Battle of Sedan

“ He said that the success of the campaign against Sedan depended upon you doing your part."
"Well, I'll do it, never fear," said General Lejeune. "I've got one of the best fighting units in France, and there's not a man in it who's not dead anxious to get another chance at the Huns. You may take back word to General Rhodes for me, that I shall act in accordance with his wishes."
"If it is all the same to you, sir," said Chester with a slight smile, "we're not going back—not, at least, until the battle of Sedan is over." ”

“ For two hours, that is, between four and six o’clock, the front of battle swagged to and fro, for the French fought valiantly, and, by repeated forward rushes, compelled their pertinacious assailants to give, or repelled their energetic attempts to gain, ground. A German company would dash out from cover, and thrust the defenders to the rear; then, smitten in front and flank, it would recede, followed by the French, who, taken in flank by the opportune advent of a hostile group, would retreat to the woods, or the friendly shelter of a depression in the soil. ”

“ Away on the sloping flanks were armies of the Allies, numerically inferior but as full of fight as their opponents.” But the Germans had advanced further south than Creil for on the night of September 1 their patrols were in action at Senlis with an Infantry Brigade of the Allies.
It is curious to note that this quiet day was the forty-fourth anniversary of the battle of Sedan, when it was expected that the Germans would have made a desperate effort—sparing no sacrifices to repeat the triumph of 1870. ”

“ Then the German General struck in with emphasis, “I regret that I cannot do what you ask,” he said; “but as to making a sortie, that is just as impossible as the defence of Sedan. You have some excellent troops, but the greater part of your infantry is demoralized. To-day, during the battle, we captured more than twenty thousand unwounded prisoners. You have only eighty thousand men left. My troops and guns around the town would smash yours before they could make a movement ”

“ On this dreadful day, then, when three hundred thousand men in arms with all their artillery swelled like a flood against the little English company, there was one point above all other points in our battle line that was for a time in awful danger, not merely of defeat, but of utter annihilation. With the permission of the Censorship and of the military expert, this corner may, perhaps, be described as a salient, and if this angle were crushed and broken, then the English force as a whole would be shattered, the Allied left would be turned, and Sedan would inevitably follow. ”

“ It was nearly nine o'clock, and nothing in the aspect of Sedan now suggested that black shivering of a few hours previously, that lonesome, groping awakening amid the dense fog. At present an oppressive sun clearly outlined the shadows cast by the houses, and the paved streets were obstructed by an anxious crowd through which estafettes were continually galloping. The townsfolk clustered more particularly around the few unarmed soldiers who had already come in from the battle, some of them slightly wounded, others shouting and gesticulating, in an extraordinary state of nervous excitement. ”

“ Thousands of men were present twenty-five years ago at the celebrated cavalry charge during the battle of Sedan, and yet it is impossible, in the face of the most contradictory ocular testimony, to decide by whom it was commanded. ”

“ In the afternoon wrote another article on the ever-increasing instances of French officers breaking their parole and absconding from the places where they were interned, and returning to France to take service against us again. Over fifty of these cases have occurred up to the present. They include officers of all ranks, and even three generals—namely, Ducrot, Cambriel, and Barral. [p. 401] After the battle of Sedan we could have rendered the army that was shut up in that fortress harmless by destroying it. Humanity, however, and faith in their pledged word induced us to forgo that measure. ”

“ The French, aware that the battle was lost, had become panic-stricken, and getting completely out of the control of their officers, their retreat on Sedan was, in plain truth, the stampede of a thoroughly disorganised and routed army. It was a strange sight, and by no means easy to picture. A huge and miscellaneous collection of men, horses, and materials were jammed into a comparatively small space, all in the utmost disorder and confusion. Soldiers of every branch—cavalry, infantry, artillery—flung away their arms, or left them at different places, in stacks four or five feet high. ”

“ Sedan is a small old-fashioned fortress, lying in a depression between two ridges which converge in the plateau of Illy about 21/2 m. north-east of the town. The only part which its defences played, or might have played, in the ensuing battle lay in the strategic possibilities contained in the fine and roomy bridge-head of Torcy, covering an elbow bend of the Meuse whence the whole French army might have been hurled into the gap between the German III. and Meuse armies, had there been a Napoleon to conceive and to execute this plan. ”

“ Its fortifications were built long before any one had dreamt of the range of modern artillery, and it was dominated in every direction by high ground, from which a destructive fire could be poured without any possibility of replying to it with effectiveness. It was of no advantage whatever to the French army in any thing like an aggressive movement, and in case of a disaster, it was utterly useless as a rallying point for retreating troops. The position of MacMahon at Sedan was certainly not aggressive, and with any liberal use of the word it could hardly be called defensive. ”

“ Begun on Sunday, May 21st, the operations of the Versailles army were continued on Monday and Tuesday. The troops had been divided into five columns, which were to form a cordon round the city, and, attacking vigorously at certain points in the circumference, were gradually to concentrate so as to hem in the insurgents on all sides—the plan, in short, of the battle of Sedan{359} applied by Frenchmen to other Frenchmen. On Tuesday morning, May 23rd, the attack was begun. The Versailles troops were successful at all points ”

“ It has already been observed how terrible a visitation is the presence of a hostile army. Modern armies are not now small fractions of the population whence they are drawn; they represent, in fact are, whole nations in arms. After the battle of Sedan, notwithstanding the heavy losses she had suffered in the campaign, Germany had eight hundred thousand men on French soil. ”

“ Immediately the German fire ceased and the negotiations for surrender began. At first General De Wimpffen refused the terms offered, but on the next day, September 2d, he signed the capitulation of Sedan, and the whole army, including the emperor, who became a prisoner of war. In his interview with the king the emperor was downcast but dignified. From Sedan he was sent to the castle of Wilhelmshohe, near Cassel, and so ended his career as ruler of France. Two days later came the revolution in Paris, the overthrow of the empire, the flight of the empress, and the formation of the republic. ”

