Battle of Bazeilles

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Battle of Bazeilles
Part of The Battle of Sedan, in the Franco-Prussian war
Alphonde de Neuville, Les dernnieres cartouches (The last bullets)
Date 1 September 1870 Location Bazeilles Result Bavarian Pyrrhic victory
Belligerents
Bavaria	France
Commanders and leaders
General von der Tann	General de Vassoigne General Lambert
Strength
I Royal Bavarian Corps + 1 division	1 Division
Casualties and losses
7 000 dead (including 200 officers)	2 655 dead (including 100 officers)

Photogravure of Bazeilles (1870) by François Lafon.

Das Blutbad in Bazeilles. Bavarian troops getting ambushed by French hiding in a house

The Battle of Bazeilles was one of the first occasions of modern urban warfare.

During the 1870 Franco-Prussian war, Bazeilles, a small village in the French Ardennes department near Sedan was the theater of an ambush on Bavarians, allies of the Prussians, by a small detachment from the "Blue Division" of Troupes de marine, under the command of general De Vassoigne. Hiding in houses along with local Franc tireurs, the marsouins, the snipers shot with their new quick-firing Chassepot breechloading rifles at the Bavarian unit that outnumbered them by ten to one.

They held the village until Napoleon III gave order to withdraw, but a small group under commander Arsene Lambert remained in the last house on the road to Sedan, the Auberge Bourgerie, fighting to the last bullet to cover the retreat. The house is now a museum, showing, for example, a clock hit at 11:35 by a bullet, stopping it.

After 7 hours of urban warfare, the Bavarians were able to take the village. Considered to be unlawful combatants, the Franc tireur partisans and other civilians were executed.

Soon afterward, the Battle of Sedan was a crushing defeat of France, with Napoleon III getting captured with his army. Another French army was trapped at Metz, effectively ending the war and Napoleon's Empire. However, the French, now as a republic, decided to continue for months with partisan warfare.

General de Vassoigne said about these soldiers: "The troupes de marine fought beyond the extreme limits of duty". The anniversary of the Battle of Bazeilles is now celebrated by the Troupes de marine, as their equivalent to Camerone for the Legionaires.

References

• Arte French-German TV, as of 16 March 2008 broadcast Die großen Schlachten: 1870 - Die Entscheidung von Sedan - (Deutschland, 2005, 52min)
• (French) Site non officiel: Troupes De Marine. Bataile du Bazeilles. (retrieved 2008-06-30)
• (French) N. Hardoin. Francis & allemands: histoire anecdotique de la guerre de 1870-1871. Garnier frères (1888), pp. 275, 448, 524-531, 606-610.
• Google Book search: Bazeilles