Pirch immediately ordered the attack, and directed that it should be supported by Major General Krafft with the Sixth Brigade, which had closely followed the Advanced Guard, and had come up with the latter at four o'clock in the afternoon. Three Columns of Attack were formed. The First consisted of the 1st Battalion of the 9th Regiment, the Fusilier Battalion of the 26th Regiment, and the 1st Battalion of the 1st Elbe Landwehr. It was under the command of Major Schmidt, and detached to the left of the road, to drive back the Enemy's troops posted in the Wood and upon the Heights. The Second consisted of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 26th Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Regiment, under Colonel Reuss, and of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Elbe Landwehr, under Colonel Bismark. This Column, which advanced partly on the right, and partly on the left, of the road, was supported by the Battery No 5, and led by Major General Krafft in person. The Third Column comprised the Fusilier Battalions which had constituted the Infantry of the Advanced Guard; and was detached more to the right, towards the Sambre, to support the general advance upon Namur.
General Krafft, after having kept up a fire, for a short time, upon the Enemy with his Artillery, ordered the attack with his Infantry. Colonel Reuss threw out his Skirmishers, who were quickly followed by the Columns of Attack. The Enemy, after some little resistance, was fairly driven into Namur by a charge with bayonets, and suffered much loss.
In the mean time, Major Schmidt, with his Column of three Battalions, had turned the Enemy's Right Flank on the Louvain road; and the French were now limited to the defence of the suburb, which, however, was maintained with great obstinacy. The Prussian Columns of Attack, advancing at the pas de charge, drove the Enemy out of the suburb, and endeavoured to gain possession of the Gates of the town. Colonel Zastrow, the second in command of the Sixth Brigade, wished to burst open the Gate which leads to the Louvain road; but was repulsed by a most murderous fire of musketry and grape, directed upon the assailants from the walls of the town.
On repeating the attempt, the Prussian Battalions fought with distinguished bravery, but with a great sacrifice of life. Colonel Zastrow was killed at their head; Colonel Bismark also fell; Colonel Reuss was wounded; and the Sixth Brigade alone lost forty four Officers, and 1,274 Under Officers and Privates.
The main body of Grouchy's Army was at this time in full retreat upon Dinant, along the Defile of the Meuse. The troops left in Namur, to keep the Prussians at bay as long as possible, consisted of General Teste's Division. They carefully barricaded all the Gates, lined the walls facing the Prussians, and made a most gallant resistance. The Officers, finding that their men continued so perfectly steady as not to require their attention, armed themselves with the muskets of the wounded, and assisted in maintaining the fire from the walls. The greatest order prevailed in the Town. The wounded, the provisions, and ammunition, had already been removed; and were on the line of march.
General Pirch was well aware that the French defended the town solely for the purpose of covering their retreat, and had therefore no intention of undertaking any serious attack; he simply wished to possess himself of the suburbs, and to hold the Enemy in check by detaching troops to the Porte de Fer and the St Nicholas Gate. He thought that a demonstration against the latter Gate would raise apprehensions in the minds of the French respecting the security of the Bridge over the Sambre.
With this view, he ordered General Brause to relieve, with the Seventh Brigade, the troops then engaged; and together with the Advanced Guard under Lieutenant Colonel Sohr, to blockade the Town. At the same time he directed the remainder of the Corps to bivouac near Temploux.
General Brause proceeded to post the Fusilier Battalion of the 22nd Regiment in the direction of the Porte de Fer, and the Fusilier Battalion of the 2nd Elbe Landwehr towards the Brussels Gate. The main body of the Seventh Brigade, under Colonel Schon, was stationed in rear of the suburb. The first mentioned Battalion stood, under cover, at four hundred paces distance from the Porte de Fer, having its Tirailleurs in the Avenue near the Gate. Just as General Brause rode up to examine its formation, an alarm was spread in front that the Enemy was making a sortie. The General desired the Commanding Officer, Major Jochens, to lead his Battalion quickly against the defenders, to overthrow them, and then, if possible, to penetrate into the town along with the retreating troops. As Major Jochens approached the Gate, he found in its immediate vicinity the Tirailleurs of the Sixth Brigade, still maintaining the contest in that quarter. The attacking Column and the Tirailleurs now rushed towards the Gate and the walls; which the French, probably not deeming themselves strong enough to resist this pressure, abandoned in the greatest haste.
General Teste had, in fact, prepared everything for his retreat; and had so well calculated the time which the Enemy would require in forcing an entrance by the Porte de Fer, that he succeeded in filing his Battalions along the parapets of the Bridge, which had been barricaded, and thus withdrew them to the south bank of the Sambre. The Prussians found it impossible to force open the Gate. The windows of the adjoining house of the Douaniers were therefore driven in, and a small iron door which led from the interior of the house into the town was opened, and, in this manner, an entrance was effected for the assailants; who were conducted by Major Jochens, of the 22nd, and Major Luckowitz, of the 9th Regiment, across the Market Place, and as far as the Bridge over the Sambre: which the French had barricaded, as before stated, and behind which they had again established themselves. These troops were closely followed by Major Schmidt, with the 9th Regiment, and lastly by the 2nd Elbe Landwehr, in Close Column, under Majors Mirbach and Lindern.
The Prussians immediately occupied the captured portion of the town; posted a Column of Reserve on the Market Place, and with loud cheers, made themselves masters of the Bridge over the Sambre. An attempt had been made to gain the Enemy's rear, by means of a ford in this river; but it proved unsuccessful.