The Franco-German War of 1870-71 Part 13

(September 28th.)

Immediately after the victory of Worth, the reduction of Strasburg became a primary object. This strong fortified position, bridge-head as it was commanding the Rhine, was a standing menace to Southern Germany.

When Marshal MacMahon evacuated Alsace, only three battalions of the line were left with the commandant of Strasburg. But with stragglers from the various regiments engaged at Worth, with sundry fourth battalions and reserve detachments, and finally with Mobiles and National Guards, the strength of the garrison had increased to 23,000 men. There was a complete absence of engineer troops, but 130 marines formed an excellent nucleus; the armament of the fortress was also ample.

So early as on the 11th August the Baden Division had been detailed to observe Strasburg. Notwithstanding the smallness of its force the Division had advanced unchecked by the enemy on the Ruprechtsau as far as the Rhine-and-Ill Ca.n.a.l; had occupied the village of Schiltigheim, almost within rifle-shot of the fortifications: and, having promptly prepared it for defence, pushed forward into the suburb of Konigshofen.

In the course of eight days there arrived, under the command of General von Werder, the Guard Landwehr and 1st Reserve Divisions, and one cavalry brigade, in all 46 battalions, 24 squadrons, and 18 field-batteries; as well as a siege-train of 200 rifled cannon and 88 mortars, with 6000 foot artillerymen and ten companies of fortress-pioneers; a total strength of 40,000 men.

The unloading of the guns brought from Magdeburg, Coblentz, and Wesel was begun on August 18th at the railway station of Vendenheim, by a detachment of the Railway Battalion.

The engineer-depot was established at Hausberge, a wagon-park at Lampertsheim, and provision made for permanent magazines. A complete blockade was established, and the field-telegraph kept up communication between all the posts.

To attain the desired end with the least possible delay, an attempt was made, contrary to the advice of General of Engineers Schultz, though with the sanction of the supreme Head-quarter, to force the town to surrender by stress of a bombardment. The request that the women and children should be allowed to withdraw was necessarily refused.

The erection of the batteries for the bombardment in the dark, wet nights was attended with great difficulties. Meanwhile only the field-guns could fire on the city; but the batteries whose armament of heavy guns was complete opened fire on the night of the 24th--25th; and soon a great fire was raging. Kehl, on the right bank of the river, was also set on fire by the sh.e.l.l-fire.

The Bishop of Strasburg came out to the outposts at Schiltigheim to entreat forbearance for the citizens. Much as damage to this German city was to be regretted, since the Prelate was not empowered to negotiate the bombardment was continued through the night of the 25th, when it reached its height. But the headquarter staff at Mundolsheim became convinced that this mode of attack would not accomplish the desired object, and that the more deliberate course of a regular siege would have to be resorted to. General von Mertens was placed in charge of the engineer operations, General Decker was given the direction of the artillery.

During the night of the 29th--30th August the first parallel was opened very close to the glacis, and soon was prolonged from the Rhine and Marne ca.n.a.l, through the churchyard of St. Helena, to the Jewish cemetery at Konigshofen.

The number of batteries on the left bank of the Rhine was soon increased to 21, on the right bank to 4; so that 124 guns of the heaviest calibre were ready in protected positions to begin the contest with the guns of the fortress. The further offensive operations were directed against bastions Nos. 11 and 12 on the north-west salient of the fortress. In the night of September 1st--2nd the second parallel was completed, but not without opposition. A strong sortie of fourteen companies of the garrison made at daybreak (of 2nd) upon the island of Waken, and in front of Kronenburg and Konigshofen, was repulsed.

The fortress then opened a heavy fire, pouring such a storm of projectiles on the siege-works that they had to be abandoned, till at about nine o'clock the artillery of the attack had silenced the guns of the fortress. A second sortie followed on the 3rd September, which was not repulsed before it had reached the second parallel.

A short truce was granted at the request of the commandant, to allow of the burial of the dead lying in front of the works. And on this day a grand salvo announced to the besieged the victory of Sedan.

