General Chanzy had determined to risk a decisive battle in front of Le Mans. Curten's Division had not yet reached him, and only a part of Barry's had come up, but on the other hand the army from the camp of Conlie, in strength some 10,000 men, had arrived. The right wing of the French position rested its flank on the Sarthe near Arnaye[67]; it extended for more than four miles along the Chemin aux Bœufs, and continued in a slight curve leftward to the Huisne. Barry's Division, already weakened by previous reverses, and General Lalande's National Guards—undisciplined and badly armed troops—were posted on the extreme right which was the least threatened. Deplanque's and Roquebrune's Divisions, Desmaison's Brigade and Jouffroy's Division, held the centre and left, the last body in the first instance opposite to General von Alvensleben. Behind this line Bouëdec's Division and Colonel Marty's detachment constituted a reserve. In all from 50,000 to 60,000 men under the command of Admiral Jauréguiberry, with full ranks and well commanded, crowded the entrenched front of the most important section of the line—that between the two rivers (Sarthe and Huisne). Five Divisions more, under the command of General de Colomb, lined the right bank of the Huisne for a distance of about eight and a half miles, the Division Paris was at Yvré; Gougeard's Division, also holding the heights of Auvours on the hither side, was northward of Champagné; then came Rousseau's Division at Montfort and Pont de Gesnes, and finally, Collin's Division in hook-formation about Lombron. Besides these Villeneuve's Division, quite on the flank, fronted toward Chanteloup.
January 11th.—On this day the IIIrd German Army Corps was directly opposed to the main body of the French forces. It could not for the present hope for any assistance from the corps of the flanks, and had before it the certainty of an arduous struggle.
On the left, the Xth Corps was still this morning at Grand Lucé, and on the right the XIIIth Corps had been detained on the previous day by the obstinate resistance of the French, who had held their own between Les Cohernières and La Chapelle, and occupied Le Chêne in their front.
The troops of the 22nd Division had necessarily lost their formations and become mixed up in the course of the struggle in the wood, and it was not till they had been re-formed and the enemy's position had been reconnoitred by both the Divisional Commanders that the attack was renewed at about eleven o'clock.
Two battalions of the 17th Division and one battery were left in observation in front of Pont de Gesnes, on the southern bank of the Huisne; on the northern side, the Mecklenburg battalions stormed Cohernières in the afternoon after a sharp contest, and in conjunction with the Hessians forced their way westward up to the Gué and on towards Lombron about four o'clock.
Further to the right two companies of the 90th Regiment (22nd Division) meanwhile took Le Chêne by a closed attack on the obstinate defenders; the 83rd Regiment, after a sharp fire fight, stormed the farmsteads of Flouret and La Grande Métairie. Colonel von Beckedorff, on being relieved at Chanteloup by the 4th Cavalry Division, had driven the French out of St. Célerin, and he then advanced to La Chapelle-St. Rémy on the right of the Division, which occupied wide quarters behind the points it had seized.
The Mecklenburg Grenadiers had held their own for a long time at Le Gué and La Brosse against superior numbers attacking from Pont de Gesnes; but the main body of the 17th Division was retired in the evening further back to Connerré.
The more completely that General von Alvensleben had to rely solely on his own command, the more essential it was to keep the troops composing it closely concentrated. But a strong force of the enemy was now on his flank, almost indeed in his rear, on the heights of Auvours, where it was only kept at bay by his 12th Brigade, which therefore for the present was not free to advance.
And here it was that the battle first really began. The French had repossessed themselves of Champagné, and had deployed artillery on the heights behind it. When their fire had been subdued by four guns of the brigade, two battalions advanced to an attack on the village. It was not till after an obstinate street-fight, that the enemy at eleven o'clock was driven back to the heights, and the bridge over the Huisne carried. General von Buddenbrock now let the two battalions remain in observation, sent a third to Lune d'Auvours, and at noon started with the rest of the brigade to rejoin the Corps.
Meanwhile the conflict had been raging with such fury all along the front of the latter that at twelve o'clock Prince Frederick Charles sent orders from St. Hubert to General Voigts-Rhetz, to hurry forward by the shortest roads to the battle-field with the Xth Corps; and at the same time General von Manstein was instructed to seize the heights of Auvours with the IXth.