A fully-illustrated, detailed volume on Gravelotte-St-Privat, probably the hardest fought of all the battles of the Franco-Prussian War. Attacked by superior Prussian forces from both the First and Second armies, Marshal Bazaine's French Army of the Rhine inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing Prussians before finally being forced to retreat into the fortress city of Metz. Unable to break out and with no hope of relief Bazaine's army grimly held on to the end of the war. Philipp Elliot-Wright explores the French failure at Gravelotte-St-Privat, which led directly to their final defeat at Sedan, the collapse of Napoleon III's regime and the proclamation of the German Empire.