Incessant rain had filled the trenches of the second parallel, 2400 paces in length, ankle-deep with water, and it was not till the 9th that they were completely repaired. Five batteries were moved forward from the first parallel, as special batteries were required to crush the fire of lunette No. 44, which took in flank all the approaches. These soon silenced its guns, and the lunette was abandoned by the garrison.

There were now 96 rifled cannon pieces and 38 mortars in full fire at very short range. Each gun was authorized to fire twenty rounds a day and ten shrapnel each night. The large Finkmatt Barracks were destroyed by fire, and the Stone Gate was so much injured that it had to be b.u.t.tressed with sandbags. The garrison withdrew the guns behind the parapet, and only fired their mortars. However, in order to push forward the siege-works, sap-rollers had to be brought into use.

When it was discovered that mining galleries were being driven in front of lunette No. 53, Captain Ledebour let himself down by a rope into the ditches, and with the help of his pioneers removed the charges of powder.

During the night of the 13th--14th, the crest of the glacis in front of both the lunettes Nos. 52 and 53 was reached. The crowning was then begun by means of the double traverse sap, and was finished in four days.

The attack henceforth was exclusively directed against bastion No. 11.

To run off the water from the ditches of the fortress it was necessary to destroy the sluices by the Jews' Gate. These were invisible from any part of the field of attack, and the desired result could only be very incompletely obtained by artillery fire at a distance of more than a mile. Detachments of the 34th Fusilier Regiment, therefore, on the 15th, marched on the sluices under a heavy rifle fire from the besieged, and destroyed the dam.

The island of Sporen was at this time taken possession of by the Baden corps.

When the mortar-batteries had for the most part been moved up into the second parallel, the gun-batteries were also advanced nearer, and the wall-piece detachments did such execution by their accurate practice that the defenders never more dared to show themselves by day.

The retaining wall of lunette No. 53 could only be reached by indirect fire; but 1000 sh.e.l.ls made a breach, and on the 19th September two mines were fired, which blew up the counterscarp and brought it down to the level of the water of the ditch. The pioneers immediately set about laying a dam of fascines across the ditch. A party sent over in a boat found the work abandoned. The gorge was closed under heavy rifle fire from the ramparts of the main fortress, and the parapet reversed so as to face the place.

The next lunette to the left, No. 52, was merely an earthwork, and the attack had already been pushed forward as far as the edge of the ditch, but earth screens had first to be thrown up and covered in with railway iron, as a protection against the heavy fire of sh.e.l.l from bastion No.

12. The construction of a dam of fascines or earth, more than sixty paces across, and with the ditch full of water almost fathom deep, would have taken a long time; so it was decided to make a cask bridge of beer-barrels, of which a quant.i.ty had been found in Schiltigheim. This work was begun at dusk on the 21st, under no better protection than a screen of boards to prevent observation, and it was finished by ten o'clock. Here again the defenders had not waited for the escalade, and this lunette, too, was immediately prepared for being held. Both lunettes were now furnished with batteries of mortars and guns to silence the fire from the ravelines and counter-guards of the front of attack, against which five dismounted and counter-batteries were also directed.

During the night of the 22nd--23rd the Germans advanced from lunette No.

52, partly by flying sap and partly by the deep sap, and there followed the crowning of the glacis in the front of counter-guard No. 51. A breaching fire was immediately opened against the east face of bastion No. 11, and the west face of bastion No. 12. The splinters of stone compelled the defenders to abandon the counter-guards. The scarp of bastion No. 11 fell on the 24th, after a sh.e.l.l-fire of 600 rounds. The bringing down of the earthwork angle which remained standing, was postponed till the beginning of the a.s.sault.

It was more difficult to breach bastion No. 12, because of the limited opportunity for observing the effect of the fire. It was not till the 26th that a breach thirty-six feet wide was made, after firing 467 long sh.e.l.ls. And even then, for the actual a.s.sault to succeed, the deep wet ditch at the foot of the bastion had to be crossed.

News of the fall of the Empire had indeed reached Strasburg, but General Uhrich would not listen to the prayers of the citizens that he would put an end to their sufferings. The Republic was proclaimed.

