The siege of Bitche was a battle during the Franco-Prussian War initially caused by the German forces on August 8, 1870, to March 26, 1871, where the two nations would sign an armistice. The siege was considered a brave siege under the command of governor Louis-Casimir Teyssier, and of the chief of the troops of the place: Geniès-Hippolyte Bousquet who both would be appointed lieutenant-colonels during the siege.
Background
Otto von Bismarck believed that a Franco-German war was necessary for the benefit of Prussia. The Ems Dispatch affair would ignite the casus-belli in accordance with his wishes and despite the lack of enthusiasm of Napoleon III. When France declared war the now North German Confederation on July 19, 1870, Prussia has 450,000 well-trained men, equipped with an efficient weaponry with an inconspicuous and practical uniforms.
As for the French army, the army was reduced to the Army of the Rhine at the start of the conflict and despite the army's equipment, it was not prepared for war. Dressed too conspicuously and mis-use of its superior equipment, the French army presented a perfect target for the enemy. The facts will prove later that if the soldiers of the Imperial German army defeated France in most of the earlier battles, with the Germans advancing towards Bitche which had a stronghold which had been classified as a first-class stronghold in 1850 that would lead to a difficult siege.
According to an account on January 1. 1870, the Citadel of Bitche contained 53 cannons, 4,662 rifles and 1,399,416 cartridges, more than 120 tons of powder and 26,128 large caliber projectiles.
When conflict broke out on July 19, 1870, there was no additional supply to the fortress. On July 9, 1870, Louis-Casimir Teyssier, a combat experienced French Army officer, was appointed commander of the citadel. He set up his headquarters in the town hall. Prior to assuming command at Bitche, Teyssier commanded an infantry battalion at the city. Before coming to Bitche, he was battalion commander of an infantry regiment in Thionville. It was only at the start of hostilities that he transferred his home to the fortress where the setting up of the guns only took place after the Battle of Wörth and under the direction of an artillery captain, Captain Rossin who retreated shortly after battle.
Bitche became the gathering point of the 5th Corps under the command of French General Failly. On July 18, 1870, the day before the official declaration of war, the square was home to seventeen battalions of infantry and two regiments of cavalry.
The July 23, 1870, General Failly transfers the headquarters to Bitche Sarreguemines, giving way to the troops of General Guyot Lespart with his 3rd Division consisting of 17th, 27th, 30th and 68th infantry regiments. On July 24, 1870, The German regiment, Uhlan regiment began sabotaging the railway of Bitche-Sarreguemines near Bliesbruck in order to isolate Bitche from supplies.
Beginning of the conflict
The July 29, 1870, the first clash took place near Breidenbach, about ten kilometers north of Bitche between a patrol of the 5th German Dragons and a French patrol. The French avant-garde reacted by establishing intrenchment work on the heights of Hanviller on July 31, 1870, which was a village six kilometers north of Bitche. On August 1, 1870, The light horse of Major von Egloffstein and men of the 12th Prussians under the command of Major Von Parry form a group of fifty soldiers to Eppenbrunn, village-border town, from where they head to the road Bitche- Wissembourg. These German scouts were attacked in Sturzelbronn by elements of the French infantry and retreated in the direction of Ludwigswinkel by taking the steep paths by the Mühlenbach farm. A German hussar was captured at the Mühlenbach farm while treating his injured horse.
General Failly was informed of the decision of the Germans heading for Wissembourg by the Germans and the progression of the 3rd East German Army. He was ordered to assemble all his troops in Bitche. Following these directives, the Lespart division which had advanced to the vicinity of Pirmasens withdrew to Bitche on August 2, 1870. General de Failly arrives at Bitche with the rest of the Corps on the evening of August 5, 1870.
In the morning of August 6, 1870, an order from Marshal Mac-Mahon enjoins the Bitchois troops to send a division without delay to Philippsbourg, seventeen kilometers to the south-west, to join Wissembourg the next day with the rest of the Corps. In the morning of August 6, 1870, Lespart's division leaves the Place de Bitche to go to Philippsbourg where it learns of the French defeat of Wœrth. This bad news was also telegraphed to Bitche by the Bannstein station master at around five o'clock. Further progressing a few kilometers in the deep valley towards Niederbronn, the French division takes up position on the heights to the right and left of the spa. These observation troops are drawn into retirement by the survivors of the army of MacMahon to Saverne and to Bitche with a few thousand survivors of the 1st Body.
The Fontanges brigade takes the direction of Saverne while the Albatucci brigade moves towards Bitche. At that time, the bitchoise garrison consisted of 800 soldiers of the 86th, 250 reserve gunners of customs, Guard mobile bitchois, isolated, of lame, of linemen to riders of infantry, of Zouaves and survivors of the battle of Froeschwiller-Woerth. In fact, this motley troop represents exactly 72 different regiments. Numbering 2,400, these soldiers took refuge in part on the citadel and in the entrenched camp in front of Fort Saint-Sébastien. The armament at their disposal is composed of 53 guns of which only 17 are usable. Unlike the enemy troops, the French entrenched in Bitche do not yet have hunting pots but old models with snuff boxes.
