Capitulation of Metz.
(October 27th.)[35]
On the morning of the 29th[35] Prussian flags were hoisted on the great outworks of Metz. At one o'clock the French garrison marched out by six roads in perfect silence and correct military formation.[36] At each specified position a Prussian Army Corps stood to receive the prisoners, who were immediately placed in bivouacs previously prepared, and supplied with food. The officers were allowed to keep their swords and to return to Metz; provisions were immediately sent in.
Marshal Bazaine set out for Cassel.
In the course of the day the 26th Brigade occupied Metz. The city had suffered no injury, but the state of the camps showed what the troops had suffered during the siege of seventy-two days.
The Germans during that time had lost 240 officers and 5500 men in killed and wounded.
Six thousand French officers and 167,000 men were taken prisoners, beside 20,000 sick who could not be at once removed, about 200,000 in all.[37] Fifty-six Imperial eagles, 622 field and 876 fortress guns, 72 mitrailleuses and 260,000 rifles fell into the hands of the Germans.
The prisoners were transported by way of Trèves and Saarbrücken, escorted by Landwehr battalions, and as these would have also to guard them when in Germany, their return to field service was not to be reckoned on.