Abstract
Part III begins with Rückert’s unforgettable description of crossing the previous day’s battlefield at Vionville. Mutilated men, dead and alive, lie gruesomely contorted amidst bloated horse corpses and masses of smashed equipment. They camp next to the battlefield, unsure when the fighting will resume. Searching for food, he and his comrades find some luxuries in the packs of the dead French soldiers. Rückert tries to get a French cavalryman’s fancy helmet as a souvenir, but the head comes off with the helmet. At last his company is ordered into the fight. Within minutes, he is hideously wounded in the legs by shrapnel and bullets. A passing infantryman carries him to the edge of the woods, where he lies in a delirium hoping that a stray bullet will put him out of his misery. Late at night Prussian guardsmen find him and carry him to a dressing station.
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Notes
- 1.
The French soldiers wore red trousers; the Germans were clad in a dull blue.
- 2.
A battue is a hunt in which beaters flush out the game. Over 30,000 officers and men had been killed or wounded here on the previous day. It’s unclear whether he is referring to rows of French or German dead, perhaps both.
- 3.
Saxe-Lauenburg was a duchy in northern Germany. These men were Jäger, light infantrymen and also part of the 9th corps. “A hero’s death for the fatherland” was the romantic cliché invariable attached to all soldiers’ deaths. Rückert takes pride in his realism about the war and uses the phrase with a hint of irony.
- 4.
Given Rückert’s description, it is impossible to determine exactly where they are at this point. Most likely, they have gone south down the road into the Bois de St. Arnould toward Gorze, ca. 49° 03′ 14″ N, 5° 59′ 56″ E.
- 5.
Eugenie was Emperor Louis Napoleon’s wife , known for her extravagant court. Many Germans blamed her for stirring up war enthusiasm in France.
- 6.
The “unassailable fortress,” literally “virgin fortress” (jungfräuliche Veste), is a reference to Metz, which had a reputation for being unconquerable.
- 7.
The heir in question is the 14-year-old son of Louis Napoleon, Prince Louis, who, instead of earning his laurels, had to flee.
- 8.
The battle on August 14, three days earlier, was the relatively minor Battle of Borny-Colombey, fought just east of Metz, a good ten miles away from their present location. With the right atmospheric conditions, the residents might have heard it, but Rückert lets his empathetic imagination outrun what he can really know for sure.
- 9.
German troops were now positioned between the French troops and Paris, potentially cutting them off. As a lowly lance corporal, Rückert may not have been aware of this danger at the time.
- 10.
French war propaganda typically referred to the Germans as barbarians, though by historical standards, German soldiers behaved fairly well as an invading army.
- 11.
The iron cross was the major award for bravery in war.
- 12.
To be precise, Rückert’s company (the 200–250 men under his captain) was part of the First Battalion of the Third Infantry Regiment of the 50th Infantry Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division of the IXth Corps of the Second Army. Contrary to what he implies here, the Ninth Corps consisted of more than just Holsteiners and Hessians.
- 13.
The “Great Quiet One” (Der grosse Schweiger) was the nickname of the campaign’s mastermind, Chief of Staff of the Prussian Army, Helmuth von Moltke. One of Moltke’s principles of strategy was for army divisions to march separately and then come together to fight, thus concentrating maximum force while maintaining maximum maneuverability and not clogging the roads. Again, Rückert probably learned this later, and then in writing his memoirs erroneously assumed that he already knew it on August 17, 1870.
- 14.
By sidearm he appears to mean the short sword that could be fixed on the rifle as a bayonet.
- 15.
That is, they were treated with more respect now that the king was about to inspect them.
- 16.
That is, the Prussian-led North German Confederation with which Hesse and the other south German states were allied.
- 17.
Again, Rückert is being ironic with his “limited understanding.” These “Schlachtenbummler” were exploiting their aristocratic or diplomatic connections to get access to the headquarters, where they were tolerated, but considered parasitical nuisances. Some of them “helped” in field hospitals for a short time and then went home and pulled strings to get an iron cross for their “brave service.” Rückert probably fully appreciated the phenomenon only later when he read about the war.
- 18.
Cuirassiers were heavy cavalrymen. Bismarck , the “Iron Chancellor,” served only his compulsory one year in the military, but the King of Prussia made him a major general of the cavalry in the Landwehr (territorial militia) after the Austro-Prussian War . Thereafter, he frequently appeared in full uniform.
- 19.
Chief of Staff von Moltke was known as the Schlachtendenker (battle thinker).
- 20.
Prince Friedrich Carl, it will be recalled, commanded the Second Army; General von Manstein commanded its IXth Army Corps; and the unnamed popular division commander would have been Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine.
- 21.
Rückert is referring to Major General von Bredow’s famous “death ride” of 800 cavalrymen (ca. 50 percent casualty rate) that appeared to turn the tide of the battle just north of the village of Vionville (49° 05′ 36″ N, 5° 56′ 52″ E). This is yet another example of something that he could not have known (or at least not have fully appreciated) at the time
- 22.