The siege had lasted thirty days, but the place was still well supplied with food and stores; the garrison was not materially weakened by the loss of 2500 men, but its heterogeneous elements prevented its effective employment in large bodies outside the walls. From the first the small blockading force had been allowed to approach close to the works; and the moment when the artillery of a fortress always has the advantage over the attack had been little utilized.

The German artillery had proved much the stronger, both as regards material and in its advantageous employment. Under its powerful protection the work of the pioneers and infantry was carried on with equal courage and caution, never swerving from the object in view. The storming of the main walls was now to be imminently expected, and no relief from outside could be hoped for.

On the afternoon of September 27th, the white flag was seen flying from the Cathedral tower; firing ceased and the sapper-works were stopped.

In Konigshofen at two in the following morning the capitulation was settled, on the Sedan conditions. Five hundred officers and 17,000 men were made prisoners, but the former were free to go on their parole. The National Guards and franctireurs were dismissed to their homes, after laying down their arms and pledging themselves to fight no more. All the cash remaining in the state bank, 1200 guns, 200,000 small arms and considerable stores proved a valuable prize of war.

At eight o'clock in the morning of the 28th, companies of Prussian and Baden troops took over the National, Fischer, and Austerlitz gates. The French garrison marched out at the National Gate, General Uhrich at their head. At first the march was conducted in good order, but before long numbers of drunken men broke the ranks and refused to obey, or threw down their arms. The prisoners were taken in the first instance to Rastatt, under the escort of two battalions and two squadrons.

The old city of the German Reich, which had been seized by France in time of peace nearly two centuries earlier, was now restored by German valour to the German fatherland.

The siege had cost the Germans 39 officers and 894 men. The city unhappily could not have been spared great suffering. Four hundred and fifty houses were utterly destroyed, 10,000 inhabitants were roofless, nearly 2000 were killed or wounded. The museum and picture gallery, the town hall and theatre, the new church, the gymnasium, the Commandant's residence, and alas! the public library of 200,000 volumes had fallen a prey to the flames.

The n.o.ble Cathedral showed many marks of shot, and the citadel was a heap of ruins. Under the wreck of the a.s.sailed works in the western front lay buried burst cannon.

The fall of Toul and of Strasburg produced a not unimportant change in the military situation. Considerable forces were now free for other services, and the railway transport could be brought up nearer to the armies. The material no longer required at Strasburg could not indeed be at once employed for the artillery offensive against Paris; it needed considerable re-equipment, and was to do duty meanwhile in the reduction of several smaller places. The newly-opened railway line was made use of to bring up the Guard Landwehr Division to the army investing Paris. A new Army Corps, the XIVth, was created of the Baden Division, a combined brigade consisting of the 30th and 34th Prussian regiments, and one cavalry brigade; which, under the command of General von Werder, marched on the Upper Seine. The 1st Reserve Division remained behind as the garrison of Strasburg.

OPERATIONS ROUND PARIS TO 15TH OCTOBER.

The Government in the now closely-blockaded capital, could not make its behests heard and obeyed throughout France. It therefore decided on sending a delegation of two of its members out into the provinces, their seat of direction to be at Tours. They could quit Paris only in a balloon. One of these delegates was Gambetta, whose restless energy soon made itself conspicuously felt, and lasted during the continuance of the war. Monsieur Thiers, meanwhile, had been visiting the European courts on the errand of inducing them to interpose their good offices in favour of France.

After the mishap of September 19th the feeling in Paris was against any great offensive demonstrations for the present; but the troops of the line still remained outside the walls under protection of the outlying forts. The Divisions of the XIIIth Corps were encamped on the south front and on the plateau of Vincennes; the XIVth was at Boulogne, Neuilly and Clichy behind the loops of the Seine, with Mont Valerien in its front, which was held by two line-battalions, after the flight, on the 20th, of the Gardes-Mobiles from that impregnable stronghold, in great disorder back into Paris. The defence of the northern front of the city remained entrusted to the Gardes-Mobiles.

