brigadier pointed out that the enemy was still beyond the striking radius of his horses, Frossard reiterated the order, which was obeyed to the letter.
The result was disastrous. The Prussians, having seen the cavalry whilst yet at a distance, ceased firing, formed their skirmishers into groups, and the closed supports standing in deployed lines, two deep, shattered the cavalry with volleys and file-firing, as with blown and exhausted horses they endeavoured to close with their adversaries. When in addition two hussar regiments struck them in flank they were driven back, in wild disorder upon Rezonville. In the dust and confusion of the charge a group of the hussars approached Bazaine and his horse artillery battery, and almost carried off the marshal.
Alvensleben, mistaking the withdrawal of the French for the beginning of a retreat, had meanwhile sent orders to the 6th cavalry division to charge in pursuit towards Rezonville; but before it could reach the field the French relieving troops had forced their way through the stragglers and showed such a bold front to the Prussian horsemen that an attack held no promise of success, more especially since they had lost their intervals in their advance and had no room for a proper deployment. To steady the young soldiers, the cavalry commander (Carl von Schmidt) halted his men, made them correct their intervals and dressing as in peace, though under a heavy fire from the French infantry, and then withdrew them behind the cover of the nearest hill at a walk.
|
| Emery Walker sc. |
The threat of the charge had, however, induced caution on the French side, and for about two hours there was a lull in the fighting, which the Prussians utilized on their right in bringing up reinforcements through the Bois des Ognons. On their left, however, no fresh troops were as yet available, and on being informed, about 2.30 p.m., that French cavalry seemed to be about to charge the exhausted 6th division, Alvensleben ordered Bredow’s cavalry brigade to charge, and if necessary to sacrifice itself, to save the infantry. Bredow’s command (six squadrons of the 16th Ulans and 7th Cuirassiers) was at that moment drawn up under cover about half a mile west of Vionville, and from its position could see nothing of the events in progress on the battlefield. Nettled by the form in which the order was conveyed to him, Bredow drew his sword and ordered his trumpeter to sound the “trot,” the brigade moving off in line of squadron columns at close interval in the direction in which they happened at the moment to be facing. Near Vionville they took ground to their left, opening to full intervals as they did so, and then ascended the gentle incline which still hid them from their enemy.
Arrived at the summit, Bredow sounded “line to the front,” but at that moment a storm of French bullets swept down on them, and the men, no longer to be restrained, dashed forward, before the line could be completed, almost due east against long lines of infantry and artillery which they now saw for the first time about 1200 yards in front of them.
This distance was covered at the fullest extended speed of the horses, and reaching the infantry they swept over them “like hounds over a fence”—in the words of an eyewitness. So sudden had been their onset that very few were hit until the infantry had been passed; then the latter, recovering from the shock, turned and fired into the cavalry from behind, whilst a whole fresh division of French horsemen charged them in flank. After a desperate mêlée of some minutes, the rally was sounded, and the survivors of the charge, breaking their way a second time through the French infantry, eventually reached the shelter of their own lines, having lost rather more than half their numbers, but having saved the situation momentarily for their own army. Again there was a lull in the operations.
Meanwhile, unknown to Alvensleben, a fresh storm was brewing on his left rear.
Ladmirault, commanding the French 4th Corps had seen, during the afternoon of the 15th, the terrible crowd and confusion prevailing in the defiles leading to Gravelotte, and resolved to disobey his orders and to move direct from his bivouacs by the road from Woippy to St Privat, disregarding altogether the alleged danger from the Prussians supposed to be advancing from Thionville. Thus, about noon on the 16th he reached the high ground between St Privat and Amanvillers, and still without instructions he determined to direct his corps on Bruville and Doncourt, whence he could judge from the drift of the smoke-clouds whether he could fall on the Prussian left.
Much time was lost owing to the heat of the day and the fatigue of the troops, but shortly after 3 p.m. he reached a position north of the Tronville copses whence his guns could fire into the left rear of the long line of Prussian guns (6th division and corps artillery) on the heights above Vionville and Flavigny. Their fire threw the latter into serious confusion and he had already decided to attack with his nearest division (de Cissey) in the direction of the steeple of Vionville, when his attention was caught by the outbreak of heavy firing in the copses below him, and the entry of fresh Prussian guns into action.
This diversion was brought about by the arrival of the corps artillery of the X. Corps and of the 40th brigade, which latter had been at once ordered into the Tronville copses to check portions of Tixier’s division of the French 3rd Corps, which under cover of these copses had gradually worked round the Prussian flank. Seeing then that the troops before him could hold their own, Ladmirault continued his preparations for his counterstroke, and Cissey’s division had begun to move into its prescribed alignment, facing towards Vionville, when the sudden apparition of a closed mass of Prussian troops detaching itself from the low dust-cloud of a slow-moving infantry column, and forming to the south of Mars-la-Tour, again arrested his attention. Unanimously he and his staff agreed that this fresh enemy could only be the advanced guard of a large Prussian force, possibly, it was suggested, of the crown prince’s army, from Alsace and Nancy, and a fresh delay arose while the situation was investigated. Actually this body consisted only of the 38th brigade (von Wedell), forming part of the X. Corps. It had no knowledge of the state of affairs on the battlefield, or in the direction of Bruville, though Prussian cavalry had been observing the approach of Ladmirault’s corps for some hours. It was now ordered to deploy and to co-operate with the 40th brigade in an attack on the Tronville copses. This meanwhile had been delivered, and had more or less failed.
The deployment completed, about 4 p.m. the 38th brigade began its advance on the north-west corner of the Tronville copses, this direction taking them diagonally across the front
