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THE ORLEANS CAMPAIGN OF
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THE See also: Bavarian corps, which had also to See also:act as the reserve of the III. See also:Army, and the cavalry divisions (6th, 4th, 2nd), whose See also:chief See also:work was the collection of supplies for the besiegers. Shortly after this, near the end of September, francs-tireurs and small parties of National See also:Guards became very active in See also:Beauce, See also:Perche and Gatinais, and the German 4th cavalry division between ):tampes and Toury was reinforced by some Bavarian battalions in consequence. But no important assemblies of See also:French troops were noted, and indeed Orleans was twice evacuated on the See also:mere rumour of the German advance. See also:Moltke and every other German soldier gave no See also:credence to rumours of the formation of a 15th corps behind the Loire—See also:Trochu himself disbelieved in its existence—and the cavalry divisions, with their See also:infantry supports, went about their See also:ordinary business of gathering supplies. In reality, however, the Delegation, unready as were its troops, was on the point of taking the offensive. In deference to popular clamour, a show of force in Beauce was decided upon. This was carried out by a force of all arms under Reyau on the 5th of October. It succeeded only too well. See also:Prince See also:Albert of See also:Prussia, See also:commander of the 4th cavalry division, which engaged Reyau at Toury, was so much impressed that he gave back 20 m. and sent alarming reports to army headquarters, which thereupon lost its incredulity and announced in army orders that the French " Army of the Loire " was advancing from Orleans. Von der Tann, the commander of the I. Bavarian corps, was ordered to take up a defensive position at Montlhery and to send out a detachment to See also:cover Prince Albert's See also:retreat. The 22nd infantry division was added to his command, and the 2nd and 6th cavalry divisions warned to protect his flanks. Thus the Germans were led to pay See also:attention to the existence of the 15th corps when that corps was not only itself incomplete but also unsupported by the 16th, 17th and other still merely potential formations. The preparations of the Germans were superfluous, for the demonstration ended in nothing. Reyau See also:drew away leisurely towards See also:Fontainebleau See also:forest, and only a part of the 15th corps was sent up from See also:Bourges to Orleans. Further, the fears of a sortie from Paris, which had occupied the German headquarters for some time, having for a moment ceased, Moltke on the 7th ordered von der Tann, with the I. Bavarian corps, 22nd division, and the three cavalry divisions, to advance. Next See also:day these orders See also:expanded. Orleans and, if possible, Tours itself were to be captured. The See also:punishment for the military See also:promenade in Beauce was at See also:hand. The See also:main See also:body of the 15th corps, which had not been required to take part in it, was kept back at Bourges First and See also:Vierzon, and only the See also:miscellaneous troops cure of o%a s. actually in Beauce were available to meet the See also:blow they had provoked. On the loth von der Tann at- tacked Reyau, who had returned from Fontainebleau towards Orleans, at Artenay. Had it not been that von der Tann believed that the 15th corps was in front of him, and therefore attacked deliberately and carefully, Reyau's resistance would have been even more brief than it was. The French were enormously outnumbered, and, after a brave resistance, were driven towards Orleans in See also:great disorder. Being still without any real offensive intentions, the Delegation and La Motte-Rouge decided, the same night, to evacuate Orleans. On the 1th, therefore, von der Tann's advance had to See also:deal with no more than a strong rearguard on the outskirts of Orleans. But he was no longer on the See also:plain of Beauce; villas, hedges and vineyards, as well as the outskirts of the great forest of Orleans, gave excellent cover to the French infantry, all of which showed steadiness and some battalions true heroism, and the attack See also:developed so slowly that the final positions of the defenders were not forced till See also:close upon nightfall. The Germans lost at least moo men, and the See also:harvest of prisoners proved to be no more than 1 Soo. So far from pressing on to Tours, the Germans were well content with the occupation of Orleans. The defeated enemy disappeared into See also:Sologne, whither the assail-ants could not follow. Rumours of all sorts began to assail the German commander, who could not collect reliable See also:news by means of the agencies under his own See also:control because of the fluctuating but dense cordon of mobiles and francs-tireurs all around him. Moltke and See also:Blumenthal wished him to strike out southward towards the arsenals of Bourges, the depots of vehicles at See also:Chateauroux and the improvised government offices at Tours. But he represented that he could not maintain himself nine or ten See also:marches away from his nearest supports, and he was therefore allowed to stay at Orleans. The 22nd