Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/376

338 which were poured in by the French batteries; in spite of this they held to their position and showed no signs whatever of retreating.

There was a severe fight at St. Marie aux Chenes between three battalions of French and the 5th and 6th Saxon regiments together with the first division of the Guards. The Germans attacked under very great disadvantages. The ground in the vicinity of St. Marie is quite open, and the men had no cover whatever against the French fire. The bullets from the chassepots and machine guns poured like hail across this ground as soon as the Germans began their advance. Their only way was to make a rush of perhaps one hundred or two hundred paces, then throw themselves flat on the ground and begin firing; and as soon as they had taken breath, rise and repeat the movement. Rush after rush was made in this way. Many of the Germans were killed and wounded, but the advance continued. When the Germans were within one hundred yards of the village, the French evacuated it, not caring to wait for the last rush. At five o'clock in the afternoon, the French army was holding all its principal positions from one end of the line to the other, and had only lost a few unimportant points. The 6th corps on the right wing held its ground at St. Privat and Roncourt. The 4th corps was also unmoved in its position at Amanvillers and Montigny-la-Grange; but the 3d corps had been compelled to evacuate the Bois des Vaux in front of its left wing, although it was still in its strong position on the Moscou Heights. In front of the 2d corps, every attack of the Germans had been repulsed. The Imperial Guard was still held in reserve and was impatient to be brought forward. Marshal Bazaine was confident that the day would end in a victory for the French, in view of the circumstance that the Germans had lost much more heavily than his own army and had gained no position of consequence.