Napoleon III’s Army Retreats Towards Sedan

The regiment had marched without knapsacks, and neglected previously to take out their cartridges.

Continuing Battle of Sedan,
with a selection from The Franco-German War of 1870-1871 by Helmuth von Moltke published in 1893. This selection is presented in 4.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Battle of Sedan.

Time: 1870
Place: Sedan, France

Prince George of Saxony had dispatched an advanced guard of seven battalions from Douzy in that direction at five o’clock in the morning. They drove the French from La Moncelle, pressed ahead to Platinerie and the bridge there, and, in spite of a hot and steady fire, took possession of the houses on the other side of the Givonne, which they immediately occupied for defensive purposes. Communication with the Bavarians was now established, and the battery of the advanced guard was drawn up on the eastern slope; but the brave assailants could not be immediately reinforced by infantry.

Marshal MacMahon [1] had been struck by a splinter from a shell at La Moncelle at 6 am., and he nominated General Ducrot as his successor in command, passing over the claims of two senior leaders. When General Ducrot received the news at seven o’clock, he issued orders for concentrating the army at Illy and for an immediate retreat upon Mézieres. Of his own corps he dispatched Lartigue’s division to cover the passage at Daigny; Lacretelle and Bassoigne were ordered to assume the offensive against the Bavarians and Saxons, so as to gain time for the rest of the troops to retire. The divisions forming the second line immediately began to move toward the north.

[1:  French general – JL]

The Minister of War had appointed General von Wimpffen, [2] recently returned from Algiers, to the command of the Fifth Corps, vice General de Failly, and had also empowered him to assume the chief command in case the Marshal were disabled. General von Wimpffen knew the army of the Crown Prince to be in the neighborhood of Donchery, he regarded the retreat to Mézieres as an impossibility, and was bent on the diametrically opposite course of forcing his way to Carignan, not doubting that he could rout the Bavarians and Saxons, and so effect a junction with Marshal Bazaine. When he heard of the orders just issued by General Ducrot, and, at the same time, observed that an assault upon the Germans in La Moncelle appeared to turn in his favor, he determined, in an evil hour, to exercise his authority. General Ducrot submitted without remonstrance; he was perhaps not averse to being relieved of so heavy a responsibility. The divisions of the second line that were about to march were ordered back; and the weak advance of the Bavarians and Saxons were soon pressed by the first line, who at once attacked them.

[2: Apparently an Austrian aristocrat serving in the French army. – JL]

By seven in the morning one regiment of the Saxon advanced guard had marched to the taking of La Moncelle; the other had been busy with the threatening advance of Lartigue’s division on the right. Here the firing soon became very hot. The regiment had marched without knapsacks, and neglected previously to take out their cartridges. Thus, they soon ran short of ammunition, and the repeated and violent onslaught of the zouaves, directed principally against the unprotected right, had to be repelled with the bayonet. On the left a strong artillery had gradually been formed, and by half-past eight o’clock amounted to twelve batteries. But Lacretelle’s division was now approaching on the Givonne lowlands, and dense swarms of tirailleurs forced the German batteries to retire about nine o’clock. The gunners withdrew to some distance, but then turned about and reopened fire on the French, and, after driving them back into the valley, returned to their original position.

The Fourth Bavarian Brigade had meanwhile reached La Moncelle, and the Forty-sixth Saxon Brigade was coming up, so the small progress made by Bassoigne’s division was checked. The right wing of the Saxon contingent, which had been hard pressed, now received much-needed support from the Twenty fourth Division, and they at once assumed the offensive. The French were driven back upon Daigny, and lost five guns in the struggle. Then joining the Bavarians, who were pushing on through the valley to the northward, after a sharp fight, Daigny and the bridge and farmstead of La Rapaille were taken.

It was now about ten o’clock, and the guards had arrived at the Upper Givonne. They had set out before it was light, marching in two columns, when the sound of heavy firing reached them from Bazeilles and caused them to quicken their step. In order to render assistance by the shortest road, the left column would have crossed two deep ravines and the pathless wood of Chevallier; so they chose the longer route by Villers Cernay, which the head of the right column had passed in ample time to take part in the contest between the Saxons and Lartigue’s division, and to capture two French guns.

The divisions ordered back by General Ducrot had already resumed their position at the western slope, and the Fourteenth Battery of the guards now opened fire upon them from the east. At the same hour (ten o’clock) the Fourth Corps and the Seventh Division had arrived at Lamécourt, and the Eighth at Rémilly, both situated below Bazeilles; the advanced guard of the Eighth stood at the Rémilly railway station.

The first attempt of the French to break through to Carignan eastward had proved a failure, and their retreat to Mézieres on the west had also been cut off, for the Fifth and Eleventh Corps of the Third Army, together with the Wurtemberg division, had received orders to move northward by that route. These troops had struck camp before daybreak, and at six o’clock had crossed the Meuse at Donchery, and by the three pontoon bridges farther down the river. The advanced patrols found the road to Mézieres clear of the enemy, and the heavy shelling, heard from the direction of Bazeilles, made it appear probable that the French had accepted battle in their position at Sedan. The Crown Prince therefore ordered the two corps that had arrived at Brigne to march to the right on St. Menges; the Wurtembergers were to remain to keep watch over Mézieres. General von Kirchbach then pointed out Fleigneux to his advanced guards as the next objective, to cut off the retreat of the French into Belgium, and maintain a connection with the right wing of the Army of the Meuse.

Helmuth von Moltke begins here. Otto von Bismark begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

We want to take this site to the next level but we need money to do that. Please contribute directly by signing up at https://www.patreon.com/history