division and the 4th cavalry division, however, were withdrawn from him, and under these conditions von der Tann became uneasy as to his prospects of retaining even Orleans. His uneasiness was emphasized by reports of the See also:appearance of heavy masses of French troops on the Loire above and below Orleans—reports that were true as regards the side of See also:Blois, and more or less false as regards the See also:Gien country. This news was obtained by the III. Army headquarters on the 19th of October, and next day von der Tann was ordered " not to abandon Orleans unless threatened by a greatly See also:superior force." Such a See also:threat soon became pronounced. A new directing See also:influence was at work at Tours in the See also:person of See also:Leon See also:Gambetta, who arrived there by See also:balloon from Paris and took control of the Delegation on the 11th. With de See also:Freycinet (who was appointed See also:deputy See also:minister of war) as his most valued assistant, Gambetta at once became not merely the See also:head of the government in the provinces, but the actual director of the war, in virtue of the fact that he was the very incarnation of the spirit of resistance to the invader. De la Motte-Rouge was replaced at the head of the 15th corps by General d'Aurelle de Paladines, under whom at the same time the embryo 16th corps was placed. The new commander with practically dictatorial See also:powers occupied himself first of all with the organization and training of his See also:motley troops. The Delegation indeed planned an advance from Gien on Fontainebleau, but this was given up on d'Aurelle's representations, and the 15th corps drew back to a strong position at Salbris in front of The See also:Camp Bourges. There by dint of See also:personal ascendancy, relent- of Salbris. less drilling and a few severe courts-See also:martial, d'Aurelle produced an enormous improvement in the quality of his troops. Gambetta reinforced the troops at Salbris to the figure of 60,000, for the camp there was not merely a rendezvous but a school, the See also:atmosphere of which profoundly affected even troops that only spent three or four days within its See also:bounds. Meantime the 16th corps was formed at Blois and See also:Vendome, covered by a See also:screen of francs-tireurs and National Guards. On October 23 a large force was sent over to the 16th corps from Salbris. This step was the first in a new See also:plan of campaign. A few days before it was taken, there had occurred an incident which led Moltke to a fresh misunderstanding of the situation towards the Loire. As mentioned above, the 22nd infantry and 4th cavalry divisions had been withdrawn from das. von der Tann's command and ordered back to Paris, and on their way thither they were told to clear the country See also:round See also:Chateaudun and See also:Chartres. General von Wittich, therefore, with the 22nd division and some cavalry, appeared before Chateaudun on the 18th of October. The little See also:town was strongly held and repulsed the first attack. Wittich then prepared a second See also:assault so carefully that sunset was at hand when it was made. It would seem indeed that at this See also:period, when the Germans were hoping for a speedy return to their fatherland, the spirit of the offensive in all ranks had temporarily died away. The assailants carried the edge of the town, only to find themselves involved in a painful struggle in the streets. See also:House-to-house fighting went on long after dark, but at last the inhabitants gave way, and the Germans punished the town for its unconventional resistance by subjecting it to what was practically a See also:sack.' After this von Wittich passed on to Charters, which, making his preparations more carefully, he was able to occupy after a few shells had been fired. These events, and the presence of a French force at See also:Dreux, as a See also:matter of fact signified nothing, for the 15th and 16th corps were still on the Loire and at Salbris, but they In 1879 the government added the See also:cross of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour to the town arms of Chateaudun. bewildered the German headquarters and conjured up a phantom " Army of the West," just as the promenade in Beauce had fashioned " the Army of the Loire " out of the small force under Reyau. Once more, indeed, as so often in the war, the Germans tried to solve the French problem by German data, and in their devotion to the See also:net See also:idea of " full See also:steam ahead," could not conceive of military activity being spasmodic or unaimed. But this time the See also:Versailles strategists were wrong only in their guess as to the direction of the blow. A blow was certainly impending.
