Here's the new update, more or less wrapping up the war. And yes, Ducrot actually said that after Sedan.
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Story of a Party - Chapter XXV
Contre nous de la tyrannie
"We are in the chamberpot, about to he shat upon."
- Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot
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From "Die Wacht am Rhein: A History of German unification, 1815-1916" by Dr. Prof. Heinrich Dorfmann
Translated into English by Roland O'Malley
Harper & Bros. Publishing Company, New York City, 1984
"After the coup against Napoleon III, Trochu and his allies formed a Government of National Defence, vowing to continue the fight against Prussia and its allies. By this point, all of the German states had joined Prussia in the war but one. Bavaria, despite its strategic importance (controlling the border on the Rhine's left bank as it did), remained precariously neutral, not siding with either side in the war. This situation stemmed from the strained political situation in the country, as much of the people supported unification with Prussia, whereas the King [1] supported continued independence, and the Church feared the anti-Catholic Prussians becoming dominant in a German state. The leader of the pro-unification party at court was Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, a Hessian nobleman who had previously served as a diplomat in Prussia [2], while the pro-independence group was led by Baron Karl Ludwig von der Pfordten, the Minister-President of the country [3]. The precarious balance between these groups, as the pro-union party controlled the Landtag and the pro-independence party controlled the government, prevented Bavaria from joining either side during the early stages of the war; after Austria's surrender, joining the war against Prussia became less palatable, and Pfordten and his group kept the country out of the war.
Maximilian II of Bavaria was adamant to keep his country out of the war.
The Prussians didn't interfere with this situation during the summer, as they had a reliable supply line through Koblenz and Trier [4], and the Bavarians didn't seem liable to turn against them. As such, when in mid-September the Prussians were on the Marne, Bavaria was still neutral…"
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Outside Château Thierry
French Republic (proclaimed)
Empire of the French (recognised)
September 13, 1871
Paul Bäumer was marching with his company along the country road, for the fifth day in a row. This was different from the trenches of the Mosel, and Paul couldn't make up his mind whether it was better or worse. On the one side, the weather was a bit better in the autumn, and there was less fear of shelling, but on the other hand, the marching was tiresome, and there were small engagements with French stragglers all over the countryside. He was still in the same platoon as before, with Kat, Müller, Detering and all of the others. Three of the original twenty had been killed, one by French artillery and the other two in the Battle of Villers, which their company had taken a small part in. The officers seemed thrilled at the change, some remarking that "this is how war should be waged" and that trench warfare "is nothing but sitting in a hole and waiting for death", a statement Paul could agree with.
"Frenchmen!" someone shouted from the rear. The ranks startled briefly, but when the bugle called to break ranks and engage, order was quickly restored. The company broke ranks, ran down the hill, and spotting the French in the valley, opened fire.
***
"Dear Mother,
If you're reading this, it means I am dead. I shall miss you, the family, and everyone back home for eternity, and it was for you, not for the King, definitely not for Bismarck, or even for some vague idea of German-ness, that I died. Rest assured that I died thinking of you.
Love
Paul"
***
From "Die Wacht am Rhein: A History of German unification, 1815-1916" by Dr. Prof. Heinrich Dorfmann
Translated into English by Roland O'Malley
Harper & Bros. Publishing Company, New York City, 1984
"Following the Battle of Dormans, the Prussians stood at the gates of Paris. The French offensive, futile in its aims of checking the Prussian advance, had nevertheless succeeded in allowing the Parisians enough time to finish the fortifications at the edge of the city. In addition to the Thiers wall, the French had dug a line of trenches running from Saint-Denis in the west to Neuilly-sur-Marne in the east; the wall was defended by just about all the artillery that could be found and manned. Every able-bodied man between the ages of 16 and 30 was called upon by the Government of National Defence to take up arms for France on September 19. The construction of trenches, however, was rendered a moot effort when, on September 26, the Prussians took Saint-Cloud and Choisy, having the city surrounded by the end of the month.
Bismarck initially demanded that the Prussian army use long-range guns to shell the city, but this was turned down by the General Staff, who feared that bombing civilians would turn foreign opinion against Prussia if it failed to end the war, or leave the French armies roaming the countryside and enable the French to restart the war effort should it succeed in ending the war for the time being. Instead, a plan drafted by Leonhard von Blumenthal, the general in command of the besieging troops, that suggested protracting the siege to create attrition in the French ranks while destroying any large army formations remaining outside the city.
Throughout the autumn, although little took place in the way of military action, the city of Paris was starved so thoroughly by the siege that eventually, the Parisians had to eat their domestic animals, and the city zoo was massacred for food. The result were rather humorous-looking restaurant menus such as this one. [5]
In mid-December, an irregular French army commanded by Louis Faidherbe marched through Picardy, aiming to cut off the Prussian siege. Blumenthal sent the I Army, under August Karl von Goeben, north to deal with the issue. On Christmas Day, he defeated the French at Soissons; this decisive victory, coupled with the checking of Trochu's attempt to break out at Neuilly-sur-Seine [6], made Bismarck, Roon and other high officials uproot their positions in Berlin and go to Versailles to declare the war won and crown King Wilhelm as the first German Emperor. This happened on January 12, 1872, and after over two years of fighting, Germany was finally united as a nation-state. Bismarck had been successful in his aims - with the exception of Bavaria..."
The founding of the German Empire at Versailles, January 1872.
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[1] ITTL, Maximilian II still lives, though he's on his last legs. IOTL, he died in 1864, just as the Schleswig war was breaking out, but he died very suddenly of some kind of disease, and that kind of thing is quite susceptible to five years of butterflies in Europe.
[2] Hohenlohe, of course, won out IOTL, and eventually became Germany's first non-Prussian chancellor.
[3] Pfordten served as Maximilian II's Minister-President for two periods; in the first, he engineered the plan for the so-called Trias, the union of Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg against both great powers in Germany, and in the second, he sided with Austria against Prussia before getting pushed out by the pro-union party in favour of Hohenlohe. ITTL, this hasn't happened for two reasons; first, since Bavaria wasn't on any side in the war, they weren't on the losing side, and second, since there is no Welfenfond ITTL and Max II is more interventionist than Ludwig ever was, the pro-independence party is still in power.
[4] A divergence here - IOTL, the only railway to the Saar went through the Palatinate. ITTL, a railway is built along the Mosel in the early 1860s, almost twenty years ahead of OTL.
[5] For those of you who don't speak French, the menu includes such items as stuffed donkey's head, elephant consommé, kangaroo stew, and cat steak with a side of rats. For those of you who do,
here's the full-sized image.
[6] IOTL this breakout took place at Saint-Cloud, and led to the Prussians razing the château there. ITTL, Trochu's different planning means that the château survives, and eventually becomes a major destination for Napoleon enthusiasts.