“ That this was scarcely true as regarded French regulars the annals of every battle of the Franco-German War up to and including Sedan conclusively show. It is true, however, that the French nature is intolerant of inactivity and in 1870 suffered under the deprivation of its métier; but how often the Germans recoiled from the shelter trenches of the Spicheren and gave ground all along the line from St. Privat to the Bois de Vaux, men who witnessed those desperate struggles cannot forget while they live. ”

“ Southeast of Sedan, and forming a suburb of it, is the village of Bazeilles. It is on the right bank of the Meuse, and on low ground. After passing Bazeilles to the north and east, we find ourselves on rising ground. The slope is at first gentle, but as we go toward the north it becomes steeper, and thus continues to the summits of the Ardennes, which are covered with wood. The broken ground on the north, where the battle was fought, embraces a deep valley or ravine that has steeply sloping sides, and a general direction from north to south. ”

“ He went into Sedan and brought out troops, and gathered up all he could from the errant fragments of a broken Army. With these he fell fiercely and unexpectedly upon the Bavarians in Balan; refused to suspend the fight when ordered by the Emperor to open negotiations with the enemy; and by degrees became master of all the village except one house. But he could not emerge and continue his onslaught, for the hostile artillery began to play on the village; reinforcements were brought up, arrangements were made to frustrate the ulterior aim of the French and recover the lost ground. ”

“ Just before the signing of the armistice on November 11, the Americans reached Sedan after fighting from September 26 over an almost impassable country with few roads and against the strongest forces the Germans could muster. For four years the Germans had been fortifying this part of the line in every possible way, for they realized the danger to them of a successful advance along the Meuse from Verdun to Sedan. The railroad through Mézières, Sedan, and Montmédy was called in a German order "our life artery." To cut it meant death to the German army. ”

“ You must have but one thought: to rescue France from the abyss into which it has been plunged by the Empire. There is no want of men: all that is wanting is determination, decision, and continuity in the execution of plans; what we have lost by the disgraceful capitulation of Sedan is arms. The whole of the resources of our nation had been directed upon Sedan, Metz, and Strasbourg ”

“ Seemed as if Paris were on verge of another triumphal entry by German forces: France on eve of a second Sedan.
To-day a more hurried retreat is daily accumulating speed. This time it is the invader who, in order to avoid final disaster, is racing back to the comparative safety of his own country, whilst French and British, elate with repeated victory, hang with uncomfortable closeness on his heels. ”

“ Destiny never hurries, but it always comes. At its hour, there it is. It allows years to pass by, and at the moment when men are least thinking of it, it appears. Of this character is the fatal, the unexpected catastrophe named Sedan. From time to time in History, Divine logic makes an onslaught. Sedan is one of those onslaughts.
Thus on the 1st of September, at five o'clock in the morning the world awoke under the sun, and the French army under the thunderbolt. ”

“ At a later period, when darkness had set in, MacMahon, seated at a bivouac fire, on the heights above Mouzon, sent for General Lebrun, and directed him to retreat, at once, upon Sedan, not by the highway, which was crowded with fugitives and wagons, but by cross roads leading upon Douzy. “We have had a bad time,” said the Marshal, “but the situation is not hopeless. At the most, the German Army before us cannot exceed in numbers sixty or seventy thousand men. If they attack us, so much the better; we shall be able, doubtless, to fling them into the Meuse.” ”

“ We had some wounded men in the theatre, Place de Turenne, down in Sedan; but the streets and squares were so densely crowded that it was with difficulty some of our staff could make their way to them. All were now burning with anxiety to know whether the French would surrender, or hostilities be resumed on the morrow. A continuance of the struggle, as we felt, would mean that some hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, and ourselves along with them, were to be buried in the ruins of Sedan. ”

“ He made several futile attempts to break through the investing army, that of 31 Aug. to 1 Sept. proving very disastrous. After the capitulation of Sedan he renewed these attempts (7, 8 Oct.) to escape from Metz, and then tried to negotiate with the Germans at Versailles through his adjutant, Gen. ”

“ Soon after taking command, De Wimpffen, riding out of the Fond de Givonne, came plump upon Napoleon as he watched the fight near Balan. “All goes well, Sire,” said the General; “we are gaining ground;” and when His Majesty remarked that the left, meaning the front towards St. Menges, was threatened, the General replied, “We shall first pitch the Bavarians into the Meuse, and then, with all our forces, fall upon the new foe.” They parted, the Emperor returning to Sedan, whence he did not emerge again that day, and the General careering towards the fight. ”

“ After the disaster of Sedan, when the enemy’s columns were marching without obstacle against a Paris shorn of troops, materials and munitions of war,—lacking everything that might allow of further resistance—everyone thought that the war4 was finished, that the defeat of France was consummated, and that resistance, even for a day, would be absolutely impossible. ”

“ While the Germans were making their frontal attacks, large bodies of their cavalry, infantry, and artillery were sweeping round both flanks, and the new Sedan was hourly expected. Unless the whole British force was to be wiped out, it must retreat ”

“ This disaster of Sedan was easy of avoidance by any other man, but impossible of avoidance for Louis Bonaparte. He avoided it so little that he sought it. Lex fati.
Our army seemed expressly arranged for the catastrophe. The soldier was uneasy, ignorant of his whereabouts, famished. On the 31st of August, in the streets of Sedan, soldiers were seeking their regiments, and going from door to door asking for bread. We have seen the Emperor's order announcing the next day, September 1st, as a day of rest. In truth the army was worn out with fatigue. ”