By now the deliverance of Paris had become the defined See also:objective of the " new formations " and of the provincial Delegation. Many plans were discussed, both at Paris and at Tours, for a combined effort, but each strategist had to convince the See also:rest of the soundness of his own views, and the interchange of See also:information and plans between Trochu and Gambetta was necessarily See also:precarious. In the end, however, a few clear principles were accepted—Paris must be relieved, not merely revictualled, and the troops must be set in See also:motion with that object at the earliest possible moment. For 200,000 French regulars were closely invested in Metz by Prince See also:Frederick See also: Between Montlhery and Chartres were 21,000 more; but these were paralysed by the fictitious " Western Army " of the French, and von W ittich even thought of obtaining assistance from von der Tann. The activity of the irregulars, and the defiant attitude of the See also:civil See also:population everywhere, presaged a blow to be delivered by the once despised " new formations," but the direction of this blow was misconceived by the German headquarters, by the See also:staff of the III. Army and by von der Tann alike, till the See also:eve of its delivery. The See also:halt of the French army allowed this uneasiness to grow, and, in See also:default of a See also:target, Moltke was unable to assign a definite task to the II. Army, now on its way from Metz. One of its corps, therefore, was sent to the lines before Paris to See also:release the 17th and 22nd infantry divisions from siege duties, and these, with the I. Bavarian corps and the 2nd, 4th and 6th cavalry divisions, were constituted into a See also:special detachment of the III. Army, under See also:Friedrich See also:Franz, See also:grand See also:duke of See also:Mecklenburg-See also:Schwerin. The duke was ordered to cover the siege of Paris and to break up the " new formations," but he was directed, not towards Orleans or even Tours, but towards Le Mans, concentrating with that object between Chateaudun and Chartres. D'Aurelle, if cautious and slow, at least employed spare time well. The 16th corps was disciplined to the See also:standard attained by the 15th and See also:Chanzy was placed at the head of it, General Fiereck, commanding at Le Mans, was ordered to attract the enemy's See also:notice to the west by demonstrations, the defence of localities by irregulars was thoroughly organized, and in the first days of See also:November, on de Freycinet's demand, the general advance was resumed. There was a difference of See also:opinion between d'Aurelle and Chanzy as to the objective, the latter wishing to make the main effort by the left, so as to cut off the Bavarians from Paris, the former, to make it by the right with a view to recapturing Orleans, and, as on the German side at See also:Gravelotte, a compromise was made whereby the army was deployed in equal force all along the line. The debut was singularly encouraging. Part of the German 2nd cavalry division, with its infantry supports, was severely handled
I0
by the French advanced guard near the See also:hamlet of St See also:Laurent See also:des Bois (November 8). The See also:half-heartedness of the Germans, evidenced by the number of prisoners taken unwounded, greatly encouraged the " new formations," who cheerfully submitted to a See also:cold See also:bivouac in anticipation of victory. Next See also:morning the advance was resumed, d'Aurelle with the 15th corps on the right wing, Chanzy with the 16th on the left and Reyau's cavalry to the front. The See also: The result was foregone, given the Battle of disparity of force, but the erratic movements of Reyau's Battle of s cavalry on the extreme left of d'Aurelle's line exposed Chanzv to a partial repulse and saved the Bavarian right. When at last the French stormed Coulmiers, and von der 'I'See also:ann had begun to retire, it was already nightfall, and the exhausted remnant of the I. Bavarian corps was able to draw off unpursued. The Orleans garrison followed suit, and the French army, gathering in its two outlying columns from Sologne and Gien, reoccupied the city. So ended the first blow of the See also:Republic's armies. Coulmiers would indeed have been a crushing victory had Reyau's cavalry performed its part in the See also:scheme and above all had d'Aurelle, adopting unreservedly either his own plan or Chanzy's, massed his troops here, economized them there, in accordance with the plan, instead of arraying them in equal strength at all points. But d'Aurelle wished above all to avoid what is now called a " regrettable incident " —hence his advance across country en bataille—and to thin out his line at any point might have been disastrous. And incomplete as it was, the victory had a moral significance which can scarcely be overrated. The " new formations ' had won the first battle, and it was confidently hoped by all patriots that the spell of defeat was broken. But d'Aurelle and the government viewed their success from the standpoint of their own side, and while von der Tann, glad to See also:escape from the See also:trap, See also:fell back quickly to Angerville, d'Aurelle's only fear was an offensive return. Not even when von der Tann's defensive intentions were established did d'Aurelle resume the advance. The columns from Gien and the Sologne peacefully reoccupied Orleans; while the victors of Coulmiers went into cold and muddy bivouacs See also:north of the city, for d'Aurelle feared that their See also:dispersion in comfortable quarters would weaken the newly forged links of discipline. The French general knew that he had only put his hand to the plough, and he thought that before ploughing In See also:earnest he must examine and overhaul