On the morning of 16 August 1870, hundreds of French cuirassiers were eating breakfast and grooming their horses when Prussian artillery shells slammed into the midst of their camp on the escarpment west of the city of Metz. Four batteries of Prussian six-pounders had unlimbered at mid-morning on the heights south of Vionville, three miles east of the village of Mars-la-Tour, and began a furious fire on the French horsemen.
The Prussian gunners had sighted their cannon by aiming at the reflection of the sun on the French cavalry’s silver cutlery and goblets, as well as at the colourful tablecloths of their mess. The percussion-fused shells exploded on contact, and with deadly accuracy.
The startled cuirassiers mounted up and rode east to escape the crashing shells. Having reached the safety of the French II Infantry Corps, their officers rallied them, and the heavy cavalrymen formed up in their respective squadrons to await the enemy’s imminent advance.
Sherds CA 407