A
third army occupied the camp at Chalons, while a well-manned
fleet set sail for the Baltic, to blockade the harbors and assail
the coast of Germany. The German army was likewise in three
divisions, the first, of 61,000 men, under General Steinmetz; the
second, of 206,000 men, under Prince Frederick Charles; and the
third, of 180,000 men, under the crown prince and General
Blumenthal. The king, commander-in-chief of the whole, was in the
center, and with him the general staff under the guidance of the
alert von Moltke. Bismarck and the minister of war Von Roon were
also present, and so rapid was the movement of these great forces
that in two weeks after the order to march was given 300,000
armed Germans stood in rank along the Rhine.
FIRST MEETING OF THE ARMIES
The two armies first came together on August 2d, near Saarbruck,
on the frontier line of the hostile kingdoms. It was the one
success of the French, for the Prussians, after a fight in which
both sides lost equally, retired in good order. This was
proclaimed by the French papers as a brilliant victory, and
filled the people with undue hopes of glory. It was the last
favorable report, for they were quickly overwhelmed with tidings
of defeat and disaster.
Weissenburg, on the borders of Rhenish Bavaria, had been invested
by a division of MacMahon's army.
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