his See also:implement. In this opinion he was supported not only by soldiers who, like Chanzy, distrusted the staying See also:power of the men, but even by the government, which knew that the limit of the capital's resistance was still distant, and See also:felt the See also:present vital See also:necessity of protecting Bourges, Chateauroux and Tours from Prince Frederick Charles, who with the II. Army was now approaching from the See also:east. The plan of General See also:Borel, the chief of staff, for a lateral displacement of the whole army towards Chartres and Dreux, which would have left the prince without an animate target and concentrated the largest possible force on the weakest point of Moltke's position, but would have exposed the arsenals of the south, was rejected, and d'Aurelle organized a large fortified camp of instruction to the north of the captured city, to which came, beside the 15th and 16th corps, the new 17th and 18th. To return to the Germans. An army at the halt, screened by active irregulars, is invisible, and the German commanders were Berman again at a loss. It has been mentioned that a day or two before the battle of Coulmiers Moltke had created an plans Army Detachment under the grand duke of Mecklenburg after for operations south of Paris. His See also:objects in so doing Coulmiers. must now be briefly summarized. On November theist. he had written to the II. Army to the effect that " the south of France would hardly make great efforts for Paris," and that the three disposable corps of the army were to range over the country as far as Chalon-sur-See also:Saone, See also:Nevers and Bourges. By the 7th his views had so far changed that he sanctioned the formation of the " Detachment " with a view to breaking up the Army of the Loire by a march into the west towards Le Mans, the right wing of the II. Army at the same time hurrying on to Fontainebleau to cover the south side of the Paris investment. The See also: The adventures of the Detachment need not be traced in detail. It moved first north towards the line Mantes-Dreux, and delivered a blow in the See also:air. Then, hoping to find a target towards Nogent le See also:Rotrou, it swung round so as to See also:face Move-south-west. Everywhere it met with the sharpest resist- '°I" f ance from small parties, nowhere it found a large body the De- of all arms to attack. Matters were made worse by staff tachment. blunders in the duke's headquarters, and on the 19th, after a day of indescribable confusion, he had to halt to sort out his divisions. Moltke gave him the rest day he asked for the more readily as he was beginning to suspect that the king was right, that there were considerable forces still at Orleans, and that the Detachment might be wanted there after all. This alteration in his views had been brought about by the reports from the II. Army during its advance from See also:Champagne to the Gatinais. At the time of the first order indicating Chalon, Advance Nevers and Bourges as its objectives this army had just See also:vance opened out into line from its circular position round Ad Metz, and it therefore naturally faced south. Moving Army. forward, it reached the line See also:Troyes-See also:Neufchateau about the time Coulmiers was fought, and was ordered to send in its right (IX. corps) to Fontainebleau. The II. corps had already been taken to strengthen the besiegers, thereby releasing the two Prussian divisions (17th and 22nd) that joined von der Tann on the loth. The II. Army next changed front, in accordance with Moltke's directions, so as to face S.E. towards Orleans and Gien, and on the 16th the IX. corps and 1st cavalry division were at Mereville and on the Orleans-Paris road, the III. at See also:Sens and the X. at See also:Tonnerre. The III. and X. from this time onward marched, camped and slept in the midst of a population so hostile that von Voigts-Rhetz kept his baggage in the midst of the fighting troops, and Prince Frederick Charles himself, with an escort, visited the villages lying off the main roads to See also:gauge for himself the See also:temper of the inhabitants. From prisoners it was gleaned that the French 18th corps, supposed by the Germans to be forming in the See also:Dijon-See also:Lyons region, had arrived on the Loire, and a deserter said that there were 40,000 men encamped at Chevilly, just north of Orleans. Moltke's faith in his own See also:reading of the situation was at last shaken; whether the Army of the Loire had joined the Army of the West or was still on the Loire, he did not yet know, but it was almost certain that from wherever they came, considerable French forces were around Orleans. He warned the prince to check the southward swing of the X. corps " because it cannot yet be foreseen whether the whole army will not have to be employed towards Chateaudun and Orleans," and turned to the Detachment for further information, cautioning the grand duke at the same time.to keep touch with the II. Army. But, ignoring the hint, the grand duke, thinking that he had at last brought the elusive " Army of the West " to See also:bay in the broken ground round Nogent-le-Rotrou, opened out, in accordance with German strategic principles, for a double envelopment of the enemy. See also:lie struck another