Elliot-Wright - Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870

Campaign 21

Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870

End of the Second Empire

Philipp Elliot-Wright

Series editor Lee Johnson Consultant editor David G Chandler

The Battle of GravelotteSt-Privat, fought on Thursday 18 August 1870, marked the conclusion of the opening campaign of the Franco-Prussian War. It had commenced with the fall of Saarbrcken to the French on 2 August 1870, but had ended with the main French field army under Marshal Bazaine blockaded in the fortress city of Metz. The intervening period had seen the apparently invincible armies of Germanys General Moltke sweeping across north-eastern France, inflicting defeat after defeat on the forces of Imperial France. The conclusion drawn by most contemporaries and many subsequent commentators was that it was the inevitable victory of a professionally led conscript army over the amateurism of a traditional long-service army. Further, the campaign established the first claim to military posterity by the German General Staff as being the classic example of strategic planning and organization laying the basis for victory on the battlefield.

Yet the battles from 2 to 18 August all too often give evidence of impetuosity on the part of individual Prussian officers of all ranks, operating with limited reference to central command, and with resultant exposure of their troops, both strategically and tactically. That this weakness was not exploited to any effect by the French was more to do with serious failure in the quality of French command rather than any innate superiority on the part of the German forces. In this respect the Battle of GravelotteSt-Privat was an appropriate finale to the campaign, exemplifying as it did so much of the fighting of the previous seventeen days. A most un-German lack of restraint by the Prussian General Steinmetz and the less than inspired command of the Guard by Frederick Charles, saw the German forces endure a twelve-hour mauling. As evening fell, more than 20,000 Prussian casualties against 13,000 French lay on the field and a great part of the Prussian kings army was on the verge of retreat. Yet the French command under Bazaine was tamely to lock the intact main French field army up in Metz rather than use its reserve to exploit its enemys tactical errors. Having safely blockaded Bazaine, Moltke was to finish off the remaining forces of Imperial France two weeks later at the Battle of Sedan, so ending the Second Empire of Napoleon III.

Here it should be noted that although the conflict of 1870-1 is normally termed the Franco-Prussian War, it was actually fought by the North German Confederation formed in 1867 with its south German allies of Bavaria, Wrttemberg, Hesse and Baden against Imperial France. It is fair to say that a united Germany thereby already existed and its single army fought the war, this despite the fact that the Confederation and its southern allies were not transformed into the Imperial German Empire until 18 January 1871. Hence post 1867, the generic term Germany rather than Prussia or other individual German states forming the Confederation, will be used in the text.

Few would question the assertion that the Franco-Prussian War was a showdown between an emerging united Germany under Prussia and the up to this time senior European power, Napoleonic France. The key player in this struggle was undoubtably Otto von Bismarck.

In 1862 Bismarck had become Minister-President of Prussia, entering office with a determination to unite, under Prussian leadership, the North German State, if not, in time, the whole of Germany excluding Austria. Ever since the events of 1789-1815 the growth of German nationalism had been making continual, if not steady, progress. The French Revolution, Jena-Auerstadt and the War of Liberation had established the bedrock of it.

If any single individual was responsible for the war it was the Chancellor of the North German Confederation, Otto von Bismarck. This archetypal Prussian Junker successfully defeated the German liberals in the early 1860s so as to ensure a Prussian-dominated united Germany. Bismarcks policies were ruthlessly realistic and opportunistic, driven by a vision of the inevitability of German unification. With a view to achieving his ideal he fought three wars: against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866 and France in 1870-1. (Illustrated London News)

Despite the reservations of the Prussian and other German princes, the progress had continued to deepen with the Zollverein (customs union) and the Revolution of 1848. As the strongest German state, Prussia was seen as the national focus for unification. In 1859 a conference of democratic German parties at Eisenach set up a national association, the Nationalverein, pledged to supporting the concentration of military and political power in the hands of Prussia. With the appearance of Bismarck on the scene in 1862, a politician capable of exploiting German nationalist sentiment had arrived.

Bismarck did not come to power in 1862 with a master plan for German unification or even a clear vision of what would constitute a united Germany although convinced of its inevitability. Essentially he was a Prussian Junker of genius determined that a unified Germany would be one formed under the Prussian monarchy. Having neutralized the Liberal opposition in Prussia by 1862, Bismarck set about his long-term objectives of a Prussian Imperial Germany by a combination of dexterous expediency, ruthless opportunism and good fortune. The Danish War of 1864 gained Schleswig and prepared the way for the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The stunning seven-week campaign against Austria saw the total eclipse of Habsburg power in Germany with the destruction of the German Bund created fifty years before by Metternich. It also proved the soundness of the extensive military reforms of Prussias Minister of War, General Albrecht Roon.

In many ways, the subsequent Treaty of Prague created the basis for a united Germany: Hanover, the Elbe duchies and various smaller states were annexed by Prussia. Further, a new North German Confederation of all German states north of the River Main was established under Prussian control with Bismarck as its Chancellor. Only the four southern German states of Baden, Wrttemberg, Saxony and Bavaria retained any real political independence. Yet even they secretly agreed to reorganize their armies on the Prussian model and to ally themselves with the Confederation in the event of war.

The King of Prussia, William I, might best to described as a passive observer in the events of 1870. While a classic Prussian soldier-king, he was also a courteous man. He had not invited the Spanish offer to his cousin which resulted in the Ems Telegram and expressed concern when war was declared. While he accompanied his army in the field, he did little to interfere with Moltkes operational control. (ASKB)

The events of 1866 came as both a political and military shock to Imperial France. Under Louis Napoleon, France had re-established her pre-eminence in the European balance of power since 1852. As Napoleon III, he had re-established a stable dictatorship, a working relationship with Frances long time-enemy, Britain, and the apparent supremacy of French arms in the Crimean and Franco-Austrian Wars. While Louis Napoleon was no military genius, he certainly possessed great political skill as well as an awareness of military developments and the need to keep pace with them. Yet, while Bismarcks star was in the ascendant in the mid 1860s, Napoleons was firmly setting. A combination of ill health and growing internal opposition to his rule meant that by 1866-7 Imperial France was limited in her ability to rise to the growing German challenge. The financial scandal and political fiasco of Napoleons Mexican Empire in 1865 had been followed by his being outmanoeuvred by Bismarck during the Austro-Prussian War. This had seen France remain neutral in the false expectation that she would gain geographically in the western Rhineland. Instead, Napoleon and the French people found themselves facing a resurgent Prussia at the head of the North German Confederation. In France a mood of fear, of anger and even bewilderment began to set in.