ACHIEVEMENTS OE FIELD ARTILLERY. 
719 
field with the advanced parties of the infantry. The batteries of the 
11th and 5th Army Corps, which have to traverse the difficult road 
defile of the Bois de la Falizette, deploy, trusting mainly to their own 
strength, in one long line though opposed to the hostile masses of 
horse threatening them and with their backs to the Belgian frontier. 
As a general rule the attack of the infantry is deferred until the 
artillery has produced its full effect. From the Calvaire d’llly the 
enemy is almost exclusively driven off by the fire of the guns, where¬ 
upon a few companies take possession of this important height without 
a struggle. The shells bursting thickly in the Bois de la Garenne 
prepare the attack of the battalions of the Guard, and spa,re the 
tremendous losses with which previous victories had been purchased.” 
The remainder of the battle may briefly be dismissed. 
While the Guard and the Saxons carried all before them on the east, 
the 3rd Army pressed on from the north. A wild turmoil ensued ; 
some of the French resisted gallantly, but others, as we have seen, 
surrended by thousands at a time. At 5 o’clock the Germans were 
masters of the fortress; negotiations, which ended in the surrender of 
the Emperor and all his army, had been opened, and the next day 
3 standards, 419 field pieces, 139 guns, 66,000 stands of arms, over 
1000 baggage and other wagons, and 6000 horses fit for service graced 
the triumph of the conquerors. 1 
The map of the official account shows some 90 German batteries in 
action at the close of the day, and 113 on the field, to which the French 
opposed some 400 pieces, of which 70 were mitrailleuses. The accounts 
of the numbers engaged vary considerably, but, if we place the French 
at 120,000, and the Germans at 180,000, we shall probably not be 
greatly wide of the mark. Of these the victors lost 460 officers, and 
8500 men, while their opponents had 17,000 slain, “the work princi¬ 
pally of the strong force of the German artillery/’ 2 21,000 were taken 
prisoners in the course of the action, and 83,000 surrendered at its 
close. 
Those who would do full justice to the German guns, who so largely 
contributed to such a magnificent success, must bear in mind that the 
French position, though weak strategically, was tactically strong, and 
capable of stubborn defence. Moreover, although the Germans were 
in superior numbers, they were acting against opponents who had the 
advantage of interior lines, and their force was much disseminated along 
the wide circumference where it was posted. Finally, let it not be 
forgotten that their artillery was supported by infantry armed with an 
inferior rifle, and equipped with common shell alone, accomplished 
what it did in the teeth of the Chassepot, a weapon but little, if it was 
indeed at all, inferior to that with which a large proportion of our 
infantry were armed only yesterday, and than which the present small¬ 
bore has, as a military weapon, still to prove its superiority in the field. 
While these mighty events were taking place at Sedan, and the fate 
of the empire, if not of France, was being determined there, the first 
1 See “ The Franco*German War/’ by Von Moltke. 
2 Von Moltke, 
