![]() ![]() In the event the French government paid off the reparations two years ahead of schedule and the final increment of the Prussian occupation force to withdraw from French territory was the garrison of Verdun, which marched out of the city on 13 September 1873.ģ Verdun’s fixed defences: the Trident programme of their day The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on, obliged the French to hand over most of the territory in the eastern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and to pay reparations of five billion francs within five years, with a portion of north-eastern France remaining under Prussian occupation to guarantee payment. Starvation forced Bazaine to capitulate on 27 October after a 69-day siege while Verdun held out until 8 November before accepting a Prussian offer of surrender with full military honours. The city was besieged nine days before the battle of Gravelotte (18 August 1870) led to Maréchal Achille Bazaine’s 180,000-strong portion of the Armée du Rhin being trapped in Metz, 30 miles to the east. Verdun again found itself in the front-line during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Verdun surrendered on 3 September 1792 (after the town council took the decision to surrender following a stormy meeting on 2 September) and remained in Prussian hands for just over a month until liberated in the wake of the French victory at Valmy by Général François Kellermann on 14 October 1792. He was nevertheless lionised as a hero of the revolution and today a commemorative statue remains in place on the Pont de Verdun over the River Loire in Angers. ![]() Beaurepaire was later found shot dead in his quarters, either by despairing suicide or at the hands of the townspeople depending on the account. After a day-long bombardment the Prussians offered a chance of surrender, which Beaurepaire publicly and volubly rejected, but Verdun’s citizenry showed rather less revolutionary zeal and voted to accept the offer. ![]()
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