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The Franco-Prussian War

FRANCO-GERMAN WAR OF 1870-71. The immediate cause of this struggle was France's jealousy of the growing importance of Prussia, which power Bismarck was determined to place at the head of a united Germany, and the desire of Napoleon III to strengthen his tottering throne by a successful war against the hereditary foe of the French nation. The actual occasion for the outbreak of hostilities was furnished by complications growing out of the political situation in Spain. On June 25, 1870, lsabella II of Spain; who had been deposed in 1868, formally abdicated the throne. On July 5 the foreign governments were notified of her abdication, and on the same day the fact was made public that Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern had consented to become a candidate for the vacant throne of Spain. This consent was said to have the approval of the King of Prussia. The news caused intense excitement in Paris, and the Foreign Minister, the Duc de Gramont, caused representations to be made to the Prussian government of the displeasure with which the French government regarded the candidacy of Prince Leopold. On July 12 the announcement of the withdrawal of Prince Leopold's candidature was made. On the following day the French Ambassador, Benedetti (q.v.), unceremoniously addressing William I at Ems, insisted that the King should make a declaration to the effect that no Hohenzollern prince would ever be permitted to accept the Spanish crown. The King declined to listen to this demand and broke off the interview. He sent Bismarck a copy of the French demand, with authority to make use of it. This Bismarck did, giving to the press such parts of the communication as would tend to arouse the German people. It does not appear that in so doing he misrepresented the attitude of France. Taking notice of this publication as if it had been official, the French government, deeming itself called upon to take immediate steps for the defense of the national honor, formally declared war against Prussia, July 19, 1870.

While the popular enthusiasm in the two countries in favor of war was about equal, there proved to be a vast difference as to the state of the military preparations. The French government supposed that from 450,000 to 500,000 men were available for instant mobilization; but the army was ill organized, imperfectly equipped and not properly provided with depots. But 250,000 men were ready for the first movements in August, 1870, and there was no reliable reserve. The French force was in one body, practically, known as the Army of the Rhine. Against this the North German Confederation was able to put into the field an army of about 450,000 men with a reserve of nearly 400,000. The French hoped that the South German states, out of jealousy of Prussia., would refuse to join her, but these joined forces at once with their countrymen, put their troops under Prussian command, and thus added to the overwhelming weight that was thrown upon France. The action of Prussia was promptness itself. King William arrived in Berlin July 15, meeting Bismarck, Moltke, and Roon, and orders for mobilization were at once given. Three armies were formed. The first, under General von Steinmetz, was placed near Troves, forming the right wing; the second, under Prince Frederick Charles, was sent to Rhenish Palatinate; the third, under the Crown Prince of Prussia, took its position on the frontier of Baden. The French forces were scattered over a line of about 100 miles in length. The First Corps, under Marshal MacMahon, was placed near Strassburg; the Fifth Corps, under Failly, along the frontier of the Palatinate; the Third Corps, under Marshal Bazaine, near Metz; the Second Corps, under Frossard, not far from the Prussian frontier, near Saint-Avold; the Fourth Corps, under Ladmirault, near Thionville; the reserve forces, under Bourbaki and Marshal Canrobert, were partly at Nancy and partly at the camp of Châlons the Seventh Corps, under Gen. Félix Douay, held the fortress of Belfort. These were the positions of the two contending armies towards the end of July, 1870. On the 23d of that month Napoleon appointed the Empress Regent of France, and on the 28th left Paris with the Prince Imperial to take command of the army at Metz. The King of Prussia left Berlin to take his place in the field July 31, accompanied by General von Moltke, as chief of staff, and Count Bismarck, and on August 2 established his headquarters at Mainz. On the same day a portion of Frossard's corps made an attack on the Prussian position at Saarbrück, in the presence of the Emperor and his son. After protracted firing the Germans retreated, and the French occupied Saarbrück. The results of this engagement were unimportant.

The first serious conflict of the war took place, August 4, at Weissenburg, where the German advance guard was attacked by the French under Gen. Abel Douay; it ended, after a battle of five hours, in the French troops retiring in great disorder, with heavy loss. General Douay was killed. The Germans had now 520,000 men and 1170 guns ready for fighting orders, while the entire force of the French (with reserves) amounted to only 350,000 men. On August 6, at Wörth, the Crown Prince attacked MaeMahon, who had been strengthened by divisions of the corps of Failly and Canrobert. The French suffered a terrible defeat and lost 8000 in dead and wounded and 6000 prisoners. The German loss was over 10,000 officers and men. On the same day a bloody battle was fought at Spichern, near Saarbrück, also known as the battle of Forbach, between General Steinmetz and General Frossard. The Germans stormed the heights of Spichern, and the French force was thrown back in disorder on Forbach and Metz. The Germans lost 4648 men in killed and wounded while the French loss amounted to about 2000 men killed and 2000 prisoners. Thus both wings of the French army were completely defeated; the original position could no longer be held, and all the French corps gathered into two large masses to retreat along the line of the Moselle. Two separate armies were now formed-the one known as the Army of Metz, commanded by Marshal Bazaine, and the other commanded by Marshal MacMahon. By August 14 the first German army had advanced to the immediate neighborhood of Metz, and by a successful attack upon the French Third Corps under Bazaine baffled the first attempt of that commander to retreat to the line of the Marne. This developed into the sanguinary battle of Colombey-Nouilly, or of Courcelles. The Prussians lost nearly 5000 men in killed and wounded; the French loss was about 3500. The battle prevented the junction of Bazaine's army with that of MaeMahon at Châlons. In the battle of Mars-la-Tour, or Vionville, fought on August 16, the army of Bazaine was repulsed by Prince Frederick Charles, and driven back on Gravelotte with immense loss to both sides- about 16,000. On the 18th occurred the great battle of Gravelotte (q.v.), in which 200,000 Germans fought against 130,000 Frenchmen. Bazaine's army, occupying a very strong position to the west of Metz, was, after nine hours fighting, completely defeated, cut of from its communication with Paris, and driven back towards Metz. The losses were very heavy. The French lost about 600 officers and 13,000 men; the Germans, about 900 officers and 20,000 men.

