The Franco-Prussian War in Pictures: A Visual Companion to "Grayback: Forsaken"

June 08, 2017

The Franco-Prussian War in Pictures: A Visual Companion to "Grayback: Forsaken"

Watching an interview with Jeff Shaara, he stated the importance of historical fiction is to turn facts of history over to a storyteller. While we can read historical accounts and non fiction texts about an event, which is something that surely should not be downplayed or ignored, it is the job of the storyteller, the fiction writer, to put us there. To make an attempt to allow us to see an event through the eyes of the people who were there. That is certainly why I began writing. There were certain types of people at certain events that I was thirsting to understand better and that is why I began Bertram Tambling's story. I had read Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, and while I enjoyed it, I felt figures like Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain were figures at that time beyond my ability to personally connect. They were generals, famous leaders, and especially Lee, morally superior. I wanted to see the events of the war through the eyes of someone younger, someone trying to make sense of what he was going through, what he was seeing, and also possessing personal flaws that he would have to overcome as he matured. As I have continued the series, and taken Bertram abroad, I try to understand the events through his eyes: events that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century and that shaped much of the world we know today. It is a journey, and I have a character who has truly taken on a life of his own to take me on that journey and I am happy, that through my writing, I can share this years long adventure with others. His most current chapter, Forsaken, takes place during the Franco-Prussian War.

The more I researched this event, the more I realized just how much influence it had in shaping the 20th century. Borders and alliances were shifted, setting the stage for the world wars. Imperialism, nationalism, and a nearly successful attempt at a Communist Revolution all played huge roles and shook the very pillars of what Western civilization had been built upon. While writing, I decided to make Forsaken readable for those who had not been with the series from the beginning. I wanted those who might have a curiosity in being introduced to this pivotal event to be able to pick up and immerse themselves in 1870's France even if it was their first foray into Bertram Tambling's saga.

In this article, since I have written others about my research and sources, I merely wanted to give some imagery and give some tidbits of information that I was not able to put in the book due to space, plot, or that it was something Bertram would not have known about or seen. So for those who have already read or are beginning to read Forsaken, and for those who have an interest in picking it up, I am also sharing art created during or in the years immediately following the Franco-Prussian War that aided me in visualizing what those people went through and saw during that tumultuous summer of 1870. (A link at the bottom of this article is provided if you have not yet gotten your copy of the book.)

Most artwork, was completed by two major French military painters who chronicled the war in the 1870's and 80's, Alphonse De Neuville and Edouard Detaille. I see the Franco Prussian War as one of the last conflicts that still had a touch of chivalry and flare from the Napoleonic era as seen in the brass helmet and bright uniform of the French dragoon above painted by De Neuville.

The war opened with conflicts on the border with Prussia and Baden in the Vosges Mountains. Forsaken opens during the battle at Wissembourg, August 4th, and quickly moves on to the Battle at Woerth, which occurred on August 6th.

(While this postcard is from the first months of WWI, the Zouave uniforms had remained unchanged from 1870.)

Among the troops were the famed Algerian Zouaves, the Tirailleurs, or "Turcos" who famously made three massive charges with the 3rd Zouaves in the forest outside of Froeschwiller. Their commander, Colonel Gandil was promoted for bravery. Their losses were high and one witness said the light uniforms of all the dead made it look like the forest floor was covered with threshed wheat.

Another unit who suffered heavy losses was Michel's cavalry, a brigade of French cuirassers. When they were called up to help save Lartigue's flank, they rushed into the village of Morsbronn, pursuing Prussian infantry. It was a trap. The streets had been barricaded, the Michel's cavalry was penned in. Men and horses were butchered in the streets. This heavy loss of cavalry would later be problematic for MacMahon.

While the soldiers who survived Woerth went on to rest at the large military encampment at Chalons, I did not want to have Bertram miss out on the largest battle of the war at Gravolette, which pitted Marshal Bazaine against Marshal Moltke and King Wilhelm I. Nor did I wish him to miss out on witnessing the last successful cavalry charge in western warfare at Mars-La-Tour. That cavalry charge, on August 16th, led by Prussian commander von Bredow, successfully crippled General Canrobert's gun line and sent his infantry reeling. However, the Prussian cuirassers who made the charge suffered heavy losses, giving the charge the name, "Von Bredow's Death Ride."

Cuirassers carried heavy straight swords and rode large horses. Unlike the jobs of the Hussars, Uhlans, and Dragoons, which were given reconnaissance/scouting duties, the cuirassers' purpose was to smash infantry lines. They got their name for the decorative chest armor they wore called a cuirass. (They did not stop bullets, nor were they meant to.)

While the French held their position around Rezonville, Vionville, and Mars-La-Tour, (the towns in France are extremely close together and most battles encompassed several), they pulled back in the middle of the night to create a more secure line of defense stretching from Gravelotte to St. Privat on the right flank to the north.

(Officers viewing the battle from an attic in a painting by de Neuville. This painting was in my mind when I wrote a scene depicting Canrobert and his staff at St. Privat.)

(Image of a Prussian infantryman taken from a turn of the century text book.)

300,000 soldiers fought at Gravolette on August 18th, 1870. That is TWICE the number of men engaged at Gettysburg. Veterans of both sides from the War Between the States fought in among the French and Prussian forces. I only have to wonder at what they thought of the sight before them. Of note, there was a former Union general, Felix Salm-Salm who was a major in the Prussian army who was killed charging the wall at St. Privat.

When the Prussians finally did breech the wall, the French troops were pushed back into a medieval graveyard where many made a last stand.

(The cemetery at St. Privat by De Neuville.)

(The death of Commandant Berbegier at St. Privat by Edourd Detaille.)

Battered and defeated, the French army under Bazaine retreated into the fortress of Metz where they were put under siege. The German troops split, with more than half turning toward Chalons to take out Marshal MacMahon and his French Army of Chalons. After two weeks, they clashed at Baumont, (August 30th), Bazeilles, and Sedan, (both September 1st), where the French army was surrounded, MacMahon was severely wounded, and Emperor Napoleon III surrendered.

At Bazeilles, many of the citizens of the towns took up arms against the Bavarians who ruthlessly pushed their way through, killing soldiers and civilians alike. Actions that would be questioned and even lead to some of the thirst for revenge when the Treaty of Versailles was written in 1918 at the close of WWI.

After the battle, Bismark spent time visiting with the dethroned Emperor Napoleon III who would be sent to eastern Prussia for the duration of the war. Meanwhile Empress Eugenie fled to England:

The palace of Versaille was turned into a hospital and then, when Paris was put under siege as the French people declared a Republic on September 4th, and refused to surrender, Versailles became headquarters to the Germans.

(The hall of mirrors being used as a hospital ward.)

The war would continue for another five months under the leadership of the 2nd French Republic, which would last until the Nazis forced its destruction in 1940.