French commander Marshal François Achille Bazaine, however, took a less sanguine view of the day’s outcome. Around 10 that night, he told his staff he intended to retire the next morning eastward to Metz—a decision that seemed so illogical, contemporaries ascribed it to treason. It may be that Bazaine was simply unwilling to risk an attack. Defense seemed a safer option.

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For his part, Moltke intended either to force the French to fight or drive them into Luxembourg, internment and disgrace. His orders for August 17 had Prince Frederick Charles moving the five corps of his 2nd Army northeast on a sweeping flank march, pivoting on General Karl von Steinmetz’s 1st Army. Today’s armchair strategist, following the moves of both armies, may be pardoned for seeing one side offer a catastrophe in slow motion while the other side refuses the gambit. Marching some 200,000 men across Bazaine’s front was akin to stretching out one’s throat for the knife, a prospect even the most lethargic foe might find difficult to ignore; the French might be retreating, but their columns could readily be turned around to attack. But they did not. It is a measure of the confidence the Prussian army had in its chief of staff that no one suggested if Moltke’s latest moves reflected genius, then what was the definition of incompetence?

Moltke’s outward confidence never wavered throughout the following day, although his may have been the valor of ignorance: He had no real intelligence on where the French were or where they were going and was forced to rely on visible dust clouds rather than cavalry scout reports; his cavalry spent most of that day recovering from its prior exertions on the battlefield. And the French cavalry was no more effective: Had Bazaine’s troopers reported the Prussian 2nd Army’s high-risk movement across his rear, the marshal might have been tempted to try a lightning slash across the Prussian jugular. Instead, Bazaine spent the day deploying in the strongest tactical position of the campaign. It ran along a stretch of high ground about a mile outside Metz, from the village of Saint-Privat in the north through Amanvillers and Gravelotte in the center, then down to the wooded terrain covering the Mance Ravine, which bent the left into a fishhook. Most of the ground on the right and center was bare and gently sloped, offering perfect fields of fire for the chassepot, while the steep ravine was all but impassable in the face of opposition.

Bazaine’s 2nd Corps held the Mance sector. The 3rd and 4th Corps deployed along the ridge in the center, establishing ranges and fields of fire. The right of the French line fell to the 6th Corps. Bazaine had proposed to guard against envelopment by having that corps deploy in echelon to the northeast, and corps commander Marshal François Certain Canrobert established his main position southwest of Saint-Privat.

Bazaine anticipated that the main Prussian effort would come against his left and center, so he deployed his principal reserve, the Imperial Guard, to support that sector. If things went as Bazaine expected, Moltke’s corps would advance into a killing ground almost ideal for French weapons and tactics. His orders, though, did not include plans for a general counterattack should the Prussians be defeated. Should the day go against him, Bazaine could fall back into the fortress at Metz and wait for the emperor to bring the strength of France to his relief.

The Prussians began August 18 by assuming the role of “obliging enemy.” Moltke initially planned to launch his 2nd Army in a five-corps “sickle cut” against the French right. Its pivot would be the IX Corps, then the guard, with the Saxons of the XII Corps on the far left, and with the III and X Corps following in support. The 1st Army’s VII and VIII Corps would advance on the Mance Ravine. Moltke meant to deliver a hammer blow that would reduce Bazaine’s army to fragments.

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