Bazaine surreders Metz after starvation siege

Background. Following defeat at Gravelotte on 18 August 1870, Bazaine retreated into the Metz fortress with the Army of the Rhine. He had been appointed commander-in-chief in August 1870 and took up the chief command with reluctance. A Prussian army of about 200,000 men besieged the city, encircling 3 French marshals, 50 generals, 135,000 men, and 600 guns.

Conditions. By late October, French food supplies were exhausted. Bazaine described the dire situation in a letter, noting that famine and harsh weather had incapacitated 63,000 combatants. The army lacked medicines for 20,000 sick or wounded, and torrential rain flooded camps, preventing rest. These conditions forced the surrender.

Aftermath. The surrender ended the siege as a decisive allied German victory. The captured army included some 193,000 men. Bazaine later published an account of the campaign that included a defence against the 1873 accusation of treason, presenting a history of the disastrous campaign with official documents, dispatches, and letters.

Command. Bazaine took field command of the French front line forces near Metz at the outbreak of the war. He was nominated as commander-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine on 12 August 1870. He took up the chief command with reluctance, viewing his tenure as the central act in the tragedy of 1870.