Bazaine was now shut up in the fortifications of Metz, which was invested by Prince Frederick Charles. A fourth army was organized and placed under command of the Crown Prince of Saxony, to move rapidly upon Paris. MacMahon, marching to the relief of Metz, was cut off by the third and fourth German armies, which were converging on Paris, and on the lst of September was fought the battle of Sedan, the Waterloo of the Second Empire. The forces of MacMahon were caught in an unfavorable position, where they could be attacked from all sides, and were driven upon the fortress of Sedan, where, surrounded and defeated, the entire army surrendered (September 2), with the Emperor, who was carried prisoner to Wilhelnrshöhe. By this capitulation 83,000 men, including 40 generals, 230 officers of the staff, and 2595 officers, became prisoners of war, in addition to 21,000 men who had been made prisoners during the battle. Meanwhile, on August 31, Bazaine made a sortie from Metz, attempting, during that day and the following, to break through towards the north, but was driven back into the fortress.

When the news of the capitulation of Sedan and of the capture of Napoleon reached Paris, it caused an upheaval. On September 4 the Third Republic was proclaimed, and a Government of National Defense was formed, of which the chief members were Jules Favre, Crémieux, Ferry, Jules Simon, and Gambetta. General Trochu, the military Governor of Paris, was its head. Gradually the Germans closed in on Paris, no serious resistance in the field being attempted. By September 19 the capital was regularly invested. The investing force was far inferior to that of the besieged in numbers, but the French forces in Paris were largely a half-trained provisional levy, brimming with disaffection and the spirit of revolution, which afterward broke out in the Commune. Strassburg surrendered on September 28. A few days later Gambetta escaped from Paris in a balloon and issued a proclamation from Tours calling for a levy en masse. On October 11 General Von der Tann, after defeating a French force, entered Orléans. On October 27 Bazaine surrendered at Metz with his army of about 175,000 men to Prince Frederick Charles. A gleam of hope was infused into the French by a momentary victory of Gen. Aurelle de Palladines, commander of the Army of the Loire, who on November 9 beat back Von der Tann at Coulmiers, near Orléans, the French reëntering Orleans on the following day. On November 28, however, Aurelle de Palladines was repulsed at Beaune-la-Rolande, and was again defeated before Orléans on December 2-4. Nor were the other armies put into the field by the appeals of Gambetta more successful in coming to the relief of Paris, where General Duerot made a desperate attempt to break through the German lines at Brie and Champigny, November 30-December 3. The army of General Chanzy engaged that of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg on the Loire, December 7-10, but was forced to retreat from this scene of operations, and on Jan; 10-12, 1871, he was completely overthrown by Prince Frederick Charles at Lc Mans. In the north, where the Germans had reached and entered Rouen as early as December 6, the army of General Faidherbe suffered a defeat at Pont Noyelles, December 23, and another at Bapaume. January 3, and on January 19 it was overwhelmed by General Von Goeben at Saint-Quentin. In the east General Bourbaki made a diversion at the close of December which was at first successful, but he was repulsed by General Von Werder before Belfort on January 15-17 On December 27 the Germans opened a bombardment on Mont Averon, one of the forts of Paris, and two days later they obtained possession of the fort. After an unsuccessful sortie from Mont Valerien, led by General Trochu, January 19, Paris, which had reached the point of starvation, capitulated Jan. 28, 1871, a partial armistice having been arranged between Bismarck and Jules Favre. Four days later the remains of Bourbaki's army retired into Switzerland. In the meanwhile, during the progress of the siege of Paris, the work of consolidating Germany into an empire had been consummated by the proclamation at Versailles, on January 18, of William I as German Emperor. The armistice gave France an opportunity to form a responsible government that could conduct peace negotiations. On February 8 elections were held for a National Assembly, which met at Bordeaux, February 12 and which, on February 17, elected Thiers Chief of the Executive. On February 16 the capitulation of Belfort closed the military operations. The Germans occupied all the forts around Paris. France was helpless, with nearly all her trained soldiers disarmed or prisoners of war, while French territory was occupied by a German army of more than half a million men. The new government of France now undertook the task of securing peace.

The indefatigable labors of Thiers resulted, on February 26, in the arrangement of preliminary terms of peace with Germany, which were formally accepted by the National Assembly, March 1, by a vote of 546 to 107. The terms of this treaty were as follows: (1) the cession by France of the German-speaking part of Lorraine, including Metz and Thionville, and of Alsace, excepting Belfort; (2) France to pay five milliards of francs as war indemnity-one milliard in 1871, and the balance in installments extending over three years; (3) the evacuation of French territory to begin upon the ratification of the treaty, Paris and some western departments to be evacuated at that time, the troops in other departments to be withdrawn gradually as the indemnity was paid; (4) the German troops to be maintained at the cost of France, and not to levy upon the departments occupied by them; (5) inhabitants of the annexed territories to be allowed to choose between the two nationalities; (6) prisoners of war to be immediately set at liberty; (7) negotiations for a definitive treaty of peace to be opened at Brussels after the ratification of this treaty; (8) the administration of the departments occupied by the German troops to be intrusted to French officials under the control of the chiefs of the German corps of occupation. The definitive treaty of peace was signed at Frankfort, May 3, 1871. The two great results of the war were the establishment of the Third Republic in France and the consolidation of Germany into an empire.