Part 30 (2/2)
The whole force occupying the heights of Auvours surrendered to the IXth Corps. The 35th Brigade marched up to Villiers, but patrols sent ahead soon reported that the French had retired across the Huisne. When the noise of fighting was heard at mid-day from St. Corneille, the brigade in question was ordered to proceed northward to support the 17th Division engaged there. The 84th Regiment, pa.s.sing through La Commune, lent efficient a.s.sistance in the attack on Chateau Hyre. Outposts were left on the Parance for the night, but the main body of the 35th Brigade returned to Fatines, and the 36th took up quarters between Villiers and St. Mars la Bruyere.
By the battle of the previous day the position of the French before Le Mans had been forced; but they still stood firm behind the Huisnes, and as their left wing had been driven in on their centre, the latter section had been considerably strengthened. There still remained the stream to be crossed, and the steep slope to be climbed, where every row of the vineyards in terraced ascent was held by strong firing lines, and the crest of which was crowned with batteries. The pa.s.sage of the Huisnes near Ivre, on the left, was covered by entrenchments with special carefulness, and the ground in front of the wood of Pontlieue had been made impa.s.sable in many places by abatis. Against such a position the artillery could be of little and the cavalry of no service, while deep snow hampered every movement of the infantry. General von Alvensleben therefore decided on standing for the present on the defensive with his right wing, while he prepared to support the advance of General von Voigts-Rhetz with his left.
The troops were roused from their short rest at six in the morning. Two French companies made their way towards the bridge at Chateau Les Noyers with powder-bags, but they were compelled to retreat, leaving the explosives behind them. At eight o'clock the French made a determined attack on the outposts of the 12th Regiment in the wood, and drove them in on Le Tertre. Again a combat raged furiously about this farmstead, which was almost demolished by sh.e.l.l fire. One by one the last battalions of the 10th Brigade were drawn into the struggle, to replace bodies which, their ammunition exhausted, had to retire. Only four guns could be used with effect, but by eleven o'clock the enemy's fire gradually died away, and he was seen to retire on Pontlieue. The battalions of the left wing pursued, and came out on the Parigne road in immediate touch with the Xth Corps.
General von Voigts-Rhetz had left two battalions at Mulsanne, for his protection from the direction of Ecommoy; the whole Corps, after many detachments had been unavoidably detailed from it, was a.s.sembled by about half-past seven for a further advance on Pontlieue. The main body of the 20th Division closed up by the Mulsanne road on La Tuilerie.
Three battalions of the 19th Division ma.s.sed at Ruaudin to strengthen the sideward detachments in Epinettes, while two battalions with the 14th Cavalry Brigade and the Corps' artillery, which could find no opening in the region further to the left, moved up by the roads from Parigne.
The reinforcement meanwhile arrived from Ruaudin, and General von Woyna made his way without hindrance through the forest to La Source, where he halted at one o'clock, his front parallel with that of the 20th Division. A heavy battery of the latter had already driven away the French mitrailleuses in front of Pontlieue. On the right a light battery of the 19th Division was brought up to La Source, and ten horse-artillery guns on to the road from Parigne. The atmosphere was, however, so thick that their fire could only be directed by the map.
At two o'clock General von Kraatz advanced in close column on Pontlieue, whither General von Woyna was now also marching. The southern part of the village was taken after a slight resistance; but on the further side of the Huisne the French held the houses along the river-bank, and just as the Germans approached the bridge it was blown up. The demolition, however, was not complete, and the foremost battalions got across over the debris to reach the enemy. Two made their way into the high street of Pontlieue, one turned left to the railway station, whence were heard signals for departing trains. Nothing interposed to hinder the railway bridge here from being blown up, and thus many prisoners were taken, besides 150 provision waggons and 1000 hundred-weight of flour.
The artillery fire was immediately directed on the town of Le Mans.
Meanwhile the detachments of the IIIrd Corps, which had become mixed up in the forest fight, had re-formed. After a ration of meat, the first for three days, had been served out to the troops, the 10th Brigade resumed its march. The Brandenburg Jager Battalion crossed the river by the paper-mill of L'Epau, and two batteries strengthened from Chateau Funay the artillery fire directed on Le Mans.
When presently the infantry entered the town, a fierce struggle began in the streets, which were entirely blocked by the French trains. Entrance into individual houses had to be cleared by artillery fire; a large number of French were taken prisoners, and a vast quant.i.ty of waggons were seized. The fighting lasted till nightfall, and then the Xth Corps and half of the IIIrd took up alarm quarters in the town. The 6th Division took possession of Yvre, which the enemy had abandoned, and threw out foreposts to Les Noyers and Les Arches on the further side of the Huisne.
The actions fought by the French on this day, had been engaged in for the sole purpose of gaining time for the extrication of the army.
On learning from Admiral Jaureguiberry that every effort to get the troops to advance had failed, and that the last reserves were shattered, General Chanzy had at eight in the morning issued orders for a general retreat on Alencon, where the Minister of War had arranged for the arrival of two Divisions of the XIXth Corps from Carentan.
