X-Nico

Agnes Salm-Salm

When Agnes and Felix arrived in Mexico City, the French troops under François Achille Bazaine were leaving, being recalled to Europe to fight against the Prussians.

François Achille Bazaine

He was wounded by a shell splinter in the head on 8 June, during the action at the Battle of Melegnano.

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The Prussian army of 200,000 men now besieged the city of Metz, where 3 French Marshals, 50 Generals, 135,000 men and 600 guns were encircled.

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Two days later, while the French actually retreated on Metz (taking seven hours to cover 5 to 6 miles) the masses of the Germans gathered in front of Bazaine's Army at Gravelotte, intercepting his communication with the interior of France.

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The question was one of extricating the army and the government from a disastrous adventure, and Bazaine's solution of it was to bring back his army to Metz.

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On 7 October, hungry and immobilised, Bazaine dispatched two 40,000 man foraging parties along both banks of the Moselle, but the Prussian guns blew the French wagons off the road and the Prussian infantry cut swathes through the desperate French soldiers with Chassepots captured at Sedan.

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By midsummer 1875, Bazaine had settled in Madrid, where he was treated with marked respect by the government of Alfonso XII, who were grateful for Bazaine's conspicuous bravery as a young Foreign Legion Officer in the Carlist War.

see also