Battle of Villiers The Battle of Villiers was the largest of the French sorties from besieged Paris during the Franco – Prussian War . Background . After the French defeat at the battle of Le Bourget and hearing of the surrender of Metz , morale began to drop in Paris . Attempting to counter the grim mood in the city , General Louis Jules Trochu decided to attempt a breakout which could possibly then link up with the French Army of the Loire . French attack . On November 30 Auguste - Alexandre Ducrot led 80 , 000 men towards the villages of Champigny and Bry on the east bank of the Marne River . This section of the German lines was held by the Württemberg Division of the Prussian 3rd Army . On the 29th the Marne had flooded and a French reconnaissance attack turned into a disaster when 1 , 300 troops were lost . The main attack was to come the next day followed by a series of diversionary attacks . French artillery drove German advance units from the villages of Brie and Champigny and allowed Ducrot ' s troops to cross the Marne on pontoon bridges . Ducrot established a bridgehead on the opposite bank of the river at the two villages and advanced up a plateau towards Villiers . The Württemberg Division was so well entrenched that the French artillery did little to dislodge them and the attack stalled . Ducrot called on his III Corps , which had crossed the Marne north of Brie to assault Villiers from the north . The III Corps hesitated too long for an attack to be of any use and now Ducrot was fighting a defensive battle . German counterattack . The French attack did manage to bring some amount of excitement to the Prussian high command . Helmuth von Moltke , the Chief of Staff , was annoyed with the lack of energy which Albert of Saxony , commanding the Army of the Meuse , had shown in sending reinforcements to the Württemberg Division . Von Moltke ordered General Eduard von Fransecky to move with his II Corps to the threatened area and assume command of all operations there . Fransecky however , had not been notified in time to do anything about the fight on the 30th . The two armies called a truce and buried their dead on December 1 . A similar situation on December 2 confronted the Germans as had the battle of Le Bourget . Fransecky did not feel that a counterattack was necessary since the main German line had not been broken yet ; just as he had at Le Bourget , Albert pushed for a counter attack anyway . Fransecky ' s attack was so rapid that it quickly took Champigny . The French were then rallied and a stalemate ensued for the rest of the day . The situation worried von Moltke enough to cause him to draw up plans in case the French renewed their attack the following day and succeeded in breaking through . However , Ducrot had no intention of renewing the fight . His troops had suffered greatly in the cold and even though he received word that the Army of the Loire was moving towards Paris , he withdrew back into Paris by December 4 . Aftermath . The fighting had been costly for both sides . The French had lost over 9 , 000 troops while the Germans lost over 3 , 000 . The Army of the Loire was defeated at the Battle of Orléans and Ducrot urged Tochu and Foreign Minister Jules Favre to sue for peace with Prussia .