Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-03-07
WHY WAS METZ sURRENDEREDs

1t is very easy task to make charges
against military leaders, and thereby sully
regulations made by the most unselfsh
and patriotic services. 1t is easier to make
accusations of this kind than to sustain
them. Our readers are doubtless familiar
with the fact that Immediately after the
surrender of Metz, very grave charges were
preferred by the adherents of the French
Republic, that Bazine had betrayed them
could have been successfully defended.
These charges have never as yet been fully
supported by specific facts, but it has been
generally recognized that either treachery
or bad management brought about the dis
aster. Within the past few months, some
important testimony upon the subject has
been made public, in the shape of a book
written by Mr.. G.. T. Robinson, the only
newspaper correspondent who was shut up
in Metz during the siege. He charges very
positively that, for the greater part of the
siege, "Bazaine was absolutely invisible.
He lived in luxurious chatteau, in compa-
ny with certain favorites. At the gates
were nOuuLeQ Two Ut6HUHCSUoCo' hc
Marshal VIGOROUSLY passed his time in
smoking, billiard playing and dining.
Nero seems to have been nothing to him,
for he was in the highest spirits whatever
ill-news was heard or apprehended. He
always had sumptuous late breakfasts,
which no pressure of military duties ever
led him to abandon. Not one word of
encouragement was ever addressed by
him to army, garrison, or citizens during
the whole seventy days of the siege.
He seldom or never issued any order ofthe
day. Constantly it was declared by sol
diers and civilians in Metz, that if France
could not come to the rescue of thefortress,
it was the bounden duty of the army there
to go to the rescue of France. The ar
my was ready and eager to set forth. The
town was ready to part with the army and
to defend itself. Even on the 10th of Sep
TENDER, the official return showed that
Bazaine had 900 men fit to take the
field, with six thousand cavalry able to be
mounted, beside horsesavailable for large
force of artillery During this time he
asserts the Germans could not bring any
thing like that number of troops into the
field, and were suffering terribly from ex-
posure and disease. The rains were
washing numbers of them daily into their
mother earth" Dysentery and fever ran
riot among them. At many points in their
lines there were only sentries, and no force
capable of serious resistance Mr.. Robin
SON declares that he was out repeatedly at
night with ecLaireurs, and saw only hun
,dreds of Germans where thousands were
thought to have been. Constantly were
camp fires lighted in the woods by the
enemy in places where they had no troops,
go that the smoke might rise and impress
the observers in Metz with false notion
of the number of their besiegers. That
these and other tricks were employed was
known to many persons in the town.
These facts it must be admitted give
strong color to the charges preferred and
make it necessary for Bazaine or his
friends to make full explanations. If this
is not done, or until it is done, Bazaine will
certainly rest under a cloud in public
opinion.