August 6, 1870 · Alsace Theater
August 6, 1870
The Battle of Wörth — fought simultaneously with a second Prussian victory at Spicheren on the same day — shattered Marshal MacMahon's Army of Alsace in the war's opening phase. The Crown Prince's Third Army attacked MacMahon's position on the hills above the Sauer River despite orders to wait, triggering a general engagement that MacMahon had not sought. Repeated Prussian infantry assaults were repulsed with heavy losses until weight of numbers and the encircling threat to MacMahon's flanks forced a French retreat that became a rout. The last French cuirassier charge of the war — horsemen in breastplates and helmets from another era, riding into needle-gun and artillery fire — was annihilated on the slopes above Wörth.
Commanders