3-038-942 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Retreat of the French Army of the Loire, 1871. 'It was on the 5th December [1870], after a week's hard fighting, in the latter days of which the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg was relieved and supported by Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia with a portion of the army from Metz, that the French commander, General Aurelle des Paladines, was forced to abandon the city [of Orleans] before daylight, and the Prussian troops immediately entered it...The fighting was most obstinate at Freteval, Oucques, and Marchenoir; but the French resistance, though stoutly maintained, was finally overcome, and the Germans gained the town of Vendome. In this position the right wing is still threatened with an attack from General Chanzy, who is at Le Mans, to the north-west; and they cannot push on to Tours before disposing of him. The German left wing, meantime, is operating far up the Loire, above Orleans, thirty or forty miles south-east of that city, about Gien and Bonny, in order to keep the two portions of the divided French army asunder, and to prevent their returning to the defence of Tours'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.