A greatly superior force was now assembled opposite the enemy's position, and a general attack was decided on; but to give the wearied troops some rest it was postponed till the 17th, and meanwhile, on the 16th, General Chanzy withdrew.
It had certainly been his intention to make a longer stand in the Loir angle; but his Generals convinced him that the condition of the troops did not permit the prolongation of active hostilities. He accordingly gave the order for the retreat of the army at daybreak by way of Montoire, St. Calais, and Vibraye to Le Mans.
Thus in the early morning (of the 17th) the Xth Corps found the French position in front of Vendôme abandoned, and it entered the city without opposition. On the French left wing only, where the marching orders had not yet arrived, General Jaurès made an attack on Fréteval, but in the evening he followed the other Corps.
[54] In the 22nd Division of the XIth Corps--a Corps of a curiously composite character, there were three Thüringian regiments. The 43rd Brigade was wholly Thüringian, consisting as it did of the 32nd and 95th regiments (2nd and 6th Thüringers), and in the 44th Brigade was the 94th (5th Thüringers). It was the 2nd battalion of this last regiment which is referred to in the text.
[55] The expression "Directiven" in the text cannot be succinctly translated. It was rarely, except when actually himself in the field, that the Chief of the General Staff issued actual "orders" to the higher commanders. His communications for the most part consisted of "Directiven"--messages of general suggestions as to the appropriate line of action to be pursued, leaving a wide discretion to the commanders to whom they were addressed, and refraining almost entirely from details. A collection of Moltke's "Directiven" would be perhaps the finest tribute to his military genius.
INTERRUPTION OF IMPORTANT OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS IN DECEMBER.
On the 17th of December general directions were issued from Versailles to the Armies both to the north and south of Paris.
Now that General von Manteuffel was across the Somme, and Prince Frederick Charles had advanced to the Loir, the Germans held possession of almost a third of France. The enemy was everywhere driven back; and that the German forces should not be split up, it was thought advisable that they should be concentrated into three principal groups. The Ist Army was therefore to assemble at Beauvais, the Detachment at Chartres, the IInd Army near Orleans, where the troops were to have the needful rest, and their full efficiency was to be re-established by the arrival of reservists and equipment. If the French should engage in any new enterprises, they were to be allowed to approach within striking distance, and then were to be driven back by a vigorous offensive.