Bismarck

by Moritz Busch

SEDAN—BISMARCK AND NAPOLEON AT DONCHERY

On the 1st of September Moltke’s chase after the French in the Meuse district was, from all we could hear, evidently approaching its close. I had the good fortune to be present at it next day. After rising very early in order to write up my diary from the hasty notes taken on the previous day in the carriage and by the roadside at Chemery, I went to the house of widow Baudelot. As I entered, a large cavalry detachment, formed of five Prussian hussar regiments, green, brown, black and red, rode past under the Chief’s window. These were to accompany the King to a point near Sedan, whence he could witness the catastrophe which was now confidently expected. When the carriage came and the Chancellor appeared he looked about him. Seeing me he said, “Can you decipher, doctor?” I answered, “Yes,” and he added, “Then get a cipher and come along.” I did not wait to be asked twice. We started soon afterwards, Count Bismarck-Bohlen this time occupying the seat next to the Minister.

We first passed through Chemery and Chehery, halting in a stubble field near a third village which lay in a hollow to the left of the road at foot of a bare hillock. Here the King, with his suite of Princes, generals, and courtiers, got on horseback, as did also the Chief, and the whole party moved towards the crest of the height. The distant roar of the cannon announced that the battle was in full progress. It was a bright sunny day, with a cloudless sky.

Leaving Engel in charge of the carriage I after a while followed the horsemen, whom I found in a ploughed field from which one had an extensive view of the district. Beneath was a deep wide valley, mostly green, with patches of wood on the heights that surrounded it. The blue stream of the Meuse flowed past a town of moderate size, the fortress of Sedan. On the crest of the hill next us, at about the distance of a rifle shot, is a wood, and there are also some trees to the left. To the right in the foreground, which sloped obliquely, in a series of steps as it were, towards the bottom of the valley, was stationed a Bavarian battery, which kept up a sharp fire at and over the town. Behind the battery were dark columns of infantry and cavalry. Still farther to the right, from a hollow, rose a thick column of smoke. It comes, we are told, from the burning village of Bazeilles. We are only about an English mile in a beeline from Sedan, and in the clear atmosphere one can easily distinguish the houses and churches. In the distance, to the left and right, three or four villages, and beyond them all towards the horizon, a range of hills covered throughout with what appears to be a pine forest, serves as a frame for the whole picture. It is the Ardennes, on the Belgian frontier.

The main positions of the French appear to be on the hillocks immediately beyond the fortress, and it looks as if our troops intended to surround them there. For the moment we can only see their advance on the right, as the lines of our artillery, with the exception of the Bavarians, who are posted under us, are lost behind the heights as they slowly move forward. Gradually the smoke of the guns is seen beyond the rising ground already mentioned, with the defile in the middle. The corps that are advancing in half circle to enclose the enemy are steadily endeavouring to complete the circle. To the left all is still. At 11 o’clock a dark grey pillar of smoke with yellow edges rises from the fortress, which has hardly taken any part in the firing. The French troops beyond Sedan deliver an energetic fire, and at the same time, over the wood in the defile, rise numbers of small white clouds from the shells—whether French or German we cannot say. Sometimes, also, we hear the rattle of the mitrailleuse.

There was a brilliant assembly upon the hill. The King, Bismarck, Moltke, Roon, a number of Princes, Prince Charles, their Highnesses of Weimar and Coburg, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, generals, aides-de-camp, Court officials, Count Hatzfeldt, who disappeared after a while, Kutusow, the Russian, and Colonel Walker, the English Military Plenipotentiary, together with General Sheridan and his aide-de-camp, all in uniform, and all looking through field-glasses. The King stood, while others sat on a ridge at the edge of the field, as did the Chancellor also at times. I hear that the King sent word round that it was better not to gather into large groups, as the French in the fortress might in that case fire at us.

After 11 o’clock our line of attack advanced further on the right bank of the Meuse towards the main position of the French, who were thus more closely invested. In my eagerness I began to express my views to Count Puckler, probably somewhat louder than was necessary or quite fitting in the circumstances, and so attracted the attention of the Chief, who has sharp ears. He turned round and beckoned to me to come to him. “If you have strategic ideas to communicate to the Count it would be well if you managed to do so somewhat more quietly, doctor, as otherwise the King might ask who is speaking, and I should be obliged to present you to him.” Shortly afterwards he received telegrams, six of which he gave me to decipher, so that for the time I had to resign my part as a spectator.

On returning to the carriage I found in Count Hatzfeldt a companion who had also been obliged to combine business with pleasure. The Chief had instructed him to copy out a French letter of four pages which had been intercepted by our troops. I mounted the box and set to work deciphering, while the battle roared like half-a-dozen thunderstorms on the other side of the height. In my eagerness to get done I did not feel the scorching midday sun, which raised blisters on one of my ears.

It was now 1 o’clock. By this time our line of fire encircled the greater part of the enemy’s position on the heights beyond the town. Clouds of smoke rose in a wide arch, while the well-known small puff-balls of the shrapnels appeared for an instant and burst in the air. Only to the left there yet remained a space where all was still. The Chancellor now sat on a chair, studying a document of several pages. I asked if he would like to have something to eat or drink, as we had come provided. He declined, however, saying, “I should be very glad, but the King has also had nothing.”

The opposing forces on the other side of the river must be very near each other, as we hear oftener than before the hateful rattle of the mitrailleuse. Its bark, however, we are told, is worse than its bite. Between 2 and 3 o’clock, according to my watch, the King passed near where I stood. After looking for a while through his glass towards the suburbs of Sedan, he said to those who accompanied him, “There, to the left, they are pushing forward large masses of troops; I think it is a sortie.” It was, as a matter of fact, an advance of some columns of infantry, which, however, soon retired, probably because they found that although this place was quiet it was by no means open. Shortly afterwards, with the assistance of the field-glass, one could see the French cavalry deliver several attacks on the crest of the hill to the left of the wood near the defile, which were repelled by volleys from our side. After these charges it could be seen, even with the naked eye, that the ground was covered with white objects, horses or soldiers’ cloaks. Soon afterwards the artillery fire grew weaker at all points, and there was a general retreat of the French towards the town and its immediate vicinity. As already mentioned, they had for some time past been closed in on the left, where the Würtemberg troops had a couple of batteries not far from our hill, and where, as we were informed, the 5th and 11th Army Corps had cut off all escape, with the exception of a small gap towards the Belgian frontier. After half-past 4 all their guns were silent, and somewhat later ours also ceased firing.