blow in the air. The " Army of the West " had never really existed as an army, and its best-organized units had been sent back to join the new2lst corps at Le Mans ere the Detachment came into See also:action at all, while the older mobiles continued the " small war " in front of the Germans, and sniped their sentries and trapped their patrols as before. Almost simultaneously with the news of this disappointment, the prince, who had meanwhile used his cavalry vigorously, sent word to Versailles on the loth that the French 15th, 16th, 17th and See also:Pith corps (in all over 150,000 men) were round Orleans. At this moment the III. corps was close to the Forest of Orleans, the IX. corps away to the right See also:rear at Angerville, and the X. equally distant to the south-east, as well as separated in three self-contained columns a day's march apart. It seemed as if another Vionville was at hand, but this time See also:Alvensleben and Voigts-Rhetz did not attack an obscure objective collie que collie. They stood fast, by the prince's order, to close up for battle and to wait on events in front of the Detachment. The Germans had now discovered their target, and their strategical See also:system, uncomplicated by past nightmares, should have worked smoothly to a decisive result. But there was nearly as much See also:con-See also:fusion between the various high See also:officers as before. Prince Frederick Charles, in See also:possession of the facts and almost in contact with the enemy, wrote to the grand duke to say that the II. Army was about to attack the enemy, and to suggest that the Detachment, which he knew to be heading for Le Mans, should make a " diversion " in his favour towards Tours, reserving to himself and his own army, as on the 2nd of See also:July 1866 before See also:Koniggratz, the perils and the honours of the battle. The grand duke meanwhile, whose temper was now roused, was making a last attempt to bring the phantom " Army of the West " to action. Rejecting Blumenthal's somewhat timidly worded See also:advice to go slowly, the grand duke spread out his forces for the last time for an enveloping advance on Le Mans. 1-Ie had not gone far when, on the 23rd, he received a See also:peremptory order from the king, through the III. Army headquarters, to bring back his forces to Beauce and to be on the See also:middle oire The T tachment at latest by the 26th. In vain he pleaded for a day to ordered close up; the king replied that the march must go on, towards for much depended on it. Moltke, in fact, had seized Orleans. the reins more firmly at the See also:critical moment, and given directions to the army commanders that the II. Army and the Detachment were to make a combined and concerted attack as soon as possible after the 26th. By that date the last brigades of the II. Army would have come up, and the Detachment was to time its own march accordingly. Yet even at this step Blumenthal, the original author of the Western expedition, in transmitting the king's order to the grand duke, assigned not Orleans but Beaugency, some See also:miles down the See also:river, as the objective of the Detachment. D'Aurelle meanwhile had resolutely maintained his policy of inaction, confirmed in that course by the miserable and ill-equipped French See also:condition of the troops that came from the east and the west to double the numbers of the relatively well-discipplans. lined army of Coulmiers. In the grand duke's move to the west, d'Aurelle saw only a trap to lure him into the plains and to offer him up as a victim to the approaching II. Army, the force of which he at first greatly exaggerated. All this time Gambetta and de Freycinet were receiving messages from Paris that spoke of desperate sorties being planned, and assigned December 15th as the last day of resistance. On the 19th of November de Freycinet wrote to d'Aurelle urging him to See also:form a plan of active operations without delay, and even suggesting one (which was, in fact, vicious), but in reply the general merely promised to study the civilian's scheme. A severe See also:letter from Gambetta, which followed this, had no better effect. D'Aurelle had, in fact, become a pessimist, and the Delegation, instead of removing him, merely suggested fresh plans. On the 24th, however, the French at last took the offensive, in the direction of Fontainebleau Forest, to co-operate with the great sortie from Paris which was now definitely arranged. But owing to d'Aurelle's objections, the first orders were modified so far that on attaining the points ordered, Chilleurs (15th corps) Boiscommun-See also:Bellegarde (2oth), the troops were to await the order to advance. Shortly afterwards the 18th corps from Gien was ordered to advance on the line See also:Montargis-Ladon. The rest of d'Aurelle's huge army was scarcely affected by these movements. Meanwhile Prince Frederick Charles, to clear up the situation, had pushed out strong reconnaissances of all arms from the front of the II. Army, and these naturally developed strong forces of the defenders. The advanced tro9ps of the X. corps had severe engagements with fractions of the loth corps at Ladon and Maizieres, and those of the III. corps were sharply repulsed at See also:Neuville and drew the See also:fire of several