Researching a Nearly Forgotten War
If you are reading this, you most likely love and study history, and if you study history, more than likely you learned about the Versailles Treaty of 1918. It was conducted in the Hall of Mirrors and marked the end of World War I. In the agreement where Germany conceded to surrender, the German government had to hand over the Alsace-Lorraine to France and was forced to pay an exorbitant fine in war reparations. This is what made Germans so sour and led to Hitler's rise to power, right? Correct.
What you may not know, is that in 1871 Germany declared itself a unified nation in the captured palace of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors. The war that was going on at the time, between France and Prussia and her allies, could have been ended back in September of 1870, but Prussian command demanded France hand over the Alsace-Lorraine region to the Prussian Confederation and pay an exorbitant fine in war reparations. The invaded people of France were of course unwilling to submit to the outrageous demands and the war dragged on. (Note: While France officially declared war on Prussia, it was ultimately orchestrated by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who purposefully schemed and undermined relations between the two countries, which included a doctored telegram.) Only after five more grueling months in which entire towns were wiped off the map and the people of Paris were forced into eating rats did they finally concede.
I never knew this. And I do not believe I am alone.
The Franco-Prussian War, while perhaps not forgotten, is most definitely overlooked. How did I come to study this event and why? Why am I writing about it here? And if you are interested in learning more, what are the best sources with which to begin your study?
After writing Exile, and after having read all I could find on Jules Brunet, (the officer who went AWOL and tried to start a republic in Japan), I was naturally led to where he next showed up: the French conflict that began only a year after the end of the Boshin War. I naturally began where many do, an evening of Internet searches on the "Franco-Prussian War." This was just to get a quick overview and try to understand the "who", "when", "where", and "why" of the event.
At first I fretted about not having heard much of this conflict. I have a degree in history and made most of my focus on the Victorian era, but all I remember of the war between France and Prussia was that "France lost and Germany became a nation." And so, from a writer of historical fiction point of view, I questioned: Was this conflict worthy of a story? Would the character I created fit well into the setting? Then I ran across a work of art that made me pause. Alphonse deNeuville's "Les Derneires Cartouche/The Last Cartridges."
It felt as if I was staring into the climactic scene in a movie. I scrambled to find the story behind the painting. I had a sudden strong desire to include this event, wherever, whatever was happening, into the plot of Bertram's story. Finding out the painting hangs in the house it is depicting, which has been made into a museum, made me soon want to go to take a vacation to France to see it. (The hole from the shell is still in the ceiling, the clothes press, bullet ridden, still sits in the room as does a clock--not pictured--which was struck by a bullet thirty minutes before the men were forced to surrender, and still holds that time to this day.) It was a small episode connected to the battle at Sedan on September 1st, 1870. This "House of the Last Cartridge" was a French Alamo. And while I don't have a lot of money so still have not been able to afford that vacation to France, through more research I unearthed another image from that battle, this one a photograph. The first photograph in history taken showing actual combat. This was taken from the French line of Prussian troops in a skirmish line:
Lovers of historical fiction, (whether you write it or read it), will understand that such tidbits can stir a great interest that leads one down a rabbit hole of research. The desire to know more about the people who were there, what drove them to be there, what they were like, and what they went through can be strong. Unfortunately, when I began to search for texts on the Franco-Prussian War, I found my choices extremely limited. With the few out there available in English, the clear "definitive" work was one done in 1961 by a knighted professor of history from Oxford, Sir Michael Howard. I ordered it and began wading through it. Meanwhile, I began scouring online for journals, (such as through Jstor--I married into a family of professors who have access), and hopped onto message board sites such as "Armchair General" to get advice on more sources. Howard's book is by far the best English language source on the Franco-Prussian War, and whenever information appeared to contradict, I let Howard have the last word.
I did find several other books, such as one by Geoffrey Wawro, which reads easier than Howard's tome, and has some awesome descriptions, but I fear the author used too many sources from the German side and so the view is slanted. (Howard manages to remain amazingly impartial.) There was also the old standby Osprey series, which gives details of units and uniforms. They also have a decent overview in their "Essential History" series, that is basically Cliff's notes of Howard's book with pictures and maps.
