Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "The surrender of Napoleon III and the Battle of Sedan" video.

I some years ago remember reading Michael Howard's book on the Franco Prussian War and I was stuck by the utter mess the French had gotten themselves into with their mobilisation. Despite the fact that they were at war it was decided that civilians could travel be train as normal which meant the military had work their way around the civilians. Soldiers had to make their own way to their units, often finding that the regiment was no longer where they thought it was. They would then set off to the regiments next known location. Many men never did reach their regiments and ended up in ad hoc units cobbled together from whoever was on hand. The French cavalry attacks you mentioned were a complete disaster as the Germans were inside the buildings while the French were out on the roads. Result was that many of the French were simply shot off their horses. And both sides were using rifles so this added to the folly of sending cavalry into urban areas. You would think that soldiers would learn lessons from all this, but no. There was a cavalry charge against a unit of artillery. I forget the details but I think it was Prussians cavalry and French artillery. The charge was over 800 yards and as far as the Prussians were concerned it was successful as they took the guns. Proof, said many cavalrymen, that cavalry still had a place on the battlefield. Details omitted were that though the cavalry had to attack the guns which were 800 yards away, 400 of those yards were in dead ground. In other words they were only under fire for the last 400 yards. And the other detail missed was that half the cavalry died in the attack. You have to think that if not for the dead ground the rest of the regiment would have suffered the same fate.
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