battalions and batteries at Artenay. The French offensive slowly developed on the 25th and 26th, for the Germans were not ready to advance, and in addition greatly puzzled. The erratic movements of the grand duke towards Le Mans before he was recalled to the Loire had seriously disquieted both the Delegation and d'Aurelle, and the 17th corps, under a young and energetic leader, de Sonis, was moved restlessly hither and thither in the country south and west of Chateaudun. A fight at Brou (to m. W. of See also:Bonneval) provoked the grand duke into another false move. This time the Detachment, then near Droue (12 m. W. of Chateaudun) and Authon (22 m. W. of Bonneval), swung round north-east in See also:defiance of the order to go to Beaugency, and had to be brought back by the drastic method of placing it under the orders of Prince Frederick Charles. General von Stosch of the headquarters staff was at the same time sent to act as Moltke's representative with the duke's headquarters, and Lieut.-See also:Colonel von See also:Waldersee to Prince Frederick Charles's to See also:report thence direct to the king, who was dissatisfied with the diluted information with which the various staff offices furnished him. Still, the upshot was that Prince Frederick Charles was entrusted with affairs on the Loire, and allsuperior control was. voluntarily surrendered. The prince had very clear ideas, at the outset, of the task before him. If the French advanced towards Fontainebleau or elsewhere, he expected to be able to repeat See also:Napoleon's See also:strategy of 1814, fighting ederlck containing actions with the IX. and X. corps and delivering blow after blow at different points on d'Aurelle's line general of march with the III. If the French, as seemed more command. likely, stood fast, he thought his task more formidable, and therefore, abandoning the idea of a strategic envelopment, he ordered the Detachment inwards with the intention of directly attacking the Orleans position from the north-west. As regards the method of the offensive, there is herein no material advance on the prince's first scheme; the detachment is simply added to the forces making the attack, and the diversion on Tours is abandoned. But the prince was at any See also:rate a leader who enjoyed the responsibilities of director of operations—he even said that he would find the See also:shuttle-See also:play of the III. corps alluded to above " an interesting novelty in his experience of Army command "—while at the same time the unfortunate d'Aurelle was asking the Delegation to give orders direct to his generals. It was now November 27th. The Versailles headquarters were in a See also:state of intense See also:nervous exaltation waiting for the sortie of 70,000 men that was daily expected to be launched at the investing line, and the king's parting words to von Waldersee indicate sufficiently the gravity of the decision that was now entrusted to the most resolute troop-leader in the service: " We are on the eve of a decisive moment. I know well that my troops are better than the French, but that does not deceive me into supposing that we have not a crisis before us. . . . If Prince Frederick Charles is beaten, we must give up the investment of Paris. . . . " The II. Army was waiting events on a dangerously extended front from Toury on the Paris-Orleans road (which the prince still thought it his See also:duty to cover) to See also:Beaune-la-Rolande. The Detachment, which never yet had concentrated See also:save to deliver blows in the air, was approaching Chateaudun and Bonneval when von Stosch arrived and gave it the encouragement, the reforms in the staff work and the rest-day it needed. The French, who themselves had suffered from over-See also:extension, had by now condensed on the extreme right. In these general conditions the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande took place—an engagement almost as See also:honourable to Voigts-Rhetz and the X. corps as Vionville to Alvensleben and the III. The French attack began See also:early on the morning of the 28th, under command of General Crouzat. It was directed on Beaune-la-Rolande from three sides, and only the want of See also:combination between the various units of the French and the arrival in the afternoon of part of the III. corps /aeaune- g saved the X. from annihilation. As it was, the Germans 12o/ande. engaged were utterly exhausted, and the X. corps had but three rounds of See also:ammunition per See also:man left. But the magnificent resistance of the men of Vionville prolonged the fight until night had fallen and Crouzat, thinking the battle lost, ordered his troops to evacuate the battlefield. As at Coulmiers, and with even more deplorable results, the French commander saw only the confusion in his own lines, and feared to See also:hazard the issue of the campaign on the mere supposition that the enemy was even more exhausted. There was another resemblance, too, between Coulmiers and Beaune-la-Rolande, in that the French forces on the outer flank towards Artenay stood idle without attempting to influence the decision. Prince Frederick Charles himself took only a cursory survey of the battlefield, and failed to realize that the whole of the enemy's right wing had been engaged, in