The siege of Montmédy was a battle of the Franco-Prussian War at the small commune of Montmédy, in the Meuse, it was besieged by the army of the German coalition. Defended by the 57th Line Infantry Regiment, the Garde Mobile and elements of other units, it surrendered on December 14, 1870.
Background In 1870, Montmédy was a small town of 3,000 inhabitants. The upper town, that is to say, the fortress proper, formed a triangular platform surrounded by bastions above the level of the Chiers, a tributary of the Meuse, or above sea level. The Chiers constitutes a loop that constitutes the first protection of the place. The lower town is surrounded by a rubble wall of low defensive value 2, crenellated, and 6 m 3 high, while the upper town dominates the outskirts with rock or masonry slopes 20 to 25 m 4 high. A postern barred by gates, with firing positions, connects the lower town to the fortress. Exterior structures cover the Tivoli pass and Montmédy station. The fortifications, built by the Spaniards and reworked by Vauban, are of poor layout and offer little protection against artillery. The square lacks bomb-proof shelters, stores and well-protected firing positions. A circle of heights surrounds Montmédy at a distance of from the ramparts, which exposes it to enemy artillery fire.
Located from the Belgian border, Montmédy is part of a set of small fortresses between the Meuse and the Moselle. However, it was too small to house any large forces. It was nevertheless used to block communications between the Ardennes railway and the imperial road. The railway line, to the east of the station, crosses a tunnel known as the "Tivoli pass".
Start of hostilities
On July 16, three days before the declaration of war, a rumour spread that a Prussian soldier crossed the border at Sierck-les-Bains, triggering a panic. The commander gathered the inhabitants in the square and made the necessary arrangements..
The garrison, commanded by Battalion Chief Reboul, consists of a company of the 57th Infantry Regiment and 3rd Garde Mobile Battalion of the Meuse. The Garde Mobile, raised in the first weeks of the conflict, lacked training, and the place was almost devoid of qualified officers of artillery and engineers. The artillery, quite heterogeneous, consisted of 65 pieces, of which only 8 were rifled. Ammunition consists of 35,000 cannon projectiles, 40,000 kg of gunpowder, 6,300 kg of gunpowder, 116,937 cartridges for model 1866 rifle and 539,320 cartridges for 1857 model rifle..
In the last days of August 1870, Montmédy received considerable supplies intended for Marshal Bazaine's army and the reinforcement army which gathered around Châlons. The chief medical officer Félix Hippolyte Larrey, the chief intendant Wolf and other officers, intended to direct the services of these armies, also established themselves in Montmédy. However, after the defeat of Bazaine at the battle of Saint-Privat (August 18) and its encirclement in Metz, communications being cut, cattle and other provisions pile up in Montmédy. For lack of warehouses, they were stored in the Saint-Martin church and other improvised premises where they remain until the town's capitulation.. During the following days, the garrison was joined by 700 nurses for the Army of Châlons and by several small detachments of gendarmes from neighbouring towns: it reached a total strength of 2,500 to 3,000 men.. The station houses 7 or 8 locomotives and 200 wagons..
On August 27, the garrison learns that the railway from Mézières to Thionville is cut. It receives the support of part of a company from the 6th Infantry Regiment, which came from Mézières. On August 30, Near Chauvency-le-Château, a skirmish pits the 6th Regiment's vanguard against a detachment of fighters of the Bavarian Army: French infantry, threatened with encirclement, is saved by the arrival of reinforcements from Montmédy via rail. The fight left 7 or 8 killed and 15 wounded on the French side, 2 killed, and 4 wounded on the Bavarian side. According to Peter Spohr, the German detachment was the XII (1st Royal Saxon) Corps' vanguard, including a company of the 13th Regiment and a squadron of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment; the Saxons destroy the installations of the Chauvency station (telegraph, water tank, etc.); they lost one killed, and one wounded and took 11 French prisoners including a captain..
On September 1, the Montmédy garrison heard the violent cannonade to the north. They learn the next day that Marshal Patrice de MacMahon's army, coming from Châlons, has delivered and was off the loss at the Battle of Sedan with the following day being that a Saxon officer sent by the Royal Prince Albert of Saxony comes to inform the commander of Montmédy of the French defeat and to ask him very politely to surrender, which the commander Reboul refuses in the forms: "Sir, you know like me that ' a place of war cannot be surrendered without defending itself; take it if you can."..
On September 3, A Prussian officer of the 3rd Guard Uhlans Regiment appears in the name of Prince Hohenlohe to demand surrender again. A French infantryman, who had neither seen the white flag nor heard the order not to shoot, fires and killed a Prussian trumpet. Commander Reboul apologizes and promises to punish the guilty soldier severely. He again refuses to surrender, even when the Prussian emissary informs him that MacMahon is killed (in fact, he is only wounded) and that Emperor Napoleon III and a large part of the army have been captured by Prussians..
Siege
Bombardment on September 5 On September 4, Prince Albert, commander of the 12th Army Corps, ordered Prince Hohenlohe to undertake the siege of Montmedy. It provides the following units: 2nd Guard Infantry Brigade (General von Medem) 6 squadrons of the 1st to 3rd Guards Uhlans 1st Guard Division's artillery 1st Company of Guard Pioneers Pontonier detachment..
