1. Introduction to Battle of Gravolette-St-Privat in 1870

The Battle of Gravelotte-St-Privat was fought between France and Prussia on Thursday, August 18, 1870 and was the largest battle of the Franco-Prussian War. Prior to this, on August 2, 1870, the French forces had taken over the Prussian city of Saarbrucken but the tide was turned when Marshal Bazaine’s forces comprising the bulk of the French army during this campaign was hunkered down and surrounded in the French city of Metz. In the meantime what had been transpiring was that the German armies led by General Moltke invaded France via the northeast corridor, and had managed to seize quick victories over the French garrisons defending them. Most modern historians and military experts attribute the success of the Germans due to their professional leadership despite the fact that they were a conscript army, while the French forces were based on a traditional, aristocratic type of long and dedicated service by it’s troops.

The German military high command would essentially innovate the idea of modern styles of long term strategic planning and organization that can help an national military foresee the possibility of winning a war, paving the way for future generations of military academy students to learn from it as a pioneering case study. Yet the battles fought between August 2nd and 18th was an indication that the Prussian officers hastily rushed decisions, got cocky, started to operate in a rogue manner from their central command structure and make decisions that exposed their troops to risks on the battlefield much greater than the reward. The fact that the French high command did not realize the chance to strike at this gaping hole that was the weakness of the German command ranks was more a failure on behalf of the French rather than an indication that German forces were of superior quality to the French.

This battle in particular was an adequate and relevant exemplification of the shortcomings of German command despite their initial successes, the 17 days of fighting during this period really served to help this revelation come to surface. The fact that did Prussian General Steinmetz rushed his forces into battle impatiently together with the low morale of troops being led by Frederick Charles, ensured the German force were shredded by the French over a period of 12 hours. The bulk of the Prussian army was destroyed over these 12 hours as the Prussians suffered 20,000 casualties compared to the 13,000 suffered by the French, despite the Prussian army at 188,000 strong outnumbering the French forces of 112,000. The Prussian army was forced to retreat due to these humiliating losses, even though they had the initial strategic advantage over the French.

The problem exhibited by errors in French command led by Bazaine saw that the bulk of the French forces to be holed up in Metz as opposed to using it’s reserve garrisons to target the weaknesses posed by gaps in Prussian tactical maneuvering.

With the bulk of the French forces surrounded at Metz, the Prussians using a blockade to their advantage, they were able to defeat what was left of the French forces outside of Metz at the Battle of Sedan, therefore officially signaling the end of the Second French Empire of Napoleon the 3rd. One important and notable remark that must be made in relations to this war is that despite being incorrectly dubbed the Franco-Prussian war, it was actually and officially fought by North German Confederation, newly formed only a few years back in 1867, in a coalition with it’s German allied states in the south – Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Hesse and Baden against Second French Empire.

At this point, a perpetual unification of Germany was apparent, and that the combined forces of this unified Germany was what won the war, Germany was not officially unified until January 18, 1871. Therefore post 1867 we will refer to this conglomeration of nation states as Germany as opposed to Prussia or something else. The person that actually initiated the war and historians believe bore sole responsibility is Otto Von Bismarck. In the 1860’s Otto managed to defeat the liberals and guaranteed himself a Prussian controlled unified Germany. Realism and opportunism was the driving force behind Otto’s policies both domestically and abroad, and the concept of German unification was not a pipe dream but a feasible and attainable goal. In order to fulfill his dream he waged war against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866 and France in 1870-71.