The Franco-German War of 1870-71 Part 40

But further the prosecution of the attack became more and more difficult. The withdrawal of General Debschitz had seriously reduced the working strength of the besieging force. There were only nine battalions for the exhausting service in the trenches. Specially serious was the heavy loss in pioneers, and two fresh companies had to be brought up from Strasburg. The bright moonlight illuminating the fields of snow far and wide made it impossible to proceed with the flying saps.

Sap-rollers had to be used; the heads of the saps had to be protected by sandbags and the sides by gabions, while the earth for filling had often to be brought from a long distance in the rear.

On the head of all this, on February 3rd, a thaw set in, and the water from the heights filled the trenches, so that all communication had to be carried on across the open ground. Torrents of rain damaged the finished works; the parapet of the first parallel gave way altogether in places, and the banquette was washed away. The bottomless tracks made the arming of the batteries unspeakably difficult, and the teams of the columns and field artillery had to be employed in bringing up the ammunition. Many guns had become useless by overheating, while the enemy understood, by rapidly running out their guns, firing, and then running them back again, how to interrupt the work. Not merely was it necessary to continue the sh.e.l.ling of the Perches during the night, but a brisk rifle fire had to be kept up against them. Only now and then did the batteries newly placed in the parallels succeed in entirely silencing the guns of Hautes Perches. Epaulments had to be erected against Fort Bellevue and the defences of the railway-station, and Fort des Barres resumed activity. That under such exertions and the abominable weather the health of the troops suffered severely, need not be said; the battalions could often only muster 300 men for duty.

Meanwhile, however, the artillery of the attack had unquestionably become very much superior to that of the defence, and, in spite of every obstacle, the saps were pushed on to the edge of the ditch of Les Perches.

On February 8th, at one in the afternoon, Captain Roese had gabions flung into the ditch of Hautes Perches, sprang into it with five sappers, and rapidly scaled the parapet by the steps hewn in the scarp.

He was immediately followed by the trench guard, but only a few of the French were surprised in the casemated traverses. The situation of the garrison of the forts had in fact become extremely difficult. Ammunition had to be brought up under the enemy's fire, water could only be had from the pond at Vernier, and cooking could only be done inside the works. Colonel Denfert had already given orders to bury the material.

Unseen by the besiegers the guns of which the carriages could still be moved had been withdrawn, and only one company left in each fort, which in case of a surprise was to fire and fly. Nothing was to be found in the abandoned work but wrecked gun-carriages and four damaged guns. This fort was at once reversed so that its front faced the fortress, but at three o'clock the latter opened so heavy a fire on the lost positions that the working parties had to take shelter in the ditches.

The garrison in Ba.s.ses Perches attempted some resistance, but under cover of a reserve it soon retired to Le Fourneau, leaving five guns and much shattered material. Here also the fire of the place at first compelled the working parties to break off, but four 15-cm. mortars were at length brought into the fort, and two 9-cm. guns were placed on the spur of the hill to the westward, which directed their fire on Le Fourneau and Bellevue. During the night of the 9th the two works were connected by a shelter-trench 680 yards long, and thus the third parallel was established.

The position was now such that the attack could immediately be directed on the citadel, and on it the batteries in the Bois des Perches and presently those in the second parallel opened fire. Moitte, Justice, and Bellevue were sh.e.l.led simultaneously. General von Debschitz had returned, so that the investing corps was thus again brought up to its full strength, and all the conditions were improved by the return of the frost. By the 13th ninety-seven guns were ready in the third parallel.

The town had suffered terribly from the prolonged bombardment. Nearly all the buildings were damaged, fifteen completely burnt down, and in the adjoining villages 164 houses had been destroyed by the defenders themselves. The fortifications showed not less visible indications of serious damage, particularly the citadel. The hewn-stone facing of its front-wall had crumbled into the ditch. Half of the mantleted embrasures had been shattered, the expense powder magazines had been blown up, and a number of casemated traverses pierced. The guns in the upper batteries could only be reached by ladders. The garrison, of its original strength of 372 officers and 17,322 men, had lost 32 officers and 4713 men, besides 336 citizens. The place was no longer tenable; besides there now came the news that the army from which alone relief was to be expected, had laid down its arms.

Under these circ.u.mstances General von Tresckow summoned the commandant after a defence so brave to surrender the fortress, with free withdrawal for the garrison, this concession having the sanction of his Majesty.

The French Government itself authorized the commandant to accept these terms. Colonel Denfert, however, insisted that he must be given a more direct order. To procure this an officer was sent to Basle, pending whose return there was a provisional armistice.

