Battle of Spicheren

Battle

While the French army under General MacMahon engaged the German 3rd Army at the Battle of Wörth, the German 1st Army under Steinmetz advanced west from Saarbrücken. Early on the 6th, a patrol from the German 2nd Army under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia spotted decoy fires ahead and saw Frossard's army farther off on a plateau south of the town of Spicheren. Ignoring Moltke's instructions, both German armies attacked Frossard's French II Corps fortified line. Kameke believed that Frossard's Corps was retreating: hence he would only be engaging its rear guard. He ordered an all out attack, committing the 74th and the 39th Regiments of the 27th Brigade under Gen. Bruno von François to the hill wall extending between Spicheren and Forbach.

At the beginning of the battle the French were unaware that the Germans had numerical superiority because only units of the German 2nd Army attacked. Fossard regarded the attackers as skirmishers and therefore did not request reinforcements. By the time he realized the strength of the force he was opposing, it was too late. Seriously flawed communications between Frossard and Bazaine's headquarters slowed responses: by the time the reserves received orders to move to Spicheren German troops from the 1st and 2nd Armies had moved across the open ground to shelter at the base of the heights, arriving at one o'clock. At the base of the hill, General François waited for reinforcements, unsure of how many French opposed him. French counter-attacks by infantry and Cuirassiers were stopped bloodily by 3 nearby Prussian batteries which despite heavy losses from French fire had deployed on Galgenberg Hill just 1 km (0.62 mi) from Rotherberg Hill. Kameke's 28th Brigade under Wilhelm von Woyna arrived in the afternoon to bring the battle back to life, but again the Prussian attacks were repulsed.

The French counter-attacked. General François was at the front encouraging the troops of the 74th Regiment which had reached the edge of Rotherberg Hill, drew his sword, ordered the bugler to sound the call to attack and led the newly arrived 9th Company of the 39th Regiment in a charge: he was killed, being struck by 5 bullets. Gen. Laveaucoupet's 40th Regiment pushed back François's badly demoralized survivors while Gen. Charles Vergé's 2nd Brigade pushed back Woyna's troops. By this time, General Constantin von Alvensleben, commander of the III Corps of the Prussian 2nd Army had come to the aid of his compatriots and the Prince had taken overall command. Drawn by the sound of battle, more and more Prussian troops appeared on the battlefield. Alvensleben decided to attack Frossard's left flank. After 5 pm the tide of battle turned again, as General Battaile's 2nd Division attacked with 15 battalions near Stiring and Spicheren, breaking the Prussian lines and pushing them back almost to Saarbrücken. If Frossard had continued these counter-attacks he might have won the battle: but because reserves had not arrived, Frossard waited and reinforced his left flank, believing that he was in grave danger of being outflanked because German soldiers under General Adolf von Glümer were spotted in Forbach.

Frossard stopped his successful attack and around 7 pm wired headquarters that he would have to retreat back to the heights to avoid being outflanked. They were pressed by a combination of overlapping infantry and artillery attacks. Frossard's troops started an orderly retreat from Rotherberg Hill and Stiring, though by some reports some fled in panic, with 3,000 arriving in Strasburg without arms. The French rear guard resisted strongly so there was bloody house to house fighting in Forbach and Stiring. Alvensleben's infantry charge with more than 5000 men overran the French rear guard at dusk, thus gaining control of the Rotherberg Hill. Instead of continuing to defend the heights, Frossard retreated in an orderly fashion to the south. By 9 o'clock, the Prussians occupied the entire Spicheren plateau. They celebrated with a salute of one hundred and one guns. The German infantry was exhausted and needed to rest and re-group, so even though fresh cavalry units were available the retreating French were allowed to slip away.

Vers neuf heures du soir, le même capitaine donne l'ordre d'abandonner la position. Il nous indique le lieu de ralliement avec le régiment. Il faut effectuer la route à marche forcée, les ennemis sont là qui menacent de nous couper la retraite. La plaine grouille de Prussiens, paraît-il. C'est égal, je ne suis pas content de battre en retraite sans essayer mon fusil !... C'est de mauvais augure, pensais-je. Nous sortons par où nous sommes entrés, et, à deux cent mètres, de la ville, nous nous jetons à travers la plaine. Arrivés sur un chemin vicinal, nous marchons à perdre haleine, craignant à chaque instant l'apparition des casques à pointes nous barrant la route. Ce n'est plus une retraite, vrai, c'est un sauve qui peut!At about nine o'clock in the evening, the same captain gave the order to abandon the position. He tells us where to rally with the regiment. We have to make the road with forced march, the enemies are there threatening to cut off our retreat. The plain is crawling with Prussians, I hear. It's the same, I'm not happy to retreat without trying my gun!..... It's a bad omen, I thought. We leave by where we entered, and, two hundred meters from the city, we throw ourselves across the plain. Arrived on a rural road, we walk to lose our breath, fearing at every moment the appearance of pointy helmets blocking our way. It's no longer a retreat, true, it's a run for your lives!

Aftermath

The Prussian casualties were 4,871, due to attacking and the effectiveness of the French chassepot rifle. French losses were 4,078. In the morning when they had found out that their efforts were not in vain: Frossard had abandoned his position on the heights and had ordered a retreat towards Moselle where he planned to withdraw and move to the fortress of Verdun, en route he was reinforced by Bazaine's division. They were again attacked by Steinmetz at the Battle of Borny-Colombey. France had lost another battle; the incompetence of its military commanders and their lack of initiative mainly to blame. The German casualties were relatively high due to lack of planning and the effectiveness of the French chassepot rifle.

There are numerous memorials on the plateau of Rotherberg Hill and at the various military cemeteries in Spicheren, many of them German, and at the Forest Cemetery and the German-French-Garden in Saarbrücken, commemorating the fallen soldiers or officers of the individual formations, as well as a big memorial for the fallen French. Many of these memorials became a theme for postcards in the decades after the battle. There is a trail named after General François which passes the memorials on the Spicheren heights. In the 21st century, groups from France and Germany regularly collaborate to re-enact the battle.