The Battle of Mars-la-Tour (also known as the Battle of Vionville or Battle of Rezonville) was fought on 16 August 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, near the village of Mars-la-Tour in northeast France. One Prussian corps, reinforced by two more later in the day, encountered the entire French Army of the Rhine in a meeting engagement and, following the course of battle, the Army of the Rhine retreated toward the fortress of Metz.
Prelude
After the Battle of Spicheren on 6 August, the German High Command under Graf Helmuth von Moltke the Elder believed that the French Army of the Rhine would not fight on the eastern side of the Moselle. After 12 August, German cavalry reconnaissance made clear the French intention to fight after all. At 1800 on 14 August, Moltke ordered the Second Army under Prince Friedrich Karl to prepare to cross the Moselle and send all available cavalry to the area between Metz and Verdun to ascertain the French movements. On the morning of 15 August, King Wilhelm I, convinced by Quartermaster General Eugen Anton Theophil von Podbielski's argument that the French would not fight east of Metz, ordered the First Army under General Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz to move forward to the western side of Moselle as well.
Meanwhile, Prince Friedrich Karl on 14 August ordered his III and XII Corps to cross the Moselle on 15 August and advance to the Seille, while his four other corps followed behind them. At 1100 15 August, Moltke sent a telegram to Friedrich Karl, informing him that the French were probably retreating without delay from Metz to Verdun. Friedrich Karl ordered III Corps under General Constantin von Alvensleben to cross the Moselle. The divisions of the corps marched off at 1700, the men not having had time to eat. The 5th Infantry Division crossed the bridge at Novéant, which the French had failed to blow up. The 6th Infantry Division erected a light pontoon bridge at Champey, sending its artillery and supply trains to cross at Pont-à-Mousson. The divisions reached their positions near midnight, sleeping only for a short while.
The French withdrawal to the west was ordered on 13 August, interrupted on 14 August by the Battle of Borny-Colombey and resumed on 15 August. Fighting between German and French cavalry went on all day on 15 August to the south-west of Metz, the Germans forcing the French to retreat back toward Metz. At 1830 on 15 August, Moltke ordered Second Army to cut off the French line of retreat along the Metz-Verdun roads and left to Friedrich Karl's judgement the best means to accomplish this task. Friedrich Karl had already made clear in an 1100 telegram to royal headquarters that reports from III Corps had convinced him that the French were retreating toward the Meuse with full speed and the Second Army would have to hurry to cut them off. At 1900 Friedrich Karl ordered III Corps to advance in force to Mars-la-Tour and Vionville. X Corps under General Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz and two cavalry divisions would assist III Corps in the offensive toward the Metz-Verdun roads.
The French were, in fact, not retreating at full speed; the cavalry actions with the Germans, the blocking of roads by supply trains and the spread-out dispositions of the French corps, convinced the Army of the Rhine's commander Marshal François Achille Bazaine to delay the retreat from 0400 until noon 16 August. The French staff officers were busy organizing the supply trains and road traffic, when the battle of Mars-la-Tour began at 0900 on 16 August. Moltke and the royal headquarters had wrongly assumed that a battle would not be fought until the Germans had reached the supposed French positions at the Meuse and directed the German armies to march toward the river without delay. The westward march of the German armies would leave the German troops at Mars-la-Tour heavily outnumbered and without all possible support. Thanks to Moltke's bungling, the French had fifteen divisions against only four German ones; the German III and X Corps should have been wiped out on 16 August, with eight more German divisions available for destruction the next day. The French were the favorites to win the battle at Mars-la-Tour on 16 August and break out toward the Meuse. The tactical superiority of the Prussian army and the lack of vigor and decisiveness on the part of the French high command foiled the French efforts.
Battle
Morning
In the evening of 15 August, Voigts-Rhetz ordered the 5th Cavalry Division under General Paul von Rheinbaben to conduct a reconnaissance-in-force against the French positions near Rezonville. Around 0830 on 16 August, Murat's French dragoon brigade west of Vionville was busy cooking food in a camp and did not employ cavalry or infantry patrols, allowing Redern's hussar brigade to close in without difficulty. A German battery set up position on a nearby height and fired on the surprised French. More German batteries followed and opened up with their guns, throwing the entire French brigade into savage disorder. The French cavalry promptly fled to the east, re-assembling on the Rezonville plateau. The German horse artillery moved forward, firing on Gramont's cuirassier brigade near Rezonville. By 0930, the German cavalry could not support their artillery, as French infantry had by now formed up and were advancing on Vionville, subjecting the Germans to their fire. The German horse artillery fired on the French infantry, receiving French counter-battery fire in turn.
The 6th Cavalry Division was ordered by Alvensleben at 0200 to cross the Moselle by 0530 and lead III Corps. This was only accomplished by 0700, after which the division was told by 5th Infantry Division of French cavalry positions near Rezonville. At 0900, another order arrived from Alvensleben, instructing 6th Cavalry Division to secure the Rezonville plateau. A cavalry brigade under Lieutenant Colonel Rauch that was advancing on the heights, was fired upon from the Bois de Vionville and was forced to retreat after heavy losses. Grüter's brigade had more success around 0915, its cavalry sending French skirmishers fleeing, while its artillery raked French infantry camps near the Bois de St. Arnould.