On the 15th a convention was signed at Versailles, which extended the armistice to the three departments which till then had been excluded from it, and also to Belfort; but the 1st article demanded the surrender of that place.

After the conclusion of the definitive treaty, the garrison, in the course of the 17th and 18th, with its arms and trains, left the precincts of the fortress and withdrew by way of L'Isle sur Doubs and St. Hippolyte into the country occupied by French troops. The march was effected in detachments of 1000 men at intervals of 5 km., the last of which Colonel Denfert accompanied. The supplies which remained in the fortress were conveyed in rear of the departing troops in 150 Prussian proviant waggons. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of February 18th Lieutenant-General von Tresckow entered the place at the head of detachments from all the troops of the investing corps.

There were found 341 guns, of which 56 were useless, 356 gun-carriages, of which 119 were shot to pieces, and 22,000 stand of arms, besides considerable supplies of ammunition and provisions.

The siege had cost the Germans 88 officers and 2049 men, 245 of whom were released from imprisonment by the capitulation. Immediately was set about the work of restoring and arming the fortress, and of the levelling of the siege works.

THE ARMISTICE.

On the basis of the agreement of January 28th a line of demarcation was drawn, from which both parties were to withdraw their outposts to a distance of 10 km. The line ran south from the mouth of the Seine as far as the Sarthe, crossed the Loire at Saumur, followed the Creuse, turned eastward past Vierzon, Clamecy and Chagny, and then met the Swiss frontier, after bending to the north of Chalons sur Saone and south of Lons le Saulnier and St. Laurent. The two departments of Pas de Calais and du Nord, as well as the promontory of Havre, were particularly excluded.

The fortresses still held by French troops in the districts occupied by the Germans were a.s.signed a rayon in proportion to their importance.

In carrying out the details of the agreement a liberal interpretation was in most instances allowed. The arrangements had the sanction of those members of the Government of National Defence who were in Paris; while the delegates at Bordeaux, who had hitherto conducted the war, at first held aloof, and indeed, as yet had not been made acquainted with the detailed conditions. Gambetta, it is true, allowed the suspension of operations, but could not give the commanders more precise instructions.

General Faidherbe was thus without orders with regard to the evacuation of Dieppe and Abbeville. General von Goeben, however, refrained from taking immediate possession of these places. On the west of the Seine, the Grand Duke was forced to proclaim that the non-recognition of the line of demarcation would be followed by an immediate recommencement of hostilities.

The commandant of the garrison at Langres also raised difficulties, and only withdrew within his rayon on February 7th, as did General Rolland later at Besancon. Auxonne was at first unwilling to give up control of the railway. Bitsch, which had not been worth the trouble of a serious attack, repudiated the convention; the investment had therefore to be strengthened, and only in March, when threatened with a determined attack, did the garrison abandon its peak of rock.

Nor did the volunteers acquiesce at once, and there were collisions with them at various points. But after the conditions were finally settled, no more serious quarrels occurred between the inhabitants and the German troops during the whole course of the armistice.

All the German corps before Paris occupied the forts lying in their front, more specifically the Vth took over Mont Valerien, and the IVth the town of St. Denis. Between the forts and the enceinte there lay a neutral zone, which civilians were allowed to cross only by specified roads placed under control of German examining troops.

Apprehensive as it was of the indignation of the populace, the French Government had hesitated so long to utter the word "capitulation," that now, even with the resumption of free communication, Paris was threatened with an outbreak of actual famine. The superfluous stores in the German magazines were therefore placed at the disposal of its authorities. The respective chief-Commands, the local Governments-General, and the Etappen-Inspections received instructions to place no difficulties in the way of the repair of the railways and roads in their districts, and the French authorities were even allowed to make use, under German supervision, of the repaired railroads which the invaders used to supply their own army. Nevertheless, the first provision-train only arrived in Paris on February 3rd, and it was the middle of the month before the French had succeeded in remedying the prevalent distress in the capital.

The German prisoners were at once given up. The surrender of arms and war-material followed by degrees, also the payment of the 200 million francs war-contribution imposed on the city.

But it was still doubtful if the party of "war to the bitter end" in Bordeaux would fall in with the arrangements made by the Paris Government, and whether the National a.s.sembly about to be convened would finally ratify the conditions of peace imposed by the conquerors. The necessary measures in case of the resumption of hostilities were therefore taken on the French as well as on the German side.

The distribution of the French forces at the establishment of the armistice was not favourable.

