Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870: End of the Second Empire (Campaign)

At the time of the Second Empire, under Napoleon III, the French army, elevated from tactful obscurity, was re-modelled on Napoleonic lines. This army first fought in the Crimea, and then against Austria. Later, In Mexico, they had a disastrous adventure while in Europe Prussia was fast emerging as a challenge to France's military pre-eminence. Together with Austria, Bismarck first crushed Denmark before turning on Austria herself. The victory at Sadowa in 1866 stunned Europe, and in Paris Napoleon and his advisers set to thinking of a way to counter this new threat. In this first of two volumes looking at the French Army of the Franco-Prussian War, Stephen Shann and Louis Delperier examine the history, organisation and weapons of the French Imperial troops. Gravelotte-St-Privat was probably the hardest fought of all the battles of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). Attacked by superior Prussian forces from both the First and Second armies, Marshal Bazaine's French Army of the Rhine inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing Prussian's before finally being forced to retreat into the fortress city of Metz. Unable to break out and with no hope of relief Bazaine's army grimly held on to the end of the war. 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. Gravelotte-St-Privat 1870: End of the Second Empire Cover; Title; Contents; Introduction; Road to War; Opposing Leaders; 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; Related Titles; Imprint 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.