Editing Franco-Prussian War (section)

==Opposing forces==
{{for|the organization of the two armies at the beginning of the war|Franco-Prussian War order of battle}}

===French===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1970-053-87, Deutsch-französischer Krieg 1870-71.jpg|thumb|French soldiers drill at IIe Chambrière camp near [[Metz]], 1870]]
The French Army consisted in peacetime of approximately 426,000 soldiers, some of them regulars, others conscripts who until March 1869 were selected by ballot and served for the comparatively long period of seven years. Some of them were veterans of previous French campaigns in the [[Crimean War]], [[French conquest of Algeria|Algeria]], the [[Second Italian War of Independence|Franco-Austrian War]] in Italy, and in the [[Second French intervention in Mexico|Mexican campaign]]. However, following the "[[Seven Weeks War]]" between Prussia and Austria four years earlier, it had been calculated that, with commitments in Algeria and elsewhere, the French Army could field only 288,000 men to face the Prussian Army, when potentially 1,000,000 would be required.{{sfn|McElwee|1974|p=43}} Under Marshal [[Adolphe Niel]], urgent reforms were made. Universal conscription and a shorter period of service gave increased numbers of reservists, who would swell the army to a planned strength of 800,000 on mobilisation. Those who for any reason were not conscripted were to be enrolled in the ''[[Garde Mobile]]'', a militia with a nominal strength of 400,000. However, the Franco-Prussian War broke out before these reforms could be completely implemented. The mobilisation of reservists was chaotic and resulted in large numbers of stragglers, while the ''Garde Mobile'' were generally untrained and often mutinous.{{sfn|McElwee|1974|p=46}}

French infantry were equipped with the breech-loading [[Chassepot rifle]], one of the most modern mass-produced firearms in the world at the time, with 1,037,555 available in French inventories. With a rubber ring seal and a smaller bullet, the Chassepot had a maximum effective range of some {{Convert|1500|m}} with a short reloading time.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=102}} French tactics emphasised the defensive use of the Chassepot rifle in trench-warfare style fighting—the so-called ''feu de bataillon''.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=103}} The artillery was equipped with rifled, muzzle-loaded [[La Hitte system#Change in meaning of gun designations|La Hitte guns]].{{sfn|Howard|1991|p=4}} The army also possessed a precursor to the machine-gun: the [[mitrailleuse]], which could unleash significant, concentrated firepower but nevertheless lacked range and was comparatively immobile, and thus prone to being easily overrun. The mitrailleuse was mounted on an artillery gun carriage and grouped in [[Artillery battery|batteries]] in a similar fashion to cannon.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=102}}

The army was nominally led by Napoleon III, with Marshals [[François Achille Bazaine]] and [[Patrice de MacMahon]] in command of the field armies.{{Sfn|Palmer|2010|p=20}} However, there was no previously arranged plan of campaign in place. The only campaign plan prepared between 1866 and 1870 was a defensive one.{{sfn|Howard|1991|p=45}}

===Prussians/Germans===
[[File:Troupes allemandes à Torcy en septembre 1870.jpg|thumb|Prussian field artillery column at [[Torcy, Seine-et-Marne|Torcy]] in September 1870]]
The German army comprised that of the North German Confederation led by the [[Kingdom of Prussia]], and the South German states drawn in under the secret clause of the preliminary peace of Nikolsburg, 26 July 1866,{{sfn| Ascoli | 2001 |p=9}} and formalised in the [[Peace of Prague (1866)|Treaty of Prague]], 23 August 1866.{{sfn|Elliot-Wright|Shann| 1993 |p=29}}

Recruitment and organisation of the various armies were almost identical, and based on the concept of conscripting annual classes of men who then served in the regular regiments for a fixed term before being moved to the reserves. This process gave a theoretical peace time strength of 382,000 and a wartime strength of about 1,189,000.{{sfn| Barry | 2009a |p=43}}

German tactics emphasised [[pincer movement|encirclement battles]] like [[Battle of Cannae|Cannae]] and using artillery offensively whenever possible. Rather than advancing in a column or [[Line infantry|line formation]], Prussian infantry [[Skirmish#American Civil War|moved in small groups]] that were harder to target by artillery or French defensive fire.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=89}} The sheer number of soldiers available made encirclement ''en masse'' and destruction of French formations relatively easy.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=110}}

The army was equipped with the [[Dreyse needle gun]] renowned for its use at the [[Battle of Königgrätz]], which was by this time showing the age of its 25-year-old design.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=102}} The rifle had a range of only {{convert|600|m|abbr=on}} and lacked the rubber breech seal that permitted aimed shots.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|p=30}} The deficiencies of the needle gun were more than compensated for by the famous [[C64 (field gun)|Krupp 6-pounder]] (6&nbsp;kg despite the gun being called a 6-pounder, the rifling technology enabled guns to fire twice the weight of projectiles in the same calibre) steel breech-loading cannons being issued to Prussian artillery batteries.{{sfn|Wawro|2002|p=113}} Firing a contact-detonated shell, the [[Krupp gun]] had a longer range and a higher rate of fire than the French bronze [[muzzle loading]] cannon, which relied on time fuses.{{sfn|Wawro|2003|p=58}}

The Prussian army was controlled by the [[German General Staff|General Staff]], under General [[Helmuth Graf von Moltke|Helmuth von Moltke]]. The Prussian army was unique in Europe for having the only such organisation in existence, whose purpose in peacetime was to prepare the overall war strategy, and in wartime to [[operational art|direct operational movement]] and organise logistics and communications.{{sfn|Zabecki|2008|pp=5–7}} The officers of the General Staff were hand-picked from the Prussian ''[[Prussian Military Academy|Kriegsakademie]]'' (War Academy). Moltke embraced new technology, particularly the railroad and telegraph, to coordinate and accelerate mobilisation of large forces.{{sfn|Wawro|2003|p=47}}