The Franco-German War of 1870-71Moltke, Helmuth, Graf von
History
The Franco-German War of 1870-71
Moltke, Helmuth, Graf von
Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871
The defeated troops of the VIth French Corps hurriedly retired into the
valley of the Moselle, their retreat covered by the brigade holding the
Bois de Jaumont and by the cavalry. Only then did the Guard Grenadier
Division make its first appearance, and the Reserve Artillery of the
French Army deployed east of Amanvillers. The German batteries at once
took up the fight, which lasted till late in the night, and in the
course of which Amanvillers was burned.
In that quarter the retirement of the IVth French Corps had also already
commenced, masked, however, by repeated heavy attacks to the front. In
the course of these there occurred a hand-to-hand encounter with the
charging battalions of the right wing of the Guard and the left of the
IXth Corps. Amanvillers, however, remained in the hands of the French
for the night. Not until three o'clock on the morning of the 19th did
the IIIrd French Corps evacuate its position about Moscou; and the IInd
Corps held its ground until five o'clock, engaged in constant sharp
frays with the outposts of the Pomeranians, who on its withdrawal took
possession of the plateaus of Moscou and Point du Jour.
The results attained on the 18th of August had been made possible only
by the battles of the 14th and 16th.
The French estimate their losses at 13,000 men. In October 173,000 were
still in Metz, consequently it is certain that the enemy had at
disposition in the battle of the 18th of August more than 180,000 men.
The exact strength of the seven[15] German Corps on that day amounted to
178,818 men. Thus with the forces on either side of approximately equal
strength, the French had been driven out of a position of almost
unrivalled natural advantage.
Naturally the loss of the assailants was much heavier than that of the
defence; it amounted to 20,584 men, among them 899 officers.
Whereas by the war-establishment the average is one officer to every
forty men, in this battle one officer fell to every twenty-three men;
glorious testimony to the example set by their leaders to their brave
men, but also a loss which could not be restored during the course of
the war. Altogether the six battles fought in the first fourteen days of
August had cost the German army 50,000 men.[16] It was naturally
impossible immediately to call out at home a sufficient levy in
substitution for the losses; but reinforcements drawn from the
time-expired cadres were already bespoken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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