Given the vague description, it’s hard to pinpoint where they are. It’s probably near the village of Rezonville (49° 05′ 52″ N; 5° 59′ 24″ E).
- 23.
This is a typical incident. German troops were astonished by the luxuries carried by French officers. The phenomenon was widely reported and mocked in the press as proof that the French were decadent and effeminate. There were even reports that high-ranking officers had women’s silk underwear in their baggage! One can only speculate as to why. The Germans, however, were known for their fine cigars, cigar-making being a major industry in Germany.
- 24.
The German proverb is “In der Not frisst der Teufel Fliegen.” (roughly, “In a pinch the devil eats flies.”).
- 25.
French soldiers usually served longer terms than German soldiers, were more experienced, and often (as Rückert says) had better equipment.
- 26.
After the battle on August 16, the French had moved into positions on the relatively high ground in a north-south line from just south of Roncour to about two miles southeast of Gravelotte—a distance of over seven miles. (See Gravelotte battle map) Given the chaos and exhaustion of the previous day, German commanders were unsure of the exact positions of the French, where they were strongest and where exactly the north end of their line was. On the morning of August 18, Rückert would have had only a general idea of the positions, having participated in the big swing around south of Metz and then back to the north, putting him and his comrades west of Metz. In the description that follows, it is hard to disentangle what he knew at the time from what he learned later.
- 27.
That is, the French would have Germany at their backs, and the Germans would have the interior of France and Paris at their backs.
- 28.
Cuirassiers had always been known for their fancy high helmets.
- 29.
Presumably, he’s counting since August 1, after the short pause in their march at the end of July.
- 30.
Again, we can only guess the exact location; the reference to a Roman road suggests the main east-west road running through Vionville and Rezonville, but the description sounds as though they have run across one of General Canrobert’s gun batteries that had been overrun during the famous “death ride” of General von Bredow’s cavalry. If so, they might be along the road running north out of Rezonville; this would put them a mile or so north or north-northwest of Rezonville (roughly, 49° 06′ 42″ N; 5° 58′ 55″ E).
- 31.
The First Geneva Convention (1864) had laid down international protocols for the treatment of war wounded, among them that facilities flying the Red Cross were not to be attacked.
- 32.
They were actually in a very vulnerable position here, marching parallel to the enemy lines with their flank exposed to attack. However, it was still not clear to the high command where the French were strong, and French commanders preferred to remain in their strong redoubts on the high ground to the east. Rückert and his Hessians were on the east side of the masses of German troops moving northward, thus nearest the French.
- 33.
They are probably near Vernéville (49° 08′ 47″ N; 6° 00′ 20″ E).
- 34.
Members of the light cavalry.
- 35.
This little ceremony is yet another reminder that even in Europe’s first industrial war many older traditions survived. The colors remained a powerful emotional symbol of bonded men, and still retained the practical advantage of orienting men in the chaos of battle when they might not hear the orders of their officers.
- 36.
These are battles during the Napoleonic Wars. The Hessians fought on the side of Napoleon at Leipzig in 1813, not joining the coalition against him until after his defeat there.
- 37.
That is, shoulder to shoulder with Prussians, the Hessians’ enemy in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Earlier Rückert seemed to have achieved some ironic distance from the idea of the heroic death for the fatherland, but here he slips into the high diction of war romance, even though he has just been exposed to the horrific, decidedly unromantic effects of modern weapons. The mangled bodies have caused him to lose the last vestiges of his already nominal religious sensibility. Yet he retains the related sensibility of passionate nationalism. The unfurling ceremony has obviously affected him deeply—and thus achieved its purpose, at least for him.
- 38.
He’s apparently referring to the commander of the 50th infantry brigade of the 25th infantry division.
- 39.
The “affable prince” would be the Grand Duke of Hesse, commander of the 25th infantry division of the IX army corps.
- 40.
Rückert is in the first battalion.
- 41.
What they were hearing here was the Hessian artillery beginning its ill-advised shelling of the nearby French positions, only about 1000 yards away. The German artillery was far superior to the French, but the gunners were within range of the deadly Chassepot rifle fire. In the confusion and limited perspective of the moment, he could not have known it, but Rückert was at the forefront of one of the decisive battles of world history—Gravelotte/St. Privat.
- 42.
Most pipes at the time had long stems.
- 43.
The man was probably hit from the rear, the forehead being the exit wound. Chassepot bullets were soft and tumbled in the body, doing massive damage.
- 44.
As usual, the exact location is uncertain, but they are probably on the southeast side of the Bois de la Cusse just west or west-southwest of the village of Amanvillers. Patches of this small forest are still there, and can be seen on Google Earth, running roughly east-west just north of Vernéville (the eastern end of the woods is at 49° 09′ 58″ N; 6° 01′ 38″ E; Amanvillers extends further west than it did in 1870).
- 45.
French artillery shells had timed fuses and usually exploded in the air; German shells exploded on contact with the ground.
- 46.
