On the 14th the 17th Division marched to Morée, and reached the Loir at Fréteval. A fight occurred at both these points. Though the French had yielded thus far, they seemed resolved to make a firm stand on the Loir, and had occupied Cloyes and Vendôme in great strength.
In order to attack with success, Prince Frederick Charles first proceeded to concentrate all his forces. The IIIrd Corps, which was hurrying after the army by forced marches, was in the first instance to come up into the interval between the Detachment and the Xth Corps, which was to march from Blois and Herbault on Vendôme.
But when, on the 15th, the Xth Corps was moving in the prescribed direction, its main body encountered so determined a resistance close in front of Vendôme that it could not be overcome before dark. The troops therefore retired to quarters in the rear of Ste. Anne. A left-flank detachment had found St. Amand occupied by heavy masses, and halted at Gombergean. The IIIrd Corps had advanced in the course of the day on Coulommiers, in the vicinity of Vendôme, had fought the French at Bel Essert, driven them back across the Loir and established connection with the Xth. The Grand Duke, in compliance with instructions, stood meanwhile on the defensive. The IXth Corps, after the restoration of the bridge of Blois, was at last able to follow the army, leaving a brigade in occupation of Blois.
A greatly superior force was now assembled opposite the enemy's position, and a general attack was decided on; but to give the wearied troops some rest it was postponed till the 17th, and meanwhile, on the 16th, General Chanzy withdrew.
It had certainly been his intention to make a longer stand in the Loir angle; but his Generals convinced him that the condition of the troops did not permit the prolongation of active hostilities. He accordingly gave the order for the retreat of the army at daybreak by way of Montoire, St. Calais, and Vibraye to Le Mans.
Thus in the early morning (of the 17th) the Xth Corps found the French position in front of Vendôme abandoned, and it entered the city without opposition. On the French left wing only, where the marching orders had not yet arrived, General Jaurès made an attack on Fréteval, but in the evening he followed the other Corps.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] In the 22nd Division of the XIth Corps—a Corps of a curiously composite character, there were three Thüringian regiments. The 43rd Brigade was wholly Thüringian, consisting as it did of the 32nd and 95th regiments (2nd and 6th Thüringers), and in the 44th Brigade was the 94th (5th Thüringers). It was the 2nd battalion of this last regiment which is referred to in the text.
[55] The expression "Directiven" in the text cannot be succinctly translated. It was rarely, except when actually himself in the field, that the Chief of the General Staff issued actual "orders" to the higher commanders. His communications for the most part consisted of "Directiven"—messages of general suggestions as to the appropriate line of action to be pursued, leaving a wide discretion to the commanders to whom they were addressed, and refraining almost entirely from details. A collection of Moltke's "Directiven" would be perhaps the finest tribute to his military genius.