Osprey Campaign 21 : Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870 : End of the Second Empire

Probably the hardest fought of all the battles of the Franco-Prussian War, Gravelotte-St- Privat shatters the myth of French inferiority to the Prussian army. Marshal Bazaine's French Army of the Rhine was attempting to retreat on Verdun when it was attacked by superior Prussian forces from both the First and Second armies. Occupying a ridge line running from St.Privat in the north to Gravelotte in the south, Bazaine's army inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing Prussian troops and beat off a determined attack by the Prussian Guard. Finally forced to retreat when the northern flank of his outnumbered forces was turned by Prussia's Saxon allies, Bazaine retreated into the fortress city of Metz. Bottled up in the city, unable to break out through the ring of Prussian forces and with no hope of relief Bazaine's army held on grimly to the end of the war. This battle had a decisive influence on the outcome of the war; had Bazaine met the Prussian forces on anything like equal terms, a victory could have turned the tide of the fighting. Instead, the French failure at Gravelotte-St- Privat led directly to their final defeat at Sedan, the collapse of Napoleon III's regime and the proclamation of the German Empire. Text by Philipp Elliot-Wright.

Contents

• Introduction
• The Road to War
• The Opposing Leaders
• The Opposing Armies
• Mobilization and Deployment
• The Frontier Battles
• The Retreat to Metz
• The Battle of Gravelotte-St-Privat
• Aftermath
• The Battlefield Today
• Chronology
• A Guide to Further Reading
• Wargaming Gravelotte-St-Privat