Identifier: moltkebiographic00morr Title: Moltke, a biographical and critical study Year: 1894 (1890s) Authors: Morris, William O'Connor, 1824-1904 Subjects: Moltke, Helmuth, Graf von, 1800-1891 Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 Publisher: London : Ward and Downey (limited)

View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book

Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image: ithdetermined sorties from Paris, might yet, he believed,cause the siege to be raised, nay, lead to a reversefor the German arms, and, in any event, an opera-tion of the kind would enable the French to fallback and renew hostilities in the still intact pro-vinces. He proposed, therefore, that, at a giventime, he should advance from Le Mans to theSeine; that Bourbaki, from the Loire, should makea corresponding movement ; that Faidherbe shouldpress forward from across the Somme; that armedlevies should march in second line ; and that, whenthe occasion had come, the armies in Paris shouldmake desperate efforts to join in the attacks of allthe armies uniting from without, and thus endeavourto force the zone of investment. Were this onceeffected, the Germans around Paris would obviouslybe placed in the gravest peril.^ 1 Chanzys views will be found in La Deuxieme Armee de laLoire, pp. 234, 254. We have only space for a few words : Dispose comme il Test Tennemi cherche evidemment a se pre- o

Text Appearing After Image: MASTERLY VIEWS OF CHANZY. 337 This project of Chanzy was, from every point ofview, the best that could be formed as affairs stood ;even if it had failed, as we think would have hap-pened, it was not hopeless, and it was at least safe,and it was the one that Moltke expected andfeared.^ Most unhappily for France, Gambetta hadlent an ear to the counsels of a theorist isfnorant ofwar, and had already committed himself to a grandscheme of operations on an imposing scale, in whichhis fervid imagination beheld a glorious prospect.He had been forcibly impressed by the success withwhich he had recently moved large masses from theSaone to the Loire, and had unquestionably sur-prised the German commanders ; he had organized,we have seen, a new force in the South, which hadbeen named the 24th corps; he had called intobeing the 25th, near the Loire; and opinion inFrance was eager for the relief of Belfort, defended,we have said, heroically for months, and for a senter successivement, et en forces,

Note About Images