Editing Franco-Prussian War (section)

===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}}