By General Faidherbe's advice the Army of the North was wholly disbanded, as being too weak to face the strength opposing it. After the XXIInd Corps had been transported by sea to Cherbourg, the Army of Brittany under General de Colomb was composed of it, the XXVIIth and part of the XIXth Corps, and, including Lipowski's volunteers, Cathelineau's and other details, its strength was some 150,000 men.

General Loysel with 30,000 ill-armed and raw Gardes-Mobiles remained in the trenches of Havre.

General Chanzy, after his retreat on Mayenne, had made a movement to the left, preparatory to a new operation with the IInd Army of the Loire from the Caen base, which, however, was never carried out. The XVIIIth, XXIst, XVIth, and XXVIth Corps stood between the lower Loire and the Cher from Angers to Chateauroux, in a strength of about 160,000 men strong, the XXVth under General Pourcet was at Bourges, and General de Pointe's Corps at Nevers. The Army of the Vosges had withdrawn southward of Chalons sur Saone, and the remains of the Army of the East a.s.sembled under General Cremer at Chambery as the XXIVth Corps.

The total of all the field-troops amounted to 534,452 men. The volunteers, even those most to be relied on, were dismissed, and the National Guard was designated as for the present "incapable of rendering any military service." In the depots, the camps of instruction, and in Algiers there were still 354,000 men, and 132,000 recruits were on the lists as the contingent for 1871, but had not yet been called up.

In case the war should be persisted in, a plan for limiting it to the defensive in the south-east of France was under consideration, for which, however, according to the report sent on February 8th by the Committee of Inquiry to the National a.s.sembly, scarcely more than 252,000 men in fighting condition were available. The fleet, besides, had given up so considerable a number of its men and guns for service on land, that it was no longer able for any great undertaking at sea.

On the German side the first consideration was to reinforce the troops to their full war-strength, and replenish the magazines.

The forts round Paris were at once armed on their fronts facing the enceinte. In and between these were 680 guns, 145 of which were captured French pieces; more than enough to keep the restless population under control. A part of the forces previously occupied in the siege, being no longer required, were removed, in order that the remaining troops should have better accommodation. Besides, it seemed desirable to strengthen the IInd Army, which had in its front the enemy's princ.i.p.al force. In consequence the IVth Corps marched to Nogent le Rotrou, the Vth to Orleans, and the IXth, relieved there, to Vendome; so that now the quarters of this army extended from Alencon to Tours, and up the Loire as far as Gien and Auxerre.

The Ist Army was in the north with the VIIIth Corps on the Somme, and the Ist on both sides of the Lower Seine; in the south the Army of the South occupied the line of demarcation from Baume to Switzerland, and the country in the rear.

At the end of February the German field-army on French soil consisted of:--

Infantry 464,221 men with 1674 guns.

Cavalry 55,562 horses.

Troops in garrison:--

Infantry 105,272 men with 68 guns.

Cavalry 5681 horses.

------- Total 630,736 men and 1742 guns.

Reserve forces remaining in Germany:--

3288 officers.

204,684 men.

26,603 horses.

Arrangements were so made, that in case of a recommencement of hostilities, the strongest resistance could be made at all points. The armistice had nearly reached its end, and the troops had already been more closely collected to be ready to take the initiative of the offensive towards the south, when the Chancellor of the Confederation announced the extension of the armistice to the 24th, which was again prolonged to midnight on the 26th.

Considerable difficulties had arisen from the differences of opinion with regard to the election of the National a.s.sembly, between the Government in Paris and the Delegation at Bordeaux. The Germans wished to see carried out the choice, not of a party, but of the whole nation, expressed by a free suffrage. But Gambetta had ruled, in violation of the conditions of the armistice, that all who after December 2nd, 1851, had held any position in the Imperial Government should be ineligible to vote. It was not till the Parisian Government had obtained a majority by sending several of its members to Bordeaux, and after the dictator had resigned on February 6th, that the elections proceeded quickly and unhindered.

The deputies duly a.s.sembled in Bordeaux by the 12th, the appointed day.

M. Thiers was elected chief of the executive, and went to Paris on the 19th with Jules Favre, determined to end the aimless war at any cost.

Negotiations for peace were opened, and after five days' vigorous discussion, when at last on the German side the concession to restore Belfort was made, the preliminaries were signed on the afternoon of the 26th.

France bound herself to give up in favour of Germany a part of Lorraine, and the province of Alsace with the exception of Belfort, and also to pay a war indemnity of five milliards of francs.