interview with De Wimpffen at a little after nine; and he says that when it ended he spurred in haste towards his divisions—Pellé’s and L’Hériller’s—and made them descend a part of the positions which they had climbed a few instants before. Lebrun is equally vague. He says in one place that when De Wimpffen came up his first brigades had “partly” crossed the Fond de Givonne, and in another, that the Marine Infantry had abandoned Bazeilles, which they had not done before nine o’clock. General de Wimpffen’s recollections are still more confused and his chronology unintelligible; so that it is impossible to ascertain precisely what happened beyond the Givonne after Ducrot ordered and his successor countermanded the retreat. If we take the German accounts, and try to measure the influence of the much-debated retreat by the resistance which the assailants encountered, we may doubt whether it had much greater influence on the issue than that which grew out of the impaired confidence of the troops in their antagonistic and jealous commanders. Nevertheless, it is probable that the swaying to and fro in the French line between Bazeilles and the village of Givonne, after nine o’clock, did, in some degree, favour the assailants, and render the acquisition of Bazeilles as well as the passage of the brook less difficult and bloody. In any case, the intervention of De Wimpffen can only be regarded as a misfortune for the gallant French Army, which can hardly find consolation in the fact that within four-and-twenty hours he was obliged to sign with his name the capitulation of Sedan.