Uhlan Patrol

The affairs of the nations

Six weeks to Sedan, and the long war after it

It began over a throne — a Hohenzollern prince offered the crown of Spain — and a telegram from Ems; France declared war on 19 July 1870. Six weeks later the Emperor was a prisoner at Sedan and Paris had declared a republic. The war went on through the winter: the siege of Paris, the armies raised in the provinces, and in January 1871 a German Empire proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Two weapons, two answers

The French chassepot outranged the Prussian needle-gun; the Prussian steel breech-loaders outranged the French bronze guns. Neither side held the whole advantage, and the battles turned on which mattered where.

The mitrailleuse

A new weapon, kept secret before the war and used with the artillery when it came.

Cavalry that still charged

The cuirassiers at Reichshoffen; von Bredow’s squadrons at Mars-la-Tour.

Two wars in one

The Imperial army’s campaign to Sedan, then the Republic’s improvised armies of the Loire and the North — different forces, different problems, the same winter.