On September 5 in the morning, patrols of Prussian cavalry come to observe the French defences: around 9 am, some shellfire removed them. The Prussian artillery immediately began to bombard the city, an exceptional practice at that time and for which the French were ill-prepared. The mobile guards who tried to gain their positions were hampered by the influx of distraught women and children who took refuge in the casemates. The French only had one gun available capable of firing on Prussian batteries. The church, the town hall and the sub-prefecture are affected. Fires broke out which the French were unable to control. Around noon, the Prussian artillery ceased bombarding. An emissary, Thonnelle's mayor, comes to bring a message from the Prince of Hohenlohe with a new request for surrender, which was rejected like the previous offers...
The bombardment resumed in the afternoon with greater precision. Two-thirds of houses and all public buildings were damaged, and a fire in a fodder warehouse raised fears of an explosion in a nearby powder magazine. While the French guns, moved during the midday truce, opened fire on the Prussian positions, the soldiers hardly managed to contain the fire, which would last another week. The bombardment stops around 6 p.m. In total, the French lost 3 killed (including a civilian) and 19 wounded, 4 of whom will die of their injuries. Most civilian houses were damaged, but the bombardment, carried out with field pieces, hardly affected the ramparts. On September 6, the Prussians withdrew without resuming the bombardment. A large part of the civilian population leaves the city for refuge in Belgium; the soldiers recover the abandoned houses..
The output in September and October
From September 6, the small German garrisons of the Meuse pass under General von Bothmer, who directed the siege of Verdun. The German 65th Regiment is shared between Damvillers, Stenay and Étain.. The Chief Surgeon Larrey, Intendant General Wolf and other officers leave Montmédy to join Paris. About 2,000 soldiers were captured during the fighting at Beaumont (August 30), And Sedan (September 1st) managed to escape and reach Montmedy. Still, most were demoralized and lacking equipment but didn't stay out and prefer instead to join the Army of the Loire that the Government of National Defense is in the process of constituting further south. As a result, only 600 newcomers remained in place and, despite a certain relaxation of discipline, constituted a valuable supplement for the garrison. An escaped artillery lieutenant works to improve the firing positions of the place but, following a series of quarrels, leaves the city after a month to join the Army of the North.. On September 11, the locomotives and wagons are assembled in the railway tunnel, the two ends of which are blown up to prevent the enemy from seizing them..
Columns of French prisoners of war heading east passed not far from Montmédy, along the wooded roads conducive to ambushes. On the night of September 12 to 13, a company of 200 infantry is sent to try to deliver them. After a march in the rain, the French arrived in position near Stenay, but an Algerian rifleman, firing before the order, gave the convoy the alert and thwarted the attack. On September 17, a detachment of 200 men was sent searching for enemy scouts near Chauvency. They didn't find them but decided to attack the German garrison of Stenay. Encountering by chance on his way a convoy of a hundred Germans with two vans, he changes his plans and attacks the convoy: he captures 40 soldiers and an officer, the rest fleeing to Damvillers.. These troops belonged to the 53rd Landwehr Regiment..
On October 4, following the attack on a train of troops by the inhabitants of Thonne-le-Thil, the German command ordered, as a punitive measure, a requisition of the surrounding villages. In reaction, on October 5, The French undertake a new release with a detachment of 400 men to intercept the requisition convoy escorted by two or three hundred Saxons of the 65th Regiment.. These soldiers, faster than expected, exceeded the ambush point. When the French realized, a company of 150 men of the 57th Zouave Regiment pursued the Saxons and dispersed them without being able to catch up. The French then fell back on the main part of their detachment and set out again towards Chauvency, exchanging shots with German reinforcements from Stenay. The only result of these actions was that they kept the Germans on the alert and hindered their operations requisition..
On October 7, Commander Reboul concludes a prisoner exchange with the Germans: the 27 German soldiers detained at Montmédy are exchanged for an equal number of Zouaves captured at the Siege of Paris, in transit at Stenay during their movement to Germany. The French learned a few days later that a small garrison no longer held the town of Stenay and that it was a favourable opportunity to seize it. Accordingly, on the night of October 11 to 12, a detachment of 300 men is sent to Stenay. The German soldiers caught off guard, were either captured or fled: the French left around 6:30 am with 200 prisoners with 14 horses and 7 vans taken from the enemy, hurrying to avoid meeting German troops coming from Mouzon, Ardennes and which was to arrive in Stenay around 8 am. The French were back in Montmédy with their prisoners in 10 hours.. They also picked up important booty Chassepot rifles, warm blankets and other equipment..
Failed attempt to retake Sedan The German command, furious at its failure at Stenay, imposed a large contribution on the inhabitants and transferred its stopover service to Damvillers, further away from Montmédy.. The withdrawal of the Montmédy garrison raised the morale of the troops: the Belgian border was virtually no longer monitored by the Germans for 40 to 60 km, which made it possible to receive mail and news from France via Belgium. 650 soldiers from the nursing and administrative services who were of little use on the spot were sent back to Lille, crossing the border illegally..