The French responded with great force. Marshal François Certain Canrobert's 6th Army Corps sent two divisions to Vionville and Flavigny. General Charles Auguste Frossard's 2nd Army Corps sent Bataille's division to occupy Vionville, Verge's division to control the heights north of Gorze and Lapasset's brigade to occupy the Bois de St. Arnould. The German artillery batteries at Vionville were now subject to artillery and skirmisher fire and were sent fleeing. By 1000, the German cavalry was compelled to retreat all down the line before the superior force of the French. At this stage, the Prussian 5th and 6th Infantry Divisions of III Corps reached the battlefield.
III Corps marched up from the Moselle valley on the morning of 16 August. At 0730 5th Infantry Division began marching along the road from Novéant to Gorze, their objective being Vionville. Its advance guard, the 9th Infantry Brigade under General von Döring, arrived at Gorze at 0900, where 6th Cavalry Division had already re-deployed. They received reports from III Corps outposts and the 6th Cavalry Division of French forces advancing on Gorze along the Rezonville plateau. Prussian troops began ascending the plateau around 0900. Two squadrons of Prussian dragoons were forced back by French infantry fire. Commanded by Colonel von Garrelts, the 1st and 2nd musketeer battalions of the 48th Infantry Regiment advanced, the 1st on the left and the 2nd on right with each in a two-line formation, up the ridge to capture the Bois de Vionville and had by 1015 made sufficient progress for the 1st light artillery battery under Captain Stüphasius to unlimber on their flank and for General von Döring to move up the rest of his men in support. The fusilier battalion of the 48th deployed in two lines to the left of the battery, while the 3rd Rifle Battalion secured the nearby Anconville farm.
The commanding general of 5th Infantry Division, von Stülpnagel, first thought that the 9th Infantry Brigade would suffice to deal with the French advance, enabling the rest of the division to move on Flavigny but a personal view of the combat convinced him otherwise. He ordered all 24 of his division's guns into action under the centralized command of Major Gallus. The French 1st Infantry Division under General Verge deployed on the plateau, seeking to outflank the Prussians on both flanks. The 48th Infantry Regiment's two musketeer battalions, reinforced by three rifle companies from 3rd Rifle Battalion, engaged in intense combat, including hand-to-hand fighting, against the French in the Bois de Vionville and had by 1100 mostly captured it. To the east, the Prussian Guard Regiment advanced directly north from Gorze and two of its battalions slowly pushed back Lapasset's brigade in the Bois de St. Arnould.
To the west, an attempt by the 48th Infantry Regiment's fusilier battalion to flank the French positions on the plateau was outflanked in turn by the French, who used their superior numbers to good effect. The battalion was slaughtered and routed by the French. Major Count Schlippenbach's 1st Battalion of the 10th Infantry Brigade's 52nd Infantry Regiment advanced in open company columns to plug the gap and save the now-exposed German artillery. They made initial headway and pushed back the French but eventually fell victim to overwhelming French infantry firepower with all the battalion's officers killed or wounded. They did succeed in buying time for more German reinforcements to arrive. General von Döring was killed at this point, while moving to his left wing. As the French advanced to destroy the crumbling left wing of the 5th Infantry Division, the 2nd Battalion and fusilier battalion of the 52nd Infantry Regiment under Colonel von Wulffen moved up the plateau and used their fire and bayonets to chase the French back to Flavigny. German losses were heavy, with the fusilier battalion commander Major Herwarth von Bittenfeld killed and the 2nd Battalion's commander Major von Bünau wounded. The fusilier battalion nearly ran out of ammunition. Other artillery batteries of III Corps near Tronville provided fire support that contributed to the success of the 52nd. The German artillery could now move forward on the left flank. An X Corps detachment of two infantry battalions, two dragoon squadrons and one artillery battery arrived to reinforce 5th Infantry Division, raising its artillery strength to 30 guns and creating a strong position for the German batteries by 1200. The heavy German artillery fire forced the French to support 2nd Army Corps with guns from the army reserve.
Accompanied by Alvensleben, 6th Infantry Division and the corps artillery began moving from Arnaville to Mars-la-Tour at 0500. At 0630 they received a cavalry reconnaissance report of French formations between Vionville and Tronville. At 0800, the division spotted the French camps themselves. Alvensleben personally reconnoitered the French positions. Believing that he faced the French rearguard, Alvensleben ordered 6th Infantry Division to move north past Mars-la-Tour and block the French retreat to the west. The divisional artillery batteries under Major General von Bülow moved up and formed a gun line by 1030, bombarding the French infantry between Vionville and Flavigny and softening them up for the German infantry assault to come. French infantry fire inflicted casualties on the German artillerymen, who lacked infantry support of their own.