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2nd Empire - Army of the Rhine

The French army was under the command of the Emperor. General Lebouf, Minister of War was chief of the general staff. The troops ready for the field were divided into the Corps do Garde, commanded by General Bourbaki, and seven army corps, under the command of Mar'shal MacMahon, General Frossard, Marshal Bazaine, General de 1'Admirault, General do Failly, Marshal Canrobert, and General Felix Douay. A few days later Marshal Bazaino was made the acting commander-in-chief, with his headquarters at Metz, and with the Army of the North (including the Fourth, Second, and Third Corps) under his immediate direction.

The French wished to enter Germany by crossing the Rhine, probably below Rastadt, in such manner as to separate the South Germans from Prussia. They had two armies: the Army of the Rhine, the chief army and headed by Napoleon III, on the border of Lorraine on the Sarre, and MacMahon's army in Alsace. But the active army, comprising 750,000 men on paper, in reality only had 250,000; the garde mobile of 600,000 men was not organized at all. Mobilization consisted in sending to the frontier regiments as they stood in time of peace, without even waiting to fill up their complement of men.

The regiments had scarcely half of their full strength; the army of the Rhine had barely 110,000 men, that of MacMahon but 40,000. Napoleon III. had to give up any idea of offensive warfare. These armies, composed of veteran soldiers, brave and experienced, were ill-supplied with food, ammunition, and field-hospitals, and commanded by officers who had, in Algeria, grown accustomed to irregular warfare, without a definite plan of campaign, without knowledge of the strength and position of the enemy, without topographical knowledge of the territory, and even without maps (they had been given only maps of Germany). They marched slowly and in disorder, the different corps badly mixed together, exposed to sudden attack, without scouts, sometimes even without outposts.

The Germans, taking the offensive, attacked both the Army of the Rhine and the Army of Alsace simultaneously (August 6). The Army of Alsace, crushed by the Third army at FroeschwillerReichshoffen, a confused battle entered upon unintentionally by the Bavarians, evacuated Alsace in disorder and retreated to Chalons. The Army of the Rhine, attacked by the First army at Forbach-Spickeren, a height which the Prussians took by storm, fell back on Metz. The results were the abandonment of Alsace, where the Germans had now only to besiege Strasburg, the fall of the Ollivier ministry, the withdrawal of the troops from Rome, and an impression throughout Europe that France was irremediably defeated.

The Emperor was thoroughly incompetent as a commander ; and when disaster followed disaster with astounding celerity he became convinced of the fact, and abandoned the command. But mark the practical wisdom of the course he even then pursued. He appointed Marshal Bazaine Commander-in-Chief, who was then far away, and with whom no- concert could be taken ; for he was irretrievably beleagured at Metz. And then, after MacMahon had to assume an independent command, the Emperor took a course that was perpleiting and embarrassing. MacMahon had, with many sterling qualities, one great failing - a want of confidence in his own judgment - a vacillating indecision ; and the presence of the Emperor magnified the evil.

The Army of the Moselle, under Marshal Bazaine (its official name still was the "Army of the Rhine"), left Metz on August 15th, accompanied by the Emperor and his son, in order to retreat over Verdun, Clermont, and St. Menohould, to Chalons, on the Marne. On the 1st September, the catastrophe of Sedan virtually sealed the fate of France. All further resistance was hopeless. Marshal Bazaine, as commander of the army of the Rhine, signed the capitulation at the Chateau of Frescati on the 27th of October 1870 which delivered the virgin fortress into the hands of Germany, and with it three marshals of France, 50 generals, 6,000 officers, 173,000 men, 53 eagles, 66 mitrailleuses, 541 fieldpieces, and 800 fortress guns. Bazaine claimed that his oath was to the emperor, and when the empire fell he regarded the war as at an end. He had no faith in the republic and deprecated further bloodshed.