spite of what Waldersee, who had been in Beaune, told him of events there. So far, therefore, from considering the battle as a great victory to be followed up by an energetic pursuit, he still feared a move round his left flank from Gien and Montargis towards Fontainebleau. The II. Army orders issued on the night of the battle actually had in view a farther ex-tension eastward. Beaune-la-Rolande was a French defeat without being a German victory, and for the fact that it was a defeat, not a mere check, there was no cause but Crouzat's impressions of the state of the loth corps, which, composed as it was of the newest levies in his army, was the most susceptible of unreasoning bravery and unreasoning depression. In view of this, d'Aurelle and de Freycinet decided that the offensive was to be continued not towards Beaune-See also:Nemours, but from the front of the steadier 15th and 16th corps towards See also:Pithiviers, and with that object, on the 29th—a day of inaction for the Germans —the 18th and loth corps began to close on the centre. There was See also:sharp fighting on the 30th at various points along the north-eastern and eastern fringes of the Forest of Orleans, in which for the most part the French were successful. On the 29th the II. Army was inactive in spite of almost frantic appeals from Versailles to go forward (the great sortie from Paris had begun), and the Detachment, in accordance with the prince's orders and not with the views held by von Stosch, headed eastward to prolong the right of the II. Army, halting on the 29th in the See also:area Orgeres-Toury. The prince's See also:message to the grand duke contained the significant phrase, " my plans to drive the enemy out of Orleans "—he no longer thought of a strategical envelopment of the Army of the Loire in Orleans. Disillusioned during the 3oth as to the supposed danger on the side of Montargis, he closed from both wings towards the centre, but still defensively and well clear of the edge of the dangerous forest. 292 On this day d'Aurelle and the French generals assembled to receive de Freycinet's orders for the next advance. The 18th and 20th corps were to attack Beaune-la-Rolande, the 15th and 16th Pithiviers, while the 17th, aided by the 21st from Le Mans, was to look after the See also:security of Orleans against a possible southward advance of the Detachment. A See also:wise modification was arranged between d'Aurelle and Chanzy, whereby the first day's operations should be directed to See also:driving away the Detachment with the 17th and 16th corps, preparatory to the move on Pithiviers. On the 1st of December, then, no events of importance took place on the front Advance of of the II. Army, the centre of gravity having shifted to Orgeres-Toury and the direction of events to the grand the French duke and Stosch. Fortunately for the Germans the left wing. cavalry general von See also:Schmidt, who had been called upon to return to the II. Army with his division, managed to impress Stosch, in a farewell interview, with the imminence of the danger, and a still more urgent See also:argument was the action of Villepion-Terminiers, in which Chanzy with one infantry and one cavalry division attacked part of the I. Bavarian corps and drove it to Orgeres with a loss of moo men. Von Stosch, therefore, so far from literally obeying the waiting policy indicated in the orders from Prince Frederick Charles, cautiously led the grand duke to prepare for a battle, and the grand duke, seeing the See also:chance of which he had been cheated so often, and secure in his royal See also:rank and in the support of Moltke, Stosch and Blumenthal, took control again. Lastly, von Stosch called back the 22nd division, which had been taken from the Detachment to form the reserve of the II. Army. The result of the decision thus made at the Detachment head-quarters was of the highest importance. The French main body Battle of moving north-westward in the general direction of Toury Loigny- encountered first the I. Bavarian corps, then the 17th Poupry. division, and finally the 22nd division, and the leadership of the German generals, who took every See also:advantage of the disconnected and spasmodic movements of the enemy, secured a See also:complete success (battle of Loigny-Poupry, 2nd Dec.). Mean-while, and long before victory had declared itself, Prince Frederick Charles, still keeping the III. and X. corps on the side of Boiscommun and Bellegarde, had sent the IX. corps westward to support the Detachment, and halted von Schmidt's returning cavalry division on the Paris road. But from this point there began an interchange of telegrams which almost nullified the strategical effect of the battle. The grand duke and von Stosch, desirous above all of enveloping—that is, driving into Orleans—the target that after so many disappointments they had found and struck, wished to expand westwards so as to prevent the escape of the French towards Chateaudun, and with that object asked the II. Army " to attack Artenay and to take over the protection of the great road." Both von Stosch and von Waldersee had reported to the II. Army the importance of the French troops west of the main road, and Prince Frederick Charles, as above mentioned, had already moved the IX. corps and 6th cavalry