In short, I am still puzzled that there is so little available to study on this event, which I came to realize was so pivotal in shaping the events of the 20th century. I also began to see some connections between the veterans of that war and the veterans of the War Between the States. Those included:
1. Philip Sheridan was an observer, assigned to Bismarck--who was his translator--and he spends the last 100 pages of his memoirs on his time on the battlefields of France. Several times he makes note of running across veterans of Union cause fighting in the Prussian Army, and he was accompanied by one of his former staff officers, General Forsyth, and is later joined by Generals Hazen and Burnside.
2. Clara Barton worked with the nurses in the Prussian Army and became acquainted with the Red Cross, which she famously brought to America. She was accompanied by Princess Salm-Salm who had been the wife of a Union officer and served as a nurse in the Union Army. Salm-Salm's husband was killed in a cavalry charge at the battle of Mars-La-Tour.
3. General Jo Shelby, who famously took his Iron Brigade across the Rio Grande rather than surrender in May of 1865, offere to fight for France. He was denied entry into their army for political reasons, but Shelby's men were allowed to enlist. Most of those who did were placed in the 3rd Zouaves Regiment and would die on the fields around Woerth and Froeschwiller when the unit suffered an 85% casualty rate. The survivors went on to fight at Sedan, and when the entire French Army and Louis Napoleon surrendered, the 3rd refused and chose instead to escape to Paris with their eagle. Though there is no proof, I cannot help but wonder if some of those men were not survivors of Shelby's brigade still demonstrating their refusal to surrender.
4. General Camille Jules Armand Prince de Polignac who commanded Texas troops during the Red River Campaign and before that was friends with General Beauregard, Judah P. Benjamin, and the Slidell family. There is a monument to him along with a suit of his court clothes at the Mansfield Battlefield in Mansfield, Louisiana. A French officer and veteran of the Crimean War, he decided to fight for the Confederacy, rising to the rank of Major General. Early in 1865, he went back home to France to plead with Napoleon to help the Confederacy, but was too late. 5 years later, he was made a brigade commander under General Bourbaki during the winter campaign of the Franco-Prussian War.
While the American connections are exciting to find, it is obvious by the previous statement about World War I, that the Franco-Prussian War set the stage for the conflicts in the twentieth century and additionally, due to technological changes, altered warfare forever:
Weaponry was different with the steel breech loading Krupp artillery being key in Prussian battlefield victories.
Infantry on both sides were equipped with bolt action rifles--a first.
The Prussian surgeons were using sterilization regimens and it was the first war where deaths on the battlefield were greater than deaths from sickness or infection.
And Bismarck's scheming of secret alliances would be mirrored in 1914, just on a grander scale.
The aftermath would also brew a vicious hatred in France for Germany. Even chocolates in the years after, were wrapped in papers that showed the bravery of French troops and the war crimes of the Germans. (Another first was after some of the acts of the German troops against French civilians, a call for an international war crimes council was made, though it never materialized.)
If any of this has perked your interest and you want to know more, there are some titles out there available fairly easily. After these, (which I've pictured below), you'll have to rely on history journals and other such sources. You can also see some of the results of my research in my historical fiction novel, Grayback: Forsaken, which is due out in June of 2017.
What you may not know, is that in 1871 Germany declared itself a unified nation in the captured palace of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors. The war that was going on at the time, between France and Prussia and her allies, could have been ended back in September of 1870, but Prussian command demanded France hand over the Alsace-Lorraine region to the Prussian Confederation and pay an exorbitant fine in war reparations. The invaded people of France were of course unwilling to submit to the outrageous demands and the war dragged on. (Note: While France officially declared war on Prussia, it was ultimately orchestrated by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who purposefully schemed and undermined relations between the two countries, which included a doctored telegram.) Only after five more grueling months in which entire towns were wiped off the map and the people of Paris were forced into eating rats did they finally concede.
I never knew this. And I do not believe I am alone.
The Franco-Prussian War, while perhaps not forgotten, is most definitely overlooked. How did I come to study this event and why? Why am I writing about it here? And if you are interested in learning more, what are the best sources with which to begin your study?
