Siege of Strasbourg
1870 CE.
Shown on the map at 48.585°, 7.751°.
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.
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