Battle of Wissembourg (1870)

Battle of Wissembourg

Map of the Battle of Wissembourg

Date	4 August 1870
Location	Wissembourg, France 49°01′N 7°57′E / 49.017°N 7.950°E / 49.017; 7.950Coordinates: 49°01′N 7°57′E / 49.017°N 7.950°E / 49.017; 7.950
Result	German victory

Belligerents

Prussia

Baden

Bavaria

Württemberg

France

Commanders and leaders

Abel Douay †

Strength

60,000
144 guns

8,000
12 guns

Casualties and losses

~3,563 dead

~1,300 dead or wounded
~900 captured

The Battle of Wissembourg or Battle of Weissenburg, the first of the Franco-Prussian War, was joined when three German army corps surprised the small French garrison at Wissembourg on August 4, 1870. The defenders, greatly outnumbered, fought stubbornly

... especially considering they were surprised and greatly outnumbered, that the French sustained their old renown as fighting men and that the first defeat, although severe, reflected no discredit on the soldiers of the 1st Corps."

before being overwhelmed; nevertheless, the fall of Wissembourg allowed the Prussian army to move into France and compelled Marshal Mac-Mahon to give battle, and suffer defeat, at the Battle of Wörth August 6.

In June, 1870 Napoleon III had moved the French army into Lorraine and occupied Saarbrücken. Napoleon wished to win a significant battle on German soil and ordered Marshal Patrice Mac-Mahon to bring up the French I and V Corps. Mac-Mahon's objective was to reach Wissembourg where he already had one division stationed under General Abel Douay. Once there he would concentrate his forces for a strike into Germany. The German III Army under Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his able Chief of Staff, General von Blumenthal, was already moving towards Wissembourg. Neither side was fully aware of the other's movements.

At the outbreak of war, General Ducrot, commanding the 6th French Division at Strasbourg, issued orders to withdraw the elements of his forces stationed at Wissembourg and Lauterbourg. The sub-prefect of Wissembourg protested this decision, not sharing Ducrot's doubts on the wisdom of diluting the 6th division along the German frontier. General Douay's 2nd French Division set off for Haguenau July 22, making it necessary to reoccupy Wissembourg to secure Douay's line of supply, a portion of his materiel being stored in the small frontier town.

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Wikipedia