On the German side the positions of the Army of the Meuse, which were to be occupied and defended to the uttermost, extended from Chatou along the Seine to the heights of Montmorency, and onward along the Moree and the skirts of the forest of Bondy as far as the Marne. In close touch with the flank of the Army of the Meuse at the Marne, the lines of the Wurtemberg Division carried on the investment from Noisy le Grand across the Joinville peninsula to Ormesson. The XIth Corps arriving from Sedan on the 23rd filled up the interval from Ormesson to Villeneuve St.

Georges, and the 1st Bavarian Corps occupied Longjumeau as a protection against attempts from the direction of Orleans. The VIth Corps could now be entirely transferred to the left bank of the Seine, where the line of defence extended along the wooded heights south of Paris to Bougival.

The Head-quarter of the King and that of the IIIrd Army were at Versailles, that of the Army of the Meuse was transferred to Vert-Galant. Numerous bridges facilitated the inter-communication of the various portions of the forces, telegraphs and signal-lights insured their rapid concentration, and every movement of the French was watched from eligible posts of observation.

There was no lack of accommodation for the troops, for every village was deserted; but this made the difficulty of obtaining supplies all the greater. The fugitive inhabitants had driven off their cattle and destroyed their stores; there remained only the apparently inexhaustible wine-cellars. For the first few days all the food needed had to be drawn from the Commissariat trains, but ere long the cavalry succeeded in obtaining considerable supplies. High prices and good discipline secured a market. Only the troops in advanced positions had to bivouac or build huts, many within range of the hostile artillery, some even within rifle-shot of the enemy. Near St. Cloud, for instance, no one could show himself without becoming a mark for the cha.s.sepots from behind the shutters of the houses opposite. The outposts here could only be relieved at night, and sometimes had to remain on duty two or three days at a time. The advanced positions of the Bavarians at Moulin la Tour were also much exposed, and the visits of superior officers to them always drew a sharp cannonade. Le Bourget, standing as it did in advance of the line of inundation, was especially liable to a surprise. That village had been seized on 20th (Sept.) by a battalion of the Guard Corps, at whose approach 400 Gardes-Mobiles had fled, leaving their baggage. Only one company occupied this post, on account of the heavy fire of the adjacent forts.

Some petty sorties from St. Denis met with no success; but an attempt by detachments of the VIth Corps to occupy the village of Villejuif and the redoubt of Hautes Bruyeres proved unsuccessful. They forced their way in several times, but always had to retire under the fire of the neighbouring forts of Bicetre and Ivry, and because of the superior strength of Maud'huy's Division. The French afterwards armed the redoubts with heavy guns.

_September 30th._--Early on this day a cannonade of an hour and a half's duration from the southern forts and batteries announced a sortie in that direction. By six o'clock two brigades of the XIIIth French Corps deployed against Thiais and Choisy le Roi. Strong swarms of tirailleurs drove in the outposts of the VIth Corps, and forced the field-guns in position between those two villages to retire; but then the fire of the infantry garrisons checked any further attack on the part of the French.

Further to the west a third brigade got into Chevilly and seized a factory on the road to Belle Epine; but its determined attack failed to obtain possession of the whole village. The 11th Division was alarmed in its rearward quarters, and hurried forward to the support of the 12th.

The factory was recovered from the French, and the Prussian batteries now opened fire, and worked such havoc among the enemy as he retired on Saussaye, that, shunning the attack of the infantry, he fled in great disorder to Hautes Bruyeres and Villejuif. A brigade which had forced its way into L'Hay was in the same way driven back, leaving 120 prisoners for the most part unwounded. In the farmstead at the north entrance of Chevilly, however, the French still held their ground with great obstinacy. Not till they were completely surrounded, and had made an ineffectual attempt to force a pa.s.sage, did surrender those brave defenders, who numbered about 100.

The whole series of attacks was entirely defeated by about nine o'clock, and General Vinoy vainly endeavoured to incite the diminished battalions at Hautes Bruyeres to renew the struggle.