Prince Frederick Charles now brought forward the 2nd division of the Guard to the Hessians' assistance, while the 1st division attacked Ste. Marie. Meantime the crown prince of Saxony (XII. Corps), with a better view than his superior, was already aware that the French position extended to Roncourt at least, and had despatched a whole division down the valley of the Orne to out flank them. No news of this movement, however, appears to have reached Prince Frederick Charles. The Prussians rushed Ste. Marie, but became disordered, and more than an hour passed before the troops could be re-organized. With the Hessians and the IX. Corps the action still dragged; the 3rd brigade of the Guard had become involved in the fight, and notwithstanding the arrival of the corps artillery of the III. Corps the situation was still critical.
About 4:30 P.M. the prince therefore had to consider how long it would take to obtain a decision. To postpone it till the morrow seemed undesirable ; to achieve it before nightfall was only possible at the cost of immediate effort. He therefore decided to assault St. Privat with all the Guards available, and called up the III., X. and Saxons to assist them. The 4th brigade of the Guards now received their orders to attack Jerusalem (a hamlet a little south of St. Privat), and the 1st division was ordered to assault St. Privat itself. Pape, commanding the division, after pointing out his lack of artillery support transmitted the order. The deployment of his 2nd brigade was hindered first by the gardens of Ste. Marie and then by the overlapping of the 4th brigade, so that it had to wheel half-left in mass before it could gain room to deploy. Almost as the commands were given, the French suddenly opened an overwhelming long-range fire and their bullets swept like hail through the crowded mass of the German troops. Nevertheless the wheel was effected, the fresh direction taken, the troops extended for attack, and then the whole brigade dashed towards their objective. Meanwhile the 1st brigade had moved round the north of the village and carried out its extension without serious hindrance. The whole line then raced forward to reach the effective range of their very inferior weapons, which were about equal at 200yd. to the French rifle at 600. But the losses of the 2nd brigade, particularly in officers, had been too heavy, and the rush died out.
It was now about 6 P.M. and a long pause ensued, while the 220 guns, which by degrees had unlimbered behind them, brought these villages under fire. About 7P.M. the Saxon turning-movement took effect ; their infantry from the Orne valley attacked Roncourt from the north, and about 7:15 the village was carried. With the III. and X. Corps now coming up, Prince Frederick Charles, although still unaware of the capture of Roncourt, decided to call on the whole of his force to attack. He was in the act of issuing his orders when a psychological wave swept through the fighting-line, and the men rose and rushed the village at the point of the bayonet. It was now about eight o'clock, and the light was failing.
The confusion in and around St. Privat, where troops from four corps were all intermingled, became so extreme that no further infantry-advance could be attempted ; so under cover of a fierce artillery duel the remnants of the unfortunate French 6th Corps drifted away towards Metz down the many ravines leading into the river valley. The "annihilation" of the Guard at St. Privat has become historic. Yet, heavy as were the losses of the ist Guard division they were not excessive compared to those pre viously endured—roughly one-third of their effectives had fallen.
But the legend cannot be justified when the facts are compared with the slaughter of the Seven Years' War, of Napoleon's battles, the Crimea, and the American Civil War. • In the southern sector of the battlefield, where an entirely inde pendent engagement had been raging all the afternoon ; when Man stein's guns had opened fire opposite Amanvillers, Goeben's VIII. Corps and Zastrow's VII. Corps had promptly moved "to the sound of the guns," and his support. Both corps took as their primary objective the farms of St. Hubert and Point du Jour, standing just above the defile made by the Verdun-Metz road where it climbs out of the Mance ravine towards the French posi tion. About 3:3o P.M. St. Hubert was carried and Steinmetz, believing the main French position to have been pierced, ordered the 4th cavalry division to cross the ravine by the chaussee and pursue. Simultaneously Zastrow had ordered his corps artillery to advance and Goeben, also, pushed up reserves.
All these columns converged upon the defile and a hopeless entanglement ensued. Here, exposed to all the random bullets and shells of the French, a panic ensued, thousands of men breaking away and flying in wildest confusion through Gravelotte towards the west. Hardly had they melted away when the French made a most brilliant counter-attack from their main position between the farms of Leipzig and Moscow. This was stopped almost entirely by the Prussian artillery fire; but the news of its coming sent another wave of panic through the mass, many thousands bolting right upon the front of their own batteries, thus masking their fire at the most critical moment, and something like a crisis in the battle arose. Fortunately the II. Corps was now rapidly approaching (about 6 P.M.) and the king, against Moltke's advice, now ordered Steinmetz to attack again with all his forces. Dark ness and a third panic delayed the preliminary movements, but at length the II. Corps, together with all of the VII. that could be collected, moved down into the valley. Just as the leading German troops were approaching St. Hubert the French again began to fire, their bullets plunging down among the fresh arrivals, who knowing nothing of what had taken place about St. Hubert (where the remnant of their own infantry were still offering a desperate resistance) opened fire into the backs of their own men, and a fourth panic began which soon spread to the stragglers crowding the Mance ravine. Fortunately, by the superb gallantry of some of the company officers and men, the new arrivals were induced to recognise their mistake, and by degrees about io P.M. the whole of the II. Corps succeeded in reaching the plateau between St. Hubert and Point du Jour, where the debris of VII. and VIII. Corps had gathered. But in the darkness and confusion no forward movement against the French (only 400yd. to their front) could be initiated, therefore the whole mass passed the night where they stood until daylight disclosed the French retreat. . Meanwhile the king, Moltke and Bismarck, had ridden back behind Gravelotte where they passed two hours of intense anxiety. From the flash of the rifles it was clear that the French main position was still intact, and as every body of troops within thirty-six hours' call had been engaged there seemed little prospect of renewing the struggle next morning. No news too had come from Prince Frederick Charles. About midnight tidings of the capture of St. Privat arrived, and all anxiety ended.