Battle of Wissembourg ( 1870 ) The Battle of Wissembourg or Battle of Weissenburg , the first of the Franco - Prussian War , was joined when three German army corps surprised the small French garrison at Wissembourg on August 4 , 1870 . The defenders , greatly outnumbered , fought stubbornly before being overwhelmed ; nevertheless , the fall of Wissembourg allowed the Prussian army to move into France and compelled Marshal Mac - Mahon to give battle , and suffer defeat , at the Battle of Wörth August 6 . Background . In June , 1870 Napoleon III had moved the French army into Lorraine and occupied Saarbrücken . Napoleon wished to win a significant battle on German soil and ordered Marshal Patrice Mac - Mahon to bring up the French I and V Corps . Mac - Mahon ' s objective was to reach Wissembourg where he already had one division stationed under General Abel Douay . Once there he would concentrate his forces for a strike into Germany . The German III Army under Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his able Chief of Staff , General von Blumenthal , was already moving towards Wissembourg . Neither side was fully aware of the other ' s movements . At the outbreak of war , General Ducrot , commanding the 6th French Division at Strasbourg , issued orders to withdraw the elements of his forces stationed at Wissembourg and Lauterbourg . The sub - prefect of Wissembourg protested this decision , not sharing Ducrot ' s doubts on the wisdom of diluting the 6th division along the German frontier . General Douay ' s 2nd French Division set off for Haguenau July 22 , making it necessary to reoccupy Wissembourg to secure Douay ' s line of supply , a portion of his materiel being stored in the small frontier town . In August , Marshal Mac - Mahon concentrated his effectives at Haguenau with the object of warding off any attempt on the strategic Strasbourg — Haguenau — Bitche — Metz rail lines , and established the following positions : Ducrot ' s 1st Division broke camp August 4 and established itself at Lembach in order to secure contact with General Failly ' s V Corps ; Douay ' s 2nd Division reoccupied Wissembourg , Weiler , and the nearby countryside , namely the soft hills by the " Col du Pigeonnier " . The 1st Cavalry Brigade would patrol the frontier east of Wissembourg up to Schleithal . Ducrot ' s familiarity with the terrain earned him the responsibility of overseeing the deployment of the various units in the area , including Douay ' s 1st Division . Accordingly , he instructed Douay to rearrange his with an emphasis on securing the heights commanding the valley of the Lauter : the main emplacements were set up on the Geisberg plateau to the east and the Vogelsberg plateau on the western side , leaving a single battalion in the town of Wissembourg proper . Finally , Douay was to relieve the 96th infantry regiment in the village of Climbach . At this point Ducrot received gravely flawed intelligence : " on the basis of reconnaissance performed by the colonel commanding the 96th regiment , he did not believe the enemy present in enough strength to attempt any serious enterprise in the immediate future . " Battle . The forces of the Crown Prince reached Wissembourg before Mac - Mahon could , thanks to the organisational genius of his Chief of Staff , Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal . At 8 : 00 on August 6 the II Bavarian Corps arrived and began to shell the town . Douay posted a garrison in the town and positioned his reserves on a hill outside the town . The Germans attacked and within a couple of hours entered the town . German reinforcements were brought up to outflank the French reserves . The Bavarians attacked the west side of town while the Prussian XI Corps and artillery assaulted the east . French reinforcements from Mac - Mahon began to arrive on the field . With the arrival of the French V Corps the Bavarian Corps retired behind the protection of their artillery . The French attacked and were so heavily repulsed that they ceased to be of effective use for the rest of the battle . The Prussian V Corps which had been making slow progress on the east side of town finally made an attack on the center of the French lines and carried the position . A last - ditch counterattack allowed the French to retreat intact and the German forces took the town . Killed during the retreat of his corps , General Abel Douay was the first French high - ranking casualty of the war . Aftermath . The battle had been a victory for the Germans and allowed them to invade France . Shortly after the battle the German III Army was on the move towards Wörth where they ran into the main body of Mac - Mahon ' s army .