Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870 by Philipp Elliot-Wright

Author:Philipp Elliot-Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870: End of the Second Empire
ISBN: 9781472804433
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

The Trap Closes

The Battle of Borny had delayed Bazaine’s final order for the general retreat on Verdun until 10 a.m. on the 15th, by which time German patrols were already astride the road to Verdun with their infantry only a day’s march behind. II and VI Corps took the southern route via Vionville and Mars-la-Tour, while the IV and III Corps went via the more northern Doncourt road with the Guard following. Leboeuf, no longer Minister of War or Chief of Staff, took command of III Corps in consequence of Decaen’s death at Borny. Laveaucoupet’s division, weakened at Spicheren, was to remain to garrison Metz.

The single road from Metz to Gravelotte was soon swamped with thousands of military vehicles to which were now added thousands of fleeing civilians. Even when the columns split at Gravelotte along the Vionville and Doncourt roads respectively, progress was still painfully slow. By the evening of the 15th, II Corps had only reached Rezonville and VI Corps had not even reached Doncourt. Furthermore, the two cavalry divisions, Forton’s and Barail’s, which were providing scouts and cover to the flanks, were north of the Vionville road. When, on the morning of the 15th, Forton made contact with Redern’s scouts, he made no significant effort to ascertain the general situation. When Bazaine was informed of the contact he simply acknowledged the information without further inquiry.

On the morning of the 16th Napoleon finally took his leave of Bazaine. With the 1st and 3rd Regiments of Chasseurs d’Afrique to escort him through German cavalry patrols to Verdun and accompanied by his son, Napoleon’s final words were to urge Bazaine to hurry the retreat to Verdun. Then, as the sun rose, Napoleon bid goodbye at the Gravelotte crossroads. Later in the day he would hear the gunfire of battle as Moltke closed off the avenue of retreat Napoleon had just travelled. When he arrived at Verdun he took train for Châlons and MacMahon.

Back at Gravelotte, Bazaine received further news of sporadic contact with German cavalry patrols to the west and south of Vionville. Consequently he decided to halt II and VI Corps to await events. This was possibly the fatal decision of the campaign because with every passing second the avenue of retreat was being progressively closed, for to the south Moltke was busy, having temporarily halted Second Army on the Moselle in case Steinmetz was attacked on the morning of the 15th. Once Redern had reported the long straggling French columns crawling west out of Metz, Moltke seized the opportunity. Second Army was hurried on north from its crossing point at Corny to be followed by First Army.

Yet again, however, Moltke’s careful strategic conception was almost fatally compromised by his immediate subordinate. Frederick Charles unilaterally decided that his army should move due west not north. He assumed wrongly that by the morning of the 16th the French would be well on their way through Mars-la-Tour. He was not to know that Bazaine had halted his entire army the previous

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.