Bazaine counterattacks at Gravelotte

During the battle of Gravelotte Prussians suffered heavy casualties (over 4 times as many dead as the French) but the French commander choose to withdraw to Metz and not counterattack.

But what if Bazaine decided to counterattack the exhausted Prussian forces?
 
Bazaine's choices were at least as much political than military (he tought the war was more or less bound to end as a defeat, and keeping as much as the army intact was decisive to influe on the consequences).

At this point, after Mars-la-Tour, the decision to cut himself from French lines is already made, so...you'd really need to have an obvious big window of opportunity that even Bazaine couldn't spare to use.
 
A counterattack is pronbably not possibel because the day was almost over. The French had the "advantage" to act defensibel that day. Also their right was pushed back which endagered the whole army. Bazaine was probably right not to push his luck, especially because he was still outnumbered substantially.
 
Bazaine didn't have the nerve. He had not been prepared to mount proper attack to destroy an isolated Prussian corps at Mars la Tour a couple of days earlier and was not prepared to take the risk at Gravelotte. Hewas unsuited to the rle of army commander/
 
Top