toward the Lesse, followed by the French. In previous
wars the forces engaged were of sufficient strength to designate Dinant
a battle, but with the vast armies of the present conflict it sinks to
the military grade of a mere affair. However, it is called by the French
the Battle of Dinant.

The troops which entered Alsace on August 7, 1914, to the number of
18,000 to 20,000, belonged to the army of the frontier.

This first army, which was under the orders of General Dubail, was
intrusted with the mission of making a vigorous attack and of holding in
front of it the greatest possible number of German forces. The general
in command of this army had under his orders, if the detachment from
Alsace be included, five army corps and a division of cavalry. His
orders were to seek battle along the line Saarburg--Donon, in the Bruche
Valley, at the same time possessing himself of the crests of the Vosges
as well as the mountain passes. These operations were to have as their
theaters: (1) the Vosges Mountains, (2) the plateau of Lorraine to the
northwest of Donon, and (3) the left bank of the Meurthe. This left bank
of the Meurthe is separated from the valley of the Moselle by a
bristling slope of firs, which is traversed by a series of passages, the
defiles of Chipotte, of the Croix Idoux, of the Haut Jacques d'Anozel,
of Vanemont, of Plafond. In these passes, when the French returned to
the offensive in September, 1914, furious combats took place. The German
forces opposed to this first army consisted of five active army corps
and a reserve corps.

The first French army, after a violent struggle, conquered the passes of
the Vosges, but the conquest was vigorously opposed and took more time
than the French had reckoned on. As soon as it had become master of the
Donon and the passes, the first French army pushed forward into the
defile of Saarburg. At St. Blaise it won the first German colors, took
Blamont and Cirey (August 15, 1914), seized the defiles north of the
canal of the Marne and the Rhine, and reached Saarburg. Here a
connection was established with the army of Lorraine, which had
commenced its operations on the 14th. A violent battle ensued, known
under the name of the Battle of Saarburg. The left wing of the French
army attacked August 19, 1914; it hurled itself at the fortified
positions, which were copiously fringed with heavy artillery. In spite
of the opposition it made progress to the northwest of Saarburg.