In Bitche, General de Failly waited in vain for orders after being informed of the fighting at the Hospital, near Forbach and Wœrth, in the southwest. In the evening of August 6, 1870, he decided to leave Bitche for Petite-Pierre with his two divisions, leaving the Trains in Bitche. The German command assuming at this point that MacMahon was entrenched in bitchoise instead, orders the 12th German division, placed next to Pirmasens, progressed towards Bitche. During their advance, they received information from scouts who have reached Haspelschiedt and Sturzelbronn on August 7, 1870. The Germans observed, on the night of 7 to August 8, 1870, that routed French soldiers crossed Éguelshardt and that many units bivouacking in Bitche withdrew to the south.
But when the 4th Squadron 5th Regiment Dragons German approached the Citadel on August 8, 1870, they were targeted by the artillery pieces of the fortress and which caused four dead (who are buried provisionally in Haspelschiedt) and five wounded. The squadron then retreated. The same day, a brigade of artillery of 2nd Artillery Regiment Bavarian is sent to the city. After having climbed the Kindelberg Hill and having fired a few shells at the citadel, she received a sharp French response. An artilleryman is killed and four others wounded. The piece of artillery destroyed, the Bavarians immediately retreated.
Bitche's resistance neutralized the main lines of communication, which considerably hampered the advance of German troops. The 2nd Bavarian Corps then went to Lemberg by taking forest paths by the Hochkopf hill after having left an infantry battalion and a squadron of light horses in observation near Bitche. As for the 12th German Division from near Pirmasens, it gains the same day the villages of Lengelsheim and Schorbach, after taking the old road Roman of Walschbronnin Schorbach by the heights of Bousseviller and Hanviller. On August 9, 1870, this division is leaving the villages of Lengelsheim and Schorbach to reach Petit-Réderching where Prince Frederick Charles arrived the day before with his 4th Corps from Volmunster in order to cut the road to MacMahon that the Germans still assume Bitche.
The August 11, 1870, the observation of German troops left near Bitche are identified by the 1st Battalion, 7th Bavarian Infantry Regiment charged with protecting military ambulances on Reichshoffen and Niederbronn and responsible for sending observation patrols in Bitche. The citadel and the entrenched camp no longer sheltered, at that time, more than 2,400 men. To prevent the surviving troops from Wœrth and Forbach from spreading demoralizing rumors among his own troops who had taken refuge in the citadel and among the population of Bitche, Commander Teyssier ordered the soldiers to regroup at Fort Saint-Sébastien and in the entrenched camp at the foot of this fort. To strengthen the morale of his soldiers in the citadel, Teyssier explains to them the strategic importance of Bitche in the event of a German retreat.
Realizing that the Bitchois troops hinder too much his strategy and his victorious progress until then, the German commander created a special detachment in Germersheim, north of Karlsruhe, to reduce Bitche's resistance. This detachment has 1850 men and is formed by members of the 2nd Battalion 4th Regiment Bavarian Infantry, the 29th reserve battalion, an officer and eight riders, with 4 guns of 12 pounds to 44 strokes and incendiary shells. Under the orders of Colonel Kohlermann, with 112 horses and 13 vehicles, this detachment arrives at Niederbronn on August 22, 1870, and immediately summons the commander of the citadel asking him to give up the place.
Bombing
On the night of August 22 to 23, 1870, the Bavarians hardly installed an artillery battery on the hill of Grand-Otterbiel, located 1,100 meters north of the citadel. This hill has the advantage of being at the same altitude (366 meters) as the citadel. In the morning of August 23, 1870, the besieged of the place are awakened by explosions. The third shell falls on the Grosse-Tête of the citadel, more exactly on the prison where several German prisoners are locked up, one of whom is wounded. German fire continued for two hours, causing fifty-two cluster shells and twenty-five incendiary shells to fall on the citadel. As there was no result in the response from the citadel, Colonel Kohlermann had the fire stopped at seven in the morning and sent a parliamentarian to ask Teyssier again to surrender. The latter reiterates his refusal and Kohlermann understands that he will need a more powerful artillery to reduce the place. Retiring to a bivouac located between Lengelsheim and Hanviller, he decided to wait for the delivery of more efficient weapons.
Note that the French response to this morning bombardment caused losses to the German assailant: an officer and two servants were wounded by French fire. From August 23 to 27, 1870, German activity was reduced to approach work in the woods of the Rosselle coast, digging entrenchments and installing artillery positions. Commander Teyssier then decides to harass the assailant.
On the night of August 29 to 30, 1870, at two o'clock in the morning, four hundred French soldiers left the entrenched camp in three columns to harass the German positions installed south of the road to Sarreguemines on the Rosselle plateau. This diversion allows the French to destroy sites intended for German pieces and to shoot at the bivouacs of the latter. On August 31, 1870, two German parliamentarians presented themselves again at the foot of the citadel with newspapers intended to demonstrate to the besieged the futility of their resistance. On Teyssier's orders, Lieutenant Mondelli had them turned away. That same day, the German troops received reinforcements with the order to definitively reduce the inner-city of Bitche.
Encouraged by the success of their previous outing, the French engaged in a slight skirmish on September 1, 1870, at half past four near the road to Sarreguemines. On the night of 3 to September 4, 1870, Teyssier had another diversion exit executed from the entrenched camp. Eight hundred soldiers are divided into three distinct groups with the following missions:
- The left column would search the woods, attack the Germans and occupy the positions on the Rosselle north of the road to Sarreguemines
- The central column is responsible for neutralizing the farms of Freudenberg, Simserhof and Légeret,
- The right column would harass the Germans by making a movement turning south of the road to Sarreguemines.