Spatially, what he says here is confusing, given the placement of the French artillery, it seems that Rückert’s men would now be going roughly parallel to the newly cut aisles in the woods. But most likely, these aisles are not quite parallel to the east-west axis of the woods, since they may have been cut by shells coming from either the northeast or southeast; nor are the men likely moving exactly parallel to the longer dimension of the woods. Therefore, they are probably cutting across these aisles at an angle. In any case, it would be hard for Rückert to be precisely oriented in the woods, and, of course, it would be surprising if there were no memory distortion in the account.
- 47.
They appear to be somewhere near the northeastern end of the Bois de la Cusse. The church tower he sees in Amanvillers is at 49° 10′ 03″ N; 6° 02′ 32″ E and can be seen on Google street view. According to the regimental history, it was 1800 paces from the eastern edge of the woods to Amanvillers, which would place the eastern edge about 400 yards west of where it is now. The rail line under construction runs up from the south along the east side of Amanvillers (that is, behind the village from his perspective) and then, north of the village, it turns to the west. The line is no longer there, but traces of it can be seen on Google Earth; it is the line of trees and the faint strip across the open field, running from north of the village to the west along the north side of the remains of Bois de la Cusse. Thus, Rückert is probably looking north-northeast or northeast toward the embankment, not to the east toward Amanvillers, since the embankment would run behind the village where he could not see it. The village he sees beyond the embankment is probably St. Privat (49° 11′ 19″ N; 6° 02′ 11″ E), which the Hessians will not, in fact, be storming, but he cannot know that. What is puzzling about his description is that he says he is looking uphill at Amanvillers, and that the rail line is in the valley below it. But the area he is describing is quite level, with only very slight rolls that can conceal men in shallow hollows. The ground rises significantly only to the east of Amanvillers, behind it from his perspective.
- 48.
He is actually seeing only a tiny fraction of “the whole line,” which is about seven miles long. Counting both sides, there are roughly 300,000 men in this gigantic struggle.
- 49.
The mitrailleuse was an early form of machine gun. It had 25 individual barrels with the bullets fired rapidly in succession by crank. As Rückert says, it was extremely scary. However, its effectiveness was limited due to poorly trained crews, the narrow cluster of the bullets, and its deployment far back with the artillery. It caused only a tiny percentage of the German casualties.
- 50.
The trail is the long wooden prong that sticks out from the rear of the carriage and rests on the ground at an angle, stabilizing the gun.
- 51.
The reader may well wonder why so many men were apparently sacrificed to push an abandoned gun to the rear after the crew had already retreated. The loss of a gun can be serious in and of itself. But there’s another factor: Even in a modern war, symbolism remains a great motivator. Guns (and even more, standards) are prized trophies if they are captured by the enemy. Preventing their capture is a matter of honor—and, to be cynical, a good career move for officers and NCOs…assuming they survive.
- 52.
The two pouches were attached to his belt in the front, like rigid, squared-off fanny packs—filled with lead!
- 53.
Upper Hesse is a shifting geographical term for that part of Hesse north of the Main river around the town of Giessen
- 54.
Given the seriousness of the wound, he is obviously unable to say exactly where he is. A good guess is that he lying on the south side of the woods (Bois de la Cusse) near the eastern end. On August 18, as the sun went down it would have moved around a bit to the north of west, so it could shine into the woods on that side; note also that the map shows the border of the woods tilted to the southwest.
- 55.
Understandably, his account becomes vague and garbled at this point. He says he was set down facing toward the enemy (that is, roughly, to the east), so unless he could turn his head, he could not have looked to the southwest. In any case, we can only speculate because the woods consisted of many smaller sections, separated by fields or clearings, possibly providing perspectives that would not be obvious in imagining the woods as one continuous mass. Moreover, the position, size, shape, and divisions of the woods are not the same today as in 1870.
- 56.
In his delirium Rückert would, of course, have had little sense of time, but it probably was getting close to sunset. There was no standard time in 1870; indeed different armies might disagree on the time by as much as 20 minutes! By today’s standard time, on August 18, the sun would have set at about 7:46 PM in the area just west of Metz. Only darkness put an end to the battle.
- 57.
The actual number was more like 300,000.
- 58.
It must be much later than he thinks it is. In August of 1870 the moon was full on the 11th and in its third-quarter on the 19th. What he’s describing here (a moonrise not long after sunset) would have been accurate for five or six days earlier, but not for August 18. Regardless of the moon’s position in relationship to the woods, it would not have appeared above the horizon until about midnight. It’s possible that Rückert drifted back into unconsciousness, and lost track of the time
- 59.
It would have been a half moon, though providing adequate light.
- 60.
The major battle of the Austro-Prussian War.
- 61.
He’s referring to the storming of St. Privat, a part of the battle just north of where Rückert had been engaged.
- 62.
It’s impossible to tell exactly which village he is in.
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Kelly, A. (2019). Part III: Battlefields and Battle—Vionville-Gravelotte. In: Carl Rückert's Memoirs of the Franco-Prussian War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95804-0_5
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