division towards the Detachment. But when after the battle the grand duke's See also:request to the II. Army arrived at the prince's headquarters, the reply was a curt general order for a direct concentric attack on Orleans by all forces under his command. This was Moltke's doing. Before Waldersee's telegrams from the front arrived at Versailles, he had sent to the prince a peremptory order " to attack Orleans and thus to bring about the decision." This order was based on Moltke's view that the main body of the French had, after Beaune-la-Rolande, gathered on the west side of the great road, and although the king, in spite of the repulse of the great sortie from Paris, was still uneasy as to the possibility of a French offensive on Fontainebleau, he allowed the chief of his staff to have his way. The order, consequently, went forth. Long before it could be translated into action, the battle of Loigny-Poupry had completely changed the situation. Yet it was obeyed, and no attempt was made by the prince either to obtain its cancellation or to override it by the exercise of the beloved " initiative." At the prince's headquarters it was construed as a reflection upon the lethargy of that army after Beaune-la-Rolande, and—although it was the incompleteness of his own reports of that action that had misled Moltke as to the magnitude of the effort that had been expended to win it—the prince, bitterly resentful, fell into that dangerous condition of mind which induces a punctilious See also:execution of orders to the letter, at whatever cost and without regard to circumstances. Hence the order to the Detachment, which allowed the French See also: On the main road, meantime, the IX. corps had captured a series of villages, and at nightfall of the short December day reached the N.W. corner of the Forest. The Detachment, slowly pushing before it part of the army it had defeated at Loigny, and protecting itself on the outer flank by a flank guard (I. Bavarians) against the rest, had closed in towards Chevilly. Prince Frederick Charles, angered by the slow, painful and indecisive day's work, ordered the advance to be continued and the French positions about Chevilly stormed in the dark, but fortunately was dissuaded by von Stosch, wh'o rode over to his headquarters. But the prince never (except perhaps for a brief moment during the battle of Loigny-Poupry) believed that there was any serious obstacle in the way of the Detachment except its own fears, and repeatedly impressed upon Stosch the fact that Orleans was the watchword and the objective for every one. In pursuance of the idee fixe, the prince issued orders for the 4th to the following effect: III. corps to advance on Orleans and to " bring See also:artillery into action against the city," at the same time carefully guarding his left flank; IX. and 6th cavalry division to go forward along the general line of the main road; Detachment to make an enveloping attack on Gidy in See also:concert with the attack of the IX. corps. In the forest Alvensleben, knowing that he could not capture Orleans single-handed, guarded his left with a whole division and with the other advanced on the city, stormed the See also:village of Vaumainbert, which was stubbornly defended by a small French force, and close upon nightfall perfunctorily threw a few shells into Orleans. The flank-guard division had meanwhile been gravely imperilled by the advance of Crouzat's loth corps, but once again the III. corps was miraculously saved, for Bourbaki, receiving word from d'Aurelle that the left group could not hold its position in advance of the Loire, and that the line of retreat of the right group was by Gien, ordered the fight to be broken off. In the centre the IX. corps, after fighting hard all day, progressed no farther than Cercottes. The prince and the grand duke had a short interview, but, being personal enemies, their inter- Second course was confined to the prince's issuing his orders Battle of without inquiring closely into the positions of the Detach- orleans. ment and its opponents. Thus while the main body of the French left group, under the determined Chanzy, slipped away to the left, to continue the struggle for three months longer, the Detachment was compelled to conform to the movements of the IX. corps. But it was handled resolutely, and in the afternoon its right swung in to Ormes. The 2nd cavalry division, finding a target and open ground, charged the demoralized defenders with great effect, a panic began and spread, and by nightfall, when the prince, who was with the IX. corps, had actually given up See also:hope of capturing Orleans that day and had issued orders to suspend the fight, his See also:rival and subordinate was marching into Orleans with bands playing and See also:colours flying. There was no pursuit, and the severed wings of the French army thenceforward carried on the campaign as two See also:separate armies under Chanzy and Bourbaki respectively. See F. Hoenig, Volkskrieg an der, Loire, and L. A. See also:Hale, The See also:People's War, besides general and special histories and See also:memoirs referred to in FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. (C. F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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