As at Gravelotte, to decide the day at Saint-Privat in France’s favor, all that seemed necessary was one substantial counterattack. Again, it never came. Bazaine, with the French Imperial Guard ready in reserve, remained inactive. Prussian batteries resumed a bombardment heavy enough to pin even the boldest French regiments in position. Nor were there any troops to spare against a Saxon attack that around 7 p.m. finally hammered its way through the 6th Corps’ flank position and took control of the road to Saint-Privat. As the Saxons entered Saint-Privat from the north around 7:30, the surviving guardsmen mounted a near-spontaneous rush against their French tormentors. Batteries from both corps advanced to what seemed pocket-pistol ranges, aiming at flashes as growing darkness made observation impossible. In an hour-long hand-to-hand brawl, the Germans finally cleared Saint-Privat.

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Canrobert retreated southeast with what remained of his 6th Corps. The rest of the French positions unwound from right to left. First the 4th Corps, then the 3rd, the 2nd and finally the Imperial Guard drew off in turn, none of them pursued by the Prussians, who were by now lacking the organization and the energy to do more than thank God things had not gone worse.

Moltke was quick to comprehend the results of that dreadful day at Gravelotte/Saint-Privat: As the Prussians buried their dead and the French completed their withdrawal into Metz, he took the guard, the Saxons and another corps and, with royal headquarters in tow, set out to finish off the French troops still in the field. For his ill-considered actions, Steinmetz was sent into exile. Frederick Charles remained to besiege a French army so demoralized by its experience that it made no effort to escape, but instead surrendered on October 27.

Ahead lay other great events: the Battle of Sedan and the capture of Napoléon III; the siege of Paris and an extended struggle with a French Third Republic emerging from a discredited empire’s ruins; the proclamation of a new German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. But old-timers from both sides would ever define the Franco-Prussian War by the monumental clash at Gravelotte/Saint-Privat—a one-day precursor of the world war to come.

For further reading, Dennis Showalter recommends: The Franco-Prussian War, by Geoffrey Wawro.

This article was written by Dennis Showalter and originally published in the November 2007 issue of Military History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to Military History magazine today!

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