The advance of the IInd Army to Le Mans had been a series of seven days'
incessant fighting. It was made at a season when the winter was in extremest severity. Ice and snow-drifts had rendered every movement one long struggle. Bivouacking was out of the question; and the troops had to seek their night shelter often at a distance of some miles in rear; their rea.s.sembling in the morning cost precious hours, and the shortness of the day then prevented their taking full advantage of their successes. Whole battalions were employed in guarding the prisoners. The roads were in such a state that the trains of the army could not be brought up; officers and men alike marched insufficiently clothed and on scanty rations. But zeal, endurance, and discipline conquered every difficulty.
The army had sacrificed in this prolonged struggle 3200 men and 200 officers, the larger half belonging to the IIIrd Corps alone. Many companies fought under the command of non-commissioned officers.
The French estimated their losses at 6200 men, and 20,000 taken prisoners; seventeen guns, two colours, and an abundant supply of materiel remained as trophies in the hands of the victors.
After exertions so severe the troops imperatively needed some rest. The instructions from the supreme Headquarter were that the operations were not to be extended beyond a certain limit; and it was possible that the services of the IInd Army might almost immediately be required on the Seine and the Loire. Prince Frederick Charles therefore determined to follow up the retreating enemy with only a small force.
On the French side, that each Corps might have a separate road for the retreat to Alencon, two Corps had necessarily to draw out westward in the first instance. On the evening of the last day's fight the XVIth Corps reached Chauffour on the Laval road, and the XVIIth Conlie on the road to Mayenne, each covered by its rear-guard. The XXIst was a.s.sembled at Ballon, on the left bank of the Sarthe. From these points all were to march in a northerly direction. General Chanzy still deluded himself with the hope of coming up by Evreux to the a.s.sistance of the besieged capital. He would have had thus to make a wide circuit--an arc by moving on the chord of which the Germans could easily have antic.i.p.ated him; and in a country where all arms were available, his army, in the condition to which it was now reduced, must have inevitably been destroyed.
Ultimately the defeated French army retired in the direction to the westward of the Sarthe.
After the distribution of rations and forage, General von Schmidt set forth at mid-day on the 13th with four battalions, eleven squadrons, and ten guns, and reached Chauffour after some skirmis.h.i.+ng. The XIIIth Corps advanced to the Sarthe, the 17th Division sending its outposts across the river at Neuville, and the 22nd drove the French out of Ballon, whence they retired in full flight to Beaumont. The XXIst French Corps had taken up quarters this day at Sille. The National Guards of Brittany fled wildly to Coron, and thence made homeward toward their own province. They were joined by the troops left in camp at Conlie, after the camp there had been plundered. The XVIIth Corps also went off, without halting by the Vegre as it had been ordered to do, but retreating direct on Ste. Suzanne. The XVIth withdrew on Laval, leaving Barry's Division at Cha.s.sille as rear-guard. Numbers of abandoned waggons and cast-away arms, everywhere testified to the demoralization of the defeated forces.
On the 14th the French were driven out of Cha.s.sille. The XVIth Corps had by this time almost entirely lost its organization; it retired during the night to St. Jean sur Erve. In the camp at Conlie were found 8000 stands of arms and 5,000,000 cartridges, as well as various other war materiel.
The Grand Duke had marched on Alencon along the right bank of the Sarthe. The French in Beaumont made a feeble resistance to the advanced guard of the 22nd Division, and lost 1400 prisoners.
On the following day General von Schmidt advanced further on the road to Laval, but found that the French had concentrated at St. Jean and posted a strong force of artillery on the heights behind the Erve. The Oldenburg Regiment[70] forced its way as far as the church of the little town, and the Brunswickers drove the enemy back on Ste. Suzanne, higher up the river, but there the pursuit ended.
Barry's and Deplanque's Divisions, according to the French estimate, had now no more than 6000 fighting men, and Curten's Division had still not yet come up, but this strength was considerably superior to that of the weak German detachment confronting it. The rest of the Xth Corps was moving up in support, but had as yet only reached Chasille. A battalion advancing from Conlie came into conflict at Sille with the XXIst French Corps a.s.sembled there, and sustained heavy loss. The 22nd Division of the XIIIth Corps also met with serious opposition before reaching Alencon, from the National Guards and the volunteers under Lipowski; and the attack on the town was postponed till next day.
But on the following morning the French positions in Alencon as well as in Sille and St. Jean were abandoned. Those places were at once occupied by the Germans, and General von Schmidt marched forward, close up to Laval. Numerous stragglers from the retreating army were taken prisoners.
Behind the Mayenne, whither now Curten's Division had arrived, the remnants of the IInd Army of the Loire re-a.s.sembled. Reduced to half its original strength, and its morale gravely shaken, it could but be unfit for service for a long time to come, and the object of the German advance on Le Mans was fully attained.
To the north of Paris, however, the French were meanwhile threatening a renewed offensive. It was necessary to draw in on the Somme the portions of the Ist Army which were still on the Lower Seine; and orders came from the supreme Head-quarter that the XIIIth Corps of the IInd Army should march on Rouen.
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