Siege of Strasbourg 1870
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 16 August 1870 – 28 September 1870 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1870 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Franco-Prussian War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 48.5848, 7.7506 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Strasbourg took place during the Franco-Prussian War, and resulted in the French surrender of the fortress on 28 September 1870.
After the German victory at Wörth, troops from the Grand Duchy of Baden under Prussian General August von Werder were detached to capture Strasbourg with the help of two Prussian Landwehr divisions which had been guarding the North Sea coast. This 40,000-strong siege corps reached the fortress on 14 August and began bombarding it. The defenses were largely obsolete and 7,000 of the 23,000-strong French garrison were National Guard militiamen. The German command was split between advocates of a formal siege and those who wanted to force a rapid capitulation by bombarding the city and weakening the resolve of the civilians. After the French bombardment of the open town of Kehl on 19 August had quelled possible German moral misgivings, the Germans gave a formal warning to the French garrison commander Lieutenant-General Jean-Jacques Uhrich and, despite continued doubts by some Germans about the plan's effectiveness, started bombarding Strasbourg on 23 August. Parts of the city were destroyed but there was no capitulation.
An ammunition shortage forced Werder to lower the intensity of the German fire on 26 August and switch to conventional siege operations.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Strasbourg (revision 1370745511), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Liberation of Strasbourg 1944 · 0 km
- Second Battle of Kehl (1796) 1796 · 4 km
- Siege of Kehl (1703) 1703 · 5 km
- Siege of Kehl (1796–1797) 1797 · 5 km
- Battle of Strasbourg Bridge 1634 · 5 km
- Battle of Kehl (1796) 1796 · 5 km
Other battles of the Franco-Prussian War
- Battle of Amiens (1870) 1870
- Battle of Bazeilles 1870
- Battle of Beaugency (1870) 1870
- Battle of Beaumont 1870
- Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande 1870
- Battle of Bellevue 1870
- Battle of Borny–Colombey 1870
- Battle of Buzancy 1870
- Battle of Buzenval (1870) 1870
- Battle of Chevilly 1870
All 47 battles of the Franco-Prussian War →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · 19th century battles