After writing Exile, and after having read all I could find on Jules Brunet, (the officer who went AWOL and tried to start a republic in Japan), I was naturally led to where he next showed up: the French conflict that began only a year after the end of the Boshin War. I naturally began where many do, an evening of Internet searches on the "Franco-Prussian War." This was just to get a quick overview and try to understand the "who", "when", "where", and "why" of the event.
At first I fretted about not having heard much of this conflict. I have a degree in history and made most of my focus on the Victorian era, but all I remember of the war between France and Prussia was that "France lost and Germany became a nation." And so, from a writer of historical fiction point of view, I questioned: Was this conflict worthy of a story? Would the character I created fit well into the setting? Then I ran across a work of art that made me pause. Alphonse deNeuville's "Les Derneires Cartouche/The Last Cartridges."
I did find several other books, such as one by Geoffrey Wawro, which reads easier than Howard's tome, and has some awesome descriptions, but I fear the author used too many sources from the German side and so the view is slanted. (Howard manages to remain amazingly impartial.) There was also the old standby Osprey series, which gives details of units and uniforms. They also have a decent overview in their "Essential History" series, that is basically Cliff's notes of Howard's book with pictures and maps.In short, I am still puzzled that there is so little available to study on this event, which I came to realize was so pivotal in shaping the events of the 20th century. I also began to see some connections between the veterans of that war and the veterans of the War Between the States. Those included:
1. Philip Sheridan was an observer, assigned to Bismarck--who was his translator--and he spends the last 100 pages of his memoirs on his time on the battlefields of France. Several times he makes note of running across veterans of Union cause fighting in the Prussian Army, and he was accompanied by one of his former staff officers, General Forsyth, and is later joined by Generals Hazen and Burnside.
2. Clara Barton worked with the nurses in the Prussian Army and became acquainted with the Red Cross, which she famously brought to America. She was accompanied by Princess Salm-Salm who had been the wife of a Union officer and served as a nurse in the Union Army. Salm-Salm's husband was killed in a cavalry charge at the battle of Mars-La-Tour.
3. General Jo Shelby, who famously took his Iron Brigade across the Rio Grande rather than surrender in May of 1865, offere to fight for France. He was denied entry into their army for political reasons, but Shelby's men were allowed to enlist. Most of those who did were placed in the 3rd Zouaves Regiment and would die on the fields around Woerth and Froeschwiller when the unit suffered an 85% casualty rate. The survivors went on to fight at Sedan, and when the entire French Army and Louis Napoleon surrendered, the 3rd refused and chose instead to escape to Paris with their eagle. Though there is no proof, I cannot help but wonder if some of those men were not survivors of Shelby's brigade still demonstrating their refusal to surrender.
4. General Camille Jules Armand Prince de Polignac who commanded Texas troops during the Red River Campaign and before that was friends with General Beauregard, Judah P. Benjamin, and the Slidell family. There is a monument to him along with a suit of his court clothes at the Mansfield Battlefield in Mansfield, Louisiana. A French officer and veteran of the Crimean War, he decided to fight for the Confederacy, rising to the rank of Major General. Early in 1865, he went back home to France to plead with Napoleon to help the Confederacy, but was too late. 5 years later, he was made a brigade commander under General Bourbaki during the winter campaign of the Franco-Prussian War.While the American connections are exciting to find, it is obvious by the previous statement about World War I, that the Franco-Prussian War set the stage for the conflicts in the twentieth century and additionally, due to technological changes, altered warfare forever:
Weaponry was different with the steel breech loading Krupp artillery being key in Prussian battlefield victories.
Infantry on both sides were equipped with bolt action rifles--a first.
The Prussian surgeons were using sterilization regimens and it was the first war where deaths on the battlefield were greater than deaths from sickness or infection.
And Bismarck's scheming of secret alliances would be mirrored in 1914, just on a grander scale.
The aftermath would also brew a vicious hatred in France for Germany. Even chocolates in the years after, were wrapped in papers that showed the bravery of French troops and the war crimes of the Germans. (Another first was after some of the acts of the German troops against French civilians, a call for an international war crimes council was made, though it never materialized.)
If any of this has perked your interest and you want to know more, there are some titles out there available fairly easily. After these, (which I've pictured below), you'll have to rely on history journals and other such sources. You can also see some of the results of my research in my historical fiction novel, Grayback: Forsaken, which is due out in June of 2017.
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